@Shenanigans_ATL @michael_chirico Michael is right. I live here and everyone just made sure not to plan to go to the East Bay.
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Peter Lorentzen
1.8K posts
Peter Lorentzen
@peterlorentzen
Economist/political scientist studying information, institutions, incentives, China. Director of MS International and Development Econ @USF_Economics @usfca.
San Francisco, California انضم Nisan 2009
3K يتبع5.7K المتابعون
Was really disappointed when my kid got into sabre this year and it looked nothing at all like Star Wars. Glad they are fixing that.
Linus ✦ Ekenstam@LinusEkenstam
I was skeptical, but now I’m completely convinced. Fencing will become super popular due to this one very particular improvement to the sport. “Sword tip visualization” It’s going to debut at the summer olympics. Every single duel will look like a bloody lightsaber fight
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Join me on April 29 @USFAsiaPacific for a talk with @KerGibbs about China's strengths and weaknesses through the lens of his long working experience in Shanghai. rsvp.usfca.edu/event/5e228d60…
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Peter Lorentzen أُعيد تغريده
For the first time in Norwegian history, a bus will carry passengers in regular traffic without any human behind the wheel. The first pilot without a safety driver was tested Friday, and if all goes as planned, anyone can ride driverless buses starting in May.
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These are things I would want to know if there is a blackbox part of the analysis, such as that might give varying or unreliable results dependent on the software and version. Why ask this if the output is a lit review or a summary of results that can be evaluated in its own right?
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@Tyler_Menzer @ryancbriggs @DrEmmaZang @AdamBerinsky Right but I think this fact maybe per se important (!)
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As moderator for the AI & Publishing panel at Yale, I’m planning to press @AdamBerinsky on the new AJPS AI policy: ajps.org/2026/04/10/upd…. We’re entering a moment where journals aren’t just evaluating research. They’re implicitly defining what counts as “acceptable” use of AI.
So here’s a real question: What should editors actually be policing vs. leaving to authors and reviewers?
If you had 30 seconds with journal editors, what would you ask?
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Peter Lorentzen أُعيد تغريده
If Waymo gets its way, tens of thousands of people will be spared from automotive-related deaths.
When Waymo gets a firm hold on a city, pedestrians, pets, and drivers are all safer.
This isn’t inevitable — The pro-auto-fatality lobby is doing everything possible to stop it.
More Perfect Union@MorePerfectUS
NEW: If Waymo gets its way, 2 million workers will be out of work. When Waymo gets a firm hold on a city, wages go down. Some drivers now have to work 12 hours day, 7 days a week just to get by. This isn't inevitable — but Big Tech is spending millions to make you think it is.
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Peter Lorentzen أُعيد تغريده
@CjgbVictoria @robinsaikia @clara_jace @xkcd I love knowing lots of random stuff and I most enjoy being around people who share that love. It’s just the pretentions about which specific random stuff gets to count as basic knowledge I disagree with. It usually happens to be the stuff the speaker knows about.
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@peterlorentzen @robinsaikia @clara_jace @xkcd Fair point, though I did say *educated* person. But then there's admittedly fictitious example of Sherlock Holmes not knowing that the earth goes around the sun—saying, basically, "I may have heard it some time or other, but possible use could that information be to me?"
Comox Valley A, British Columbia 🇨🇦 English
I try not to complain in public. I really, really try.
But if you are reviewing my paper and grumble that it begins with a "long quote in Latin" -- and THIS is the quote -- then I really am starting to get concerned about the narrowness of our profession.
Or, better put by Hayek, “But nobody can be a great economist who is only an economist – and I am even tempted to add that the economist who is only an economist is likely to become a nuisance if not a positive danger.”
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@brianmlucey @Ladlestein @clara_jace There is a difference between being anti-intellectual and thinking the particular random facts you have picked up outside your professional specialty are the most important ones. That is a very narrow-minded view of what breadth of knowledge should be.
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@peterlorentzen @Ladlestein @clara_jace Lordy, and we wonder why Americans are son narrow-minded and anti intellectual.
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@the_mclarke @clara_jace I am all in favor of knowing more than the bare minimum needed to contribute to a narrow field, however, I bet more than 8 out of 10 PhD’s who aren’t from one of those countries would not be able to complete that task successfully.
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@peterlorentzen @robinsaikia @clara_jace Yes. I can understand someone confusing spoken Mandarin and Cantonese if you haven't been exposed to them, but the others? Basic knowledge, IMO.
Comox Valley A, British Columbia 🇨🇦 English
@robinsaikia @CjgbVictoria @clara_jace So terribly ignorant! Like hearing someone speak Mandarin and thinking it's Cantonese! Or not knowing by sight the difference between Japanese, Arabic, Korean, and Sanskrit. All of which I'm sure you all can do.
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@raphaelmoras @clara_jace Indeed. Why bother to even write the article in English at all? Maybe just have ChatGPT summarize the gist.
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@peterlorentzen @clara_jace Any browser or a phone can translate it in a second for you.
Reims, France 🇫🇷 English
@Ladlestein @clara_jace What does it signify if an economist can't tell Latin from Italian? That's like getting snobby about someone not knowing Chongqing from Tientsin, or not knowing offhand what country Lilongwe is the capital of. These are all useful facts but no one can know everything.
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@peterlorentzen @clara_jace Wouldn’t the point be that this is modern Italian, not the Latin language of antiquity, and not being able to distinguish correctly between the two is a signifier of something
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@robinsaikia @clara_jace Instead of Latin, I spent my time learning Chinese, calculus, statistics, economics. I don’t regret that. There are so many amazing things to learn in the world, and we can’t each master them all.
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@peterlorentzen @clara_jace I'm with Clara on this. Most, if not all, "educated" people should have serviceable Latin and at least a couple of European languages, including Italian. It isn't as though Manzoni is a huge test. Reviewers tend to reveal their own limitations, rather than those of the target.
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Peter Lorentzen أُعيد تغريده
I coded up an open-source, not-for-profit AI paper reviewer that rivals the performance of @reviewer3com, @RefineInk, and Stanford Agentic Reviewer (according to @GeminiApp). Costs <$2!
Live @ coarse.ink. Plug in paper, @OpenRouter key, and email. #econtwitter.
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I am sympathetic to the grumpy reviewer. I have no idea what any of those words mean. If I started my paper with a paragraph-long quote in Chinese, would you be equally sanguine? If it is a meaningful paragraph then you could translate it to English? This isn’t 200 years ago when every educated person could speak Latin and a couple of other European languages.
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