economics
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In dispraise of efficiency.
Contemporary economic interests seek greater & greater efficiency, but the most meaningful moments in our lives are the inefficient tasks to which we devote our time.
assembly line, beautiful ones, behavioral sink, biology, Capital, capital gains, capitalism, cell biology, cell division, chores, communication, comparative advantage, economics, efficiency, factory model, function of earth, function of life, health, Henry Ford, immortality, in the belly of my brother, John Calhoun, last universal common ancestor, Mary Oliver, metabolism, mitochondria, mouse dystopia, mouse utopia, opportunity cost, philosophy, photon scattering, quotidian time, Robin Wall Kimmerer, science, slow fire, specialization, store my food in the belly of my brother, The Serviceberry, wild and precious life
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Predicting that the U.S. dollar will fail is so much more convincing when you can cause its failure.
Cryptocurrencies are inherently wasteful & subject to the whims of their developers. But if a person were in charge of both a cryptocurrency AND the U.S. government, that person could make the government worse by comparison.
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On inflation, inequality, and hungry ghosts.
Inflation might gobble fortunes, all because power people don’t think that workers should be paid more.
Brad DeLong, capitalism, cartel behavior, consumer spending, consumerism, corporate profits, cost of living, currency, economic policy, economics, economies, ending inflation, explanation of inflation, Ezra Klein, food prices, Food Prices Soar, fuel costs, gold standard, inequality, inflation, interest rates, J. Bradford DeLong, monetary policy, monopoly power, pandemic response, rising prices, salaries, salary increases, shipping costs, United States inflation, wage increases, wages, what causes inflation
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On AI-generated art.
Can we imagine a world where human artists still get to do their work, and eat?
AI, AI art, AI art generators, AI training, AI-generated art, algorithm, algorithmic art, algorithms, art, art competition, art generator, art generators, artificial intelligence, artwork, brain, capital versus labor, capitalism, collaboration, creativity, digital brain, digital tools, digital versus biological, economics, equity, fairness, inspiration, justice, Midjourney, neural network, paintings, robots, training sets, Wombo
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On ‘The Dawn of Everything’ and the Future.
If farmers lived in miserable societies, how did they conquer the world?
A New History of Humanity, Against the Grain, Appiah, building walls, capitalism, China, Civilization, civilizations collapse, climate change, climate justice, collaboration, collapse of civilizations, competition, David Deutsch, David Graeber, David Wengrow, Digging for Utopia, economic systems, economics, efficiency, entropy, equality, European expansion, expansion, farming, first peoples, fishing with a frying pan, freedom, Graeber, growth, heat death, history of civilization, history of farming, history of technology, human evolution, human prehistory, hunter-gatherers, in praise of inefficiency, inequality, James Scott, John Smith, justice, Kwame Anthony Appiah, land management, Maggie Nelson, Matt Siegel, mutual aid, Naomi Klein, Native Americans, On Freedom, origin of civilization, origin of inequality, origin of patriarchy, paleolithic diet, patriarchy, pilgrims, political philosophy, prehistoric diet, prehistoric farmers, prehistory, prehistory of farming, property systems, review, technology, The Beginning of Infinity, The Dawn of Everything, The Secret History of Food, United States, Universal Paperclip, Utopian philosophy, Wengrow
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On threat.
We’re not focusing on the threats that will harm us most.
80% asymptomatic, 80% no symptoms, Amartya Sen, An Uncertain Glory, antibiotic resistance, asymptomatic, case fatality rate, cash incentives, cash rewards, caution, climate change, climate destabilization, coronavirus, coronavirus epidemic, coronavirus immunity, coronavirus pandemic, coronavirus versus flu, Covid, covid immunity, covid immunity for a few months, covid vaccine, Covid-19, Covid-19 immunity, Covid-19 vaccine, death rate, drug trials, duration of covid immunity, economics, externalities, extinction, forest fires, global warming, Gregory Mankiw, how many asymptomatic, how much asymptomatic, how we die, human extinction, hydroxychloquine, immunity, immunosuppression, infection fatality rate, infectious disease, infectious disease deaths, infectious diseases, Jean Dreze, Mankiw, mask wearing, masks, medical ethics, monetary incentives, New York City response, nursing home care, nursing home deaths, nursing home policy, nursing homes, our house is on fire, paperclip game, phase 1 trials, plant based, pneumonia, positive externalities, risk averse, Robert Gordon, school, school closure, school districts, school openings, school reopenings, shutdown, The Rise and Fall of American Growth, universal paperclips, vaccine, vaccine development, vaccine subsidy, vaccine trials, vaccines, vegan, veganism, vegetarian, wearing masks, wildfires, zoogenic, zoogenic disease, zoogenic diseases
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On money, nursing home care, and Covid-19.
When we ask the people with the fewest resources to do the hardest work, we often see bad outcomes.
45, asymptomatic, asymptomatic spread, asymptomatic transmission, bungled covid response, coronavirus, coronavirus testing, cost of nursing home care, Covid, covid care, covid deaths, covid medical care, covid nursing home deaths, covid PCR test, covid response, covid school closures, Covid testing, Covid-19, Covid-19 care, Covid-19 epidemic, Covid-19 pandemic, Covid-19 PCR test, Covid-19 response, Covid-19 school closures, Covid-19 testing, data, deaths of despair, delayed medical care, domestic violence, Donald Trump, economic justice, economic modeling, economic study, economics, fair pay, fair wages, fear, Fox News, getting kids back to school, higher wages, higher wages lead to better care, Kristina Ruffini, low wages cause deaths, measuring outcomes, medical care, medicine, minimum wage, New York covid policy, New York Covid-19 policy, New York nursing home policy, nursing home, nursing home care, nursing home deaths, nursing home pay, nursing home staff, nursing home wages, nursing home workers, PCR test, PCR testing, PotUS, quality of life, raise the minimum wage, Ruffini, school closure, school closures, shutdown, spread by people who feel fine, Trump -
On suboptimal optimization.
If you’re hoping that self-driving cars will prevent traffic jams, think again. They might be designed to make traffic worse.
Adam Millard-Ball, AI, artificial intelligence, atomic weapons, automation, capitalism, carbon costs, carbon emissions, carbon emissions from driving, carbon tax, climate change, cost benefit analysis, cost to park, did Heisenberg know linear algebra, driving, economics, finite, finite mathematics, general education requirements, global warming, graffiti that confuses self-driving cars, Heisenberg, Heisenberg and linear algebra, Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, intentionally causing traffic jams, linear algebra, linear optimization, math, math panic, matrices, matrix, maximizing utility, minimizing costs, negative externalities, nuclear weapons, parking, parking fees, parking in cities, philosophy, pollution, pollution is free, pricing carbon, pricing externalities, public utility, quantum mechanics, robot cars, robot drivers, self-driving car, self-driving cars causing traffic jams, taxing carbon, taxing emissions, taxing pollution, teaching math, traffic, traffic laws, traffic patterns, trolley problem, university degree, university policies, university policy, usage fees, Werner Heisenberg, why didn’t Germany have atomic weapons, why is it free to pollute, why isn’t pollution taxed
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On automation, William Gaddis, and addiction.
An inefficient world might be a much better place to live.
Agape Agape, AI, artificial intelligence, automation, Brian Alexander, Capital, capitalism, corporate managers, corporate takeover, death of small towns, delivery drone, drug prices, economics, evolutionary inefficiencies, Glass House, greed, heroin, human evolution, inequality, investors, J R, Jeff Bezos, jobs that robots can do, JR, labor economics, labor vs. capital, machine learning, Mark Binelli, meth, people want jobs, people want to work, piano roll, player piano, robot doctors, robot lawyers, robot writers, robotics, robots, robots designed by robots, The Michigan Experiment, unemployment, wealth, who should the stakeholders of a school be, William Gaddis
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On Liu Xiaobo, monster hunter.
“If you be good and grow strong, you can help your father fight the monsters.”
Frank Brown Cloud 