Marcus Breden

Interested in all things informatics, medicine, & philosophy of science

[Steven Pinker @sapinker]

Like an appreciation of progress, reading and literacy are among the things that are good but cognitively unnatural. That is, they go against our evolved nature. We didn’t evolve with print; it was a recent invention. Reading, for many of us, has become so second nature that we just assume it’s the most natural way of getting information. But what we’ve seen, especially in the last 10 years, when video has become so cheap because of the cloud computing revolution and the broadband revolution, is that a lot of people, unlike us, much prefer to listen and watch than to read. You just see this: when I go to Google and ask a basic question about how to unstick my printer or solve a problem, I get like five videos. And I just want a paragraph that would solve it. I don’t want to see Seth saying, “Hi, welcome to my show. If you like it, subscribe and give it a like.” So just help me solve the problem. But clearly there’s something unusual about me, because people are going for the video. And the massive availability of video—of TikTok, of YouTube—means that people may not be getting the practice or putting in the effort into literacy, which we have reason to believe was one of the drivers of the Flynn effect and of cognitive sophistication in general.

@HumanProgress

[Conjecture Institute @ConjectureInst]

Next time you buy yourself a chicken sandwich, think what has gone into it. I don't just mean the ingredients. I mean everything else behind it. The guy who drove the truck to bring it to the shop in your shopping mall. The lady who does the accounting for that trucking firm. Everybody else in that process.

They might not like each other, but all of them, pursuing their own interests, have contrived to bring you that sandwich for the equivalent of 90 minutes work on the minimum wage.

That's the genius of specialization.

~Conjecture Institute Advisor @DanielJHannan

[Saganism @Saganismm]

“Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; but to weigh and consider. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.”

— Francis Bacon

[Steven Pinker @sapinker]

A massive positive development that virtually no one has commented on (except The Progress Network's Emma Varvaloucas): Covid's Quiet Retreat https://t.co/6FO8HYj7ZC

[Marcus Breden @marcusbreden]

@DavidDeutschOxf You can extend this to much of his rhetoric. And for much of it he isn’t even delusional, just frank pathological lying. The lawsuit while he was at Fox showcased as much. And others have pointed this out within his own sphere (Ben Shapiro).

[Angry Staffer @Angry_Staffer]

Turns out pizza-gate was more or less real, but full of Republicans and not Hillary or Obama.

Go figure.

[Sally Satel @slsatel]

Superb essay about the heroic role of men in research and misleading “truth” about women’s under representation https://t.co/tRdBX37i6f

[Gurwinder @G_S_Bhogal]

“People do not seem to realize that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.”

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

[Acyn @Acyn]

Wolfers: This is the most interventionist government of my lifetime. It’s the least conservative government of my lifetime. When you are the richest country in the world, maybe you are not the ones who should be tearing down your existing institutions. That’s usually what countries that are lagging behind try to do. But that’s exactly what this president is doing.

This won’t show up in next quarter’s GDP. What it will show up as, a decade from now, is companies that were never founded. Entrepreneurs who couldn’t afford to go to business school. Immigrants with great ideas who stayed in their home countries instead. Whatever the next generation’s Google or OpenAI is, it may not be invented—or it may not happen on our soil.

We’ll never see that absence directly. But our kids will feel it. They’ll feel it as lost opportunities: businesses never started, jobs that never existed, technologies never developed, and ways of creating a greener, safer, more prosperous future that simply aren’t possible.

[Scott Lincicome @scottlincicome]

The US since 1990:
• Real GDP per capita: +68%
• Real median wages (PCE): +34%
• Infant mortality: -42%
• Life expectancy: +4 years
• Nonfarm employment: +46% (50M jobs)
• Median household wealth: +128%
• Industrial capacity: +76%

[Justin Wolfers @JustinWolfers]

Trump Administration Lifts Some Food Tariffs in Effort to Ease Prices That Were Definitely Not Higher Because It Imposed Some Food Tariffs.

https://t.co/PZi1a1sDnw

[John Wilson, MBA, MPH, MS @JohnWilson]

Can’t wait to hear what GOP leadership thinks of TrumpRx. For years Dems wanted Medicare to be able to negotiate drug prices. GOP balked and screamed socialism. Now Trump wants to sell drugs via a government-owned website.

[Spencer Hakimian @SpencerHakimian]

Trump’s Pharma Plan:

100% tariff (tax) if you buy from Johnson & Johnson/Private Sector.

0% tariff (tax) if you buy from Pfizer/TrumpRX.

If only there was a word for centrally planned economics.

[Steven Pinker @sapinker]

Absolutely: Government has a monopoly on the legitimate use of force.

[ian bremmer @ianbremmer]

would charlie kirk have wanted jimmy kimmel cancelled?

[ian bremmer @ianbremmer]

a few days ago brian kilmeade said homeless people should be executed. jesse waters accused the left of trying to start a civil war. fox news spent years telling verifiable lies about dominion and the 2020 election.

canceling jimmy kimmel isn’t about an offensive line in a monologue. it’s about wielding state power to silence political opposition.

[ian bremmer @ianbremmer]

tyler robinson’s ideology has zero impact on how i feel about his assassination of charlie kirk.

it’s despicable.
it’s an abomination.

and i fear it’s likely to bring about much more political violence in my country.

[Claire Lehmann @clairlemon]

America seems to be having its Lysenko moment. 🧵

[ian bremmer @ianbremmer]

pretty sure vladimir putin could end the war immediately, considering he's the one that invaded

[ian bremmer @ianbremmer]

president trump: a president attempting to overturn a free and fair election is guilty of treason and must be prosecuted accordingly.*

*some terms and conditions may apply.