Friday, April 30, 2010

Big Bag of Big Ideas

The Data Driven Life - How self-measurement is not just for the anal-retentive anymore, what we can and can't learn from self-measurement, and the itches it scratches.

He's not your grandfather's Adam Smith, according to Amartya Sen. I heard him speak a good portion of this argument at Cornell and I'm glad to see that he fleshed this part out more, with specific examples of what Smith said (rather than trying to argue that if Smith didn't say what his caricature claims then all words like 'capitalism' and 'socialism' have no meaning so we might as well all come over to the Dark Side. I, for one, don't think it remarkable that Smith never used the word capitalism - it was gifted to us by the socialists much later, just as 'Christianity' was by its opponents.). Hear Adam Smith take down Wall Street speculators, defend public services, praise African morality, and favor income redistribution ("When the regulation, therefore, is in favour of the workmen, it is always just and equitable; but it is sometimes otherwise when in favour of the masters.")

The search for Hari Seldon continues in brief bursts. [I am so geekly proud of myself for remembering that name! Even if I did go to Wiki to check the spelling.]

Oh, and do remember there's this wonderful series that explains the whys of math. No wonder this guy (from Cornell) won so many teaching awards.

Hat tips to MR and Blattman.

No comments:

Post a Comment