Bitcoin Tech Talk #344
Interesting Stuff
High IQ Measurement - We tend to give people who accomplish something great mythic status and in the modern day, this is through IQ. As the article points out, measuring high IQ is fraught with many problems, not the least of which is that the measurements have enormously high variability. Past 130 or so, it’s very difficult to tell whether further points actually measure what they purport to measure. We live in a world that has fetishized intelligence and this article is analyzing just how much we have.
Google has no moat - This is a leak of Google’s internal memo from someone that believes that the AI cat is out of the bag. It’s gone viral the last couple of weeks and it makes some great points. Keeping things proprietary is a long-term loser as the innovation is coming from all corners due to its usefulness. The political bent of these systems reflect the training data and weights and it does seem like the proprietary ones have something of an agenda. Open source may be behind right now, but I doubt it’ll stay that way.
High cost of bureaucracy - 109 of 125 Federal agencies in Washington have employees who average $100k/year salaries or more. This is absolutely crazy given that the average salary is below $55k/year. One of the things I’ve learned going to hyperinflating countries is just how much government bureaucracy contributes to inflation. The government pays these bureaucrats lots of money, that money gets spent into the economy creating inflation and that inflation causes the bureaucrats to have lower salaries, causing the government to raise their salaries. Rinse, repeat and next thing you know hyperinflation. This is a canary in a coal mine. US is closer to hyperinflation than conventional wisdom would like you to believe.
What I'm up to
LightningCon Talk - Here’s my talk about how fiat money ruins everything from the Lightning Conference in Vietnam. I talked about rent-seeking, bad incentives, signature and approval versus work and merit, and much more. If you liked this, I have a lot more coming in my new book, which should be released in the next few months.
Road to Serfdom - This classic by Frederick Hayek is something I’ve been meaning to read for many years. I’m finally on it and it’s great. His analysis of socialism and the instinct of so many to centrally plan is on point and is a reminder that most politicians disagree about the ends, but agree largely on the means. Sadly, fiat money has greatly increased the power of the central planners which has lead to the destructiveness of the 20th century.
Fiji and New Zealand - I’ll be heading off to these places next and if you’re there, I’d love to hear from you! I’m not sure exactly where in New Zealand I’ll be, but I’m trying to get set up for a meetup. Stay tuned if you want to come!
Nostr Note of the Week
What I’m Shilling
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