A narrative I have been hearing from Ramz and others on the dissident/alt-right is that America is sinking, in the final stages of dying, is primed for civil war, etc. Bill Gates Paul put out this video in which he wants bigger stimulus than the $600 because he believes that America is dying and he… Continue reading No collapse of America, yet

In October 2020 in the post WTF Happened in 2008 I correctly predicted that any decline of Airbnb’s rental business due to Covid would be temporary: Supposedly, Covid has hurt Airbnb and the rental market, but I predict it will be temporary and things will quickly go back to how they were pre-Covid. There is… Continue reading Airbnb and Disney…Media Narratives Wrong Again

Bill Gates Paul grades Trump’s presidency, giving him an abysmal 1.5 grade point average: The video got 70 down-votes and 300 up-votes (20% down-votes), so evidently a lot of viewers took issue with Gates’ assessment of Trump’s presidency. Gates makes some good points, and I overall agree, but his grading metric/rubric is faulty, and I… Continue reading Grading Trump

I came across this interesting discussion and scathing Reddit review of the Lambda coding bootcamp. The above links affirm what I have long suspected, which is that coding bootcamps are a soft form of a scam. I am not alone: a Google search shows a similar conclusion, that coding bootcamps, although they initially held promise… Continue reading The Coding Bootcamp Scam

From Quillette The End of the World as We Know It? The gist of this article is that the world needs more people to stave off crisis of innovation, and that arguments against overpopulation and economic destruction due to too many humans, are unfounded. I have seen similar arguments made by, generally, neoliberals, who argue… Continue reading Population: It’s quality that matters, not quantity

Now Josh Brown, aka the Reformed Butthead, is hyping Bitcoin after it has already doubled. As usual, Josh is late to the party. And if his past predictions are any indication, this is a top for Bitcoin and it will probably fall to $7k or lower soon. In fact Bitcoin has already fallen from a… Continue reading Bitcoin: It Still Sucks

Bill Gates Paul put out a video critical of the q-anon movement and how it’s leading its followers astray A came to similar conclusion about how Q has failed to deliver on any of its prophecies. There is no plan, no ‘mass arrests’ of Hollywood pedophiles and democratic officials, and no storm. Just the same… Continue reading Ramz: QAnon was Fake and Harmful

Similar to the 2020 election, the 2020 election has been dragged into overtime. ‘Stop the steal’ has become a rallying cry against alleged fraud that cost Trump reelection. I don’t care that much who wins or who had the election stolen from whom. It does not affect my personal life much either way. I think… Continue reading Skepticism about ‘Stop the Steal’

A common narrative you see online is how much cheaper things used to be many generations ago, and how everything is so expensive now. The narrative goes along the lines of “In the ’30s, college cost $5/semester and you could buy a home for a couple thousand dollars. Now everything is too expensive.” Obviously, things… Continue reading Were 1930s ‘cheap’? It depends

A useful heuristic I have found is that well-worn narratives, especially media narratives or narratives promoted by powerful or influential people, tend to be wrong, or at the very least incomplete. You should always be skeptical of narratives even if promoted by academics, the media, and experts. Always do your own research to independently verify… Continue reading Questioning commonly held assumptions and narratives