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Or commenting.

by mjmsmith 10y ago

Or commenting.

jjawssd 10y ago
It's difficult to form a position with so much misinformation around
- jrcii 10y ago
  It's a very complex topic that requires technical knowledge at the intersection of the law, economics, and computer networks. For that reason you're far from alone, in fact all but one or two members of Congress really understand the issue.
- anigbrowl 10y ago
  OK, here's a few rules of thumb to get you started. First, be selective about whose information you consume. Nobody is right 100% of the time but you can identify news and information providers who are consistently more reliable than others. The best way to do this is by measuring their predictive power over time. You don't have to do this in a spreadsheet unless you enjoy that sort of thing, but if you notice that a source of information on some topic consistently informs you about issues earlier and more accurately than the general news media, then you should give extra weight to hat source. Second, don't make the mistake of assuming that all claims are true from the claimant's perspective, and that if you just seek to understand all the competing claims you'll be able to synthesize some great overall understanding. There are quite a lot of people who will lie and deceive either to promote their own ideology or for money. Default to assuming good faith, but never exclude the possibility of bad faith, and if you encounter it burn the source down (not literally, but by calling out the deception to raise awareness among others and undermine the deceiver's credibility). Third, never stop maintaining your own intellectual foundations. The study of economics is especially rewarding because economic insights can be applied to any area of life. I don't mean that you should sit around doing basic calculus problems all day - indeed when there are too many numbers flying about you should be cautious, because most economic mistakes derive from choosing incorrect starting assumptions rather than a failure of logic, so I'm a little suspicious of economic claims that look too like a math paper (Nobel Prize winner Ronald Coase used to refer contemptuously to 'blackboard economics,' and warned against falling too in love with one's models to the detriment of empirical observation). Rather, treat economics as a set of techniques with which to assess a complex problem. An excellent introduction to the field that has the merit of being intellectually neutral and exploring ideas from both left and right perspectives is Todd Buckholz's New Ideas From Dead Economists. IIRC it has a pretty good bibliography too, if not it'll still give you a decent overview of the field.
  - jjawssd 10y ago
    Thanks

Or commenting.

jjawssd 10y ago

It's difficult to form a position with so much misinformation around

jrcii 10y ago
It's a very complex topic that requires technical knowledge at the intersection of the law, economics, and computer networks. For that reason you're far from alone, in fact all but one or two members of Congress really understand the issue.
anigbrowl 10y ago
OK, here's a few rules of thumb to get you started. First, be selective about whose information you consume. Nobody is right 100% of the time but you can identify news and information providers who are consistently more reliable than others. The best way to do this is by measuring their predictive power over time. You don't have to do this in a spreadsheet unless you enjoy that sort of thing, but if you notice that a source of information on some topic consistently informs you about issues earlier and more accurately than the general news media, then you should give extra weight to hat source. Second, don't make the mistake of assuming that all claims are true from the claimant's perspective, and that if you just seek to understand all the competing claims you'll be able to synthesize some great overall understanding. There are quite a lot of people who will lie and deceive either to promote their own ideology or for money. Default to assuming good faith, but never exclude the possibility of bad faith, and if you encounter it burn the source down (not literally, but by calling out the deception to raise awareness among others and undermine the deceiver's credibility). Third, never stop maintaining your own intellectual foundations. The study of economics is especially rewarding because economic insights can be applied to any area of life. I don't mean that you should sit around doing basic calculus problems all day - indeed when there are too many numbers flying about you should be cautious, because most economic mistakes derive from choosing incorrect starting assumptions rather than a failure of logic, so I'm a little suspicious of economic claims that look too like a math paper (Nobel Prize winner Ronald Coase used to refer contemptuously to 'blackboard economics,' and warned against falling too in love with one's models to the detriment of empirical observation). Rather, treat economics as a set of techniques with which to assess a complex problem. An excellent introduction to the field that has the merit of being intellectually neutral and exploring ideas from both left and right perspectives is Todd Buckholz's New Ideas From Dead Economists. IIRC it has a pretty good bibliography too, if not it'll still give you a decent overview of the field.
- jjawssd 10y ago
  Thanks