How Taleb’s Ergodicity is informed by Hegel
N[assim Taleb’s Ergodicity is the idea that you cannot judge the egalitarianism of a system based on a static representation. ](https://medium.
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The Double-Blind of the Therapeutic
In The Triumph of the Therapeutic* (1966), Rieff describes modern society as completely different from the past. Previously, society was marked by “religious man” – and then, many centuries later, by “economic man”,…
Is ‘Follow Your Passion’ Bad Advice?
I’ve been thinking recently about the dictum “Follow Your Passion”. But something about that sentiment seemed a little incomplete, and I looked around for some counter advice.
The Hard Problem of Psychology
Connectome* To what extent can experiments in a laboratory inform us about the human mind? The replication crisis in the social sciences suggest the answer is “to some extent” but not much more.
Week 13 of Wisdom: Insight Through Contradiction
In the West, there has been a movement towards a society that is orderly and rational. Historically, the roots of this movement can be traced to the Enlightenment, when a fear of human intuition, emotion, and…
Via Negativa (Week 12 of Wisdom)
Chess grand masters win because they don’t make a mistake. Poker players win because they don’t lose their stack. Investors get rich because they don’t go broke when others do. Athletes become stars because they…
The Problem with The 37% Rule
In The 37 Percent Rule, the basic idea is that you have a series of candidates you are interviewing for the role of secretary (this thought experiment originated in the 1950s).
The Stupidity of Proverbs?
A History of Proverbs Proverbs are cultural signs for recurrent social situations. They are employed as verbal strategies to assure meaningful communication, in a metaphorical fashion.
Be A Specialist (Week 47 Of Wisdom)
There is a tradeoff between intensity and extensity. The specialist is a believer in intensity, he gains his advantage by knowing something that no one else knows. The generalist is a believer in extensity, he gains…
Week 51: Do Not Specialize
Should you become a specialist or a generalist? In a previouspost, I argued that unless you were a genius or a polymath like Leonardo Da Vinci, you should specialize.
The Principle of Least Effort (Week 46 of Wisdom)
In simple situations, a physical object will follow the path of least resistance, among a set of alternative paths. The way in which water flows is an example. A similar idea is the “principle of least effort” which…