Category: Uncategorized

This is an interesting IQ video by Dr. Jordan Peterson: Some highlights: -There are many ways to be smart, but only a single way to be dumb. As you go higher in IQ, people tend to have more lopsided subtest results, like being exceptional at quantitative ability but maybe only above-average at spatial. -There is… Continue reading Dr. Jordan Peterson: The Most Terrifying IQ Statistics, Thoughts on IQ

I saw this from Marginal Revolution: A simple theory of which thinkers support the elites, or not: Noam Chomsky, for instance, has lowered the status of American elites. That is his net long-run effect, not that he drummed up sympathy for the Khmer Rouge. A lot more people, for better or worse, are more skeptical… Continue reading The forever-rise of elites

A month ago I had a realization that it’s not the caffeine in coffee that provides stimulation, but rather all the sugar and fat mixed into it. In confusing correlation with causation, people think it’s the caffeine that engenders the productivity-boosting alertness, but it’s actually all the sugar and fat. In other words, it’s the… Continue reading How confusing correlation with causation led to a $107.17 billion coffee business

I have been thinking about society, especially as of 2024 with the presidential election on the horizon, such as the constant backdrop of negativity and pessimism on social media juxtaposed with the otherwise strong US economy and stock market (the so-called ‘vibe shift’ or ‘vibes theory’). It’s something that I had not been able to… Continue reading Optimality

Interesting article by Emil O. W. Kirkegaard, from 2023: IQ estimates of public intellectuals and personas. The comments are arguably even better than the article and lend additional insight. My own take: 1. IQ estimates of historical figures are especially iffy. Newton is credited as co-discovering calculus, but what does this mean today in terms… Continue reading IQ estimates of public intellectuals

Item #1: Bitcoin keeps falling, now below $59k. I keep being right that Bitcoin is inferior to tech stocks. It’s like “I can choose to invest in a tech company with billions of profits and is economically indispensable, or digital coins that are used for crime.” Bitcoin is doomed to underperform due to too much… Continue reading The Daily View 8/28/2024: Bitcoin, Kamala’s Tax, IQ

I saw this going viral from Forbes, The High Price Of Minimum Security Federal Prisoners: Of the BOP’s nearly 160,000 prisoners, 24,000 of them are minimum security. The BOP’s statement was that the average cost of housing a minimum security prisoner in 2024 is $151.02. The cost of housing someone in a U.S. Penitentiary is… Continue reading Prison spending is not too high

From the Washington Post: Has tipping gone too far? Here’s a guide on when to tip. Many Americans have tipping fatigue, with 1 in 3 adults calling the practice “out of control” in a recent survey. Tipping has gotten out of control, especially post-Covid. I have likened it to yet another form of inflation, which… Continue reading Tipping is out of control

I saw this going viral, from The Atlantic: The Far Right Is Becoming Obsessed With Race and IQ (archive link so as to not give it any traffic). As was evident during the Steve Sailer vs. Will Stancil Twitter ‘debate’ in January 2024 (if it can even be called a debate–it was more like a… Continue reading The Atlantic: ‘Far Right Is Becoming Obsessed With Race and IQ’

Item #1: Asian kids whose parents did not finish high school crush black kids whose parents have PhDs on the SAT. This remarkable fact is a function of two things: (1) Grossly unequal group IQ distributions and (2) PhDs earned by blacks being diminished by affirmative action admissions… pic.twitter.com/bhqKTBrFV4 — i/o (@eyeslasho) August 15, 2024… Continue reading The Daily View 8/21/2024: Kamala Surge, Trump livestream, Mr. Beast nothing-burger