Bookmarks (62)

It will be a conversation, though not a recorded CWT.  Here is Wikipedia on him: Hanif Abdurraqib is an American poet, essayist, and cultural critic. He is the author of 2016 poetry collection The Crown Ain’t Worth Much (published as Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib), the 2017 essay collection They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us, the […] The post What should I ask Hanif Abdurraqib?...

1. Andrea G. McDowell, We the Miners: Self-Government in the California Gold Rush.  An important law and economics study of an “anarchistic” episode, going much deeper than some earlier accounts on matters involving Native Americans, fairness of trials, dispute resolution, miner-mining company interactions, and more. 2. Chris Blackwell, with Paul Morley, The Islander: My Life […] The post What I’ve been reading appeared first...

By Mark Koyama (my colleague) and Jared Rubin, with the subtitle The Historical Origins of Economic Growth.  I am now home and am united with my copy.  It is the single best treatment on what the title promises!  You can buy it here. The post *How the World Became Rich* appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         CommentsIn reply to Iskander. England vs the Netherlands...

This new book by Katherine Rundell, now out in the UK but still pending in the United States for September, is one of the very best studies of an individual poet I ever have read.  The book’s style is so energetic and so carefully crafted as a whole, it is difficult to excerpt from.  What […] The post *Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne*...

On July 7 [1917], while the unsuccessful hunt for fugitive Bolsheviks continued, Prince Lvov resigned as leader of the Provisional Government.  He was replaced by Kerensky.  This had nothing to do with either the July uprising or the failed offensive.  Five days earlier, Kadet ministers had resigned in protest at a decision to allow Ukraine […] The post That was then, this is now...

I hadn’t looked at this work for a long time, and I was struck by how much he does not blame Christianity for the decline of the Roman Empire.  Here is one bit, closer to Ibn Khaldun than anything: The rise of a city, which swelled into an empire, may deserve, as a singular prodigy, […] The post Rereading Edward Gibbon on the fall...

The review makes many points, here is one excerpt:  Everywhere I have worked, the organization’s hiring processes were tilted in favor of experience over intelligence. Interviews include behavioral questions or assessments of specific skills. Rarely is anyone on the hiring loop running problem-solving sessions that require the candidate to demonstrate how they might deal with the […] The post Very interesting Edward Nevraumont review of...

I’ve been wanting to do this one for some while, and Marc did not disappoint.  Here is the audio, transcript, and video.  Here is the summary: Marc joined Tyler to discuss his ever-growing appreciation for the humanities and more, including why he didn’t go to a better school, his contrarian take on Robert Heinlein, how […] The post My excellent Conversation with Marc Andreessen...

Yale University Press is republishing Mancur Olson’s The Rise and Decline of Nations: Economic Growth, Stagflation, and Social Rigidities, with a new introduction by Ed Glaeser. Here is an earlier Alex post on the book. The post The book of the year? appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         CommentsIn reply to rayward. Real on the web h0me based work to make ... by Sarah...

At the critical elevator pitch, Joyce whetted investors’ appetites with the opening gambit: Dublin, a European city of 350,000, had no cinema and two more cities in the same country, Cork and Belfast, were also without a cinema. (Joyce the hustler bumped up Dublin’s population to 500,000 for effect.) Ireland, with close to a million […] The post James Joyce, entrepreneur appeared first on...

A Hacker News thread, via Samarth Jajoo. The post “Which book can attract anyone towards your field of study?” appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         CommentsIn reply to Paul S. Commence your Home Business right now. ... by Sarah ElizabethIn reply to Jim. You're a faster man than me, Jim. When I got ... by DismalistIntro to complexity theory: “Complexity: A Guided Tour” by...

1. Dan Werb, The Invisible Siege: The Rise of Coronavirus and the Search for a Cure.  An excellent book on the history of coronaviruses more generally, with much of the strongest material coming on how earlier coronavirus investigations fed into the progress we have made on Covid-19.  Recommended, not just what all the other Covid […] The post What I’ve been reading appeared first...

And Brian Eno.  Here is one opening bit from the FT: Consider the advice for job interviewers in Talent, a new book by economist Tyler Cowen and venture capitalist Daniel Gross. They suggest asking a routine question, such as “give me an example of when you resolved a difficult challenge at work”. Then ask for […] The post Tim Harford covers *Talent* and parallel...

From Dylan Matthews: The big question is what drove this transformation. Historians, economists, and anthropologists have proposed a long list of explanations for why human life suddenly changed starting in 18th-century England, from geographic effects to forms of government to intellectual property rules to fluctuations in average wages. For a long time, there was no one book that could explain, compare, and […] The post Rubin and Koyama on the Industrial...

Here is the audio, video, and transcript.  Here is part of the summary: Jamal and Tyler discuss what he’d change about America’s legal education system, the utility of having non-judges or even non-lawyers on the Supreme Court, how America’s racial history influences our conception of rights, the potential unintended consequences of implementing his vision of […] The post My Conversation with Jamal Greene appeared...

I will be doing a Conversation with him.  From Wikipedia: William MacAskill is a Scottish philosopher, ethicist, and one of the originators of the effective altruism movement. He is Associate Professor in Philosophy at the University of Oxford, a researcher at the Global Priorities Institute at Oxford,[ and Director of the Forethought Foundation for Global […] The post What should I ask Will MacAskill?...

1. Dervla Murphy, Full Tilt: Ireland to India with a Bicycle.  She covered 3000 miles in the 1960s, and as she notes in the introduction: “Epictetus put it in a nutshell when he said, “For it is not death or hardship that is a fearful thing, but the fear of death and hardship.”  Self-recommending.  But […] The post What I’ve been reading appeared first...

Nate Hilger’s has written a brave book. Almost everyone will find something to hate about The Parent Trap. Indeed, I hated parts of it. Yet Hilger is willing to say truths that are often not said and for that I would rather applaud than cancel. Hilger argues that the problems of poverty, pathology and inequality […] The post The Parent Trap–Review of Hilger appeared...

Two questions that Cowen and Gross highlight strike me as deeply Heideggerian. “What tabs are open on your browser right now?” and “what is the equivalent of musical scales that you are practicing every day to get better at what you do?” Both are about surfacing a person’s care. Don’t tell me what you care […] The post A Heideggerian review of *Talent* appeared...

I am pleased to have received an autographed copy of this very carefully done work.  I think it is (by far) the best treatment of what the Fed has been up to since the 1970s, at least on the monetary policy front.  There really isn’t anyone who would know better than Ben, keeping in mind […] The post *21st Century Monetary Policy* appeared first...

The crypto market is up! The crypto market is down! The roller coaster can be fearfully thrilling but as thoughtful academics and people interested in ideas let’s look away from the daily ups and downs and focus on the big picture. What is crypto? What is cryptoeconomics? Tyler and I have written a new chapter […] The post Cryptoeconomics! appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION....

This is Daniel Gross my co-author on Talent and the venture capitalist, to be clear.  And here is the audio and transcript.  Of course we focus on talent and also: They also explore the question of why so many high achievers love Diet Coke, why you should ask candidates if they have any good conspiracy […] The post My Conversation with the excellent Daniel...

A study of Russian publications in the 1990s found that some 39 percent of all nonfiction published in Russia in that decade had something to do with the occult. That is from the really quite interesting The Russian Cosmists: The Esoteric Futurism of Nikolai Fedorov and His Followers, by George M. Young.  And for more […] The post Russia fact of the day appeared...

Here is the episode page (includes transcript): https://www.buzzsprout.com/126848/10628363-tyler-cowen-on-talent Here is the Youtube link. The post My *Talent* podcast with the excellent David Wright appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         CommentsIn reply to John Mansfield. -a lotta original ideas on a ... by Dr. joe biden junios-alsatian, ph.ddroopy earlobes, common amongst the edmund burke, dr johnson set by nonacademicwith a curious, rectangular, up and adam,...