Category Archives: Economics

I Started a Sports and Gambling Substack

Posted on August 25, 2020 by TheZvi

The substack is here. The latest post is here and contains predictions for tomorrow’s baseball games. I also posted predictions for yesterday’s games here, and here you can find my offensive team ratings. Pitcher ratings will be posted soon. I … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Impractical Optimization, Sports | Leave a comment

Create a Full Alternative Stack

Posted on January 31, 2020 by TheZvi

Last time I proposed nine strategies for fighting mazes. All of them were either systemic solutions requiring coordinated and/or political action, or cultural shifts that happen one person at a time. Now for the tenth and final proposal for how … Continue reading →

Posted in Best Laid Plans, Economics, Immoral Mazes Sequence, Moral Mazes, Uncategorized | 18 Comments

Potential Ways to Fight Mazes

Posted on January 28, 2020 by TheZvi

The previous post listed some of the causes of higher than normal maze present in today’s society.  This post asks what might be done about it, both as an individual and via group coordination. I believe it is better to … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Immoral Mazes Sequence, Impractical Optimization, Long Post Is Long, Moral Mazes, Politics, Uncategorized | 14 Comments

Game Analysis Index

Posted on January 21, 2019 by TheZvi

This post links to this blog’s posts discussing game design, balance, economics and related topics, as well as any strategy posts. It does not contain new content. Much of the blog is relevant to gaming, but these are the explicitly … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Games Other Than Magic, Magic: The Gathering, Reference, Reviews, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Zeroing Out

Posted on November 5, 2017 by TheZvi

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 Markets Suppose you have an insight about Google. The efficient market hypothesis says you … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Rationality | Tagged , , , | 18 Comments

Leaders of Men

Posted on October 29, 2017 by TheZvi

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 Economics, Rationality, Sports | 20 Comments

Book Review: Weapons of Math Destruction

Posted on June 4, 2017 by TheZvi

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, Economics, Personal Experience, Reviews | Tagged , , , , | 16 Comments

Short Termism

Posted on March 4, 2017 by TheZvi

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, Economics | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Self Service Roundup

Posted on June 11, 2015 by TheZvi

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 Economics, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

What If It Rains?

Posted on May 29, 2015 by TheZvi

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, Economics, Impractical Optimization | Tagged , , , | 9 Comments