political insight

when you solve the problems, you have a vested interest in making sure they keep coming.

On Disagreeing with Krugman

[Pity the Poor C.E.O.’s, by Paul Krugman, Commentary, NY Times: Job creation has been disappointing, but first-quarter corporate profits were up 44 percent from a year earlier. Consumers are nervous, but the Dow, which was below 8,000 on the day President Obama was inaugurated, is now over 10,000. In a rational universe, American business would be very happy with Mr. Obama.]

this is not the right standard.  to use the same methods, we should be displeased with obama because of the current unemployment figures.

the question is not a linear “what was it then, what is it now?”  it’s “what is it now, what would it be if handled differently?”

double standards are not cool.

self awareness

i am especially prone to adaptive expectations and confirmation bias.  i suppose awareness is the first step.

reality tv

i may know nothing about cooking, but i know better than to cook dessert on top chef.

it’s been a while

work is fantastic.  blogging is difficult.

 

and finding new and interesting stuff is great.

http://www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-chait/75797/producers-vs-parasites

The Raytown farmer who posted a sign on a semi-truck trailer accusing Democrats of being the “Party of Parasites” received more than $1 million in federal crop subsidies since 1995.

But David Jungerman says the payouts don’t contradict the sign he put up in a corn field in Bates County along U.S. 71 Highway.

“That’s just my money coming back to me,” Jungerman, 72, said Monday. “I pay a lot in taxes. I’m not a parasite.”

man i love cognitive dissonance.

windows live writer

i’m already madly in love with it.

also:  foreigner’s “i wanna know what love is” can be added to things like “feels like the first time” and “hot blooded” that show foreigner has a really great sense of humor.

it's difficult to be altruistic

there's a reason people are suspicious of expected altruism.  see free credit reports (implies enrollment in triple advantage) etc.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/02/26/DD701C5IGJ.DTL

disqus

so nudgeblog got me started on disqus.  i'm kind of really happy about this, i can track my comments across all sorts of different blogs and keep an RSS of replies.  excellent.

so i totally forogt i had this

reading roger ebert is life-changing.

http://www.esquire.com/print-this/roger-ebert-0310

it's epic.  read the whole thing (i love that i say this as if i have an audience).