The world needs more rationality and less rationalizing. Rationalizing is searching for justifications after you've reached an opinion or decision. Rationality is seeking the best logic and data before you commit—and staying open to changing your mind. newyorker.com/magazine/2021/…

Suppose one of the most deeply held beliefs of you and those you care about is totally false. If you knew the truth you’d realize many actions you/they take don’t make sense. Yet convincing those you care about of this truth would be nearly impossible. What would you pick?

What makes the FDAs failure to approve more rapid antigen tests even more galling is that the test being sold cheaply in the Amsterdam supermarket is the Flowflex, an American test made by Acon Labs in San Diego.

How the world learns to live with covid-19 from TheEconomist economist.com/briefing/2021/…

Excellent video from Robin Hanson on prediction markets and decision markets (futarchy). youtu.be/4yZKGbq1YmA

u should be able to order a chocolate chip cookie medium rare

gaining experience is as much about knowing what problems aren't worth spending time on as it is about knowing how to solve problems

3 months.

Mathematics. While different in appearance, each data-set has the same summary statistics (mean, standard deviation, and Pearson's correlation) to 2 decimal places. Note: sudden appearance of a dinosaur. Lesson: always visualization your data. Source: autode.sk/3qxckKh

A List of Things People Blamed on Jazz 🧵

This piece really spoke to me. As much as I’ve enjoyed my travel hacking days, this new chapter of my life (with wife and baby) are just as exciting but in a different way. Thanks Ben Schlappig. onemileatatime.com/insights/cheri…

Instant nominee for the “unintended consequences of public policy” hall of fame

Don't be a doomer - Superb summary by Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 (similar to the facts & arguments in Enlightenment Now). open.substack.com/pub/noahpinion…

If you have never studied economics, this article is close to the perfect 10 minute course in how economists think, and why economics is useful in answering big questions including war and peace. And economists will like it too. Thanks Marginal Revolution

Underground train stations have some of the most surprising and beautiful architecture in the world. Here's a few of the best: 1. Alisher Navoiy Station, Tashkent, Uzbekistan (1977)

A puzzle: Imagine you begin a journey in Seattle WA, facing exactly due east. Then start traveling forward, in a straight line along the Earth's surface.

Jazz jam session this Tuesday Aug 13th, 7pm at Duck Foot Brewing (Miramar). House band: 𝄢 Gedeon Deák, 🥁 Jeno Somlai, 🎸 Michael Standal, 🎹 Ben Hughes, with Hannah Lentz organizing. Come get a beer and hang, or sit in!

IMO one of the biggest benefits of travel is just acquiring a scaffold to hang future knowledge on. Places that had similar embeddings in my mind before I saw them (Chongqing vs Chengdu, Abu Dhabi vs Dubai, Wroclaw vs Warsaw, etc.) become extremely distinct, and future facts

This is insanely hardcore

Populists across the spectrum, left and right, hate economists. I joked its some puzzle but I think there's a simple reason. It's not about liking capitalism or something. And the disagreement is almost always about how to reason about problems, not about values. Populists