Foundations of Data Science. I've read through the first few chapters + markov chains - so far this book is excellent. If you have an interest in data science, you should work through this book.
Handling Sparsity via the Horseshoe Prior. Very nice paper on Bayesian estimation of sparse signals.
Blind Denoising with Random Greedy Pursuits. You can denoise some signals without knowledge of the noise level. I'm impressed.
Illustrating Asymptotic Behavior, part 1 part 2 and part 3. Great reading.
Elementary Data Analysis by Cosma Shalizi. Also useful.
The Misfortunes of a Trio of Mathematicians Using Computer Algebra Systems. Can We Trust in Them?
The overhead of abstraction in Python vs C++
Microservices - a Reality Check(point). Great article discussing some of the things you need to do to make microservices work.
Great discussion on actual HFT market manipulation. Goes into trading mechanics, not simply "omfg, trading fast, robbery!"
Breakout Detection by Twitter. Looks interesting, though I haven't gone into the details.
Scientific Stagnation, by Gwern. After reading this, I've now arrived at a considerably higher posterior that scientific stagnation is real. In short, Gwern debunks many of the arguments against it. He also makes an interesting for why he doesn't "buy the argument that the FDA is strangling all sorts of fantastic innovation through its focus on safety."
Recent Controversies in Scalaz land. Seems like a perfect illustration of how "codes of conduct" and the like are used to bully people. A secret, unannounced "code of conduct" is created and immediately used for the purpose of banning the creator of Scalaz from the IRC channel #scalaz, and said creator is also kicked off the github repo. The creator of Scalaz is then threatened and told never to publicly discuss the project. Note that I'm speaking as one of the "victims" of Tony Morris's alleged bullying. I miss the days when political concerns like this were laughed out of the world of technology.
Colin Percival on Startup School. He describes very well one of the things I strongly dislike about the modern startup scene.
Articulating my confusion on secular stagnation.
Infotainment Journalism and the Pop-Quant.
International Evidence on the Human Capital/Signaling Split. Concerns whether education is actually economically beneficial.
All an Ayn Rand Hero really wants is Love. A very interesting perspective.
Archiwindow. Just click the link, it's interesting. And yes, my favorite happens to be Le Corbusier and Toyo Ito.
Modesty of Dress and Indian Culture. "The problem, sir/madam, is that revealing attire is being worn. Deep-neck and sleeveless tops, exposed legs–and these are just the middle-aged priests! Some priests are even (Shiva Shiva!) doing away with the upper garment. They are doing this in front of ladies and Gods, with no shame at all. "
Socialists advocating for $20/hour min wage want to hire web developer for $13/hour. Heh.
Jezebel decides sex shaming is ok. Relatedly, hard data is bro-stuff and a fetish for dude-bros. I truly don't understand why techies take these people seriously. Related thoughts on police aggression by Freddie Deboer - apparently when the police go wild on homeboys it's an outrage, but when they go wild on bros it's hilarious. And one more by Freddie.
Correlations between inequality and parental attitudes. Compare and contrast to graphs here.