Category: Uncategorized

Over the past few years or so, there has been a ton of interest in persuasion and negotiation techniques. A Google search reveals dozens of articles about so-called “FBI negotiation tactics” and guides and how-to lists on how to be more persuasive. People have published books, sold seminars, and made careers out of teaching such… Continue reading Why persuasion and negotiation techniques are (probably) useless

I’m sure most readers are familiar with the Intellectual Dark Web (IDW), which describes a closely-linked network of experts, pundits, and academics, who have large online platforms from which to espouse occasionally controversial and politically incorrect ideas, such as topics pertaining to IQ or gender. But I think there is a related intellectual movement, the… Continue reading The intellectual-web: an emergent online culture

There is blogger and podcaster whose identity I will not disclose, but given all of the clues supplied in this article it should not be that hard to figure out, who is tangentially related to the alt-right but in recent years has disavowed the movement. Like Roosh, he is itinerant, moving from one part of… Continue reading There is no excuse

An argument I commonly hear online by Vox Day and others, is something along the lines of: “Trump is better than the alternative” “…at least he’s not Hillary…” “Hillary would have been worse…” “Hillary is even more pro-Israel than Trump…” “Hillary would have caused X,Y, and Z wars…” With the possible exception of the last… Continue reading Hillary would have been worse, but

The news cycle is pretty moribund as of late. Things are gonna remain slow probably until the next round of 2020 election. Although this blog does a lot of predicting, I have no idea who out of the five or so major candidates will be the nominee. Some say it is Warren. Maybe. Maybe not.… Continue reading Does diversity + proximity lead to war? Probably not, as far as the US is concerned

Over the past few weeks I have been paying much closer attention to Trump on Twitter in order to try to understand why he is so popular there, about his personality, and the community detractors and fans who follow him. 1. Trump’s Twitter account is really popular, obviously. In terms of engagement such as likes,… Continue reading Some things I learned following Trump on Twitter

Taleb is going on again about how there is no statistical correlation between wealth and IQ: Here we go again. The replication crisis is now hitting IQstudies…Used the same approach as I did with fakescholar @sapinker, under recommendation by @yaneerbaryam: first use THEIR own data, then proceed to uncovering theoretical flaws. pic.twitter.com/kQQ3EwFcxh — Nassim Nicholas… Continue reading Nassim Taleb is Possibly Wrong about Wealth and IQ

It’s noteworthy how little variance there is in Trump’s approval rating, which is in the tightest range of any U.S. president since tracking began, as far back as Truman. This becomes even more obvious when one overlays Trump’s approval rating with that of past presidents. This is indicative of many things: a political climate that… Continue reading The Trump Stalemate

Ross Douthat is at it again, predicting a recession that will cost Trump his reelection. If there is one thing I have learned over the past three year or so, media narratives are almost always wrong. For example: the narrative in early to mid-2018 was that the Trump tariffs would hurt the economy and boost… Continue reading No recession soon

Vox Day wants a student loan debt jubilee. Vox is hoping that this is the first step to increased foreignness such as for the unemployed, but he is missing the point, which is that the purpose of this executive order is to generate positive press, but not move the needle much, as that would require… Continue reading Don’t expect student loan forgiveness