Daniel Kahneman, who recently passed, is a creation of the media. What I mean is, after the financial crisis, at around 2008-2011, the media collectively made him the most important and highly-cited public intellectual in the world, with an interminable stream of articles praising or referencing his ideas as a matter of fact or truth… Continue reading Daniel Kahneman’s Success: a creation of the media

From Conversations with Tyler, Jonathan Haidt on Adjusting to Smartphones and Social Media (Ep. 209): In The Anxious Generation, Jonathan Haidt explores the simultaneous rise in teen mental illness across various countries, attributing it to a seismic shift from a “play-based childhood” to a “phone-based childhood” around the early 2010s. He argues that the negative… Continue reading Jonathan Haidt, Teen Anxiety, and Smart Phones: Why I am Skeptical

Much ink has been spilled by pundits and commentators alike as to why the college wage premium is so persistent. Often, political correctness is blamed on the overreliance by employers on degrees. However, I think the main reason is competence more so than politics. Due to lowered standards, high school GPAs and graduation rates have… Continue reading Online Obituaries Explain the College Wage Premium

Bitcoin crashed again, falling from $70k to $65k. It’s always the same justification given by the media for why Bitcoin falls, either blaming the fed, inflation, or the economy, but never the fact that Bitcoin is a bubble and unsustainable. The Bitcoin chart is a facsimile of 2022, when it dropped from a peak of… Continue reading Bitcoin: The Disappointment Continues , $20k on the horizon

The huge story is SBF was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison for his role in the collapse of his crypto exchange, FTX. Some thoughts: The 25-year sentence is the midpoint of my prediction of 20-30 years, and and his political donations were of no avail, as I wrote: I think he’ll likely get… Continue reading SBF sentencing: some thoughts. SBF got no favoritism

The stock price of Trump Media Group (DJT) keeps surging, defying predictions of its collapse. Trump’s companies have a history of failing, notably Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts which went public in 1995, but by 2004 filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange. A lot of pundits are… Continue reading Why DJT will not meet a similar fate as past Trump companies

I saw this going viral: The Mystery of Sudden Genius, about a phenomenon in which otherwise ordinary people suddenly acquire savant or genius-like abilities later in life, usually following a traumatic injury or event: In these cases, an individual suddenly becomes a savant, demonstrating incredible talent in a specific domain—typically music, art, calendar calculating, mathematical… Continue reading ‘Acquired savant syndrome’ or ‘sudden genius’ probably does not exist

Love or hate him, Trump has a knack for winning. I have never seen someone, except for maybe Mark Zuckerberg, who keeps consistently coming out on top no matter what is thrown at him. It’s like it initially seems like he’s in trouble, and then either nothing happens or he gets his way. The same… Continue reading Trump Keeps Winning

When the going gets tough, hit that delete button. People think that deleting downvoted comments is cowardly. I disagree: it’s cutting your losses. Why would the feature exist if you’re not allowed to use it? Downvotes have gotten worse. Compared to even as recently as 2 years ago, commenting is like crossing a tightrope of… Continue reading When the going gets tough, hit the delete button! (Reddit and social media commenting guide)

Interesting Twitter-essay by @tracewoodgrains, “Contra ‘Peak Woke’”: Contra "Peak Woke" The idea that we've passed "peak woke" has always seemed to me like a fundamental misunderstanding, born of focusing on moment-by-moment controversies rather than longer-term trends. Social justice progressivism has not peaked—it is simply coming into its own.… pic.twitter.com/h55RdueOHg — TracingWoodgrains (@tracewoodgrains) March 22, 2024… Continue reading Peak Woke? Maybe