Patrick Julius's Blog, page 7
March 13, 2013
I have a new job!
JDN 2456365 EDT 10:37.
It happened very quickly: I got a call on Wednesday, then was interview on Friday, then started work on Monday. I can now remove myself from the count of the underemployed; combined with the tutoring that I'll still do (with somewhat reduced hours), I will now been working about 30 hours a week, which is frankly all I think I can sustain at least until my migraines get under control.
The job is a very exciting one, and well-suited to my skills: I will be helping...
March 6, 2013
How economists think about crime
JDN 2456358 EDT 16:00.
A review of When Brute Force Fails by Mark Kleiman.
Kleiman is one of the few self-identified centrists who actually seems really centrist to me. Unlike someone like Shermer, he isn't ideologically committed to the idea that liberals and conservatives are equally right and equally wrong. Instead, Kleiman has few ideological commitments, and seeks pragmatic solutions to problems. He agrees with liberal views when the data supports them, and conservative vie...
March 4, 2013
Starcraft Economics continues!
Today, it's externalities and public goods!
February 28, 2013
Economics Explained Through Starcraft
Part 1: Spending and Investment
Part 2: Military spending
February 26, 2013
These questions are not for dreamers.
JDN 2456350 EDT 19:57.
There is a certain class of questions that people will ask, thinking they are encouraging you to be a dreamer. In fact, they only make sense for people who are not dreamers, people who have poor imaginations and very limited horizons. When asked of someone who really is a dreamer, the questions reveal themselves to be nonsensical.
(Tangentially, I have a funny story about my intensive Japanese class. I was asked by my sensei, Patrick-san-no yume-wa nan desu ka? "...
February 19, 2013
Sometimes half the truth is worse than a lie.
JDN 2456343 EDT 15:53
A review of The Male Brain by Louann Brizendine.
As soon as I saw that the birthday gift I had opened was a book called The Male Brain, I was worried it would distort science in the service of gender stereotypes.
It turned out to not be quite as bad as I feared, but it does have a lot of the flaws I expected. One of the most ubiquitous is a tendency that seems subtle at first, but turns out to be quite insidious in its effect: This is her tendency to...
February 17, 2013
The one book on economics everyone should read
JDN 2456341 EDT 15:44.
In Freefall, Joseph Stiglitz, one of the great economists of our time (Krugman called him "an insanely great economist"), outlines what caused the crisis in 2008, the depression from which we are still recovering today. He saw it coming at the time, and tried to warn regulators, but they wouldn't listen. (If you're reminded of Keynes in the Great Depression, the comparison is apt on many levels.)
He describes himself as a centrist, and he basically agrees with Ei...
February 16, 2013
Why do you have to fill it with lies?
JDN 2456340 EDT 13:55.
I got in an argument with my mother last night because I refused to attend the religious service part of my aunt's funeral. I attended the visitation last night and the reception luncheon today; I wore my best suit and I was glad to see family and friends.
But because I did not want to stand up and be counted among the enemies of the Enlightenment project, she thought I was being disrespectful. She did soon relent, and forgave me for not going to the service; but...
February 14, 2013
A bittersweet Valentine's Day
JDN 2456338 EDT 14:02
I was expecting to be very happy this Valentine's Day, because it's the first time ever that Valentine's Day has come along and I've been in a serious loving relationship. I'm excited for our dinner reservations and romantic evening afterward.
But then, last night, something terrible happened: My aunt, my mother's younger sister, died of cancer. She had been sick for a long time, we thought it was just her diabetes, which we know wasn't treated well; but we only r...
February 12, 2013
Fear not your own axioms.
JDN 2456336 EDT 13:14.
I got into a very strange Facebook argument yesterday (you may call it a siwoti), with someone I actually agree with about 95%. We both believe in reason and science, we largely agree on moral and political issues. Yet this argument somehow became fierce.
The question was this: Is it possible to make moral arguments without axioms or assumptions? I insisted that it was not, but that this isn't really a problem, because some axioms are much safer bets than others....
