I post every Thursday/Friday about what fields related to decision theory can teach us about society
Why do males exist? It doesn't make any sense. Introduction: Convergent Structures Convergent Structures are where two species develop the same characteristics, separately. They acquired like traits because they worked, not because of any shared ancestor. This should be familiar from high school bio. Birds evolved wings - but so did many and mammals (with the bats). … Continue reading Why Do Males Exist? (The Adaptive Valley, Part 1)
Technological innovation is as old as humanity. Technology can be a physical creation or a process, anything that increases the scope of possibility or improves efficiency. First and foremost, I am unabashedly pro-technology, and despite the side this paper takes, I wish for its progress to continue or accelerate. I will explain why the extreme … Continue reading Welfare and Automation
Make your failures temporary and your successes permanent. Right there is how to become successful. Make your failures temporary and your successes permanent. That, simply put, means to engage in activities where the potential upside is compounding, whereas the potential downside is temporary. Take, for example, submitting a book to a publisher. A potential failure … Continue reading How to become Successful
Cities are becoming uniform. You can go from capital to capital, and, despite the distinct culture of surrounding areas, never feel like you’ve gone anywhere, because it’s all the same: skyscrapers on a skyline. Those aren’t the cities we like to visit. Beautiful cities are distinct; they display culture (something I define here). In a … Continue reading The Problem with Empathy
Collective Action You are probably familiar with the prisoner’s dilemma. For those who don’t know, here’s a quick summation. The prisoner’s dilemma is the archetypical game theory situation. See the above example. If both players confess, both loose 6 points of utility. If neither confess, both loose one point of utility. But if one confesses, … Continue reading What is Social Capital?
At risk of seeming condescending, many arguments about free speech are cringe-worthy bad, such as the common refrain, “Freedom of speech doesn’t mean freedom from consequences!” The Soviets could claim the same thing. “We let you say what you want, but the consequence is being sent to the gulag. Freedom of speech doesn’t mean freedom … Continue reading Free Speech, Social Media, and Network Externalities
Between 1:53:30 and 1:55:30, physicist and economist Eric Weinstein (to the right of his brother, Bret Weinstein, who I have a whole post about), asks a simple question: “Is a whale a fish?” You might read that and think I’m an idiot. A whale isn’t a fish; a whale is a mammal. But let us step … Continue reading Third Order Thinking (Or: Is a Whale a Fish?)
