Assorted links

I read the following passage in Marginal Revolution:  Overall I find the secret to the Beach Boys (and some Beatles) listening to be their sound world.  Interpret the Beach Boys through John Cage!  Listen to a simple song such as “Vegetables,” but on a very good sound system or with head phones.  Surrounded by silence. 

It’s never the big things

A couple of weeks back, a lot of people were predicting that Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister of Britain and the party-animal-in-charge of the illegal Covid parties at 10 Downing, would resign soon. Someone said they’d be surprised if Johnson lasted the week. I was surprised. I’d surely heard about these parties; however, I didn’t

Some abstracts from social science papers

The following is the abstract from “Vaccination nudges“: But what about the troves of research that have shown nudges to be largely ineffective, at least in education? One possible takeaway is that nudges work when the effort required to negate the nudge is too high. For instance, cancelling the vaccination appointment takes some effort. This,

The wage gap

Here are some commonly held beliefs about the wage gap amongst genders: Women are paid less than men…..but, they do have to take time off to give birth to children. They end up costing more to companies than male workers. Shouldn’t it make sense in a perfectly Capitalistic society to pay them slightly less? Let

A few case studies in weight loss

For the last 7 years or so, I have weighed kg ( is an embarrassingly large number + 10). Doing large amounts of cardio would cause my weight to decrease to , but dropping such an unsustainable exercise regimen would cause it to jump right back to . Eating an unhealthy amount of junk food

The Double-Wrong

What exactly is a double-wrong? Let me give you some examples before I try and supply a definition. You have an acquaintance who you is always rude to you at social gatherings. You are thinking about having a frank conversation with them, but then decide to be the bigger person and be very nice to

Scott Alexander gets married

The influential blogger Scott Alexander got married last week. In honor of his wedding, I’ve decided to write a short note on how he has influenced my life over the last few years. I first heard about Scott Alexander’s blog slatestarcodex from friends in India who I’d only ever met on Facebook. I tried to

Afghanistan and the Turing Machine

How do societies modernize? One day they realize that their ways have gotten older, and they transform overnight into liberal democracies with equal rights for all. Not really. Afghanistan The US invaded Afghanistan to spread democracy, women’s rights and universal love (there was something about hegemony in the Middle East, but those are just rumors).

Status battles in The Brothers Karamazov

The Brothers Karamazov is one of the most famous books in the history of literature. It was also Einstein’s favorite book. However, my appreciation for the book proves that (much) lesser mortals also have much to gain from reading it. The book swings primarily between the author’s third person narration of events, and the psychoanalysis

IMO 1981, Question 3

I had a great time solving the following question a couple of nights back. More so because I’d failed to solve this question in the past. This question is completely unapproachable if you try to use algebra. However, generating simple examples helps. Let me try and write down some solutions to : they are Do