2017-03-16

SVM, marriage, feminism

Commentary on Viktor Orban’s July 22 2017 speach. National policy alone isn’t enough. You need the cooperation of your women. Huxley said it best: You can’t give women power until you can take the responsibility of reproduction away from women.

The modern sexual market

2017-03-13

Financial Advice

We hear much about how the middle class is being hollowed out. Never has it been so easy to live on so little, with so many luxuries close to free (communication, entertainment, travel). But peer pressure / advertising have us consuming that $5 mochacrappacino latte and $100/month cell phone plan. A little common sense and you can live better than kings of yore:

Only drink coffee you brew yourself at home.
Books are free. Borrow them from the library or download from manybooks.net
Never purchase new: bicycles, computers, musical instruments. Look on ebay and craigslist.
Only buy used cars, 2 years old, 30,000 miles. Do not finance with loans, save in advance so you can pay cash.
Monthly pay off your full credit card balance - never carry a debt.
Do not use national banks, use a local credit union.
Do not invest in safe, low yield investments (treasury bills, bonds, etc.) Use that money to pay down your mortgage.
Buy real estate near a job center.
Pack a lunch every day.
Do not ingest candy, soft drinks, dessert. Minimize packaged foods. Shop the perimeter of your supermarket.
Never use a financial advisor. No one beats the market long term - invest in index funds.
Minimize health care expenditures by sleeping well, excercise, balanced diet. Walk and use stairs when given the option.
Minimize expenditures on phone plans - live with a dumb flip phone, no data, $10/month.
Do not take vacations that involve air travel.

2017-03-03

compilation

Universal Basic Income

This article argues that money should be given directly to the needy, and all foreign aid agencies should be dismantled.

…One estimate, generated by Laurence Chandy and Brina Seidel of the Brookings Institution, recently calculated that the global poverty gap — meaning how much it would take to get everyone above the poverty line — was just $66 billion. That is roughly what Americans spend on lottery tickets every year, and it is about half of what the world spends on foreign aid….

2017-02-22

compilation

coffee

The Coffee Shaman discusses the genesis of the Coffee Connection and George Howell’s quest for the perfect cup of coffee.

STAT“We cannot say coffee will prolong your life. We can say moderate coffee consumption can be incorporated into diet for a healthy lifestyle. For most, it seems, it likely won’t cause harm.”

2017-02-12

compilation

Work

Best job description ever: “I travel around the world, eat a lot of shit, and basically do whatever the fuck I want.” Anthony Bourdain

Future work

Do platforms work?. Coasian theory identifies 3 advantages to the corporation:

resourcing: it’s less expensive to find and recruit people with the right skills and knowledge from inside the company than to look for them externally every time you want something done.
transacting: managing processes and resources - it’s less of an administrative burden to have teams in-house than to keep an eye on multiple external contractors.
contracting: every time work takes place within a company, the rules and conditions are implied in the employment contract, not negotiated afresh each time.

By reducing these three costs, Coase claimed, corporations are the optimal structures for increasing economic activity. This article suggests platforms/communication technology renders these less of an advantage.

Talent effects, inequality, and the mythical man month

The Precariat

Don’t work so hard

The illusion of competence and the impact of luck.

The quitting economy Hayek and neoliberalism; Increase sharholder value; Me Inc.; no loyalty;

On total work

Darwin was a slacker and you should be too So if there is so much evidence that shorter hours, naps, walks improve efficiency, why hasn’t some forward looking company offered these as benefits? Shouldn’t said company be able to attract and retain top talent? Personally I am much more productive working two 3 hour shifts with a lunch/nap in between. Try that in today’s corporate setting.

Asceticism of the wage cuck “The underlying bureaucratic key is the ability to deal with boredom… If you are immune to boredom, there is literally nothing you cannot accomplish.” David Foster Wallace

Trickle-down workaholism in startups

Happy Ambition: Striving for Success, Avoiding Status Cocaine, and Prioritizing Happiness

Why do we work so hard?

Who screwed the American worker?

You really don’t need to work so much.

Chicago: the semi-elite city If I want to live in NH does that mean I am not ambitious?

The happy state The decommodification of work as a path to societal happiness.

Tyler Cowen: Why don’t we work less and have more sex?

The Sliding Scale of Bullshit Jobs

First, Let’s Get Rid of All the Bosses A radical experiment at Zappos to end the office workplace as we know it. Self organization chaos at Zappos. Amazing the tyranny CEOs can wreak over their servants.