Predictions for 2023

Scott posts his predictions for 2023: FIVE MORE YEARS Those yearly “predictions for next year” posts are starting to reach the limit of their usefulness. Not much changes from year to year, and most of what does change is hard to capture in objective probabilistic predictions. Agree…with the exception of election cycles, not much changes… Continue reading Predictions for 2023

for every $1 of Bitcoin converted into cash, up to $25,000 of paper wealth is destroyed

Bitcoin continues to demonstrate how bad of an investment it is, losing 15% of its value in under 36 hours: A $1000 point drop in just a few hours and a $500 point drop in just a few minutes. Some will respond, “But…but…it’s up 1000% since early 2017!!” …and my response is, “but …but …it’s… Continue reading for every $1 of Bitcoin converted into cash, up to $25,000 of paper wealth is destroyed

Why So Many People Like Jordan Peterson

Even though /r/the_Donald posters tend to be much further to the ‘right’ than Dr. Peterson himself, he is still immensely popular there. But not just on /r/The_Donald; he’s popular among intellectual types of all political stripes, from rationalists who lean left, to reactionaries on the far-right, and everywhere in-between. Dr. Peterson is popular among the… Continue reading Why So Many People Like Jordan Peterson

Philosophical bites: Empiricism vs. Rationalism

There’s a popular YouTube channel titled ‘Bite-sized Philosophy,’ which as its name suggests provides concise summaries pertaining to philosophical matters. Here is my bite-sized summary of Empiricism vs. Rationalism. Consider a cooking range that has four or more individual stove tops. There is also a ‘key’ that shows which knob corresponds to which stove top.… Continue reading Philosophical bites: Empiricism vs. Rationalism

Interesting tweet

This tweet went viral a few weeks ago: If children started school at six months old and their teachers gave them walking lessons, within a single generation people would come to believe that humans couldn't learn to walk without going to school. — Geoff Graham (@geoffreydgraham) February 12, 2018 When I saw it I thought… Continue reading Interesting tweet

The four horsemen of the alt-middle/center

Let’s make this a meme. The four horsemen are Jordan Peterson and Ben Shapiro (who skew right), and Dave Rubin and Sam Harris (who skew left). All of their popularity has surged in the past year, they all seem to share similar rational-minded centrist/moderate/pragmatist views, they all have huge social media presences, and they have… Continue reading The four horsemen of the alt-middle/center

Bitcoin idiot Tom Lee at it again (and when it’s time to buy Bitcoin again)

Strategist Tom Lee Predicts New All-Time Highs for Bitcoin in July I made a post about him a few weeks ago. This is the forth time in the span of just three months Tom Lee has promised new bitcoin highs, and Bitcoin has continued to go lower. If Bitcoin fails to at least stay above… Continue reading Bitcoin idiot Tom Lee at it again (and when it’s time to buy Bitcoin again)

Two nations within a nation

This went viral: The discreet terror of the American bourgeoisie A common theme by pundits is that Brexit and Trump represent a sort of transformational repudiation against elites and that elites are ‘shaking and scared’ of this ‘new status quo’. The evidence, however, as discussed in the post The Permanent Ascendance of ‘Bobos’ suggests the… Continue reading Two nations within a nation

Anti-democracy, part 5

Social Matter lists six fundamental flaws of democracy: 1. Long to non-existent feedback cycles for political actions 2. Incentives to destroy people’s belief-forming faculties, or what I call full-spectrum weaponization 3. Reduced incentives to do the right things to get status on both top and bottom 4. Inherent need for everyone to model other people’s… Continue reading Anti-democracy, part 5