Jean Tirole, who just won the Nobel Prize in Economics, is mostly known for his work applying game theory to Industrial Organization (the subfield of economics that studies how firms compete and set prices). But he wrote very broadly, including on some subjects likely of interest to people here. Several...
I recently did a series of online seminars where productivity guru Jason Womack tried to apply his advice for academics. The productivity advice was good but not especially new after having read a lot of anti-akrasia posts on LW; EverydayUtilitarian recently wrote a great summary of these kind of ideas...
This year's ACX Meetup everywhere in Providence, RI.
Location: Prospect Terrace park, to the right of the Roger Williams statue – 87HCRHJV+24
Contact: feanor1600@gmail.com
undefinedThis year's ACX Meetup everywhere in Providence, RI.
Location: Prospect Terrace Park. I'll be near the 2nd bench to the right of the Roger Williams statue. – ///serve.free.mostly
Update: Forecast looks great and I'll bring pizza. I know noon is an unusual meetup time but maybe think of it as a lunch break. See you all Tuesday!
Contact: feanor1600@gmail.com
Jean Tirole, who just won the Nobel Prize in Economics, is mostly known for his work applying game theory to Industrial Organization (the subfield of economics that studies how firms compete and set prices). But he wrote very broadly, including on some subjects likely of interest to people here. Several of his "fun" papers linked here provide explanations for how biased beliefs could be beneficial to those who hold them- for instance, that overconfidence in your own abilities could reduce akrasia.
I recently did a series of online seminars where productivity guru Jason Womack tried to apply his advice for academics.
The productivity advice was good but not especially new after having read a lot of anti-akrasia posts on LW; EverydayUtilitarian recently wrote a great summary of these kind of ideas here. I suppose the fact that the advice wasn't new to me means LW has been doing a good job of bringing in good instrumental rationality advice from elsewhere.
But the most interesting parts of the seminars weren't actually ways to be more productive.
One is a question: why do you want to be more productive?
After asking themselves this, some people might realize that they... (read 212 more words →)
Perfect weather for today. I'll be the guy with a blue and white cooler
Got my dissertation proposal approved.
First paragraph: This dissertation continues the tradition of identifying the unintended consequences of the US health insurance system. Its main contribution is to estimate the size of the distortions caused by the employer-based system and regulations intended to fix it, while using methods that are more novel and appropriate than those of previous work.
Couldn't make it, taking care of sick family
Warning: segment contains Colbert's version of the basilisk.
The most relevant field here is International Monetary Economics.
After TAing a class on the subject, I became convinced that most people (including economists) would be better off ignoring money most of the time, and just following where the goods went. So think of this as a transfer of $1000 worth of goods from the US to Kenya.
You could get the official answer with an IS-LM-BP model and some masochism.
More seriously, this does make me want to look into theoretical work on the macroeconomics of charity. On the empirical side, the best evidence is that even average (poorly targeted and managed) foreign aid has positive effects on country-level growth.
I have to agree with Sanderson's first law. One reason I liked HPMOR more than the original Harry Potter was the transition from soft magic to hard (rule-based, well-explained) magic.
Its not showing on desktop now either
While I agree with almost all of the antifaq (the general point is apparently more plausible to economists than non-economists), this is pretty misleading:
"The future cannot be a cause of the past."
True, but human expectations about the future can be very important in the present. If you expect that 5 years from now FAI will take over, you won't bother to make many long-term investments like building factories and training new workers.
Ezra Klein's version of Politics is the Mind-Killer.
"smart characters that win"
Miles Vorkosigan saga, Ender's Game, anything by Neal Stephenson.