Latest / Complex Systems with Patrick McKenzie (patio11)
Wrong numbers and why they survive, with Aaron Brown
Patrick McKenzie (patio11) is joined by Aaron Brown, author of Wrong Number, to examine why institutions that produce bad statistics face so few consequences for doing so. They trace the pattern from Aaron's 1975 summer job, where two credentialed experts confidently produced opposite conclusions about whether American tractors ran on diesel or gasoline, through decades of case studies involving the NTSB, COVID-era research, and the eviction moratorium. Along the way they discuss why financial markets are unusually good at error-correction, why "wanna bet?" functions as a tax on bullshit, and…
The skinny
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