This author comes in hot: “It’s a well-documented fact that a small number of repeat-offending criminals are responsible for a large share of all crime. The primary reason why prisons effectively reduce crime is exactly because they prevent the crimes that these offenders would otherwise (had they not been incapacitated) commit over the duration of their imprisonment.” I know some of my readers have opinions on criminal justice and I’d…
“The company that put a computer on every desk and in every home. The company that invented the software business model. The company that so thoroughly and completely dominated every conceivable competitor that the United States government intervened and kneecapped it… yet it’s STILL the most valuable company in the world today.” This links to an episode of the Acquired podcast and it’s 4 hours long, getting as far as…
From a team at Meta: “Called Chameleon, the new system is built on an early fusion architecture, and because of that it is able to comingle multiple inputs in ways not possible with most other systems.” ~ learn more
“Like intellectual boxers; they come to understand ideas by making them fight with each other. Their style of analysis is effective because it’s so bloody. One friend calls his style “violent thinking.” He talks about thinking like a soldier talks about interrogation. He subjects ideas to ruthless torture, shaking them and grabbing them by the throat until they can no longer breathe and, eventually, reveal their true nature.” ~ learn…
I first heard the term ergodicity in Nassim Taleb’s writing. I first learned of ergodicity economics from this article about its history. Definition from wikipedia: “Ergodicity economics is a school of thought that questions whether expected value is a reliable indicator of economic performance over time. It builds on criticisms of expected value that began shortly after its introduction in 1654.” ~ learn more
Science reporter Charles Piller questions the pharmaceutical industry incentives in the fight against prediabetes. “A third of Americans are considered prediabetic—but many may be better off without treatment.” My take: I think he makes a good point about incentives but somehow misses the fact that people don’t just wake up one day with full blown type 2 diabetes. ~ learn more
This is a youtube video with great animation and explanation, but poor sound quality. ~ learn more
“My view is that the “market urbanist” diagnosis of the problem is more persuasive than its prescription for addressing it. As a positive matter, they just won’t win the political fights they propose. On normative grounds, I’m not sure that they should.” ~ learn more
Byrne Hobart spent a lot more time thinking about this than the rest of us: “The thirty-year fixed-rate prepayment-option mortgage is an economic disaster. It encourages mass malinvestment. Policies designed to help low-income people build wealth actually trap them at the worst possible time.” ~ learn more
“A new heat-to-energy converter has reached a record efficiency of 44% – the average steam turbine manages about 35%, for comparison. This thermophotovoltaic cell is a major step on the way to sustainable, grid-scale renewable energy storage.” ~ learn more