shmulkey18

These are books you are unlikely to be able to read in China, and not because reading history does not comport with some imagined "Chinese way" but rather because the truth is threatening to totalitarians.

Comment · 7 years ago

I agree, this is a great book. Just about anything by Sowell is worth reading, but _Basic Economics_ and _Economic Facts and Fallacies_ are good starting points.

Also consider _Economics in One Lesson: The Shortest and Surest Way to Understand Basic Economics _ by Henry Hazlitt. It's coming from a strong Austrian school perspective, which some object to, but at a minimum by reading it you will be presented with ideas that are worth considering and debating.

Comment · 7 years ago

I'm not sure that it is exactly what you're looking for, but the Econtalk podcast (https://www.econtalk.org/) covers a wide variety of economics-related topics. If you listen to it, over time you will come to understand the economic way of thinking.

Also, I don't believe it's possible to get a "quick but comprehensive understanding" of fields as involved and varied as microeconomics, game theory, finance and so on. That's a lot of ground to cover, and it's unlikely that you can do anything other than get a sense of some of the basic ideas in these disciplines in a short amount of time.

Comment · 7 years ago

> Design for Everyday Things

Do you mean "The Design of Everyday Things" by Don Norman? If so, I agree that it is a great book.

Comment · 7 years ago

"Stalin and the Scientists" by Simon Ing tells a very different story.

Many Soviet scientists were severely punished when they found themselves on the wrong side of Communist dogma. Making empty statements was not possible if, for example, you disagreed with Lysenkoism. If you refused to swallow unscientific nonsense you ran a very real risk of some combination of losing your job, being shipped off to a labor camp and losing your life.

Fortunately, the Grievance Studies folks have not yet figured out how to construct a gulag.

Comment · 7 years ago

The author displays the very cognitive blind spots he decries. He says

"One reason I’ve been thinking about the virtue of humility recently is because our president, Donald Trump, is one of the least humble people on the planet.

It was Trump who said on the night of his nomination, “I alone can fix it,” with the “it” being our entire political system. It was Trump who once said, “I have one of the great memories of all time."

Trump is of course not a humble man. Is he any different in this regard than his predecessor?

“I think that I’m a better speechwriter than my speechwriters. I know more about policies on any particular issue than my policy directors. And I’ll tell you right now that I’m gonna think I’m a better political director than my political director.” -- Barack Obama (https://www.politico.com/news/stories/1012/81895_Page2.html)

"I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless; this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal; this was the moment when we ended a war and secured our nation and restored our image as the last, best hope on Earth." -- Barack Obama, Primary Election victory speech, Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008.

Intellectual humility starts at home.

Comment · 8 years ago

Newspaper headline: "Emacs text editor makes people smarter."

Comment · 8 years ago

> It's not public

Why not?

Comment · 8 years ago

"anyone in a position of authority". Hmmm. Let's bring him up on charges before the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal, eh?

AvE is great, and if you watch enough of his episodes you'll see that the old-school jokes are matched by an acceptance of all, save, perhaps, the terminally censorious. I'm looking forward to seeing him teach his daughter to weld.

Comment · 8 years ago

I think you're referring to Programming Throwdown (http://www.programmingthrowdown.com/).

Comment · 8 years ago

It's no longer clear that Uber is the most ethically challenged company in Silicon Valley.