Trump speech brief analysis

President Donald Trump Just Delivered His First State of the Union. Read The Full Transcript Overall, not surprisingly, it was one of those we-must-spend-more-money-on-stuff speeches. It was good in terms of exceeding expectations, demonstrating leadership qualities on Trump’s part, and signaling to voters. I would say Trump gets an ‘A’ in this regard even though… Continue reading Trump speech brief analysis

The LessWrong Crypto Autopsy

A LessWrong Crypto Autopsy According to the recent SSC survey, 9% of SSC readers made $1000+ from crypto as of 12/2017. Among people who were referred to SSC from Less Wrong – my stand-in for long-time LW regulars – 15% made over $1000 on crypto, nearly twice as many. A full 3% of LWers made… Continue reading The LessWrong Crypto Autopsy

Notes on writing advice: longer is better

For unknown reasons, articles about writing frequently viral on Hacker News and other smart sites despite having nothing to do with computers or science. Here are two recent examples: The “Rules” of Writing Advice For Aspiring Writers Related to the wealth-individualism-intellectualism synthesis, writing combines individualism and intellectualism, which could explain the recent upsurge in popularity… Continue reading Notes on writing advice: longer is better

Sam Harris’ takedown of Nassim Taleb

Sam Harris’ takedown of Nassim Taleb is hilarious and true: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZmAmok5M3s&feature=youtu.be&t=48m51s I don’t agree with Sam Harris on everything, although I agree with him about Islam being a threat to western civilization, about the perniciousness of SJWs and political correctness, about some aspects of ‘materialist philosophy’, his denial of free will, and his criticism of… Continue reading Sam Harris’ takedown of Nassim Taleb

Bad Bitcoin Analysts

When operant conditioning fails: The stock market has smoother and more consistent returns returns because it’s linked to something that is concrete and consistent: the health and dominance of the U.S. economy and multinational firms–but Bitcoin has no such anchoring. It’s tied to sentiment, combined with whatever value is derived from being a ‘store of… Continue reading Bad Bitcoin Analysts

Is NRx Dying? No, it’s moving to Twitter (and other thoughts)

Is NRx dead? I hope not. But it seems as of early 2017 or so, there has been a decline in quantity of NRx-related blog content. Such decline parallels what I perceive to the be the overall post-2017 decline of the alt-right, and although NRx and the alt-right are not the same, they are similar… Continue reading Is NRx Dying? No, it’s moving to Twitter (and other thoughts)

Jordan Peterson won’t debate the alt-right

P-p-p-Peterson won’t d-d-d-bate millennial woes-oes-oes-oes. Woes offered $500 for a debate, but Peterson didn’t respond, and then on Twitter Peterson continued to take potshots at the alt-right, and Woes was correct to point out such arguments are infantile, if not unbecoming, for someone who is supposed to be learned as Jordan Peterson. Yes, Japanese people… Continue reading Jordan Peterson won’t debate the alt-right

Rise of Jordan Peterson mirrors the decline of alt-right

The post-2017 meteoric rise of Jordan Paterson and Quillette mirrors the fall/irrelevance of Milo, Spencer, Lauren Southern, and the rest of the alt-right. The funny thing is, when Trump won everyone thought that the alt-right would become even more powerful than it already was, but then Dr. Peterson comes along and suddenly centrism is cool… Continue reading Rise of Jordan Peterson mirrors the decline of alt-right

Rules for rationalism

–Beliefs may be true or false. If the latter, they are delusions. –One may either knowingly or unknowingly subscribe to delusions. The former may leads to cognitive dissonance. There is an internal conflict between two ‘avatars’ that represent differing beliefs, that are at war with each other. The one that ‘wins’ is accepted by observer… Continue reading Rules for rationalism