All of Kinsei's Comments + Replies

Kinsei280

"It’s much better to live in a place like Switzerland where the problems are complex and the solutions are unclear, rather than North Korea where the problems are simple and the solutions are straightforward."

Scott Sumner, A time for nuance

9[anonymous]
That simply means that Switzerland has already solved the easier problems North Korea struggles with. To paraphrase, an absence of low-hanging fruit on a well-tended tree means you're probably in a garden.
Desrtopa130

The problems in North Korea are not so simple with straightforward solutions, when we look at them from the perspective of the actors involved.

For the average citizen in North Korea, there are no clear avenues to political influence that don't increase rather than decrease personal risk. For the people in North Korea who do have significant political influence, from a self-serving perspective, there are no "problems" with how North Korea is run.

North Korea's problems might be simple to solve from the perspective of an altruistic Supreme Leader, ... (read more)

Kinsei80

Sticky wages are something it's quite possible to study in isolation from the business cycle and it should be no surprise that people have done so. I found a lot of enlightening things in that link, though of course it doesn't answer how much sticky wages end up contributing to unemployment. All the same, though, I don't think I would place much trust in economic models that don't include sticky wages at all.

0Stuart_Armstrong
Thanks for that link!
Kinsei350

I should mention that I've taken the survey.

Kinsei140

Well, remember that that's a zero sum game within the community since it's coming out of Yvain's pocket. I was going to reflexivly cooperate, then I remembered that I was cooperating in transfering money from someone who was nice enough to create this survey, to people who were only nice enough to answer.

7Tyrrell_McAllister
This was my initial thought, too. But then it occurred to me that Yvain wants to incentivize people to take the survey, and more people will be so incentivized if the reward is larger. Thus, I can acausally help Yvain achieve his goal by cooperating. This will only influence people who know something about how the reward works before they decide to take the survey, but it still seemed worth it, so I cooperated.
Kinsei00

My goodness, a meetup I might actually be able to attend!

Kinsei20

Yes another Cambridge meet up which I'll be out of town for. My prior for this being a conspiracy was rather low, but each incident pushes probability of that being true higher :)

0jimrandomh
D'oh! In the future, if you know in advance that you'll be out of town on the third Sunday of a month, post or email me (jim@jimrandomh.org) about it and we'll see if we can reschedule around it.
Kinsei00

And a third who would prefer the following weekend.

Kinsei40

I had already decided to sign up for cryonics, but I think I'll be more expeditious about arranging it now.

0MBlume
Likewise. I'm sure you've heard the name Rudy Hoffman before. But if not, do give him a call. I've got some papers in my inbox that I need to print and mail when i get home...