Month: September 2023

I saw this going viral They Studied Dishonesty. Was Their Work a Lie? regarding Dan Ariely and Francesca Gino, whose research into dishonesty may have, well, been a lie. Whenever someone is busted for deception or dishonesty, whether it’s steroids in baseball, steroids in the WWE/WWF, academic dishonesty or malfeasance, or YouTube fitness gurus taking… Continue reading Much of social sciences research is probably garbage/wrong

From The Honest broker : AI Is Defeated in Hollywood—But What About Music? Mr. Gioia writes the same ‘AI vs. the entertainment industry’ article every 2 weeks or so. I am more of an AI agnostic than either an ‘AI utopian’ or an ‘AI doomer’. I don’t think AI will prove to be nearly as… Continue reading Why AI may not be as big of a productivity boost as assumed

I saw this going viral : Baby boomers are becoming homeless at a rate ‘not seen since the Great Depression’ — here’s what’s driving this terrible trend. And from WSJ: Why More Baby Boomers Are Sliding Into Homelessness. Let me get out my little violin. But in all seriousness, this agrees with my earlier post… Continue reading The Myth of Wealthy Boomers (why they are not much ‘better off’ compared to later generations)

Scott reviews comments in regard to Elon Musk’s latest biography. Not surprisingly, a lot of the discussion focusses on Elon’s IQ. For some reason many people, including those who otherwise believe strongly in HBD, get irked at the notion that Elon may not in fact be the smartest person in the world, or as smart… Continue reading How Smart is Elon Musk?

Russell Brand has been demonetized from YouTube, potentially costing him a lot of money. The channel is a potentially significant source of income for Mr. Brand, who was earning money through advertisements and paid promotions. A spokeswoman for YouTube said in an email that Mr. Brand, whose channel on the platform has 6.6 million subscribers,… Continue reading Contract Law as an Answer to Wokeness

I don’t think it’s possible to overstate how big of a deal these GLP-1 weight loss drugs are, the primary two being Mounjaro (tirzepatide) and Wegovy (semaglutide). Although these drugs have only been on the market for a couple years, there are already large communities discussing them. In all likelihood, actual usage is probably a… Continue reading Developing GLP-1 Weight Loss Drugs was ‘Harder’ Than Detecting Gravity Waves

My opinion has generally been that the student loan bubble/crisis, like global warming or the ever-looming threat of China, is overblown and the product of media hype. For as far back as I can remember we’re been told by the alarmist media that America is on the brink of war with China, or that global… Continue reading Why I’m not optimistic the student loan debt situation will improve

I have tried to figure out why online discussions and social media sucks or has become more stressful over time, compared to decades ago. What changed? It’s common to blame politics or ideological division, such as in 2016 in regard to Trump or 2020 in regard to Covid, which were highly divisive to the nation… Continue reading The Interlocutor’s Advantage

#1 Huge sentences handed out for Proud Boys members, including a record 22 years for Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio for Jan. 6 seditious conspiracy. As I said here, this notion that Trump is being persecuted is wrong. It’s more like his followers and supporters are, but Trump is still above the fray. Despite a… Continue reading The Daily View 9/13/2023: Trump, Ukraine, Bitcoin, Ark Investments

Imagine if like a video game you have to choose between some combination of allocation of the following attributes/abilities, but you cannot max out all of them: 1. power 2. influence/reach 3. wealth 4. social status Power is the ability to make large, important decisions which can potentially affect a lot of people and or… Continue reading Why Influence/Reach is Better than Power, Wealth, or Social Status