Category Archives: Personal Experience

WordPress Destroys Editing Process, Seeking Alternatives

Posted on August 18, 2020 by TheZvi

WordPress had an editor that worked. They have forcibly replaced it with an editor that doesn’t. There does not seem to be a free way to switch back. Please, if anyone knows a good alternative hosting service, especially one that … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal Experience | 18 Comments

Let My People Stay Home

Posted on March 17, 2020 by TheZvi

When the Jews left Egypt, they were in such a hurry that they did not have time for their bread to rise. When we packed up the most important things in our apartment, we were forced to leave the bread … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal Experience | 3 Comments

How Escape From Immoral Mazes

Posted on January 16, 2020 by TheZvi

Previously in sequence and most on point: What is Success in an Immoral Maze?, How to Identify an Immoral Maze This post deals with the goal of avoiding or escaping being trapped in an immoral maze, accepting that for now we are … Continue reading →

Posted in Good Advice, Immoral Mazes Sequence, Long Post Is Long, Moral Mazes, Personal Experience | 17 Comments

Write Down Your Process

Posted on July 24, 2017 by TheZvi

Previously: Help Us Find Your Blog (and others) Mark Rosewater is the lead designer of the collectible card game Magic: The Gathering. This means he is part of Magic’s R&D department, one of the world’s few pockets of cooperation, sanity and … Continue reading →

Posted in Facebook Sequence, Good Advice, Magic: The Gathering, Personal Experience, Uncategorized | Tagged , | 4 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

How to Destroy Civilization

Posted on May 24, 2017 by TheZvi

Epistemic Status: Parable. Can’t tell to what extent I am being serious but it’s not zero. I. Recently I made a huge mistake. At heart, I am a gamer. Playing games is fun and makes me happy, whereas not playing … Continue reading →

Posted in Games Other Than Magic, Personal Experience, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 9 Comments

Meditations on Mexico City

Posted on March 24, 2017 by TheZvi

As I begin writing this, I am on a flight back from Mexico City to New York (I finished the next morning back in the city). It has been a good one-week trip. Most of the time outside of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal Experience | Tagged , | 2 Comments

On Cutting Wages

Posted on December 24, 2015 by TheZvi

This post is a response to Bryan Caplan’s request that I share my experiences cutting wages. It was not fun. While I was CEO of MetaMed, we were continuously short of revenue. We started the company thinking we would be … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal Experience | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

The Thing and the Symbolic Representation of The Thing

Posted on June 30, 2015 by TheZvi

Let’s assume there is a thing that all would agree is, in context, a Good Thing(tm) that someone in your situation would want. Do you want the thing, or do you want the symbolic representation of the thing?* This sounds … Continue reading →

Posted in Death by Metrics, Impractical Optimization, Personal Experience, Rationality | Tagged , , , | 33 Comments

Two Words That Offer Final Ultimate Proof That Medical System Is Evil

Posted on May 21, 2015 by TheZvi

Music therapy. At the hospital, I have just learned, they offer Music Therapy. By music, I mean random folk singers with guitars. By therapy, I mean letting those folk singers sing, and play their guitars. And by offer, I mean … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal Experience | Tagged , , | 1 Comment