1/ Having now read thousands of pages across hundreds of articles about the debate of PROGRESS or GREAT STAGNATION

And seeing learned people flip their minds--in both directions--(like Othello chips⚫️⚪️) given persuasive new evidence...
2/ I believe...

there are the contributing elements of "lag" and "mismeasurement" possibly behind the Solow Paradox (paraphrased as tech is everywhere 'cept in productivity)
3/ I believe...

there are salient anecdotes + examples NEAR and FAR (subject respectively to recency bias...and nostalgia for clearly-compounded effects of old technologies)
4/ I believe...

that science + tech breakthroughs are true SURPRISES with complex diffusion patterns and knock-on effects and don't fit linear or monotonic measures
5/ I believe...

that if the ZEITGEIST or dominant narrative is that productivity has SLOWED and we are in a 'great stagnation' (there are some people even more motivated to disprove it; and others who feel resigned + complain and amplify it)... WHILE––
6/ I believe...

that if the ZEITGEIST or dominant narrative shifts to a 'great awakening' and resurgent ACCELERATION of progress it is not because that is true––(i think it is all more random + immeasurable) but because we are noticing, labeling and telling new STORIES about it
7/ I believe...

people WANT to 'do something' and policy needs data OR incredible stories to build support that the policy is a good idea...

whether a new Endless Frontier Act, an incentive or an antitrust mandate (ala Bell Labs) for corp labs

me think it's all way more random
8/ And at any given point we can find SUBSECTORS as evidence for great progress and other SUBSECTORS as evidence for great stagnation

I'm ok w/the uncertainty of it all––and the CERTAINTY that some people want status, fame, wealth, respect and will forever be motivated to INVENT

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More from @wolfejosh

3 Feb
THIS is not bravery––this is more than that. It is GENIUS.
meduza.io/en/feature/202…
2/🔥🤯
-All this because a small man in a bunker is losing his mind

-I mortally offended him by surviving
And then I committed a more serious offense
I didnt run +hide

-We all remember Alexander the Liberator, Yaroslav the Wise. Now we'll have Vladimir the Underpants Poisoner
3/
-This isn’t a demonstration of strength — it’s a show of weakness. You can’t lock up millions and hundreds of thousands of people.

-Millions of people living without the slightest prospects for the future.

-The only thing growing in Russia is the number of billionaires.
Read 4 tweets
1 Feb
1/ Absolutely PERFECT from @scmallaby in @washingtonpost

Some highlighted excerpts
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
2/ "...at least our culture generally applauds the partisans of rationality....

'the minority that called out the excess [in housing crisis] became heroes...'

...[The GameStop speculators goal is to destroy those who link stock prices to fair value]...
3/ BANKS not HEDGE funds got bailed out last time

'[There is nothing nefarious about a company that makes money by choosing smart investments]'...
Read 5 tweets
1 Feb
1/ The BEST thing about GOOD mental models and frameworks is their generalizability.

Are they USEFUL to advance understanding issues and find solutions?
2/ Readinf @slatestarcodex excellent piece on whether psychiatric conditions are clearly distinct CATEGORIES (in the way rabbits are rabbits + humans are humans) or DIMENSIONS (where people fall on spectrum with no clear demarcation line)...

astralcodexten.substack.com/p/ontology-of-…
3/ Found it useful in thinking about how we think about RACE, clear categories or spectra: light white to dark black, eye colors, hair textures, origin stories, group identity, family lineage, geography, rights, status, income, victim, pepetrator, justice, injustice...
Read 4 tweets
30 Jan
Anytime a headline says “Dalio says...”

It literally was him summarizing a Bloomberg or FT or WSJ article from earlier in the week.

Every. Time.

Prove me wrong.
2/ Breaking insight... “Dalio says”
3/ “Dalio says”... on gamestop in Bloomberg
4 days after Bloomberg article literally says this
Read 4 tweets
30 Jan
1/ For years, a friend (“RD”) and I trade examples we find of
“Nominative Determinism”—

—when someone’s name possibly maybe influenced what they ended up doing in their career (or otherwise and most probably just hilarious coincidence)...

Like...
aldosohm.com
2/ Or...”Catherine Counts” who does statistcal quantiative work (but should have obviously focused on feline population numbers)...
3/ Or “Rosaline Brewer” the first woman + african american COO at....Starbucks. cnbc.com/2017/09/13/3-t…
Read 20 tweets
28 Jan
It's been VERY exciting 3 months at Lux...

Find out what we've been up to 👉 lux.vc/winter2021
2/ From @DesktopMetal becoming publicly traded with @chamath investing
3/ To AEVA going public...
Read 10 tweets

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