Kinda old but still interesting Is grit the true secret of success? What does it take to do really well in life? The answer is an emphatic ‘no’ and anyone who believes it is, is deluding his or her self. It’s no different than feel-good nonsense espoused by Gladwell books, particularly his 2008 book, Outliers.… Continue reading Is grit the true secret of success? no
Why Intellectuals Like Trump (or at least don’t hate him)
During the 2016 election, the media perpetuated the following narratives about Trump: that he’s not an intellectual, and that intellectuals hate him. The first (at least going by the public image he projects) is true, but the second, somewhat surprisingly, isn’t. Many intellectuals like Trump because he makes no pretense of being an intellectual. In… Continue reading Why Intellectuals Like Trump (or at least don’t hate him)
Scott and Postmodernism
Scott and postmodernism A few days ago, Scott offered a sort of layperson’s guide to postmodernism, Postmodernism For Rationalists (my attempt). I thought it was a good write-up, but enough didn’t that Scott felt compelled to write a follow-up essay to defend himself. Part of the problem is that Scott is trying to make concrete… Continue reading Scott and Postmodernism
Trump: Managers vs. Commanders
Who Knew Trump Would Be a Weak President? It’s a little early to say he’s totally ineffective [according to the left, Trump is the embodiment of Hitler when he succeeds or weak and incompetent when he doesn’t], but I predicted this months ago (even as early as February), calling Trump more of a ‘manager’ than… Continue reading Trump: Managers vs. Commanders
Why it does not matter that Tesla is losing money
On 11/2/2017, Tesla stock [disclosure: I do not own Tesla stock] fell 5% to $300 after reporting a larger than expected quarterly loss: Tesla posted a record quarterly loss of $619 million as it struggles with Model 3 production Tesla shares drop after posting wider-than-expected loss Although Tesla stock fell from as high as $390… Continue reading Why it does not matter that Tesla is losing money
The Postmodernism Boom
We’re presently in a Bitcoin boom, a tech stock boom, but a postmodernism boom? By a ‘postmodernism boom,’ I don’t just mean more postmodernism ideologically (although that too is part of it), but an increased interest in the subject of postmodernism itself as measured by debate and discussion of postmodernism on Reddit and elsewhere. Even… Continue reading The Postmodernism Boom
Bitcoin at $7,000
What was thought to be impossible has happened Related: Bitcoin at $3,000
In Praise of Ineffective Government
We’re still in a slow news cycle and autopilot economy and society. What we call news is just the illusion of activity and spontaneity, when everything is already predetermined. You can see the desperation of the liberal media to try to turn this Muller investigation in to Watergate 2.0. They, the left, are trying to… Continue reading In Praise of Ineffective Government
Those worthless humanities papers
Why Professors Are Writing Crap That Nobody Reads ‘Cited’ and ‘read’ are distinct, and often these is a long lag between when a paper is published and when it begins to accumulate citations, and many citations don’t show on database searches although the citations still exist. I decided to investigate one of the papers cited… Continue reading Those worthless humanities papers
Automation and Post-Scarcity
From Kevin Drum: You Will Lose Your Job to a Robot—and Sooner Than You Think As discussed earlier (and a bunch of other times on this blog), fears of a job-apocalypse are overblown. Despite the trend towards increasing automation, the size of the labor force has grown in lock-step with population growth. The labor force… Continue reading Automation and Post-Scarcity