This past year has been rather interesting. Beyond all the global events that will undoubtedly be interesting to tell future generations about, there were some rather significant changes in my personal and professional life. Most relevant for this blog, I can’t really claim to be a young academic anymore. So I decided to move to a new title for a new chapter in my life. There are no more Adventures in Academia.

Statistical Nihilism is a somewhat joking belief that there are no true effects. A charitable interpretation is a form of skepticism, heavily informed by my professional experiences and an increasing understanding of the myriad issues underlying statistics as commonly practiced (low power, poor data designs, inappropriate methods and hidden multiple testing). It’s mixed with a bit of disillusionment and disenchantment about what this means for science, both in academia and in industry.

I’m planning on getting back into blogging and two major topic areas are my departure from my previous career trajectory and common statistical/technical/inferential issues I see in my research fields. That might make the mixture of snark and seriousness in statistical nihilism more apparent. But also might be strangely appropriate if there’s no effect of best laid plans.