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I wrote this years ago (probably the summer after college), filled with nostalgia, in a small notebook on a plane to or from Boston. (I finally understand how people can write books long-form!) I meant to type it in as soon as I got back and post it here, but I lost it and never got the chance. While moving recently it turned up again and I thought I should seize the opportunity to type it in while I still had my hands on it. (Also, coincidentally, I had lunch today with Tim.) Apologies for the poor writing; I've improved a bit in the subsequent years and it's rather hard to write well when you're pouring your memories into...
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I've often thought it would be fun to write a book on "everyday utilitarianism" -- how to apply mathematical formalizations of utilitarianism and game theory to help you solve everday life dilemmas, like who should get to use the television first or whether you should go out with that guy. The basic idea would be that each chapter would revolve around a particular mathematical principle and demonstrate it using a concrete example from everyday life. Since I'll probably never get around to writing such a book, I figured I'd just write up such examples on my blog when I encountered them and maybe someone else would take the idea and run with it. So here's the first example: ...
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37signals recommends that software developers pursue what they call the Hollywood Launch. They don't give any argument for this method, except perhaps the title (as if Hollywood was a business you should try to imitate?) -- I guess the idea is that you're supposed to do it since 37signals says to. The basic idea behind the Hollywood Launch is simple: you release a few hints about your product to build buzz, slowly revealing more and more until the big day, when you throw open the doors and people flood your site, sent there by all the blog coverage and email alerts. This may work well for Hollywood -- if your movie is a big hit at the...
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James K. Galbraith's The Predator State is undoubtedly one of the most important books on the economics of our era. Galbraith sets himself the task, not only of exposing the discredited economic orthodoxies of our generation, but also documenting the economy as it really exists, and setting an agenda for the future. It is a book that desperately need to be listened to. And, even better than all that, it's a fun read. Go out and buy it immediately. That said, here is a brief, abbreviated summary of the book, to better pull out its themes and spread its message. It is of necessity less clear and less well-argued than the book itself, which I you should actually...
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Utilitarians believe that people should work to maximize total happiness across the population. They believe that the only reason to do something or not to do something is because it will make people happier or unhappier respectively. Thus, whether something is good or bad depends to some extent on people's preferences -- whether it makes them happy or sad. But this might leads to some odd conclusions in the case of what might be called "perverse preferences". For example, some members of the Bush Administration say they get very sad when they see others eat ice cream in public. Yet many people like to eat ice cream in public. Should we stop them from doing so just because it...
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There's one bit of irrationality that seems like it ought to be in behavioral economics introduction but mysteriously isn't. For lack of a better term, let's call it the percentage fallacy. The idea is simple: One day I find I need a blender. I see a particularly nice one at the store for $40, so I purchase it and head home. But on the way home, I see the exact same blender on sale at a different store for $20. Now I feel ripped off, so I drive back to the first store, return the blender, drive back to the second store, and buy it for $20. The next day I...
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The following is a non-technical summary of Brad DeLong's May 2008 paper Capital and Its Complements. Adam Smith explained that in all countries with "security of property and tolerable administration of justice" citizens would spend all their money (capital), either on consumption or investment, causing the country's economy to grow. After some contention, later economic studies tended to bare this out: a shortage of capital wasn't always the bottleneck, but when it was, removing it could lead to extraordinarily rapid growth. The problem for poor countries is that, because of high mortality rates (which require more children to have some survive) and low educational levels (which mean those children can find productive employment quickly), they have high...
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It's minutes to midnight and I'm hurriedly packing. Early tomorrow morning I catch a flight to Boston and start my new life. I haven't really gotten much of a chance to pack until now, because I've spent the past few days in a rush of meetings, getting in my last goodbyes for everyone I know in San Francisco. It's been great seeing everyone, but like most locals, they're all puzzled as to why I'm leaving. I've been struggling to explain why. When I say the weather, everyone just laughs. When I say San Francisco is too loud, they start arguing. When I say it's the people, they tell me to find a better group of friends. And...
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"God, I'm so sick of this stuff. Can't we just go home?" she wines. "Jesus," I say, "would it kill you to go one more place?" It's been a long hot day in strange, busy New York City, and we're not exactly at our best. In fact, the combination of heat and exhaustion has turned our love bitter, brought on the darkness and recriminations. Its at moments like these, the dark depths of a relationship, that you wonder how things could ever work. As we walk down the steps we hear a subway car approach. We accelerate, running to catch it. Its doors open. We're moving faster now, pushing our way through the bustle of Manhattanites to make it. The...
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In November 2006, I moved to San Francisco because I had to: my company got acquired and us moving out was a condition of the agreement. It was the first time I'd ever actually lived in San Francisco, as opposed to just visiting, and I quickly realized that although it was a fun place to visit, I couldn't stand living here. Even after all this time, I can't really put my finger on what it is I don't like -- in fact, I suspect it's probably harder for me now to explain it than it was when I first came here. The first thing that comes to mind is how loud the city is. I want a place where...
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My latest piece for Extra! is now up: Is Undercover Over?: Disguise seen as deceit by timid journalists It's about the rise and fall of undercover journalism. Here's an excerpt: Undercover reporting has a storied history. Nellie Bly, famous for traveling around the world in 80 days, also did a famed investigation of the conditions in insane asylums for the New York World. Bly feigned insanity for a series of physicians before being committed to a lunatic asylum. There she documented rotten and spoiled food, freezing living conditions, frigid bathwater, abusive nurses and relatively sane fellow residents. "What, excepting torture, would produce insanity quicker than this treatment?" she wondered. The series, later published...
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When people talk about how government can promote startups, there seems to be a fairly standard consensus: we need more economic inequality. Lower income and capital gains taxes provide more incentive to work, looser labor laws make it easier to fire non-performers, and large private wealth funds provide investment capital. But having been through a startup myself, I think there's much more you can do in the other direction: decreasing economic inequality. People love starting companies. You get to be your own boss, work on something you love, do something new and exciting, and get lots of attention. As Daniel Brook points out in The Trap, 28% of Americans have considered starting their own business. And yet...
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