Antoine Vernet

choose wisely

Someone needs to urgently write a phone / gen Z doomerist article

I have a similar experience with students leaving install.packages() at the top of all their scripts (at least for the first few weeks)

It also helps with separating between installing a package and loading it. I find students find it confusing to install.packages("somethingR") and then have their code still fail because they have not run library(somethingR). Taking the installation step out of the script seems to help with that

Same, I use it when teaching to explain about packages, loading them, etc! It's a nice visual checker for learners.

set.seed(8675309)

I see 42 way more than I should in students' scripts given that they do not know the pop culture reference. All the more reason to explain why this is not a good seed to use.

But yes, I struggle with my pop culture references landing completely flat, because it makes me feel old 😭

Papers need to be written, but they don't need to be read to count. Which honestly seems rather depressing to me.

I confess, I had to look it up!

8675309

Saloni Dattani believes anyone can love science — if they can understand it. A communicator and researcher focused on medical innovation, she works to build trust in science and celebrate those tackling the biggest problems in global health. She is a cofounder, editor and writer at Works in Progress magazine, which publishes long reads on ideas to improve the world, and she advises the philanthropy Coefficient Giving on clinical trial reform. She cohosts (with Jacob Trefethen) the Hard Drugs podcast, discussing how AI and other breakthroughs are improving healthcare.

I'm speaking at TED2026

This still sounds kind of crazy to me, but I'll be speaking at the TED Conference this year.

They have written a very nice bio of me.

So apparently grammarly stole my fuckin identity

Sheffield Hallam restricts TPS access to REF academics only Teaching staff at post-92 institution to be employed by subsidiary firm and lose right to access expensive pensions scheme

'Teaching-only staff at Sheffield Hallam University are set to be moved into a subsidiary firm, leaving research intensive scholars the only academics still being employed directly by the institution.'

Utterly inequitable & betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of the teaching/research nexus. 1/3

It's no longer OK for you to sit in the house of Lords because your dad did.
But if your mate put you there?
That's fine.
Neither of these really feel like democracy to me.

Aperoigon is a great, at times heavy, but beautiful novel. Helm by Hall also beautfiul. The laws of thought by Griffiths is a quite entertaining journey through (some of) the mathematical approach to cognition. Crick's biography by Cobb a pageturner.

Recently used 42 in a script as a way to explain to the class why this was a bad seed. 40 students, not one knew the reference

New memoir working title:

"Little Miss Can't Be Right: Imperfect estimates of one methodologist's biases and errors"

I just finished Dissipatio HG and it’s incredible (the nyrb edition)

In my example, though, the expert is right and it does not work. I think your example is more about narrowness of knowledge than implicit knowledge (that could benefit others if made explicit). Also, I am sorry this happened to you, this is very frustrating

Here you go! 🥰 Here's a horror/thriller story about motherhood and nature.

My short #thriller and #horror story The Lisa Morse Case is being adapted as a movie. Here's the link for more info about it! 🤩 thebookstars.com/FilmingProje...

Short story: amzn.eu/d/0cRxgssu

Let me know, I might still not be finished with it by then (not making fast progress, for sure)

Pretty grim

Ted-talking University of California professor asks sex trafficker for $3,000,000 because he thinks there’s a “50% chance” he’ll make “important discoveries” in telepathy This is quite possibly the stupidest thing in the Epstein files.

And of course then today we have this also from Andy:

"Ted-talking University of California professor asks sex trafficker for $3,000,000 because he thinks there’s a “50% chance” he’ll make “important discoveries” in telepathy"

open.substack.com/pub/statmode...

Andy going thru the epstein files taking multiple killshots including at his own longtime coauthors............ incredible. posting in case you (like me) missed it

statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2026/01/31/f...

TIL that I don't use the package pane, because I hadn't realised there wasn't one in positron (I use it when teaching, but I teach with RStudio)

a soccer player wearing a white adidas jersey ALT: a soccer player wearing a white adidas jersey

Messing around with some rule of law data with #rstats in Positron and working with Quarto is smooth enough for me to consider switching from RStudio.

Package management be damned.

I have just reread Ursula K Le Guin's Earthsea books and they really stand up, strongly recommended. But my most 'recent newly-read non fiction 5 star' book was Visions of Inequality by @brankomilan.bsky.social .

Stuart Turton is one of my favorite authors! And "Last Murder" was epic as an audiobook (I don't actually think I would have finished it otherwise, but Adjoa Andoh is mesmeric).

Last year was pretty dismal (says my reading log). At least 3/5 AND worth talking about:

Non-Fiction: The Alignment Problem (Brian Christian). Material World (Ed Conway). Precious (Helen Molesworth).

Fiction: Murder Mindfully (Florian Duijsens). The Ivan Lucic series (Chris Hammer).

@exlarson.bsky.social is an extraordinary writer who focuses on narrative history. His books read like novels, but are built from archival research, letters, and historical documents. The other recommendations are good, but start with these @econmaett.github.io 📚👍👍