Tag Archives: Optimization

Trio Walks, Duo Talks

Posted on March 11, 2017 by TheZvi

Epistemic Status: Exploration Related: The Engineer and the Diplomat Having a great conversation is hard, but valuable. The structure a conversation is built around determines how it will go. How should we engineer more valuable conversations? At the retreat, it was … Continue reading →

Posted in Good Advice, Rationality | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Restaurant Guide 1: Restaurants should not look like (most) restaurants

Posted on March 5, 2017 by TheZvi

Epistemic Status: Full Power Related: Surgeons Should Not Look Like Surgeons, An Economist Gets Lunch Follow-Up: Restaurant Guide 2: Pizza Conceptually Related More Than You Might Think: Short-Termism I have spent a lot of time optimizing restaurant choice, and what to do when … Continue reading →

Posted in Good Advice | Tagged , , , | 18 Comments

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

Full Service

Posted on May 24, 2015 by TheZvi

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 Economics | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

NFL is a perfect example of complexity creep

Posted on May 22, 2015 by TheZvi

The NFL has voted to adopt a new rule that extra point attempts are snapped from the fifteen yard line, whereas two point conversions will continue to be run from the two yard line, but with the additional rule that … Continue reading →

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

In a world… of venture capital

Posted on May 15, 2015 by TheZvi

On Twitter, Robin Hanson asked a question yesterday I have given a lot of thought to, which is why the bigger venture capital firms dominate the market and make oversize profits while the other firms taken together make almost no … Continue reading →

Posted in Death by Metrics, Impractical Optimization, Personal Experience | Tagged , , , , | 37 Comments

Carpe Diem: The Problem of Scarcity and Abundance

Posted on May 1, 2015 by TheZvi

Previously: Carpe Diem: The Optimization Game: Level 1 One of my goals with Carpe Diem was to illustrate the value of flexibility and optionality, and the surprisingly high cost of scarcity. A simple plan for playing the game is to … Continue reading →

Posted in Games Other Than Magic, Rationality | Tagged , , | 7 Comments

Carpe Diem, the Optimization Game: Level 1

Posted on March 17, 2015 by TheZvi

Leads To: Carpe Diem: The Problem of Scarcity and Abundance Less Wrong contributor owencb links us to a fourteen page paper of his that proposes optimizing your time via a three-resource model. You can find the full document here. Here’s his abstract, … Continue reading →

Posted in Games Other Than Magic, Rationality | Tagged , , | 13 Comments