Jacob Mathew

The hardness is to move forward and quickly in the face of complexity and uncertainty.

[Jon @conw_y]

Real gem of an insight from @bmathecon on the @RationalRemind thread:
“I think it’s fine for international investors to hold US TIPS if there aren’t onerous cost or regulatory hurdles. Currency risk is probably not as problematic as inflation risk.”

Why I love this community!

[Jon @conw_y]

Brilliant episode. Must-listen.

[Rational Reminder Podcast @RationalRemind]

What strategies do you use to navigate challenges in your own financial planning? 💡💰

https://t.co/vdbgaPI4Q4 🎧

[Ben Mathew @bmathecon]

I really enjoyed talking to @benjaminfelix and @MarkMcGrathCFP about financial planning using the lifecycle model of economics vs SWR.

I’ve listened to the podcast for years and it was a privilege to be on the other side discussing a topic that’s close to my heart!

[Ben Mathew @bmathecon]

Link to article: https://t.co/IcINkx0cPx

[Ben Mathew @bmathecon]

Worth noting also that the lifecycle model of economics suggests amortization, not SWR techniques.

[Ben Mathew @bmathecon]

I wrote a guest post about withdrawal strategies for the White Coat Investor blog. Most withdrawal strategies are based on Amortization Based Withdrawals (ABW) or Safe Withdrawal Rates (SWR). I explain why amortization works better than SWR.

[Jacob Mathew @jacobgmathew]

@michael_nielsen The space of possibilities is also vastly larger than the number of planets in the universe. That is sobering because most possibilities will remain unexplored in the history and future of the universe. Most states will never exist.

https://t.co/FjrTMLJfYz

[Jacob Mathew @jacobgmathew]

It bothers me how small the universe is. There are just approximately a trillion galaxies with a trillion stars each. That is just 10^24 stars, and say with 10 planets per star, just 10^25 planets, very generously. That is negligible in comparison to infinity.

[Jacob Mathew @jacobgmathew]

Likewise, being contrarian is, ironically, being conformist with the sign bit flipped. The important thing is to be correct, not conformist or contrarian.

[Paul Graham @paulg]

Automatically disbelieving authorities isn't independent-mindedness. It's just conformism with the sign bit flipped.

[Jacob Mathew @jacobgmathew]

Mostly I envy mathematicians.

[Jacob Mathew @jacobgmathew]

It's lucky that we live in a universe with only 118 elements. What if there were a hundred quadrillion? Could intelligence have emerged that could make sense for anything?

[Jacob Mathew @jacobgmathew]

Generative AI has been a marginal improvement for me when programming in a domain I am knowledgeable about. But it *really* eases the learning curve when working on something I am new at.

[Jacob Mathew @jacobgmathew]

react is so complex now.

[Jacob Mathew @jacobgmathew]

10^25 planets in the universe.

10^67 ways to shuffle a deck of cards.

the universe is tiny.

[Jacob Mathew @jacobgmathew]

But more worryingly 10^25 is nothing against the combinatorial explosion or possibilities. Which means most “possible” planets probably don’t exist. Which means that most things that can exist don’t.

[Jacob Mathew @jacobgmathew]

@robinhanson Somewhat relevant thoughts on life in this universe.
https://t.co/FjrTMLJfYz

[Jacob Mathew @jacobgmathew]

It bothers me how small the universe is. There are just approximately a trillion galaxies with a trillion stars each. That is just 10^24 stars, and say with 10 planets per star, just 10^25 planets, very generously. That is negligible in comparison to infinity.

[Jacob Mathew @jacobgmathew]

and this was just the moon. you won' t believe what happens when the earth gets between you and the sun.

[Jacob Mathew @jacobgmathew]

@Austen https://t.co/dVzLOZw7QO

[Jacob Mathew @jacobgmathew]

I understand the important role that peer review is intended to play in science in terms of evaluating the correctness and importance of a paper, but I there is something fundamentally dysfunctional about it. I am particularly wary of evaluations of importance. 1/8

[Jacob Mathew @jacobgmathew]

How much of the future will be due to a few smart driven ambitious people.

[Jacob Mathew @jacobgmathew]

The rareness of the prokaryote to eukaryote transition (just once in 4 billion years!) on earth seems like a really bad sign for the possibility of complex life in the face of this math.

[Jacob Mathew @jacobgmathew]

It’s practically a rounding error from 0 when measured against the space of all natural numbers.

[Jacob Mathew @jacobgmathew]

It is possible that life is such a thing. We don’t live in a universe in which just because life exists on earth we can assume it is abundant in the universe. There are just not enough planets to counter the combinatorial possibilities.