The New Yorker suggests we take more walks

From this article:

When we go for a walk, the heart pumps faster, circulating more blood and oxygen not just to the muscles but to all the organs—including the brain. Many experiments have shown that after or during exercise, even very mild exertion, people perform better on tests of memory and attention. Walking on a regular basis also promotes new connections between brain cells, staves off the usual withering of brain tissue that comes with age, increases the volume of the hippocampus (a brain region crucial for memory), and elevates levels of molecules that both stimulate the growth of new neurons and transmit messages between them.

While reading Daily Rituals, the most common pattern I noticed among successful creative types – outside of their propensity to ingest, uh, “substances” – was their penchant for long walks.

Boiling the fiat frog

From Rothbard’s free book, What Has Government Done to Our Money?:

At first, governments refused to admit that this was a permanent measure. They referred to the “suspension of specie payments,” and it was always understood that eventually, after the war or other “emergency” had ended, the government would again redeem its obligations.

When the Bank of England went off gold at the end of the eighteenth century, it continued in this state for twenty years, but always with the understanding that gold payment would be resumed after the French wars were ended.

Temporary “suspensions,” however, are primrose paths to outright repudiation. The gold standard, after all, is no spigot that can be turned on or off as government whim decrees. Either a gold-receipt is redeemable or it is not; once redemption is suspended the gold standard is itself a mockery.

Another step in the slow extinction of gold money was the establishment of the “gold bullion standard.” Under this system, the currency is no longer redeemable in coins; it can only be redeemed in large, highly valuable, gold bars. This, in effect, limits gold redemption to a handful of specialists in foreign trade. There is no longer a true gold standard, but governments can still proclaim their adherence to gold. The European “gold standards” of the 1920s were pseudo-standards of this type.

Finally, governments went “off gold” officially and completely, in a thunder of abuse against foreigners and “unpatriotic gold hoarders.” Government paper now becomes the fiat standard money.

Very worth reading for a clear, concise, if a bit dated, explanation of a major reason for America’s current economic stagnation, which is closely intertwined with – if not a direct cause of – its social and political problems.

Balaji’s crazed wisdom on Howard Lindzon podcast: “There will be both deflation in wants and inflation in needs”

Balaji appeared on Howard Lindzon’s Panic With Friends recently and I took a bunch of notes and wanted to share them here. As usual Balaji is going 150mph and some of his insights are pretty out there, but clearly the product of deep thought and research. So I need to review what he says multiple times, over an extended period of time, to really let it sink in and do whatever our thoughts do in that squishy computer we have in our skulls.

The notes without attribution are what Balaji said, and I try to note “HL” where I’m sure it was Howard. But there will be mistakes, and they’re solely mine:

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This is America’s first real defeat

Buffett is like the turkey who’s been fattened his whole life and suddenly it’s Thanksgiving

HL: If you own a China stock after Luckin then you’re just lazy. They even cheat coffee, which should be one of the easiest things to sell because it’s an addictive product

Thinks 3 very prescient people: Thiel (US can’t innovate); Gates (actually predicted a pandemic); KaiFu Lee (China can innovate)

“Any sufficiently advanced execution is indistinguishable from magic” re: China ability to build a train station in a day
// a twist on Clarke’s “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”

During Yeltsin’s US trip, the moment he seemed to admit defeat was one of the most mundane – when he visited a random Albertson’s

Govts aren’t giving back powers they gained while fighting coronavirus
To fight this, you will need encryption and crypto

The two extremes of coronavirus world is “total state” (China, SKorea) or “market anarchy” (parts of US, Sweden)

Expects UBI, will be both deflation in wants and inflation in needs

Everything physical becomes expensive, all digital versions – travel, games, courts, education – will dominate and in this world digital currency is very important

Internet turned everyone into publishers, crypto turns everyone into investors

Buffett seemed tired – just realizing how hard it is, things have changed, can’t blame the guy for being lost, their fearful leader (speaking of the Buffett investing acolytes) is not a tech person

HL: “We’ve gone from an extrovert world to an introvert world”

TED talk notes #4, Charles Leadbetter: Education innovation in the slums

in slums to make things work: pull not push (they need to demand, seek learning)

make learning second, activity/interest first, “teach through” (eg, learn music theory THROUGH playing instruments)

mass education started with social entrepreneurship model in 19th century (in other words, innovative, grounds-up individuals and ideas with creative sources of funding)

current school system is largely Bismarckian system of 19th century

most education innovation today is sustaining and formal, as opposed to disruptive and informal

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Full list of TED talk notes here.

Five articles to recommend: Diamonds, Surveilled cities, Zero to One, PG, and Kevin Kelly’s countdown clock

Have you ever tried to sell a diamond? [The Atlantic]

Since “young men buy over 90% of all engagement rings” it would be crucial to inculcate in them the idea that diamonds were a gift of love: the larger and finer the diamond, the greater the expression of love. Similarly, young women had to be encouraged to view diamonds as an integral part of any romantic courtship

The most surveilled cities in the world [Statista]

The Chinese city of Taiyuan, located in the Shanxi province roughly 300 miles Southwest of Beijing, tops the list with 120 public CCTV cameras per 1,000 inhabitants. The highest-ranked non-Chinese city is London, also notorious for its strict surveillance of public spaces, with 67 cameras per 1,000 people, with Los Angeles the highest-ranked U.S. city in the ranking with 6 cameras per 1,000 inhabitants

What makes Zero to One a masterpiece? [Ellen Fishbein]

A great company: a conspiracy to change the world.
(A company’s) secret: a specific reason for success that other people don’t see.

Early Work [PG]

But even if Silicon Valley’s encouraging attitude is rooted in self-interest, it has over time actually grown into a sort of benevolence.

My Life Countdown [Kevin Kellyy]

My friend Stewart Brand, who is now 69, has been arranging his life in blocks of 5 years. Five years is what he says any project worth doing will take. From moment of inception to the last good-riddance, a book, a campaign, a new job, a start-up will take 5 years to play through. So, he asks himself, how many 5 years do I have left? He can count them on one hand even if he is lucky. So this clarifies his choices. If he has less than 5 big things he can do, what will they be?