On Chapo the other day Amber A'Lee Frost raised an interesting point. Regarding the novels of John Steinback, she suggested that he was feeding into a national conversation happening at the time he was writing about what to do about people who just aren't very good at things, but in a way not generally recognised … Continue reading On Klutzes

(Part 1 is occasioned by the first 3 chapters) The Irish Elk may have been driven extinct in part due to excessive competition to have larger and more powerful horns by the males. It's obvious once it's pointed out, but it really is amazing how few noticed "anyone can succeed in America" is a big … Continue reading Reflections occasioned by reading Michael Sandel’s “The Tyranny of Merit”, Part 1.

Foucault in a frankly over cited discussion refers to Jeremy Bentham's panopticon- a hypothetical prison in which one never knows if one is being watched because there's one way glass everywhere. The possibility of being watched instils behaviour similar to if one actually were being watched all the time. Eventually (and this is somewhat my … Continue reading Twitter is a reverse panopticon: The internal agent

In a recent memorandum the President Joe Biden directed: "...Director of OMB, in consultation with representatives of executive departments and agencies (agencies), as appropriate and as soon as practicable, to begin a process with the goal of producing a set of recommendations for improving and modernizing regulatory review." It is my hope that this review … Continue reading One of the most important political issues you’ve almost certainly never heard of

I am sick unto death of people saying that they “believe in equality of opportunity, not outcome” often in a smug tone, as if they had just delivered some bon mot, proven a difficult theorem or made a subtle but crucial conceptual distinction. A neat dichotomy between equality of outcome and opportunity doesn't work. The … Continue reading Stop claiming you believe in equality of opportunity, you probably don’t

Will Big Macs cost ten dollars? No. The reason is that labour costs are only about 20-30% of total costs in fast food. Let's look at the evidence. Consider Norway. In Norway minimum wages are not set by the government, instead they are negotiated, sector by sector, by unions- with the negotiated minimums binding on … Continue reading A simple fifteen dollar minimum wage FAQ

The longer I think about it, the more I start to think that, when peer reviewing articles, you should probably just take an attitude of "let it through unless it's really quite bad". The main reasons being: 1. In an age of online publishing, space constraints aren't an issue. 2. Unless a paper is so … Continue reading The case for being a lenient peer reviewer

The ballad of trying to be In the distance at the fork of a river Off the coast of Canada, a grizzly stands He does not need a mysterious forgiver For he is too simple to do a thing wrong Long have I longed to be known for Faults and virtues. To sing of myself … Continue reading The Ballad of trying to be

"Every woman adores a Fascist,   The boot in the face, the brute" -Slyvia Plath, Daddy For several days now a small to medium sized moral panic has been raging on Twitter about a large number of gay and bisexual men and smaller number of women who expressed attraction to this guy: Jake Angelli, AKA budget Conan, … Continue reading The Jake Angeli theses

Twitter is abuzz with discussion about a post on the subreddit "Am I the asshole". While there's every chance the story in the post is made up (like many stories on "Am I the asshole"), I think it's an interesting case for thinking about the ethics of friendship. Essentially a highschooler is in a group … Continue reading Of calculus, cheating and the duties of a friend and parent