Author Archives: mindless

My wife is out of town this weekend, so I decided to stay up late Saturday night and scratch a figurative itch that’s been in the back of my mind for a few years — XKCD’s 3-velociraptor problem. (I spent … Continue reading →

Jackie and I succeeded in crafting a second annual puzzle hunt. Hopefully this is the start of a tradition. If you weren’t there in person, try them out yourself. Rules and Map. The only important rules are: no Internet unless … Continue reading →

Jackie and I just finished participating in the MIT Mystery Hunt, and had a blast as always. The title was “20,000 Puzzles under the Sea” (plus or minus 20,000 puzzles), complete with a steampunk theme. Puzzles will likely be available … Continue reading →

It’s time for the MIT Mystery Hunt, a tradition I participated in as an undergrad and have started to revisit recently. My new wife and I head up to the hunt tomorrow, but if you can’t participate, here are the … Continue reading →

I’ve been tapped as the new executive director of the Analyst Institute. I’ve worked with AI’s fantastic team before, and I could not be more excited to continue and expand the culture of experimentation that has developed on the Democratic/progressive … Continue reading →

I spent a good chunk of Saturday and Sunday ignoring the NCAAs and spent my time on something only slightly less frivolous: crafting an algorithm to beat the awesomely addicting game 2048. Spoilers below @aaron_strauss somewhat? — byuhas (@byuhas) March … Continue reading →

The Monkey Cage Blog was kind enough to run my guest post about the impact of 2012 GOTV efforts [1]. I relied on observational data from Catalist to conduct my analysis (many thanks there) because randomized experiments (which are deservedly … Continue reading →

This is a semi-live document where I’ll answer various questions people have about my recent MonkeyCage blog post I used Catalist’s turnout score and Obama support score the two microtargeting scores that I reference in the post. Neither was affected … Continue reading →

Yesterday, I registered a wonky disagreement with the presidential voting commission’s report. Today, I raise a more straightforward cavil. Kevin Collins and StephanieWDC kick things off: @kwcollins but same-day registration is! — Stephanie (@StephanieWDC) January 24, 2014 Same-day registration (aka, … Continue reading →