This week I was in New York writing about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, I had a piece in The Boston Globe that adapted my prior writing on artificial intelligence, a piece I really love was unleashed from the paywall at Compact, and I was also in Persuasion writing about artificial intelligence but from a very different perspective than the Globe piece.
With release about a month away, book promo is fully upon us. Make my life easier by preordering now! It’s good, a fast and fun read, and correct on the most important political issues of our lives. And buying it really sticks it to the libs/cons, so that’s a bonus.
This Week’s Posts
Monday, July 24th - The Paradox of Vermont (subscriber only)
Why desirability and affordability can sometimes be complicated.
Tuesday, July 25th - What Would a Function System of Equal Opportunity Look Like?
Equal opportunity, the liberal lodestar, doesn’t have much to say when it comes to those who lose as a result of their own talent and work ethic.
Thursday, July 27th - Let Me Repeat Myself: The SAT's Predictive Power for College Grades is Systematically Underestimated Because of Range Restriction
A lot of people underestimate the power of the SAT because of how data on its predictive validity is collected.
From the Archives
I think this June 2016 Washington Post story about the identity crisis of the Democrats looks pretty prescient now.
Song of the Week
Non-Garbage Online Reading
Book Recommendation
Elektra: Assassin, Frank Miller and Bill Sienkiewicz, 1986
Far and away the best comic book I've ever read, this limited series pulls off a series of incredibly neat tricks in a package that’s smart and deep without having any of the usual foibles of self-importance and grimness that so many serious comic books fall into. In part, this is accomplished through a slow burn of a tonal change, to the point where the tone at the end is 180 degrees from the tone at the beginning - from a dark, sad story filled with real human brokenness to a joyful and anarchic romp. The way that it all comes together still feels sort of impossible to me now; I grinned like an idiot the first time I ever finished it. But none of it would land with nearly as much force without Bill Sienkiewicz's hypnotic, pulsating art, every frame of which contains complexities that you can dive into. All of Frank Miller's strengths are present with none of his usual bizarre hangups and obsessions. A true triumph and something any reader should consider picking up, comic book fan or no.
Comment of the Week
One of the silent unanswered questions about "equality of opportunity" is "to what?" I think most people who use the phrase mean it at the most basic level, i.e. people should not be stuck in hereditary or caste based employment roles - a blacksmith's son can be something other than a blacksmith, working as a butcher or mortician shouldn't single your family out for generational social sanction, etc.
At that level, I agree that "equality of opportunity" is a sensible societal goal. But anything more than that assumes that people of unequal abilities and temperaments will have equal opportunities to be employed in all sectors of the economy, from show biz to particle physics, which makes no sense. - Randolph Carter
That’s it. See you Monday.
Ah, Elektra: Assassin… not remembered as well as Watchmen or Dark Knight but Sienkiewicz was as vital as Moore or Miller, as electrifying in that late 80s moment of the comics medium’s revolution, but never produced anything of such sustained genius again. His Moby Dick is brilliant but short, Stray Toasters is fantastic but deeply weird, Big Numbers with Moore never made it out of the small numbers. He’s produced many exquisite images since but nothing that’s truly worth his talent. Sounds condescending, but it’s a shame.
Funny anecdote in your Persuasion piece about 3D printing. I remember going to the first few Maker Faire events held at the NY Hall of Science during that same period. 3D printing was all over the Faire, with both hobbyists and commercial groups displaying their printers and printed objects. There was definitely a vibe that we were on the cusp of a revolution, as if they had invented Star Trek replicators. At the time, they were basically printing small 3d toys in hard, monochrome plastic. I work in a laboratory science and there was also a prediction that we would be 3d printing a lot of our own lab equipment. Much of it was related to the "open source" and "open access" movements that were gaining steam. The latter movements have largely been coopted by for-profit academic publishers and the like.