Surveys are finding major changes in the big five personality traits of young Americans, with neurotocism up and extroversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness all down. (Twitter/X)
A claim that US airlines lose money flying people around but make it back off their credit card operations. (Twitter/X)
Amusing entry in Scott Siskind's "review anything" contest: My Father's Instant Mashed Potatoes.
Crazy story in the NY Times: "On Instagram, the artist Joseph Awuah-Darko asked the world to invite him to dinner before he ended his life. More than 150 meals later, he is still going."
A review of The Mirror and the Light, covering both Mantel's novel and the TV show, with thoughts on the politics of the time, Cromwell's actual character, and the rise of the modern state.
The latest in math teaching fads: Singapore Math.
All the data that companies collect on you, and what they do with it.
More Roman mosaics in Sicily, including a sandal.
We are not running out of fresh water.
The history of dates (the fruit), and how they came to be cultivated in the US.
Tyler Cowen interviews Nate Silver about poker, expected value, and politics: "people in the center have migrated away from the Democratic Party. . . I do think there’s a chance that Democrats will overestimate how tolerant the rest of the country is for progressive governance."
On Twitter/X, Robin Hanson links to a paywalled article that says people who are more mentally active and acute over 80 are much more sociable than others.
Has AI development hit a plateau? According to this article, many researchers think all progress is now just from more computing, and we need a new approach to get to superintelligence.
Surveys find that most Americans do not believe that building more housing will lead to lower housing costs. Economists find this bizarre, but on the other hand if you look around the world you see that we have built a ton of housing over the past 50 years but housing has gotten a lot more expensive. I personally don't think there is any real solution for places like New York and Shanghai where millions want to live; prices in such places will always rise to the point where many people are excluded.
A Twitter/X rant about moderation on Twitter/X, both about how it was terrible before Elon and how it is now terrible in a different way.
Do automated license plate readers violate the Constitution?
What, actually should we do about the homeless mentally ill? It seems pretty clear, based on statistical comparisons, that many mentally ill people in the US are in prison; could we do better? (Twitter/X)
Silver in a Viking Age hoard from England came from the Middle East.
Polish metal detectorists had an amazing lucky streak.
"A new study finds that nearly nine in ten students fake more progressive views than they really hold, often to appease professors or stay in their peers’ good graces." A more correct version of this statement is that 88% say they have faked progressive views at least once, but still quite striking. Of course there may be opinions that one hopes people will keep to themselves in public, but the numbers in this survey do not portray a sustainable situation.
More in the same vein: Taboos and Self-Censorship Among U.S. Psychology Professors. "Almost all professors worried about social sanctions if they were to express their own empirical beliefs."
10 comments:
Somewhere in the private hell that is no doubt being prepared for me, I have to listen to Tyler Cowen interviewing Nate Silver over, and over, and over . . .
I wonder if the hostility to progressivism and the decline in extroversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness could be linked.
I wonder if the hostility to progressivism is based on seeing the results of many of its policies. See for instance the Cheesy Boudin recall in SF.
It's interesting how every side thinks opposition to their ideas is based on propaganda or the decline in extroversion or whatever. Is it perhaps maybe somehow possible that many people simply don't agree with you?
@Anonymous
You win.
More in the same vein: Taboos and Self-Censorship Among U.S. Psychology Professors. "Almost all professors worried about social sanctions if they were to express their own empirical beliefs."
When has this ever NOT been the case? People modulate their expression of their own beliefs (in both directions regarding "progressiveness" or a lack thereof) all the time.
Go back just to the Cold War and you find countless examples. People unwilling to publicly criticize this or that aspect of our government, or economy, or military policy, etc, because they feared being labeled a "Communist"; women being unwilling to call out flagrant chauvinism and sexism, for fear of reprisal; minorities biting their tongue over the most vile kinds of racism; white male "allies" of women and minorities feeling pressured to do the same; homosexuals forced to live closeted lives, or even enter into fake relationships or marriages to publicly pretend to be heterosexual...
EVERYBODY has been in a situation where their teachers, or bosses, or church leaders, or family members, or even just their friends and peers struck up a conversation which they personally found distasteful, expressing views they vehemently disagreed with... but they felt pressured to remain silent, to not dissent, or even to express false agreement, in order to improve their social prospects.
Have people forgotten how society works? No one is free to be wholly sincere 100% of the time - not even the most privileged rich, straight, white, men with the most psychotic mindsets that care nothing for the thoughts of others, has managed to avoid having to self censor "at least once".
Go back just to the Cold War and you find countless examples. People unwilling to publicly criticize this or that aspect of our government, or economy, or military policy, etc, because they feared being labeled a "Communist"; women being unwilling to call out flagrant chauvinism and sexism, for fear of reprisal; minorities biting their tongue over the most vile kinds of racism; white male "allies" of women and minorities feeling pressured to do the same; homosexuals forced to live closeted lives, or even enter into fake relationships or marriages to publicly pretend to be heterosexual...
But isn't this looked on as bad now? Why would we want to emulate this?
Censorship has always existed, therefore censorship is fine. Has there ever been a time when there was zero censorship? No? Then don't complain about "voices being silenced" now.
No one said anything about emulating anything.
People always have to self censor. That's just a fact of human society. Maybe, at some point, we'll find a way to live where that isn't necessary, but I struggle to imagine what such a society would even look like. Total sincerity in all things sounds like a psychopathic trait, rather than a social one. "Social lubricants" exist for a reason.
No one said anything about emulating anything.
No one said anything about it, we're just doing it. While decrying its existence in other times. "Total sincerity" is not what we're talking about. Look through history, some form of racism has always existed. So why are so many crying about it now?
@Anonymous
Since, one way or another, many problems have been around for a long time, what would you say is worthy of serious and earnest attention?
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