Interesting Stuff
AI Productivity Lies - This is a sober look at the supposed productivity boost of AI, specifically for programmers and comes to the conclusion that it hinders, rather than boosts the productivity of coders. The author definitely does his homework and shows various charts around programmer productivity that clearly are staying flat or even decreasing a bit with the advent of AI. As he notes, if AI were this super productive tool, we would see some sort of bump in new apps, new video games, new github projects and even more domain registrations (for vibe-coded websites). But as he shows, these are not going up. It’s time to consider the possibility that AI productivity is exaggerated, or even non-existent.
Pity for the Disney Adult - This is a sad tale of a lower-middle class family that struggled, scrimped and saved to go to Disney World, spending something like 15% of their annual income after taxes to go and have what was decidedly a mediocre time. As the author notes, Disney World used to be $20 to get in, but now it’s easily in the 4 digit territory, especially if you add all the stuff like park guides, who let you get into the rides faster. This is an obvious case of inflation and skimpflation where the service not only costs more, but the stuff that used to come with the park ticket are now in a premium tier. Las Vegas is well known for doing the same thing, and unsurprisingly, their revenue is significantly down.
Nation vs People - This is something I’ve been thinking about, learning a bit of Greek for some Bible study. The Greek word that’s translated into nation is ἔθνη (ethne) and closely related to a particular ethnic group. This article argues that America is actually a people, an ἔθνη and not the “nation of immigrants” which it argues was an invention post 1965. The drift between ἔθνη and nation is correlated with fiat money and nearly every western nation is currently struggling because of the lack of ethnic identity in the migration crises. For me, the most insightful part was the process that creates a new ethnic identity.
Self-Handicapping - This is a wonderful article about the human capacity for caring and how that’s outrun our feelings of agency, which has led to a hopelessness about the problems in the world that we face. The article has a positive message and accurately examines the plight of the normie. The most interesting part for me was this idea of self-handicapping, or people that guarantee failure for themselves in some way. It’s a fiat phenomenon borne of hopelessness, in many ways because the problems of the world seem so intractable given the monolithic entities that caused it. The article made me grateful for the Bitcoin community, which is a much more hopeful one than the one in which most people reside.
Vegan Psychopaths - An intriguing study about the personality types of vegans really made me think. Do some vegans become vegans to get the moral highground? The article looks at the case study of Greta Thunberg, with little tidbits about her relationship to her parents which sound a lot like moral blackmailing. I’m not saying that this is the definitive reason for people becoming vegan, but I suspect there’s at least some minority that become vegan, or trans or animal rights activists for this reason. In a fiat world, moral highgrounds matter and unfortunately, people will waste a lot of their time, effort and resources to get it.
What I'm up to
Bitfluencers - These guys have been on a bit of a break the last 4 months, and I was their guest for their new episode. We talked about Core vs Knots, covenants proposals, what I expect fees to be and much more. It was nice to talk about some stuff from both a technical and economics angle as a lot of podcasts ignore one or the other.
Young America’s Foundation Road to Freedom - I will be speaking at this conference in Raston, VA (alongside Yeonmi Park and EJ Antoni) to a bunch of college students October 3-4. I’ll speak about the trucker protests as a launching point for embracing non-governmental, politically neutral money.
Lugano Plan B Forum - A few weeks later October 24-25, I will be in Lugano for the Plan B Forum. It looks like I may be doing a debate and running a workshop for my open source project, the family Bitcoin banking app.
Nostr Note of the Week
What I’m Promoting
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