Action Figure Daniel

Category: Notes

  • “Breakneck” by Dan Wang

    • China focuses on an “Engineering state” while the US is a “Lawyer state”
    • Lawyers have spread throughout the US economy, even pushing out economists
    • Law focuses on procedures over outcome
    • China provides very few social services
    • Because planning is already done, funding can be deployed really quickly
    • Smartphones create so many spare components that new things can be fashioned cheaply and easily
    • China’s tech advances have surged
    • It is difficult to maintain know-how without running people through the process
    • Forced technology transfers actually hurt local firms because they don’t develop the experience of researching
    • The US likes to claim invention but usually seeds manufacturing to others
    • China took infrequent, imprecise census making it difficult to manage the population
    • The shortages that led up the One Child Policy were caused by socialism, not population
    • The rich are leaving China because of the government whiplash
    • Engineering state is better at stockpiling
    • China is trying to be more like Germany than the US
    • DOGE should focus on reducing processes instead of personnel
    • The US needs to re-embrace its engineering roots
    • “Developing [nation]” is a term to embrace with pride

  • “Bird School” by Adam Nicolson

    • Birds are literally afraid of being watched
    • Butterfly wing “eyes” are meant to scare birds
    • Nature needs a balance of occasional destruction with time to recover
    • Fuzziness is needed to imagine other lives
    • Wrens are very productive and promiscuous
    • Birds with big eyes can “see” the day earlier and so sing earlier
    • Bird eyes are huge!
    • They sing in a combination of preference and when there is room in for them in the acoustic space
    • “Singing is expensive”
    • Males tend to sing more often than females
    • Female robin sing to be fed; the longer the male ignores her the louder and closer to the border she sings
    • Owls auditory nerve runs by the optical center so they may “see” sound
    • Owls can’t see well in the dark (about the same as us), instead they rely almost entirely on sound and memory
    • Ravens evolved with us
    • Juvenile ravens roam in murders looking for food and new territories
      • They will mob resident crows to get their way, but only if they have the numbers
    • Bird perception is really high; eels are around 14 pulse a second, humans are 60, birds are over 100
    • Birds have two voice boxes with incredible precision
    • Parts of the brain that control song expand in the spring and contract in the fall
    • For some birds, they are born with a compass but have to learn the route
    • Song birds needs a little blue light (starlight) to effectively “see” the magnetosphere, leading to them migrating mostly at night
    • Bird feeders and houses reshape the local population to the birds who favor the food or are aggressive
    • The best way to promote native birds is to provide native food

  • “The Intelligent Investor” by Benjamin Graham

    • Don’t follow the market… Dollar cost averaging is the way to go
    • Adoption of a product does not mean long-term profit or success
      • Air travel took off but experienced such problems that it had very poor returns
    • Stocks are riskier the higher they go
    • Only buy stocks that you would be comfortable holding even if you can’t see the share prices on a daily basis
    • Specific patterns in the past do not hold up in the future
      • (Markets are inherently resistant to “hacking”)
    • There is a world of difference between “hindsight earnings” and real world earnings
    • Concentration makes the ultra-wealthy but not the regular-wealthy
    • Don’t keep all your funds at home
    • “All things excellent are as difficult as they are rare.” Spinoza
    • Never buy or sell immediately after a large movement
    • Strong performing mutual funds don’t last
    • Diversify!
    • Covering your downside is never worth giving up most of your upside
    • Fixed exchange rates are tempting but are very difficult to maintain
    • If Crypto currency succeeds, it will be co-opted by governments

  • “Our Dollar, Your Problem” by Kenneth Rogoff

    • The dollars reach is a unique oddity in history
    • Inflation is inherently a minor default
    • Seahawk movie
    • Currency exchange rates were based on USD
    • Other currencies are too thin to support large exchanges
    • Size matters but is not everything
    • The US attracts foreign investment seeking safer investments
    • We then invest in foreign markets for better returns
    • Europe’s low spend in defense allows it to spend much on social programs
    • Japan’s debt is really high
      • A weak Japan is not in the US interests
    • “This time is different”
    • If not on the Euro, Greece and Spain could have printed its own money to cover debt and might not have been trusted with so much debt
    • Central Banks speak to markets like owners speak to dogs, sentiment is more important than content
    • Asia is half of the USD block
    • Trade deficit is not as important as the saving/spending rate
    • China orchestrated worked migration to prevent over pressure
    • The IMF is judged on how well they match official numbers, not actual numbers

  • “The Sweet Spot” by Paul Bloom

    • Humans pursue pain to bring meaning to their joy
    • Persons kidnafpped by indigenous people in the “Wild West” would often go back to their kidnappers, but never the other way around
    • Pleasure and pain are not opposites
    • Horror junkies like feeling scared
    • The English word “happy” is broader than comparative words in other languages
    • More money brings more satisfaction but happiness plateaus
    • Thinking about the past and the present brings meaning but not happiness
    • We tend to try to balance hedonic experiences with pain
    • Thinking something is painful makes the actual pain less intense and we experience pleasure
      • It has to be brief
      • Not cause permanent damage
      • (Surprises are painful)
    • “Expensive signaling” is a way to show you are serious and willing to “pay” the price
      • Engagement rings are a good example, expensive and pointless
    • Boredom is pain signals for the mind
    • We get the same pleasure at watching people get justice as we do getting justice ourselves
    • Thinking hard does not burn any more glucose than thinking relaxing
    • The most taxing brain exercise is opening one’s eyes
    • Mental exhaustion is a way to help compel one to look for other things to do with one’s life
    • Most engaged people are clergy, military, librarians
    • Don’t focus on being happy to be happy