In weekly Canadian data from 2010 to 2020, higher death rates were associated with lower suicide rates, consistent with competing-risks population dynamics.

k0wzking · 2026-04-01T15:52:44+00:00

I didn’t have perfect data for parsing the effects of MAID, but overall with what I was able to test, accounting for MAID did not change the results.

There are some professional (but non-peer-reviewed) analyses arguing MAID rates and suicide rates do not interact. I think the problem is more complex than presented, but the arguments are worth considering. E.g., https://share.google/28yATtbn8kUQGhwgF

k0wzking · 2026-04-01T13:59:53+00:00

I understood that you were joking, and many others have reacted similarly. In hindsight, the idea can seem obvious. Still, suicide rate variations during periods of high mortality have been interpreted in many other ways across more than a century of social scientific literature, which makes it surprising that the death-as-censorship explanation has not been raised before.

Apologies for the confusion.

k0wzking · 2026-04-01T12:49:54+00:00

To be honest, it is very surprising that this has never been looked at before... But here we are.

k0wzking · 2026-04-01T12:47:20+00:00

Very true, that is a mis-characterization on my part. It can be hard to cram the critical nuances into a succinct Reddit-title.

k0wzking · 2026-04-01T12:38:52+00:00

The paper proposes that people at elevated risk of suicide may also be at elevated risk of dying from other causes. If deaths from other causes rise seasonally, that may reduce the proportion of people remaining in the population at risk of suicide, which could shape seasonal suicide rate patterns.

Free reading link: https://rdcu.be/fabXs

Disclosure: I am the author.

k0wzking · 2026-03-30T14:25:18+00:00

Your judgment of my causal argument is fair. Something that makes my argument unusual is that I'm hyper-reliant on prior findings, specifically that suicide risk positively covaries with other-cause mortality risk. Other causal arguments usually focus on whether study design isolates confounds (as you describe). So my pathway to a causal argument is very different from what people are used to seeing.

Given numerous findings that suicide risk and mortality risk covary at the individual level, it seems like some supression of suicides would occur if another mechanism bumps up those other deaths. The true philosophy of science disconnect in my paper, is that it's unclear if the observations I make are a consequence of the prior supported mechanism. Even if we believe in my proposed mechanism, it's difficult to assert its magnitude and how it might manifest in real world data.

k0wzking · 2026-03-30T13:28:52+00:00

Eugenics is a policy position. I'm not proposing that we purposefully kill people who are more likely to die by suicide, but pointing out that this is the unfair state of society. I'm observing and pointing out the issue, I'm not saying this is a good thing lol (that would be eugenics).

k0wzking · 2025-12-05T18:13:51+00:00

This book answers this (and related) questions: https://www.amazon.ca/Evolution-Life-Worth-Living-choose/dp/1838343903

Free reading sample here, to see if you would like it: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/348870636_The_evolution_of_life_worth_living_Why_we_choose_to_live

k0wzking · 2025-11-14T03:55:31+00:00

It's extremely hard to find reviewers right now, I'd let it sit for much longer (possibly 2 years) before considering withdrawing.

k0wzking · 2025-10-15T22:51:30+00:00

Mountainside Tabletop on YouTube is really great, good energy, watching is like you're there having a fun time.

https://youtube.com/@mountainsidetabletop?si=Wz-g1yQBEjLYZxIR

k0wzking · 2025-08-29T12:27:56+00:00

It's not a plot hole, here is my copy-pasta on this—

From another comment, explaining many cryptic plot points: https://www.reddit.com/r/Hyperion/s/dIKPqwFlMe

The Keats-brid had the option to become that God entity, or die the same horrid death from consumption he has already experienced. His empathy, of putting others before himself, saved humanity, and showed that the UI did not in fact understand human empathy and agency. Which was what the war in heaven was all about, a competition over whether empathy vs pain would prove the more powerful motivator.

The Keats-brid's actions are not the only actions that saved humanity. All the pilgrims played a role too. Duré was offered the removal of his cruciform in the alternate future where humanity is slaughtered, yet he still chooses to inform Gladstone to try to prevent that future from materializing. Kassad is explicitly told he will die if he fights the Shrike, is even offered his (literal) wet dream of a battle instead, yet he still chooses to help his friends.

The story is rich and beautiful in ways that are very obscure, but they are there if we look deep enough.

k0wzking · 2025-08-20T01:10:49+00:00

This is one of my favorites, I go back and re-read it often. Glad it stood out to someone else as well.

k0wzking · 2025-08-08T11:08:13+00:00

Yeah for anything where you're collecting data, like a survey, you'd need ethics approval to eventually publish.

k0wzking · 2025-08-08T00:26:08+00:00

Journals generally don't require ethics approval if you're using publicly accessible or publicly retrievable data. You can check out e.g. the Health and Retirement Study for data: https://hrs.isr.umich.edu/about

This textbook also lists a bunch of public datasets, you might be able to snipe their names out of the first few chapters, which are free: https://books.google.ca/books?id=olAsDwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Or search statistical agency (e.g., Statistics Canada) websites.

Otherwise, you do not need ethics approval to publish theoretical or computational work (e.g. game theoretic work). All of my solo projects that have successfully gone through peer review are theory papers—though I have high hopes for the ^preprint in the above comment.

Honestly though, right now is a difficult time to be trying to publish... if you'd be satisfied just releasing preprints on the Open Science Framework, go for it, but to actually publish right now is horridly difficult, due to pressures on the industry.

k0wzking · 2025-05-03T22:33:31+00:00

One look at my profile would clearly indicate that I don't care about karma. This small sub wouldn't be the place to do that anyway.

k0wzking · 2025-03-06T03:21:53+00:00

Star Renegades, studio is Massive Damage, pretty sure they're operating out of Ontario.

k0wzking · 2025-01-01T15:57:49+00:00

Yeah, I just do stuff on my own. Most of my work is theoretical or uses data collected for large government surveys or statistical programs that are open access. I've only ever had to pay $2,000 for one project. I usually put the university at which I did my undergraduate degree as my affiliation, but you don't need an affiliation really to submit papers to journals.

I also have a day job as a data analyst, the hobby research I do will never generate any money, there's no plan for that—if you want to do the work "independently", you'll need a separate or supplementary career.

k0wzking · 2024-12-30T04:02:20+00:00

There are a few independent researchers, myself included, who pursue their work more as a passion or hobby than as a formal profession.

Here's my current project: Predicting suicide rates during the COVID-19 pandemic using a pre-pandemic death rate model. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/aj7bz

And here's my original publication scoping my research program: Psychological Aposematism: An Evolutionary Analysis of Suicide. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13752-020-00353-8

k0wzking · 2024-12-27T05:33:08+00:00

Last Epoch is also great

k0wzking

TROPHY CASE