Top all-time · #2064
Chris Blattman
Personal blog · chrisblattman.comeconomicspolitics
Chris Blattman's personal blog at chrisblattman.com covers economics and politics. Since 2010, 36 different Hacker News readers have linked it 43 times, most often “A contender for the most effective development program in history”. The last post was in 2022, but the archive is still widely read.
Too few sampled comments (13) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Chris Blattman's blog posts on development and social science, including cash transfers, corruption, basic income, trial preregistration and graphs of everyday data.
- Recommended for · 1 comments
- One commenter calls it "another good read".
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 13 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Most-linked posts?
- A contender for the most effective development program in history3 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2015-09-27
- Preregistration of clinical trials causes medicines to stop working2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2016-03-02
- MSIE market share vs. murder rate2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2013-05-27
- Why I worry experimental social science is headed in the wrong direction2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2015-12-07
- Why cash transfers to the poor are not the next big thing2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2013-06-30
What Hacker News says?
Not exactly the same - especially since water gets drawn out of reservoirs (typically) so there's already significant buffer, but here's a plot of water consumption in Edmonton during Canada's gold medal olympic hockey game back in 2010. http://chrisblattman.com/2010/03/08/graph-of-the-day-canadia...
Comment linking /2010/03/08/graph-of-the-day-canadians-pee-between-periods/
on “Power surges in Britain caused by millions of people making tea [video]”Submitted Want to help the poor and transform your economy? Give people cash. as a story · 146 points
HN discussionI had a listen to that. It was interesting but not really investing, more just giving grants without asking for a return. It seemed to work for job creation though http://chrisblattman.com/2015/09/24/is-this-the-most-effecti...
Comment linking /2015/09/24/is-this-the-most-effective-development-program-in-history/
on “Startup Technical Diligence Is a Waste of Time”Submitted Preregistration of clinical trials causes medicines to stop working as a story · 84 points
HN discussionHasn't this been fixed with the requirement to pre-register trials? https://chrisblattman.com/2016/03/01/13719/ I'm not sure if every org requires it now or not, but if not then it seems like a question of time only.
Comment linking /2016/03/01/13719/
on ““Evidence-based medicine has been hijacked”: John Ioannidis (2016)”Submitted World Population Graphed By Latitude And Longitude as a story · 70 points
HN discussionI meant Chris Blattman, oops! Money quote from the link: Here is Verwimp: Belgium has a very elaborate welfare state. All citizens have health coverage, schools and universities charge no or few fees, child benefits, unemployment benefits, pensions, are all in place. But this comes at a cost of a closed labour market, meaning a labour system that heavily protects those who are in, but makes entry for newcomers very…
Comment linking /2015/12/01/this-graph-says-the-welfare-state-is-to-blame-for-belgian-isis-recruitment/
on “Finland’s basic income plan could change everything”Submitted A contender for the most effective development program in history as a story · 44 points
HN discussionHere's the link (I meant Chris Blattman, not Tyler Cowen. Sorry for misleading, people!): https://chrisblattman.com/2015/12/01/this-graph-says-the-wel...
Comment linking /2015/12/01/this-graph-says-the-welfare-state-is-to-blame-for-belgian-isis-recruitment/
on “Finland’s basic income plan could change everything”Submitted The Prospects for War with China as a story · 27 points
HN discussionThere's some correlations I love that illustrate this. You have "Lack of Pirates Causing Global Warming": http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikaandersen/2012/03/23/true-fa... and one I hadn't seen before, "Internet Explorer vs. Murder Rate", http://chrisblattman.com/2013/05/24/correlation-versus-causa...
Comment linking /2013/05/24/correlation-versus-causation-in-a-single-graph/
on “Can a simple algebra test predict programming aptitude?”Submitted Why cash transfers to the poor are not the next big thing as a story · 9 points
HN discussionIt's interesting to see approaches that have been documented to fail in eliminating poverty in developing countries ( https://chrisblattman.com/2013/06/27/why-cash-transfers-to-t... ) failing in a developed country.
Comment linking /2013/06/27/why-cash-transfers-to-the-poor-are-not-the-next-big-thing/
on “Disappointing Findings on Anti-Poverty Cash Transfers in the USA”Submitted Deeply chilling sentences as a story · 6 points
HN discussion0. I measure Show HN projects, some of which are startups. The dead/alive status as success is a proper measure for survival. For success, see the section on commercial success. 1. OLS works fine in classification problems. And it has advantages. For example, see http://chrisblattman.com/2015/07/22/statistician-neal-beck-j... And I purposefully included results from three models, not one. They all say the same thing…
Comment linking /2015/07/22/statistician-neal-beck-just-justified-my-longstanding-hatred-and-loathing-of-logit/
on “Analyzing 10,000 Show HN Submissions”Submitted Why I worry experimental social science is headed in the wrong direction as a story · 4 points
HN discussionAnother good read [1]. Here is a quote from the author of some key papers in favor of cash to certain poor, also the author of some pop articles on the idea: "If I were an enterprising young researcher looking for an idea and experiments that will prove powerful in five years, I would try to find the stake I can drive into the heart of the cash transfer movement." He states that giving cash is useful if the person i…
Comment linking /2013/06/27/why-cash-transfers-to-the-poor-are-not-the-next-big-thing/
on “The Myth of Welfare’s Corrupting Influence on the Poor”Submitted Why I’m a Universal Basic Income skeptic, especially for poor countries as a story · 3 points
HN discussionIs corruption actually the problem? Perhaps nations with high levels of corruption are lacking basic legal institutions that tend to allow open market economies to function effectively. That is, corruption is simply a side-effect of institutional deficiency. Chris Blattman ( http://chrisblattman.com/2012/11/05/corruption-and-developme... ) says: "Most of us fail to imagine that corruption can also grease the wheels…
Comment linking /2012/11/05/corruption-and-development-not-what-you-think/
on “2012 Corruption Perceptions Index”Submitted MSIE market share vs. murder rate as a story · 3 points
HN discussionA response - study has problems like many studies but result is persuasive http://chrisblattman.com/2015/07/23/dear-journalists-and-pol...
Comment linking /2015/07/23/dear-journalists-and-policymakers-what-you-need-to-know-about-the-worm-wars/
on “Flaws in trials of deworming pills show the importance of sharing data”Submitted America's Clothing Inflation as a story · 3 points
HN discussionNote: I am an atheist, but "Jesus and The Disinherited"[0] was a very influential book for me. I read it after seeing this review[1] by Chris Blattman, social scientist at columbia. It helped me understand the relationship between fear, oppression, hatred and crime. It also gave me renewed disdain for the evangelical (as in, spreading of gospel) european and american tradition, a disdain which is probably shared by…
Comment linking /2015/09/29/fear-and-what-a-centuries-old-theologian-can-teach-the-modern-social-scientist/
on “Ask HN: What book changed your life in 2015?”Submitted Is philanthropy killing business in Africa? as a story · 3 points
HN discussionPreregistration of clinical trials causes medicines to stop working http://chrisblattman.com/2016/03/01/13719/ ...nuff said
Comment linking /2016/03/01/13719/
on “Medical studies are almost always bogus”Submitted More sweatshops for Africa? as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Why I worry experimental social science is headed in the wrong direction as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Is this the most effective development program in history? as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Geek Heretic as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Real World Development Indicators, Version 2.0 as a story · 2 points
HN discussion
