Category Archives: Economic Analysis

Zeroing Out

Posted on November 5, 2017 by

Related to (Eliezer Yudkowsky at Less Wrong): An Equilibrium of No Free Energy Related to (Satvik Beri at Less Wrong): Competitive Truth Seeking Follow-up to: Leaders of Men I Markets Suppose you have an insight about Google. The efficient market hypothesis says … Continue reading →

Posted in Economic Analysis, Rationality | Tagged , , , | 14 Comments

Leaders of Men

Posted on October 29, 2017 by

Related to (Eliezer Yudkowsky): Inadequacy and Modesty Epistemic Status: Confident. No sports knowledge required. In 2005, Willie Randolph became manager of the New York Mets. In his first five games as manager, all of which he lost, Willie made more decisions … Continue reading →

Posted in Economic Analysis, Rationality, Sports | 15 Comments

Book Review: Weapons of Math Destruction

Posted on June 4, 2017 by

Epistemic Status: Minus One Million Points Shortness Status: Long (this is a proposed new norm I want to try out, in the sense of ‘apologies for writing a long letter, I did not have enough time to write a shorter … Continue reading →

Posted in Death by Metrics, Economic Analysis, Personal Experience, Reviews | Tagged , , , , | 16 Comments

Short Termism

Posted on March 4, 2017 by

Epistemic Status: Metrics look good Original Post: Larry Summers: Case Still Out On Whether Short-Termism is a Problem There is a long-standing hypothesis that corporate America focuses too much on short-term results. Larry Summers looks at a new study by McKinsey (McKinsey’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Death by Metrics, Economic Analysis | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Self Service Roundup

Posted on June 11, 2015 by

Follow-up to: Full Service Before moving on to other topics, I thought I would round out my thoughts on self/full service itself (for some good follow-up on the drugstores, see the comments of the previous post) about the History of Self-Service, … Continue reading →

Posted in Economic Analysis, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

What If It Rains?

Posted on May 29, 2015 by

Follow Up To: Full Service Gas stations in New Jersey do not have awnings to protect customers from the rain. Let us presume for the moment that due to some combination of inertia, regulations and initial costs, it is not … Continue reading →

Posted in Death by Metrics, Economic Analysis, Impractical Optimization | Tagged , , , | 9 Comments

Full Service

Posted on May 24, 2015 by

New Jersey has a law that says that you are not allowed to pump your own gas. They have had this law for 70 years. This is, of course, absurd. But if it is so absurd, why do 63 percent … Continue reading →

Posted in Economic Analysis | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments