Popular Posts
- Avoiding “Sagan Syndrome.” Why Astronomers and Journalists should pay heed to Biologists about ET. Plus also see related post Intelligent life is just getting started
- Understanding AI risk. How Star Trek got talking computers right in 1966, while Her got it wrong in 2013.
- Apple’s strategy tax on services versus Google. Voice interaction becoming the “God particle” of mobile.
- The surveillance society is a step forward. But one that harkens back to our deep forager past.
Archive By Date
Note: You can also browse Archive by Topic
Jan-Dec 2019
- Apple’s new services strategy. Apple is commoditizing (some) of its complements: music, movies, TV. 13-Jan-2019
- Sunday links 13-Jan-2019: Apple services, China climate change, superstar cities, falling murder rates 13-Jan-2019
- Saturday links 19-Jan-2019: Gravitization of quantum mechanics, Revolt of the public, income sharing for tuition, Big 5 personality quiz 19-Jan-2019
- Wednesday links 30-Jan-2019: Cognition models, Marx and virtue signalling, slime, iterated embryo selection, screentime 30-Jan-2019
- Apple revoking Facebook’s certificate was a strategic err which may come back to haunt the tech industry 02-Feb-2019
- Saturday links 9-Feb-2019: climate and epidemics, ur DNA r belong to us, Alzheimer’s gum disease, Aphantasia 09-Feb-2019
- Saturday links 16-Feb-2019: Campus disinvitations, reducing suspensions backfires, college loans, Fortnite is all about the social 16-Feb-2019
- Sunday links 10-Mar-2019: Facebook privacy, DNA shell casings, workism, our baby shark future 10-Mar-2019
- Sunday 17-Mar-2019: College admissions, Waymo, Wigner’s friend, Zebra flies 17-Mar-2019
- Saturday links 30-Mar-2019: status as a service, niche superstars, screentime, Model T as hatkiller 30-Mar-2019
- Why did boomer become an insult? Because the internet is shattering industrial era politics and culture 19-Nov-2019
- Why is Christmas music so bad? Answer: 1950’s television. 25-Dec-2020
- As of Jan 2022 my new posts are at Substack 31-Dec-2021
- Intelligence is prediction. And it comes in two flavors: intuitive and reasoning. AGI is intuitive. 08-Apr-2023
Jan-Dec 2018
- Saturday Links 06-Jan-2018: Meltdown, Tabby’s dusty star, live tweeting Fox, aDNA from Alaska 06-Jan-2018
- Saturday Links 13-Jan-2018: CES and Apple, Facebook newsfeed, IQ genomics, Star Wars 13-Jan-2018
- Saturday Links 20-Jan-2018: Spotted Toad on Opiods, Amazon HQ2 as tech monopoly marketing, Blue Planet II 20-Jan-2018
- Saturday Links 27-Jan-2018 Cloned monkeys, Amazon Go, AI medicine outperforming humans since the 1970s, Eye for an Eye 27-Jan-2018
- Saturday Links 02-Feb-2018 Amazon health, faithland, driverless trucks, rules for life 03-Feb-2018
- Saturday Links 10-Feb-2018 Subscription news is innately partisan, Voice UI, Europa and Enceladus, Hobbits back to the trees 10-Feb-2018
- Saturday Links 24-Feb-2018 (part 1). Cheddar Man, YIMBY housing, musical puberty, Alto’s Odyssey 24-Feb-2018
- Saturday Links 24-Feb-2018 (part 2). Decentralized crtyponetworks, Neatherthal art, STEM Women, Magic Leap becoming Segway 24-Feb-2018
- Saturday Links 03-Mar-2018 President Xi, Elephant aDNA, tribalism, stock and flow 03-Mar-2018
- Saturday Links 10-Mar-2018 social fake news, grit and growth mindset, aDNA, Fermi Paradox, cool map of US voting 10-Mar-2018
- Saturday Links 17-Mar-2018 Human tools 320k years old, Children and paychecks, Drake plays Fortnite, astronaut DNA 17-Mar-2018
- Saturday Links 24-Mar-2018 David Reich genetics, Facebook data, fav Robin Hanson podcast, Eukaryotic cells crush Marvel 24-Mar-2018
- Saturday Links 31-Mar-2018 Facebook outrage about privacy or politics, Galaxy dark matter, student testing, Stratechery 5 years old! 31-Mar-2018
- Attempting a constructive take on the Sam Harris/Ezra Klein/IQ disagreement. The Nerd and the Manager. 04-Apr-2018
- Saturday Links 07-Apr-2018 End of Windows, Harris and Klein and IQ, Wasps and Whales, 2001 is the best 07-Apr-2018
- Saturday Links 14-Apr-2018: Facebook, China Tech fusing with government, Birds see magnetic fields, Media a side hustle for tech giants 14-Apr-2018
- Saturday Links 21-Apr-2018 iPhone X survey, humans at sea, Huang’s law, housing, humans versus megafauna 21-Apr-2018
- Saturday Links 28-Apr-2018: DNA joins the surveillance society, voting for status, music streaming, seagoing Neanderthals 28-Apr-2018
- Saturday Links 5-May-2018: Viral sex redistribution, Filipinos 700k years ago, Contingency of Marx, Marchetti’s constant, Email as micromeetings 05-May-2018
- Saturday Links 12-May-2018: Google Duplex means…begun, the spam war has. Also genomics math, chokers are the best, hearing with a vibrating vest. 12-May-2018
- Saturday Links 19-May-2018: AI GPUs crush Moore’s law, Europa plumes, Ice cores and Rome, evolving cultural brains 19-May-2018
- Saturday links 26-May-2018: Golden Rice, Algorithmic social feeds, Racism as original sin, Asteroid smotes flying birds 26-May-2018
- Saturday Links 2-Jun-2018: AI’s balmy winter, Malaria GMO mosquitoes, Marshmallow 2.0, Mass of life on Earth 02-Jun-2018
- Saturday Links 9-Jun-2018: Facebook teens, Ozimek’s economy is alright, Ritchie’s Hypeology, chill out on banning plastic straws 09-Jun-2018
- Thursday Links 21-Jun-2018: the rise of market Autocracies, Uighurs, Taubes comeuppance, Scootermania 21-Jun-2018
- The Asian discrimination lawsuit against Harvard won’t change admission rates. But it damages claims to meritocracy. 22-Jun-2018
- Saturday Links 23-Jun-2018: Disability is down, German immigrants, Patrilineal kin groups, Paul McCartney carpool karaoke 23-Jun-2018
- Saturday Links 30-Jun-2018: Next gen Apple maps, WEIRD Cousin Marriage, Fermi Paradox, Dunbar limits on places 30-Jun-2018
- Saturday Links 7-Jul-2018: Free Speech and power, Tribal nations, Imperceptibly changing minds, flying electric spiders 07-Jul-2018
- Saturday Links 14-Jul-2018: Genomic Prediction of Social Mobility, Alzheimer Virus, Mind as prediction, Sonos teardown 14-Jul-2018
- Sunday Links 22-Jul-2018: Voice computing, Netflix, Quantum gravity, blueberry Earth 22-Jul-2018
- Sunday Links 29-Jul-2018: Genetics of education, Big tech economics, MOOC middlemen get the $, Underground water on Mars 29-Jul-2018
- Sunday Links 5-Aug-2018: Shifting language of racism, two kinds of YIMBY, Island Dwafism, Wildfires and Houses 05-Aug-2018
- Sunday Links 12-Aug-2018: most don’t shop with Alexa, Loss Aversion, workplace wellness RCT, Arambourgiania, Colima volcano 12-Aug-2018
- Saturday Links 18-Aug-2018: Turchin’s model for social crisis, feudal California taxes, PGS for disease, Elephant genes 18-Aug-2018
- Sunday Links 26-Aug-2018: Facebook and Nutella, Neanderthal Denisovan mix, infinite book scroll, Angry Angry Hippo 26-Aug-2018
- Sunday links 3-Sep-2018: the Cavalli-Sforza era, text editing methods, some excellent charts 03-Sep-2018
- Saturday links 8-Sep-2018: Kessler space junk, unsupervised play is good, white flight Asian edition 08-Sep-2018
- Saturday Links 22-Sep-2018: Ben Thompson on internet regulation, Apple reviews, micromobility, Kipchoge’s ridiculously fast marathon 22-Sep-2018
- Tuesday Links 25-Sep-2018: Dickinsonia is an animal!, demography of poverty, China US rivalry, Insitome and Ezra Klein podcasts 25-Sep-2018
- Saturday Links 29-Sep-2018 Flashbulb memories and Kavanaugh, China-US trade, Facebook and mob violence, climate change 29-Sep-2018
- Monday Links 8-Oct-2018: Tyler Cowen Straussianism explained, Banksy shreds, China v English prose 08-Oct-2018
- Saturday Links 13-Oct-2018: Khashoggi murder and crude oil, IPCC climate economics, Harvard as elite finishing school 13-Oct-2018
- Monday Links 22-Oct-2018: Warren and genetic testing, Polygenic scores and racism, Wealth increases gender differences 22-Oct-2018
- Sunday Links 28-Oct-2018: Spotify playbook, Ben Thompson on tech regulation, exponential overdoses, Hilary Greaves on consequentialism 28-Oct-2018
- Why the new hoax papers on cultural studies merely confirmed everyone’s priors 31-Oct-2018
- Monday Links 5-Nov-2018: Printing and Populism, Psychologists and free speech, new Apple maps 05-Nov-2018
- Saturday Links 10-Nov-2018: Amazon HQ2 as farce, American aDNA, Head Start, do not summon the doxxing demon 10-Nov-2018
- Saturday Links 17-Nov-2018: Stagnant science, Chinese fan economy, Qualtrics, best burgers no more 17-Nov-2018
- Monday Links 26-Nov-2018: embryo selection is a bigger deal than CRISPR, China panopticon, Saudi relations, software eats photography 26-Nov-2018
- Sunday Links 16-Dec-2018: Bitcoin bubble or scam or platform, Waymo cars, population mountains 16-Dec-2018
- Sunday Links 23-Dec-2018: US-China cold war, moving to superstar cities, internet shaming 23-Dec-2018
Jan-Dec 2016
- On the harsh reaction to Paul Graham’s post on inequality. Adapting Tyler Cowen’s laws to writing on the internet. 2016-Jan-12
- My Soylent review: decent with a very annoying packaging flaw. Plus disruption frameworks. 2016-Jan-25
- The dream of AI has always been talking computers. General AI as prediction. 2016-Jun-09
Oct-Dec 2015
- Homo naledi and the braided stream of humanity. It’s miscegenation all the way down. 2015-Oct-21
- An iPad with a keyboard is not a PC! Technology transitions and PCs in the Clipper ship era. 2015-Oct-27
- The current Perez tech cycle is software driven. Which is great, except now monopoly is eating the world. 2015-Nov-13
- Using Hannah Arendt to understand the Islamic State. And other recommended reads. 2015-Nov-24
- Since cars replaced horses, won’t robots replace people? The future of technological unemployment. 2015-Dec-09
- Why a new Star Trek is a bad idea, even though a new Star Wars is fine. Science Fiction ≠ Fantasy. 2015-Dec-18
- Praxtime 2015 year end review. My favorites in science, tech, econ, pop culture. Grading and making predictions. 2015-Dec-28
Jan-Sep 2015
- The best place to look for aliens is in a galaxy far, far away. 2015-Apr-20
- Cord Cutting: You know it’s all about UX, ’bout UX. No savings. 2015-Apr-30
- Understanding AI risk. How Star Trek got talking computers right in 1966, while Her got it wrong in 2013. 2015-May-27
- Talking computers pose a threat to current Apple versus Google market segmentation. Beyond Peak Google. 2015-Jun-04
- 2015 is a transition year to the (somewhat creepy) machine learning era. Apple, Google, privacy and ads. 2015-Jun-10
- Blazing a path on machine learning and privacy, Google risks becoming “Uber for lawsuits” 2015-Jun-16
- Twitter’s Temptation: The False Allure of Anonymous Users. 2015-Jun-22
- Science Fiction movie priorities should be movie first, science second. Because movies are hard. 2015-Jun-29
- The algorithmic hand is replacing the invisible hand. But Hayek still applies. 2015-Jul-07
- Why I’m excited about the new Apple TV for gaming, movies, TV, apps, Siri 2015-Sep-08
Jul-Dec 2014
- Windows 9 explained with smiley faces and Venn diagrams. An emoji update to my Win8 post. 2014-Jul-07
- Disruption theory’s ultimate ironic success would be falsifying itself. Plus Newton, Popper and Darwin duke it out. 2014-Jul-14
- Dan Kahan’s cultural cognition shows why climate-splaining is a fail. Plus applying it to Paul Krugman. 2014-Jul-21
- Wall street, businesses and even developers feel the seductive allure of monopoly without consequences. 2014-Aug-04
- Internet economics is relentlessly pulling ebooks and libraries towards subscription streaming. 2014-Aug-18
- The surveillance society is a step forward. But one that harkens back to our deep forager past. 2014-Sep-08
- Apple is taking biometrics mainstream. Watch out as software eats identity and payments. 2014-Sep-15
- There’s a lot to be said for analyzing tech eras by user interface: Gaming, Oculus, Apple Watch. 2014-Oct-13
- Retailers hate Apple Pay now, but it may work out fine for them long term. 2014-Oct-27
- Grading last year’s praxtime predictions for 2014 2014-Dec-30
- 5 praxtime predictions for 2015 2014-Dec-30
Apr-Jun 2014
- Getting fat is a metabolic disorder. An evolutionary take on Paleo and Low Carb Diets. 2014-Apr-07
- Twitter should copy Facebook the Conglomerate or Facebook Paper, not Facebook the web site. 2014-Apr-14
- Contrary to popular belief, fusion power generation is not really like the Sun 2014-Apr-21
- Sure software methodologies appear different. But keep in mind what they have in common. 2014-Apr-28
- Windows 8 explained with smiley faces and Venn diagrams. 2014-May-05
- Jimmy Iovine argues curating music playlists is niche behavior. But this critique applies more broadly. 2014-May-12
- Inequality, Piketty and Matthew Yglesias’ The Rent Is Too Damn High 2014-May-19
- The Ideological Turing Test. What it is. Why it’s worth taking seriously. 2014-May-27
- Time to accept Frozen’s greatness. And why not? John Lasseter modeled Elsa’s biggest scene. 2014-Jun-02
- Timing is Everything. Apple TV, gaming disruption, and why futurists aren’t billionaires. 2014-Jun-16
- On the fated path from disruptive startup to regulated tech monopoly 2014-Jun-23
- The job to be done by Android TV is big screen app entertainment, which will (eventually) subsume existing TV. 2014-Jun-30
Jan-Mar 2014
- Mobile Telecoms. Not just big. Really really big. 2014-Jan-06
- Multiple TV remotes showcase the evils of complexity. Smart TVs just make it worse. 2014-Jan-13
- Let’s get real about Selfish Genes, Group Selection and Altruism. Towards a less impoverished view of humanity. 2014-Jan-20
- Google believes they’re Bell Labs. They’re becoming GE. Long term danger? Becoming a regulated utility. 2014-Jan-27
- Make the world better. Don’t say “thin client” again. Ever. 2014-Feb-01
- Internet pricing, Dungeon Keeper and the case for Minimum Viable Free Product (MVFP). 2014-Feb-10
- Bad Software Design. Splitting the blame between Malice, Stupidity and Difficulty. 2014-Feb-17
- Bitcoin is a far better payment system than currency. And that’s just fine. 2014-Feb-24
- WhatsApp’s first year free model deserves to be emulated 2014-Mar-03
- Bitcoin as Rorschach Test. Some see Traditional Currency. Others see Byzantine Generals. 2014-Mar-10
- Mundane Science and SF are awesome. Please stop it with the invisibility cloaks and FTL. 2014-Mar-17
- What Chess and Moore’s Law teach us about the progress of technology 2014-Mar-24
- The God Particle Revisited: Augmented Audio Reality in the Age of Wearables. 2014-Mar-31
Oct-Dec 2013
- Utopian Radicals Never Recant. Not 1960’s leftists. Not Tea Party rightists. 2013-Oct-06
- GM Crops: The Perfect is the Enemy of the Good 2013-Oct-13
- Life hacking tips and tricks 2013-Oct-20
- Business Models for Free Software 2013-Oct-27
- This is my first Praxtime blog post on WordPress. Moved from Tumblr. 2013-Nov-03
- Apple’s strategy tax on services versus Google. Voice interaction becoming the “God particle” of mobile. 2013-Nov-03
- What Star Wars teaches us about being “wrong on the internet” 2013-Nov-10
- Area man reports “I’m in a promising local blog.” Which is why Twitter needs Pandora style timelines. 2013-Nov-18
- Avoiding “Sagan Syndrome.” Why Astronomers and Journalists should pay heed to Biologists about ET. 2013-Nov-25
- Coal is so bad it makes fracking good 2013-Dec-02
- The Reproducibility Crisis in Science. Or, how I learned to stop worrying and love nukes with a side of bacon. 2013-Dec-09
- Average is Over could use more focus on the Zero Marginal Cost Economics of software 2013-Dec-16
- Grading last year’s predictions for 2013 (my 2014 predictions coming next week) 2013-Dec-23
- 10 Praxtime predictions for 2014 2013-Dec-30
Jul-Sep 2013
- The Gradual Singularity 2013-Jul-07
- The Economics of Artificial Intelligence 2013-Jul-14
- The College “Bundle” and MOOC online learning 2013-Jul-21
- MOOCs and the future of college 2013-Jul-28
- Economists agree on microeconomics, not macroeconomics. The public believes the opposite. 2013-Aug-04
- With some sympathy for Orson Scott Card 2013-Aug-11
- In favor of the Super Early Anthropocene 2013-Aug-18
- Homo Erectus – not so different from modern humans 2013-Aug-25
- The stock market blindly lusts after exploitative monopolies 2013-Sep-01
- The Innovation/Monopoly axis 2013-Sep-08
- The Future of Phones? Free Phablets! 2013-Sep-15
- Next Gen TV Set Top Boxes are generalized platforms combining DVR + Cable + Receiver + Game Console 2013-Sep-22
- Intelligent life is just getting started 2013-Sep-29
Apr-Jun 2013
- Gay marriage is conservative 2013-Apr-07
- Football, Boxing and head injuries 2013-Apr-14
- A future where it’s normal for all public spaces to be captured on video 2013-Apr-21
- Coupons will never, ever, ever go away 2013-Apr-28
- Sometimes bad policy isn’t caused by red state/blue state, but by biased human cognition. 2013-May-05
- Politics are driven by urbanization as much as race 2013-May-12
- Snail mail to the stars 2013-May-19
- Race and IQ. Can’t we all just get along? 2013-May-26
- Atheism as a sacred belief 2013-Jun-02
- Living with a deep faith in science 2013-Jun-09
- Demonizing along your preferred axis 2013-Jun-16
- Predictions about self-driving cars 2013-Jun-23
- Bees are to hives what neurons are to brains 2013-Jun-30
Jan-Mar 2013
- Digital Economics: The Zero Marginal Cost Economy 2013-Jan-06
- Digital Economics: Movies 2013-Jan-13
- Digital Economics: TV and cord cutting 2013-Jan-20
- Life on Wet Planets 2013-Jan-27
- So where are all the aliens? 2013-Feb-03
- Articles worth thinking about – Feb 2013 2013-Feb-10
- How much should we worry about the Population Apocalypse? 2013-Feb-18
- What sport are humans best evolved for? 2013-Feb-24
- Two Models of Why We Get Fat 2013-Mar-03
- Why We Get Fat by Gary Taubes 2013-Mar-10
- Digital Economics: Content wants to subscription stream 2013-Mar-17
- What are the risks of a global pandemic? 2013-Mar-24
- College athletes should be paid 2013-Mar-31
Oct-Dec 2012
- The (very slow) Rise of Scientific Materialism 2012-Oct-07
- Consciousness and Free Will 2012-Oct-14
- The debate on Strong Artificial Intelligence and conscious computers 2012-Oct-21
- Sifting through bad password advice to find the good stuff 2012-Oct-28
- Understanding Republican Science Denialism. Haidt is right. Mooney is wrong. 2012-Nov-04
- Perfect meritocracy replaces class with caste 2012-Nov-11
- Repeal price gouging laws now. Why? Zombie apocalypse. 2012-Nov-18
- The winding path to multi-ethnic democracy 2012-Nov-25
- Advice on home stereo gear 2012-Dec-02
- Why is Christmas music terrible? Answer: 1950’s television. 2012-Dec-09
- Digital Economics: The Hollow Middle 2012-Dec-16
- The Long View on Violence and Gun Control 2012-Dec-23
- 10 Predictions for 2013 2012-Dec-30
Jul-Sep 2012
- Science on the cusp of mainstream 2012-Jul-08
- Higgs nightmare scenario – still good science 2012-Jul-15
- Adventures at Safeway 2012-Jul-15
- Closing the astronaut window. Robots onward. 2012-Jul-22
- Cheap genome sequencing – expectations and reality 2012-Jul-29
- Genomics goes from trickle to flood 2012-Aug-05
- The Genomic Tsunami. Reshaping arguments for Human Equality. 2012-Aug-12
- Ricardo does the medal count 2012-Aug-19
- The Enduring Appeal of Ayn Rand 2012-Aug-26
- Why did Paul Ryan lie about his marathon time? 2012-Sep-02
- Partisan Incomprehension. “You didn’t build that” edition. 2012-Sep-02
- On the total awesomeness of economist Scott Sumner 2012-Sep-09
- The Rise of the Touchscreen Interface 2012-Sep-16
- Beyond the Touchscreen Interface, to Voice Interaction 2012-Sep-23
- The Apple maps kerfuffle means the opposite of what most of the press is saying 2012-Sep-30