This from alfanl caught my attention: The only blot on Landry’s internet career was his public accusation that Spandrell was toxic. This was silly. You can’t demand that a gloomy realist becomes a positivist. It’s like demanding that Trump talks like a Harvard man. It’s just not what they do. The day Spandrell’s blog becomes… Continue reading Everyone is a Realist
Month: September 2017
Corporate virtue signaling and holiness investing
From Jim’s blog: Holiness and corporate performance Notoriously, corporations that are Social Justice converged behave in ways that are not only evil, but self destructive, leading to loss of shareholder value. It is difficult to objectively assess social justice convergence, but we can expect it to have a pretty good correlation with the company’s… Continue reading Corporate virtue signaling and holiness investing
The Permanent Ascendance of ‘Bobos’
From Alnold Kling Bobos’ Paradise Lost? What Brooks might have foreseen, but did not, was how this Bobo project would play out as it gathered momentum. In the last two decades, we have witnessed the acceleration of the long-term trend toward expansion of the more abstract-oriented industries, such as finance and entertainment, and a decline… Continue reading The Permanent Ascendance of ‘Bobos’
Bret Stephens: Tips for Aspiring Op-Ed Writers
Tips for Aspiring Op-Ed Writers 1) A wise editor once observed that the easiest decision a reader can make is to stop reading. This means that every sentence has to count in grabbing the reader’s attention, starting with the first. Get to the point: Why does your topic matter? Why should it matter I think… Continue reading Bret Stephens: Tips for Aspiring Op-Ed Writers
Why do some countries fail and others succeed?
Why do some countries fail and others succeed? The reason why some countries are much less successful than others is due to low-IQs and overall incompetence and ineptness of the government and people. Look at how much corruption Brazil has had for the past decade. Also, low-IQ countries are often dependent on exporting commodities (which… Continue reading Why do some countries fail and others succeed?
You Are the Product: Analysis
This story is going massively viral: You Are the Product The most intense, critical essay on Facebook that I've ever read. https://t.co/7RXmcujr6I pic.twitter.com/pGJglyUgW0 — Nicholas Thompson (@nxthompson) September 2, 2017 IMHO, I don’t understand what the big deal is. People knowingly create Facebook accounts with their personal information, such as name and address, so why… Continue reading You Are the Product: Analysis
Jordan Peterson and Stefan Molyneux discuss IQ
Here’s an excellent video by Jordan Peterson and Stefan Molyneux about IQ and how Charles Murray’s The Bell Curve is becoming reality in terms of IQ predicting social stratification, but also how IQ is immutable, impervious to ‘brain training’, and intrinsic to the individual. The depressing reality is that 10% of the population (IQ less… Continue reading Jordan Peterson and Stefan Molyneux discuss IQ
Hurricane Harvey Analysis
This story is going viral, having been shared and up-voted hundreds of times on Reddit and elsewhere: For years, engineers have warned that Houston was a flood disaster in the making. Why didn’t somebody do something? Who is ‘somebody’? The flood fairy? The most obvious answer is that insurance is cheaper than re-engineering everything. That… Continue reading Hurricane Harvey Analysis
Getting the correct story is hard
Following the Charlottesville Unite the Right Protest, Trump was criticized for not sufficiently condemning ‘hate groups’ such as the KKK and Neo Nazis. Bret Stephens of the NYTs in a column Trump, Obama and the Politics of Evasion ended by saying: None of this history excuses Trump’s stubborn reluctance, rectified far-too belatedly on Monday, to… Continue reading Getting the correct story is hard