Nate Silver presents forecasting work as antidote to ‘terrible’ political pundits
Celebrated political forecaster Nate Silver has shot to fame by letting the data speak loudly about elections. But during an event at MIT on Thursday evening, Silver did some forceful talking himself, offering frank observations about his own work and what he sees as the dismal state of political punditry. In a wide-ranging, two-hour conversation with Seth Mnookin, co-director of MIT’s Graduate Program in Science Writing, Silver said there was “no doubt” that other analysts would close ground on his highly accurate projections, adding that it’s “not that hard” to figure out his forecasting formula. He also described the political media as “stuck in the Stone Age” when he reached prominence in 2008, and still “terrible at what they do” today, and suggested that he may, at some point, take a deep data dive into urban studies. Silver, speaking to an overflow audience of some 350 people in MIT’s Bartos...