Favorite Rejects 2022-12-13

Brendan Dawe @BrendanDawe

At some point, you may have to accept that in the provision of basic human needs that your aesthetic preferences or planning fads might be secondary concerns

Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇦 @Noahpinion

One cool thing about inflation is that it partially erases debt.

Linda Yueh @lindayueh

Global debt as a share of output fell by the most in at least 70 years last year, as economies rebounded from their sudden slowdown in 2020 and inflation soared, according to IMF data. https://t.co/IdutiUJLzA via @financialtimes

Emily Hamilton @ebwhamilton

As absurd as U.S. rail construction costs are, I think the out of control costs of tiny projects like this really make the U.S. infrastructure cost problem hit home

Molly @mollyfleck

Today I learned that installing one single curb bump-out costs $50,000.

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

There are some good China pieces up on @bariweiss’s new @TheFP site so I know ideologically they can see the potential problem here if a key information channel is run by a guy whose fortune depends on Xi Jinping’s good will. Hope they’ll explore this angle in the future.

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

Again, the investigation was *already under way* when people started complaining that there was no investigation — I believe this case came together unusually quickly for a big white collar case.

Balaji @balajis

No, the state is not the good guy. Obviously, without the massive outcry, they would have let him continue his Good Morning America tour. That’s why SBF skated for more than a month after stealing billions. Only public protest forced arrest. https://t.co/kpXbEL5wwl

L-Ali🔭 @LRNZH

Interesting response from @ScottSumnerTMI to @Noahpinion on the senility (Scott) or infancy (Noah) of Macroeconomics. We can all agree at least that Macroeconomics needs to make progress in leaps & bounds to be more useful.

econlib.orgIs macroeconomics in its infancy? - EconlibIn a recent podcast with David Beckworth, Noah Smith argued that macroeconomics was still in its infancy. Smith suggested that we needed stronger microfoundations in order to develop rigorous scientific models of the economy. I have a different view. Old Keynesian economics reached a dead end in the…

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

Me: The best political messages are boring normie stuff slowboring.com/p/a-lot-of-the… Them: Health Communism https://t.co/8BI1VFWPjc

Malcolm Harris @BigMeanInternet

My latest column is about an exciting new spectre haunting America: HEALTH COMMUNISM https://t.co/L6D7dOw7gw

Alec Stapp @AlecStapp

Seems like a big policy mistake:

Nate Silver @NateSilver538

Agree with pretty much the whole thread. The "old" Twitter was a nasty place for all types of people based in large part on deliberate choices that Twitter management made. And everyone knew about it and complained about it. Talk that implies these were the good old days is nuts.

Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇦 @Noahpinion

7/Twitter's old management fought against this. They did whatever they could -- including design choices *and* moderation choices -- to keep people who hated and feared each other's ideas in constant close contact, constantly fighting each other, in order to boost engagement.

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

My one doubt about @slatestarcodex's argument here is it's not totally clear to me what @OpenAI is even trying to accomplish with these easily evaded safety features — do they actually want them to work, or is it deliberately superficial?

astralcodexten.substack.comPerhaps It Is A Bad Thing That The World’s Leading AI Companies Cannot Control Their AIs...

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

This is how growth works is the thing

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

Voters: I'd be open to voting for a sane, normal Republicans someone who's different from Trump. Ron DeSantis: Gotcha, an anti-vaxxer, everyone thinks Operation Warp Speed was Trump's biggest failure.

Timothy B. Lee @binarybits

I wish Rubio would frame this as a forced divestiture rather than as a ban. Presumably if a ban is the alternative they'll divest. And if divestiture is the likely outcome it'll get a lot less opposition.

reuters.comU.S. lawmakers unveil bipartisan bid to ban China’s TikTokRepublican Senator Marco Rubio on Tuesday announced bipartisan legislation to ban China’s popular social media app TikTok, ratcheting up pressure on owner ByteDance Ltd amid U.S. fears the app could be used to spy on Americans and censor content.