A couple months ago, Nick explored the possibility of two revolutions: (1) Techno-economic self-propelling change obsolesces ever wider swathes of humanity on a steepening curve. Capital (i.e. techno-commercial synthesis) tendentially autonomizes. For humans, there are ever more intriguing opportunities for synergistic attachment, on new terms,…
Predicting the future is notoriously hard, and that seems to have so far discouraged potential authors and readers alike. Predicting is not as hard [1] as, say, understanding theoretical physics or algebraic geometry. There is a simple heuristic I use: assume past trends will continue….
A cold dose of reality on the fanciful world of self-publishing: I just self-published my first novel and am extremely disappointed Most people on here seem to be having flaming success in self-publishing field, but unfortunately I haven’t been graced with such luck – it’s…
More evidence that it pays to be smart: Global oil and gas job losses: 350,000 and counting The exploration and production (E&P) sector was the second worst sufferer, registering more than 80,000 layoffs, followed by the drilling sector, which has seen more than 52,000 job…
In mid-March 2016, Robin Weis’ article “Crying” went massively viral, getting hundreds of up-votes and comments on HackerNews, as well as many shares elsewhere. Rather than focusing on the subject of the article itself, I’m going to focus more on the meta-narrative: why the article…
Part 1: Nassim Nicholas Taleb: Thin-Skin In The Game Going through Taleb’s CV, it’s not as impressive as its length suggests. Owing to his large media presence, getting published in some journals is easier, and a lot of his papers are duplicates of the Black…
There have been a smattering of wealth inequality/economics articles lately: THREE GREAT ARTICLES ON POVERTY, AND WHY I DISAGREE WITH ALL OF THEM Economics Has Failed America Scott goes on about the unrealistic expectations of trying to teach everyone high-IQ skills, when biology imposes barriers…
The Talebian One himself, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, whom I have written about at length on this blog, has a new book, “Skin in the Game”, which he has been promoting on Twitter. This is not a review of the book; rather, it’s a review of…
With recent news of Theranos voiding test results, and other revelations, there is now a definite possibility Theranos has been mortally wounded and that my earlier optimism may have been misplaced. But now even accusations of ‘fraud’ are being thrown around, and I think that’s…
How to Be Grumpy: Aaron Clarey’s The Curse of the High IQ This passage stood out: Look, kid. (I was born in the first week of ’75, so there’s no way he’s older than I am.) Are you aware that Voltaire was repeatedly deported and…