No societal collapse yet, but we’ll keep waiting

This post was going viral on Reddit, “Are we living in a time of ‘widespread social collapse’?” I think it’s more like small-scale, localized decay, not widespread societal collapse. This is not a particularly popular position. American exceptionalism is not just about economics or foreign pricy, but the belief that everything either centers around us… Continue reading No societal collapse yet, but we’ll keep waiting

Open AI is No Gold Rush

Martin Shkreli on the Open AI Gold Rush: Real Innovation Will Come After The AI Bubble To call Open AI a goldrush implies that at least some ordinary people are making money from it. Except no one is making any money from Open AI. Unless, I suppose, you include making viral YouTube videos and tweets… Continue reading Open AI is No Gold Rush

Having academic credentials is no assurance of quality

From 2009, Eliezer Yudkowsky discusses the Shangri-La Diet, a type of diet that involves the added consumption of oil: Once upon a time, Seth Roberts (a professor of psychology at Berkeley, on the editorial board of Nutrition) noticed that he’d started losing weight while on vacation in Europe. For no apparent reason, he’d stopped wanting… Continue reading Having academic credentials is no assurance of quality

Meta stock surges again: how so many got it wrong

As Meta stock surged today on yet another quarter of strong earnings, it’s time to reflect on how so many people this wrong. Funny how people keep blaming the buybacks or layoffs. Those helped, but what is overlooked is just how insanely profitable and dominant Meta’s core advertising business is, both Facebook and Instagram. What… Continue reading Meta stock surges again: how so many got it wrong

The Media Purge

This week’s media purge would make even Stalin proud. Tucker gone. Don Lemon gone. And of a lesser note, Nate Silver gone from ABC News. Good ol’ ADL, never passing on the opportunity for self-promotion: Jonathan Greenblatt, the head of the Anti-Defamation League, praised Fox News’ decision, saying it is “about time” and that “for… Continue reading The Media Purge

Richard Hanania: Weight Loss, Free Will, and Choice

From Richard Hanania: Fat Shaming and Free Will: How to think about the concept of “choice”. It’s inconsistent how people who are otherwise empirically-minded in so far as IQ, the futility of pre-k (and other costly education intervention), or crime stats are concerned, but cannot bring themselves to accepting the data that most dieters fail… Continue reading Richard Hanania: Weight Loss, Free Will, and Choice

The Daily View: Bitcoin crash cont., McDonald’s stock surge, Elon lawsuit, the SATs

1st item: Bitcoin continues to crash like I said it would yesterday, getting ready to break $28k on its way back below $20k soon despite the Nasdaq holding strong at 13,000. This week my BTC method has been among the most profitable ever. I will show the spreadsheet soon of the backtested results to demonstrate… Continue reading The Daily View: Bitcoin crash cont., McDonald’s stock surge, Elon lawsuit, the SATs