There is a common misconception about IQ as it pertains to national IQ and the purported ‘dumbing down of society’. Commentators online frequently lament about the existence of such dumbing-down. The misconception has to do with confusing or conflating relative or per-capita intelligence for absolute/total intelligence of a nation. These are related yet distinct enough… Continue reading The IQ debate: Total vs. Per-capita IQ

One thing I have noticed about the smart-left and the smart-right is that they seem to gravitate to a core set of anchor beliefs and experiences that unify them despite being opposites politically, that you do not see with the mainstream left/right. The mainstream left/left have no common ground it would seem, but the smart… Continue reading The smart-left/right vs. mainstream left/right

I think at this stage it is reasonable to assume Trump has lost, in spite of his best efforts to forestall defeat. There is not going to be a recount, not because there was no fraud, but no one in charge wants a repeat of 2000 all over again. Making matters more complicated than in… Continue reading Some election thoughts

I saw this going viral The Joys of Being a Stoic Over the past four or so years there has been considerable interest stoicism, especially online, and articles about the befits of stoicism frequently go viral. Maybe it is in response to coping with Trump; who knows. People are always looking for self-help and the… Continue reading Stocism is Overrated

In regard to recent podcast with Joe Rogan, much of Greenwald’s criticism is focused on the overreach of the US government, but another problem is private sector having too much control , such as tech censorship. The private sector, unlike the public sector, has far fewer avenues for redress of wrongs. Try restoring a terminated… Continue reading Tech censorship, more thoughts

In less then 12 or so hours, barring a recount scenario, the outcome of the 2020 election will be determined. I cannot believe this is happening already. I remember in 2016 seeing the results come in and it looked like Hillary was going to win as expected, and everything fell apart in less than half… Continue reading The Eleventh Hour

As the event horizon of the 2020 election nears, I want to get in one last non-Trump post. I saw this headline a few days ago: GDP soars by record 33.1% annual pace in third quarter, but coronavirus resurgence threatens U.S. economic recovery The widely expected snapback in gross domestic product, the official scorecard of… Continue reading Covid Economic Update

According to 538, Trump has just an 11% chance of winning: This is really bad. Even in 2016, in the final week, Trump’s odds were at around 25% after bottoming out at 11% in mid-October. Then Trump began a surge that untimely lead up to his largely unexpected victory. On the night of the election,… Continue reading 2020 election forecast and discussion

A few days ago, Bill Gates Paul got a strike (three strikes typically results in a channel termination, so this is a pretty serious matter) on his YouTube channel, and as protective measure to prevent further strikes has deleted all but two of his videos, and also as a consequence of the strike is not… Continue reading YouTube steps up censorship

For the past 2 months, I have been seeing many discussions and references to the website “WTF Happened in 1971?” (wtfhappenedin1971.com), which purports to show how society underwent drastic societal and economic change around 1971. If I was going to make a similar website, I would put the cut-off point as recently as 2008, as… Continue reading WTF Happened in 2008