Scott Alexander explores the difficulties in contextualizing statistics, providing numerous examples to show how the same data can be presented to seem significant or trivial. Longer summary

Scott Alexander discusses the challenges of putting statistical findings into context, showing how different comparisons can make the same statistic seem either significant or trivial. He provides numerous examples of effect sizes and correlations from various fields to illustrate this point. The post aims to promote awareness of how statistics can be manipulated and encourages readers to be vigilant when interpreting contextual comparisons. Scott also acknowledges the limitations of using standardized effect sizes but argues for their utility in certain situations where more specific measures are difficult to comprehend. Shorter summary

Scott Alexander presents a wide-ranging collection of links covering science, technology, politics, economics, and culture, with brief commentary on each item. Longer summary

Scott Alexander shares a collection of interesting links and news items on various topics. He discusses punding (a side effect of dopamine drugs), net neutrality in Montana, Tibetan monks' fear of death, Trump's solar panel tariffs, space exploration news, a potential tinnitus treatment, the US metric system history, NSA's core values change, a Burning Man activist's story, blockchain projects, Aristotle's puns, UK politician Jacob Rees-Mogg, arguments against open borders, new education programs, SAT score correlations, solar system geography, Amazon's entry into healthcare, pain tolerance and friendships, legal terminology origins, campus free speech issues, Twitter bots, nutrition studies, IQ test incentives, dating apps for verified Twitter users, Hitler's drug use, mindfulness research, disability insurance effects, asteroid naming conventions, and various other topics. Shorter summary