Data-Driven Governments Across the Globe

Last week I kicked-off a new role at KPMG’s Chicago offices as the Director of Analytics for Strategic Insights. It’s not only a new role for me, but a new position within KPMG. Just like Chicago, cities, states, and governments across the globe have been looking at using data for greater efficiency, improving quality of […]

Thank you, Chicago.

It has been a joy working for the City of Chicago as the Chief Data Officer. After moving to Chicago, I was thrilled to have an opportunity to serve for my adoptive city in the best role in government. Friday is my last day with the city after 5.5 years. Long ago, I set some goals for […]

Site Redesign

Quick news…the site received a header-to-footer redesign over the weekend. The front page no longer reveals a blog, but instead, a landing page with various links to different online presences. The blog and other pages also received a redesign, using the Invisible Assassin theme. The blog is now located at tomschenkjr.net/blog. All links should be […]

Notice: Moving to new domain

The website is going to be changing domains this weekend. I’ll be moving to Dreamhost and away from WordPress.com. I will be making the move in order to accommodate some exciting new projects for the website. But, as these things go, there may be some service interruptions. Everything should be ready by Sunday, June 3rd. Update: Done!

How to find salaries for a new job

There use to be a lot of talk about H1-B visas. Mostly the conversation focused on whether workers born overseas were somehow “stealing” jobs, but in reality, it reflected an insufficient number of trained workers in a given sector. Regardless of that feeling, you can use H1-B visa applications to your advantage while job-hunting. H1-B […]

The challenge of finding notes

I ran across an old notebook from my days at the American Institute for Economic Research–the days when I studied and wrote in the philosophy of science–with a note the back pag: In describing the human body we must realize the whole and particulars. The whole is the body we see and touch. It is […]

Majoring in “Universe”

…in today’s xkcd–amusing as always. Since I originate from both backgrounds (computers, economics & comparative politics) I should know a little more. Problem is, the Europeans don’t name failed summits. Maastricht Treaty gets a name because it was very successful. Nevertheless, my best try: Every other EU summit on establishing a European Union constitution in […]

LaTeX for Undergraduates

The LATEX for Undergraduates tutorial has been resurrected and all of the broken links should be fixed on this domain. The tutorial describes the typesetting system in a way that can be taught in classrooms alongside another curriculum. The original tutorial was taught at Drake University’s freshman math seminar course.

Applied Microeconomics

From a series of forum posts: Person 1: I wasn’t all that impressed with [Johnny Walker] Blue… it seemed to go so far down the “how smooth can we make it” path that it didn’t have a whole ton of personality… Person 2: People don’t drink Johnny Walker Blue because they like it… people drink […]

Selection Bias and Online Dating

New York Times has an article on the science behind online dating sites, like eHarmony and Chemistry.com, that base matches on intensive surveys. The article notes: Gian Gonzaga, senior research scientist at eHarmony, said that studies his company had conducted of married people who met through eHarmony and a control group who met in other […]