1. Some statistical wisdom in these slides from Frank E Harrell at Vanderbilt. Basically reminding us that statistical validation has its limits. “We should spend more time validating investigators and less time doing ‘external’ validations”.

  2. The last plot in this blog post on dendrograms got me jazzed up. A novel visualization of “why” an observation is in a particular hierarchical cluster.

  3. Economist Branko Milanovic on why people with highly polished CV’s may not be the best social science thinkers. “Orderly and boring lives are a privilege of rich and orderly societies.” Really got me to thinking about the narrowness of my own experience. And that, in spite of what I think are good intentions, the things I do may have no positive impact of society. Sad stuff, but worth thinking about sometimes.

  4. Edward Luce’s piece on West Virginia was stellar. Learned that Mylan’s CEO, who was in charge while EpiPen prices rose 461 percent, is Joe Manchin’s daughter. The article also introduced me to Stephen Smith, West Virginia’s intriguing new candidate for governor.

  5. Orla Ryan wrote an article in the FT about literary snobbery, and made a compelling case for why it’s not worth your time. “Self-consciously literary books are written by more self-consciously literary types with, perhaps, more predictable middle-class concerns.” Kind of similar in spirit to Milanovic’s article above.