economics
Chris Anderson’s Free is Gee Whiz economics
Chris Anderson’s follow up to his revolutionary The Long Tail (2006, Hyperion) has me reminded of Thomas Friedman for geeks. Stuff that people younger than 25 get naturally but that CEOs and VCs can read and say, “wow, that internets is so amazing!”
Free (2009, Hyperion) sets out to cover new ground in describing [...]
Kenneth Boulding’s Three Laws of the Dismal Science
I consider myself a highly optimistic person, so I like to temper my optimism by reading through economist Kenneth Boulding’s three laws from time to time. Boulding once said, “Anyone who thinks that steady growth can continue indefinitely, is either a madman or an economist.”
why we consume alcohol
This is definitely the most brilliant economics paper I’ve read in a while.
First the abstract,
It is argued that drug consumption, most commonly alcohol drinking, can be a technology to give up some control over one’s actions and words. It can be employed by
trustworthy players to reveal their type. Similarly alcohol can function as a “social [...]
the high cost of free parking
Loved this short little documentary (~8 mins) on why regulations requiring free parking are a bane to society.
Key takeaways from this example in Auckland: There will always be too much parking because the parking capacity is designed for 15% peak scenarios, meaning 85% of the time there is way more than enough parking. Free [...]
net energy and relocalization
Chris Martenson has been working to raise awareness of the coming economic transition for a while now through videos like his Crash Course series, which explains fundamentals of money creation, net energy and environmental depletion. This is a great ten minute summary of net energy and the crisis we are about to face. All the [...]
paragraph(s) of the day, courtesy of Douglas Rushkoff
The marketplace in which most commerce takes place today is not a pre-existing condition of the universe. It’s not nature. It’s a game, with very particular rules, set in motion by real people with real purposes. That’s why it’s so amazing to me that scientists, and people calling themselves scientists, would propose to study the [...]
a shift in civilization
Civilizations are constructed of population, energy and knowledge. All three of these dimensions are under significant threat from the relationship between our species and our surrounding world. Success over the last hundred years, industrializing much of the world, has been borrowed from the future rather than sustainably building on the past. Ignoring the achievements of [...]
