leto_ii

58 ms·

601.
by leto_ii 7y ago
In a society there are may levers (official or not, transparent or not) that the powerful can pull to get politics to lean their preferred way. This is true of all places and all times. The more power is concentrated, the easier it is for a
602.
by leto_ii 7y ago
Well, in the US, as possibly in other places, elections are usually won by the candidate who receives the most corporate support. On top of this, a bipartite political system can quite easily keep out candidates with views that are unpalata
603.
by leto_ii 7y ago
In the Netherlands (where I currently reside as well) I think this tax can easily be avoided by placing your assets in some sort of shell company. When the startup I used to work for IPO'd I was not surprised to find that most of the i
604.
by leto_ii 7y ago
I absolutely agree. However I'm not at all sure Piketty's ideas are dogma. If anything he's the challenger to the neoliberal dogma. Secondly, the fact that there are diverging sides to an issue doesn't mean those sides h
605.
by leto_ii 7y ago
A lot of this article reminded me of the techniques used by climate change deniers to sow doubt. Take for example the following: > Another correction concerns the tax reforms passed under Ronald Reagan in 1986. Apparent changes in top in
606.
by leto_ii 7y ago
Given that I know close to nothing about musical theory (or playing music), this talk surprised me. It seems that our minds are simply wired to pick up patterns and to try to make order out of randomness. I was reminded of 'Musicophili
607.
by leto_ii 7y ago
Two quick things from back when TED talks were actually interesting/useful: 1. How to tie your shoes the right way (so the knot doesn't come undone): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAFcV7zuUDA 2. How to dry your
608.
by leto_ii 7y ago
About as bad. Although, as has been pointed out, military research can have benign applications as well.
609.
by leto_ii 7y ago
I have to say, the first time I read about Renaissance I felt sadness at the thought that this much ability and such resources were put into essentially making money out of thin air, with very limited (if any) social benefits. I can't
610.
by leto_ii 7y ago
But shouldn't they also include people with completely different genes, but the same educational background? Fraternal twins share less than identical ones, but they still share a lot. It would be interesting to see if unrelated people
611.
by leto_ii 7y ago
Indeed, I didn't see any adoption data either.
612.
by leto_ii 7y ago
Unfortunately I can't dedicate too much time to reading the article right now, but did anybody understand how they managed to isolate the genetic vs environmental components?
613.
by leto_ii 7y ago
...ok, Wikipedia it is: 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligence_quotient#Criticis... 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bell_Curve#Criticisms 3. You can also find various comments on ideas
614.
by leto_ii 7y ago
The speech also points out that most people who achieve meritocratically do so because they have access to enormous amounts of resources, since birth. In essence the rich used to just hand their wealth to their children (and most still do t
615.
by leto_ii 7y ago
I think this line of thinking can take you dangerously close to the realm of eugenics and social darwinism. I recommend Taleb's take on IQ as some food for thought: https://medium.com/incerto/iq-is-largely-a-pseudo
616.
by leto_ii 7y ago
France, as far as I know, has a two-tier university system. They have regular schools that are non-selective and then they have the grandes écoles ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grandes_%C3%A9coles ). It's these th
617.
by leto_ii 7y ago
Well, of course it's personal - in the sense that it's done at a personal level, directly between individuals. My point though is that when you have Zuck's level of power and influence nothing you do can be legitimately consi
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by leto_ii 7y ago
Well, I suspect that the help is not disinterested. Nor do I think it's done in a 'personal' capacity. How could a plutocrat like Zuckerberg possibly disentangle his private interests from those of his company?
619.
by leto_ii 7y ago
I had to make an account just to point out that your analogy doesn't make any sense :D RT (like CNN) is a network (mostly) aligned with the interests of the power structure of its respective country. Chomsky is a dissident and critic o