Category: Uncategorized

But a common rebuttal to biological/genetic-explanations for obesity is that people seem fatter today compared to generations ago. How does one reconcile abrupt phenotypic changes with changes to the genome, which are much more gradual? A major, obvious reason is the graying of America. According to Jeanne M. Thompson, M.D. “In middle age, metabolism slows,… Continue reading Why People are Getting Fatter: Reconciling Genes with Environment

From Rob Henderson, The Happiness-Accuracy Tradeoff and the Limits of Rationality. I am going to have to agree with Taleb that forecasting and also super-forecasting fails to rise to the level of a science. It’s interesting, but can it be made rigorous in a scientific or quantitative sense? Maybe not. Super-forecasting is supposed to be… Continue reading Problems with super-forecasting

Freddie dunks on America again: Americans want to think of themselves as very cool people who float above the fray, when in fact we tend to be obsessive about the world’s adulation and embarrassed about the ways our systems are worse, such as in healthcare, crime, and public transit. As it’s said, there is the… Continue reading America is broken, but so are most other countries

Cryptocurrency in 2020-2021 and in 2017-2018 momentarily allowed otherwise non-technically savvy, average-IQ, non-college educated people to quickly make a lot of money, at least on paper, way more money than professionals who have degrees. It had seemed like they had stumbled upon some new paradigm of wealth creation. But as I and others knew, it… Continue reading These hustles keep coming up short: why college keeps winning

Society extolls the virtues creativity and creative people. We like the idea creativity, at least in the abstract. Creativity is thought to be a net-good for society. Creative people–artists and entrepreneurs such as Steve Jobs–are admired and respected. But the behavior of society suggests otherwise: 1. creative people are repeatedly told they will fail 2.… Continue reading Society’s love-hate relationship with creativity

– What "law enforcement" objective is served by asking for Billy Baldwin's location information?– Why is the FBI/DHS in the business of analyzing and flagging social media content at all? When were these programs created and who approved them? pic.twitter.com/vEigT4ksKV — Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 17, 2022 The hype over the latest batch of Twitter… Continue reading Twitter Files Reveal the Overreach and Power of the FBI

The demise of FTX and the arrest of its founder is part of the broader demise of crypto. After so much optimism in late 2021/early 2022, entire industries and careers have been gutted over the past year. Coinbase stock down from $340 to $38. MicroStrategy down from $600 to $180. Bitcoin down from $50k to… Continue reading The Daily View: SBF Arrested, Musk Goes to War with Journalists on Twitter

The Beatles 1 is the best-selling album of the 21st century [1], which according to Wikipedia (estimates vary depending on methodology, but this is probably the most authoritative source), is over 31 million units sold since its original release on November 13th, 2000. This also makes 1 #17 overall of best-selling albums of all time.… Continue reading Why Was The Beatles “1” So Successful?

The NYTs asks Why Are Middle-Aged Men Missing From the Labor Market? As many have noted the unemployment rate is < 4%, but this ignores that a lot of people have dropped out the labor market permanently. Just drive down the street or go to any coffee shop or store during the weekday, during working… Continue reading Why the labor force participation rate is falling: some explanations

Richard Hanania argues that brilliant people are toiling away in academia, being excluded or ignored by the ‘public sphere’: 5. Yglesias on what he learned founding Vox. I can relate to the point that talent is limited. CSPI does talent recruitment on a smaller scale, and there aren’t many Hananias, Lemoines, etc. One of my… Continue reading Academia is the public sphere