Author Archives: schrodt735

What if a few grad programs were run for the benefit of the graduate students?

Posted on July 16, 2018

I’ve got a note in my calendar around the beginning of August—I was presumably in a really bad mood at [at least] some point over the past year—to retweet a link to my blog post discussing my fondness for math … Continue reading →

Posted in Higher Education, Methodology | Leave a comment

Witnessing a paradigm shift?

Posted on June 18, 2018

The philosopher of science Thomas Kuhn is famous—beyond an apparent penchant for throwing ashtrays [1]—for his vastly over-generalized concept of “paradigm shifts” in scientific understanding, where a set of ideas once thought unreasonable becomes the norm, exchanging this status with … Continue reading →

Posted in Methodology | 1 Comment

Should an event coder be more like a baby?

Posted on June 5, 2018

Last evening, as is my wont, I was reading the current issue of Science [1]—nothing like a long article on, say, the latest findings on mantle convection beneath the Hawai’i hotspot to lull one to sleep—when an article titled “Basic … Continue reading →

Posted in Methodology, Programming | Leave a comment

Entropy, Data Generating Processes and Event Data

Posted on January 12, 2018

Or more precisely, the Santa Fe Institute, Erin Simpson, and, well, event data. With a bit of evolutionary seasoning from Robert Wright, who is my current walking-commute listening. Before we get going, let me make completely clear that there are … Continue reading →

Posted in Methodology | 5 Comments

Violence in Charlottesville and what we might gain from the Heather Heyers of this world

Posted on August 17, 2017

As you’ve probably been aware, things have been rather, well, difficult in these parts over the past few days. Living in State College I quickly learned that when you find your town on the front page of the New York … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | 1 Comment

So, punk, think ya can start a data science program??

Posted on April 25, 2017

This is the second part of a two-essay series addressing some of the features one might wish to include in a contemporary “data science” program using resources in existing quantitative “social science” programs. The first, a rather rambling polemic, addressed … Continue reading →

Posted in Higher Education, Methodology, Programming | 3 Comments

Yes, Virginia, the social and data sciences are “science”

Posted on April 21, 2017

Dedicated to the memory of Will H. Moore This is the first in a two-part series on leveraging quantitative social science programs to provide training in data science, inspired by a recent invitation to provide input on that topic at … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment