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The Powerful Connection Between Smell & Memory
One thing I didn’t get a chance to work into my post about the unexpected memory bomb triggered by my spice drawer was the tight, deep connection between smell and memory. I first learned about this relationship in colle…
There is no such thing as a ‘text’, and if there were it would degrade literature to be treated as one.
Here’s the Barbara Everett quote about “texts” which I could not find when I wrote my recent piece about literary criticism. From her review of Carpenter’s Auden biography in the LRB. My thanks to Sean Keilen for sending…
Stories are important models yet flawed
“Partial knowledge is more often victorious than full knowledge: it conceives things that are simpler than they are and therefore makes its opinion easier to grasp and more persuasive." - Nietzche "History will justify a…
Very good news
Michael Kremer picked as World Bank chief economist (Bloomberg). Here are many many previous MR posts on Kremer, of course Alex also worked with him on Operation Warp Speed. The post Very good news appeared first on Marg…
The two components of investor intelligence
We can think of two components of intelligence. Both are needed to be an effective trader or investor. First, an intelligent person needs to effectively adapt to an environment. Resources are needed manage the environmen…
Open Thread: Hard to Finish?
What Books Do You Find Hard to Complete?
The ambiguities of experience - impacts decision-making
James March is one of the great professors of organizational management, yet finance and investment professionals rarely discuss or even consider much of his work. This is odd because organizations, not individuals, make…
We Must Create the Shit Machine . “I asked...
We Must Create the Shit Machine. “I asked everyone I know at the BIG TECH HUMAN CENTIPEDE ROUNDTABLE, and we all agreed that UNCONTROLLABLE SHIT-RAIN IS USEFUL AND GREAT, and that EVERYONE WANTS IT.”
What Regulatory Capture Actually Looks Like
It’s amazing how a theory can take over a brain. Consider the idea that people believe what serves their interests. As heuristics go, it’s a good one. I use it all the time. Yet when Dario Amodei says AI is dangerous, pe…
An Argument With a Friend Who Doesn't Exist
I have been arguing about AI companions with a friend for two years and neither of us has convinced the other.