iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Noel Johnson @ndjohnson.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

I joined the Silk Road Revival podcast to talk about how I ended up in economic history and about two of my recent papers. Here is the link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tddw...

youtube.com

Podcast Interview with Professor Noel Johnson

YouTube video by Silk Road Rev.

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ᴅᴀɴɪᴇʟ ᴍɪʟʟɪᴍᴇᴛ ✡️☮️❤️ @dlmillimet.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

We can't even make them read the syllabus!

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Noel Johnson @ndjohnson.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

Some days you just need to stay low and keep your eyes on things.

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Jeffrey Lin @jeffrlin.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

I’m presenting this paper Tuesday 1:40pm at the NBER SI and live on YouTube. Tune in! www.nber.org/conferences/...

nber.org

SI 2026 Macroeconomics and Productivity

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Noel Johnson @ndjohnson.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Managed to image M51 and M13 from rural Ohio last night. Great conditions until the clouds rolled in!

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Noel Johnson @ndjohnson.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

The Swiss head coach is the most European looking person I’ve ever seen.

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Noel Johnson @ndjohnson.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

It is, once again, leaf blower season. As tradition dictates, a haiku… Blowers hum and wail, Thoughts drift like leaves in the gust— Workday blown away.

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Atlas Shvitzed @therafischwartz.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

Unfortunately, a stunned Paris is how they all got into this whole mess to begin with

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Noel Johnson @ndjohnson.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

I really enjoyed spending the last 30 minutes figuring out that in order to submit my paper to an Elsevier journal, the MS can be pdf, but the separate title page cannot be a pdf, but must be either a Word file or sent to them by post as cuneiform tablets.

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Noel Johnson @ndjohnson.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

Really awesome that schools and summer camps frequently have special dress-up “theme” days for my 11 year old. Nothing better than waking up and learning it’s “wacky Wednesday” and she needs to dress up as her favorite holiday. Really keeps me on my toes. Grateful.

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Noel Johnson @ndjohnson.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

🧵1/ The half-life of a grudge. Britain crushed the 1857 revolt in northern India with mass reprisals centered on Lucknow. For decades after, districts closer to that violence vaccinated their children less against smallpox and the effect faded as the generation that lived through 1857 died off.

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Adam Weinstein @adamweinstein.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

I'm so disillusioned, I almost don't even care who gets the FIFA Peace Prize next year

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Men in Blazers Media Network @meninblazers.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

The goals and sending-off won over countless American fans, but Flo Balogun's comments today should win over even more ❤️🤍💙 📸: @tombogert.bsky.social

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Jonathan S Doucette @jdoucette.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

In terms of its role in Europe's development, the Dominican order is perhaps most known for its part in the inquisition. However, it also had a more benevolent impact on regime change and the development of human capital 1/N

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Dan Giedeman @dangiedeman.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

I'm not the best lip-reader, but I believe what she is saying is "I disagree with the offsides call" in Croatian.

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Noel Johnson @ndjohnson.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

🧵 1/ The most famous party trick in AI: take word vectors and compute "king − man + woman." You (often) get queen — evidence the model learned gender as a direction in space. Could you pull that off using nothing but the titles of books printed in Europe, 1450–1650?

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James Feigenbaum @jamesfeigenbaum.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Want a politically (and economically) productive investment? Absolutely massive universities in low population states. Land grant universities x1000

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Noel Johnson @ndjohnson.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Way ahead of you, GMU Emergency Alert System. The World Cup is on and I've decided to limit all activities both outside AND inside.

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Noel Johnson @ndjohnson.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Claude Code just told me that the version of Ruby I've been using on my laptop is "ancient". And now I feel old too.

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Christian Vedel @christianvedel.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Machine Learning is causing massive leaps everywhere. Also in Economic History. There is a conversation we need to have. What ought to be the new scientific standards? Together with two coauthors . Our argument: We should maybe care a bit less about accuracy 📝🧵

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Nicholas A. Christakis @nachristakis.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

"The share of Harvard undergraduates receiving disability accommodations rose from roughly 3% in 2014 to 21% in 2024 — a sevenfold increase in a decade... Meanwhile, at community colleges, the rate is 3 to 4% and has not changed in a decade." www.bostonglobe.com/2026/06/29/o...

bostonglobe.com

The disability accommodation trap on college campuses - The Boston Globe

Once enough students receive extra time, private testing rooms, and deadline extensions, their classmates face a choice: seek the same advantages or fall behind.

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NBER @nber.org · 29/06/2026

A new practitioner's guide to using LLMs in economic history covers the workflow, pitfalls, and validation, with four worked examples from paintings to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s wartime speeches, from @andyferrara.bsky.social www.nber.org/papers/w35374

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Michael Clemens @mclem.org · 30/06/2026

The great economist Alberto Alesina passed away unexpectedly six years ago. The next day, his former PhD student @sethsd.bsky.social posted an explanation for Alesina's incandescence as a scholar and mentor. I've thought about his words many times over the years. medium.com/@sethstephen...

I concluded that the parts of the mind that in most people are devoted to trouble — the parts that hold grudges, worry needlessly, or explore narrow paths heading towards dead ends — were missing in Alberto’s mind. His brain, as best I could tell, was entirely devoted to stuff that mattered: having creative insights on fundamental topics and making and enjoying wonderful relationships. Alberto showed us all you can do in a life when you clear the cobwebs that waste a good portion of most people’s mental space.

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Department of Economics, Trinity College Dublin @tcdeconomics.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

Congratulations to Prof @selimgulesci.bsky.social on his promotion to Professor in Economics at TCD and to Kevin O'Rourke on his appointment as Honorary Professor of the Department of Economics! 🥳 Read more: www.tcd.ie/economics/ne... @tcdschoolssp.bsky.social

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Noel Johnson @ndjohnson.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

Was watching an instructional video on reverse de la riva and my wife walked in and looked at me like I'm weird. I have no idea why...

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Noel Johnson @ndjohnson.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

A couple things I learned doing research this week... The Thirty Years' War (1618–48) didn't simply shrink German printing — it redrew the map. After imperial forces sacked Magdeburg in 1631, the city's presses went nearly silent. Neutral Hamburg's boomed. The two cities traded places.

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Noel Johnson @ndjohnson.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

Big thanks going out to Amazon for ruining their book search on the app by integrating ai into it.

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Nicholas A. Christakis @nachristakis.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

"The only acceptable religion is my religion" is an especially common belief in Islamic countries. www.graphsaboutreligion.com/p/54-countri...

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Jeremy Yoder says no war @jbyoder.org · 22/06/2026

I'm not sure I've ever seen a single sentence go downhill this far and this fast

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Noel Johnson @ndjohnson.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

Big shout out to ScholarOne Manuscripts for finding a way to make doing referee reports even more annoying. I've had to reset my password two times now and do a separate registration process with ORCID all just for the privilege of downloading the manuscript that I will do a report on for free.

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Noel Johnson @ndjohnson.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

I have the best helper chef for Father’s Day.

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arseblog @arseblog.com · 20/06/2026

I am enjoying the booing of the ad breaks.

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Noel Johnson @ndjohnson.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

@alextaylorecon.bsky.social and I have a new paper. Using embeddings of ~800k book titles in Europe 1450-1650, we find higher market access made a city's print output more topically broad and mainstream. Also, useful-knowledge content predicts city growth. www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/iez0u...

dropbox.com

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James Feigenbaum @jamesfeigenbaum.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

This looks absolutely incredible. @lars.vilhuber.com I think you're going to love this

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Antoine Vernet @antoinevernet.com · 09/06/2026

Found a cool result I checked my code Now I have correct code

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Paul Hünermund @p-hunermund.com · 08/06/2026

Wake up baby, new smartphones and fertility evidence just dropped. 🙈 www.nber.org/papers/w35310

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Noel Johnson @ndjohnson.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

I guess we have a duck in our fireplace. 🦆

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Kevin Hjortshøj O’Rourke @kevinhorourke.eurosky.social · 05/06/2026

I quite like this idea -- a tax break so that every family can more easily afford to subscribe to a newspaper of their choice.

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Astronomy Picture of the Day 🪐 @apod.shinyakato.dev · 02/06/2026

🔭 The Vela Supernova Remnant Image Credit & Copyright: José Mtanous ap260602

The starfield is filled with many red nebulas, areas
of dark dust, and light blue filaments.
Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

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Noel Johnson @ndjohnson.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

Went to the orthopedic surgeon to get my painful elbow looked at and, reading between the lines, this is basically what she said to me... www.youtube.com/shorts/C4rgi...

youtube.com

Full of HOE

YouTube video by KevOnStage Studios

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Noel Johnson @ndjohnson.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

This article brings back memories. The first, and only, time I've ever been mugged at knife point was in the late 80's skateboarding at this site. Was still fun. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/30/a...

nytimes.com

50 Years of Skateboarding in a Brutalist Concrete ‘Beast’

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Nicholas A. Christakis @nachristakis.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

Apparently, this is the case. Here is the relevant passage from the successful 2018 proposal by the editors of APSR, in “Proposal to Edit the American Political Science Review,” October 2018, submitted in response to this call: politicalsciencenow.com/call-for-pro...

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Nicholas A. Christakis @nachristakis.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

Could this possibly be true of APSR, the flagship political science journal, that, from 2020-2024, it based whether to send articles for peer review based on author race and sex? www.goldwaterinstitute.org/policy-repor...

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Noel Johnson @ndjohnson.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

I love the difference in translation for this product. Says much about the difference between the two cultures.

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Mauricio Drelichman @mdrelichman.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

All you ever wanted to know about bread production, prices, markets, and political economy in early modern Spain, now on Early View! "The Bread of Toledo", Joint with David González Agudo at @uv.es. Open access: doi.org/10.1111/ehr....

doi.org

<em>The Economic History Review</em> | EHS Journal | Wiley Online Library

We study the market for common white bread in the city of Toledo through a new 266-year-long series of bread prices, obtained from the cash purchases and wholesale bread-for-wheat contracts of large ...

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deankarlan.bsky.social @deankarlan.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

New working paper with Amol Singh Raswan and Chris Udry: "The Sisyphean Pursuit of Evidence for Poverty Traps." A central idea in development economics is that poverty can trap people. We went looking for the cleanest evidence. Here's what we found – and didn't.

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Peggy Stuart @peggystuart.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

Here is Elon Mush bragging about how he "accidentally" canceled all Ebola prevention efforts.

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