Top all-time · #11081
Matt Shapiro
Personal blog · polimath.substack.comsciencepoliticsdata
Matt Shapiro writes Marginally Compelling, a personal blog at polimath.substack.com about science, politics and data. Since 2020, 7 different Hacker News readers have linked it 8 times. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-09-02, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (3) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
Matt Shapiro's Substack (PoliticalMath) on COVID statistics and the Florida data disputes involving Rebekah Jones. HN commenters cite its posts as sources and as a critical look at both left and right responses.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 3 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
An honest attempt to parse data, wrestle with uncertainty, and suss out events in real time. Also cartoons.
Most-linked posts?
- /p/a-long-one-about-the-florida-data2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2021-01-17
What Hacker News says?
All she did was be good at her job and tell the truth. What "truth" do you think she was exposing? The original dispute that caused her to leave her job was a boring technical dispute about whether to automatically publish data from PDFs or to have it reviewed for accuracy first: https://polimath.substack.com/p/a-long-one-about-the-florida... . Despite insinuations from various irresponsible media figures, there is…
Comment linking /p/a-long-one-about-the-florida-data
on “Arrest warrant issued for ex-Florida data scientist Rebekah Jones”Submitted Lockdown Bait and Switch – By Matt Shapiro – Marginally Compelling as a story · 25 points
HN discussion@PoliticalMath on twitter has been running one hell of substack on the covid statistics. He finds fault with both the left and the right in the response to covid. One thing that has been clear from the beginning is that Rebekah Jones is not an honest broker and is only out for herself. He goes into detail here: https://polimath.substack.com/p/the-rebekah-jones-raid If you have dug into the data from the covid tracki…
Comment linking /p/the-rebekah-jones-raid
on “Florida police raid Covid data whistleblower’s house with guns drawn”Submitted Why I Am Obsessed with the Forbidden Seuss as a story · 4 points
HN discussionRebekah Jones isn't particularly credible. https://polimath.substack.com/p/a-long-one-about-the-florida...
Comment linking /p/a-long-one-about-the-florida-data
on “Virus tolls similar despite governors' contrasting actions”Submitted Essential Terms of the Authority Crisis as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Science goes too slow for the news as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted A Bachelors in Building Stuff as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
