Month: January 2022

Saw this article Do we stand at the precipice of radical change? And yet in the end, what happened? Armageddon didn’t happen. There was no global socialist revolution or fascist reaction; instead, most countries just liberalized and democratized in the 80s and 90s. Milquetoast neoliberalism became the dominant philosophy of how to organize a society.… Continue reading Do we stand at the precipice of radical change?

I made some updates to my article yesterday , adding more regarding the rise and fall of pop behavioral psychology: The period from around 2002-2012 or so saw considerable media, business, and public interest in behavioral economics and human psychology. Academics and journalists such as such as Dan Ariely (Predictably Irrational (2008), The Upside of… Continue reading The Daily View: 1/28/2022

From 2013-2017 or so when the writings of Moldbug began to gain some mainstream traction, the private sector seemed comparably anemic relative to the Bush + Obama administrations, both of whom epitomized ‘big government’, so the concept of an ‘exit’ strategy, the modern equivalent of ‘going Galt’, seemed appealing. But now fast-forward to 2021-2022 and… Continue reading From Big Government to Big Tech

Freddie deBoer argues that Harvard ditching the SAT is a money maker. I think the issue is framed as a false dichotomy in which elite schools must choose between meritocracy or money. The evidence shows, however, that it’s possible to have both, and that optimizing for merit also maximizes donations. It’s a common misconception that… Continue reading Ending Legacy Favoritism Will Likely Not Cost Harvard Money

Usually Freddie articles are pretty good, but he has gotten considerable pushback in the comments in his latest post You Don’t Get to Withdraw “Your Share” of Public Expenditures, Doofus. He is right, broadly: 1. that schools are very limited in their ability to boost individual achievement, and that differences of pedagogical methods at best… Continue reading You Don’t Get to Withdraw “Your Share” of Public Expenditures

Bitcoin continues to unravel, down 40% in 2 months. The question is how did so many people, supposedly experts, get it so wrong. Here is Josh hyping Bitcoin and MicroStrategy in February 2021: One year ago, MicroStrategy was a mundane, third-tier publicly traded software concern with a moribund stock price that hadn’t moved in nearly… Continue reading So much for that, Bitcoin edition

Saw this interesting Lex Fridman interview of Ray Dalio Mr. Dalio argues that America’s indebtedness, poor PISA test scores, and the rise of China is evidence of America’s decline. Dalio mentions that education is an essential ingredient for the prosperity of a country, and that China is more educated than the U.S., and over the… Continue reading Ray Dalio on America and China

Some people are mad at Joe Rogan for being wrong in regard to covid and myocarditis. Here is the relevant clip. So the argument is that the incidence of myocarditis is higher among young people who get Covid, compared to young people who are vaccinated. So case closed, huh? Not so fast. This compassion makes… Continue reading myocarditis and covid

The big secret is that practically ALL competitive sports are unhealthy. That, in addition to the fact that anything competitive damages your soul. https://t.co/gFBs5a5d4J — Nassim Nicholas Taleb (@nntaleb) January 10, 2022 How about being a blowhard who blocks anyone who disagrees with him on Twitter? Is that any healthier. I think Taleb is projecting… Continue reading Taleb reflects on his Mediocrity

This is pretty funny…it looks like Vox Day is sperging out about Scott Adams, in regard to the latter’s alleged betrayal and flip-flopping in regard to vaccines. Below is Scott’s response to Vox Day’s blogpost: Compare my actual Covid prediction record (the best in the nation): https://t.co/bZiYmvFsvn with the interpretation below and spot the cognitive… Continue reading Scott Adams vs. Vox Day