@jonginsf it's hard to due better in terms of regulatory capture than the supplement industry, which has basically gotten itself exempted from regulation. FDA can hold supplement sellers accountable for lying about the contents of the tin. beyond that, caveat emptor!
(supplement providers are not exempt from consumer liability, but it's hard to win if the consumer elected to eat what was on the label, even if that proves an unwise health choice.)
"Biden rejected Reaganite trickle-down economics but settled on another kind of trickle down: fixing things in the far reaches of supply chains in hopes the benefits will eventually reach ordinary people." #IsabellaWeber https://foreignpolicy.com/2025/05/09/abundance-review-klein-thompson-progressive-policy/
i never understood why people so distrustful someone might be trying to profit from a vaccine so trust people who are ostentatiously hawking supplements for money.
the way you make america great again is you make the world great again.
the “agains” in both places are arguable.
1. destroy everything.
2. fresh start!
3. paradise!
seems to be MAGA’s operative theory.
i think there are problems with it.
so much talk of generative AI replacing workers, meaning reports.
any organizations (or reports themselves) replacing managers with generative AI, in terms of directing and motivating the work of (human) reports?
inside information apparently had not leaked, but it *might* have leaked.
traders appear to have (mistakenly!) magnified early price moves after the smoke turned white, on that theory.
as always, excellent from @rajivsethi
https://rajivsethi.substack.com/p/prediction-markets-and-the-pope
@arthegall chatting with them here!
how much is hollywood to blame for our elevation of antiheroes to positions of potentially catastrophic authority?
[new draft post] Alignment is confinement https://drafts.interfluidity.com/2025/05/08/alignment-is-confinement/index.html
i ripped off the band-aid, and there was nothing underneath.
fast work, conclave.
at the time the stakes of Trump's second impeachment did not seem so high. of course he should have been convicted and removed, obviously. but Repubicans' cowardice felt like passing the buck on a symbolic act, rather than putting the republic at risk.
Yesterday, I wanted to confirm that "Gambling Device" by Frank Herbert, was the short story I remembered about a hotel that forbade gambling. So I asked Claude and ChatGPT for summaries. They so confidently made stuff up, I assumed I misremembered.
Thankfully, archive.org lent me a collection containing the short story, which I quickly reread. It was, of course, the story I recalled, not the stories Claude or ChatGPT had hallucinated.
@rieyin (i think that’s a great way to go. lower the gamified stakes, let the relationship and mutual regard motivate excellence.)
@rieyin do you record the oral exams? how do you handle it if a student challenges their grade?
of pretty much every app on my Mac, i'm asked whether to give permission to access local devices, including apps whose developers inform me they don't ask for any such permission. what gives?
There’s been an enormous amount of discussion about what holds back markets in physical commodities like housing and energy, but also what prevents innovation and invention. One argument is that there are too many government-generated rules and regulations that slow everything down. Another is that the absence of government structuring leads to private regulations, imposed by dominant firms on their own terms to often exclude rivals and extract money. When those private regulations are forced into remission, markets can explode with new products and offers. That’s happening right now in real time in the market for mobile phone apps, and particularly the distribution of those apps to customers. It represents the first real, thorough, and permanent consequences to a Big Tech company for monopolizing markets. And literally within 24 hours of a federal court’s Wednesday ruling imposing sanctions for this misconduct, competitors have been rushing into the space in ways that will make the market fairer, more affordable, and more abundant.
if we were not idiots, gen AI would be driving us to turn colleges into Socratic spaces. everything would be in-person, synchronous, analog. writing would be blue book. we’d discuss (rather than rate) one another’s work. any “homework” would be productive projects, for which use of any tool is fine.
