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Monthly Archives: January 2013
RubyMotion for Complete Beginners
According to the RubyMotion guide for getting started, “RubyMotion is a toolchain that permits the development of iOS applications using the Ruby programming language.” In less formal terms it lets you write iOS apps in Ruby using your favorite development environment … Continue reading
Posted in Technical, Uncategorized
Tagged fun, how-to, pragmatic programming, programming, Ruby, RubyMotion, technology
2 Comments
The Political Economy of Scrabble: Currency, Innovation, and Norms
In Scrabble, there is a finite amount of resources (letter tiles) that players use to create value (points) for themselves. Similarly, in the real world matter cannot be created so much of human effort is rearranging the particles that exist into … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged behavior, crime, culture, data, economics, education, entertainment, fun, game theory, games, how-to, humor, micro-institutions, micro-institutions everywhere, political economy, politics, programming, Python, rationality, rent seeking, technology
2 Comments
Micro-Institutions Everywhere: Parking and Snow
Jeff Ely reports the problem: You dig your car out of the snow, run an errand or two and come back home to discover…someone else has parked in “your” spot! This free rider problem reduces your incentive to dig your … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged behavior, economics, education, emergent norms, emergent order, fun, game theory, how-to, micro-institutions, micro-institutions everywhere, norms, politics, weather
3 Comments
The Economist on Internet Politics
On Monday I gave a round-up of my posts on internet politics over the past year or so. Recently The Economist wrote a similar review. It is worth reading in full if this topic interests you. In this post we … Continue reading
Internet Politics Round-Up
2012 was a busy year for followers of internet politics. The SOPA controversy began in late 2011, and really picked up steam with the blackout protest on January 18. Later that month we shared news of the arrest of an … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged behavior, crime, culture, data, economics, education, elections, fun, international relations, internet politics, micro-institutions, online politics, politics, programming, public opinion, rationality, research, security, technology
1 Comment
Statistical Thinking and the Birth of Modern Computing
What do fighter pilots, casinos, and streetlights all have in common? These three disparate topics are all the subject of statistical thinking that led to (and benefitted from) the development of modern computing. This process is described in Turing’s Cathedral by George … Continue reading
What’s the Best Way to Learn? Just-In-Time versus Just-In-Case
You will never be dumber than you are right now. You will also never have more time than you do right now. Thus, you have a relative abundance of time and a relative dearth of knowledge. How do we strike … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged behavior, culture, economics, education, history, how-to, learning, online learning, pragmatism, programming, statistics, technology, uncertainty
10 Comments
Taxes, Moonshine, and State Building
I have to admit an ulterior motive behind Friday’s post. We discussed the Alchian-Allen theorem, which states that adding a fixed cost (usually but not necessarily for transportation) to the price of a good leads consumers to purchase more of the high … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged behavior, bootleggers and baptists, crime, culture, data, drugs, economics, education, entertainment, history, law enforcement, political science, politics, prohibition, taxes, technology, transportation, violence
2 Comments
Why Does Manhattan Have the Best Shrimp?
I’ll ask the question in the same form that I originally heard it: “Why does Manhattan have the best shrimp?”* It makes sense why Portland (Maine) or Boston would have great lobster–the shellfish are harvested nearby. But even though shrimping … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged behavior, culture, economics, education, nerd, prices, technology, transportation, urban politics
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Review: Everything is Obvious
Everything is Obvious (Once You Know the Answer), by Duncan Watts, had been on my wishlist for a while before my sister gave it to me for my birthday. I was already sympathetic to the book’s key point: many conclusions … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged behavior, data, economics, education, ethical statistics, history, information cascades, political science, politics, prediction, research, sociology, statistics, violence, war
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