Public knowledge, private know-how?
Via Alex Tabarrok at MR … abstract public knowledge per se has very little effect on corporate patenting, publishing, or employment of scientists. Our study… Read More »Public knowledge, private know-how?
Ricardo Hausman on know-how and economic development
Economic development depends on the accumulation of know-how. The theory of economic growth has long emphasised the importance of something called technical progress, but what… Read More »Ricardo Hausman on know-how and economic development
Looking for the mouse: Clay Shirky on cognitive surplus
This is a transcript from a talk given in 2008, also featuring Gilligan’s Island and Gin… I was being interviewed by a TV producer to… Read More »Looking for the mouse: Clay Shirky on cognitive surplus
Seth Godin on optimisation vs maximisation
Here’s very-nearly the whole post: Engineers can optimize a bridge. There are some bridge designs that satisfy aesthetic, financial, durability, safety and efficiency needs better… Read More »Seth Godin on optimisation vs maximisation
Oliver Burkeman on reading, forgetting, and shaping your sensibility
Burkeman, insightful as ever (his third reason is the important one): These days, in the world of productivity and personal development, you can’t throw a… Read More »Oliver Burkeman on reading, forgetting, and shaping your sensibility
Hannah Arendt on labour and consumption, automation and Utopia
… the developments of the last decade, and especially the possibilities opened up through the further development of automation, give us reason to wonder whether… Read More »Hannah Arendt on labour and consumption, automation and Utopia
Can art corrupt?; or, Changing the subject
Can art corrupt? Well, can art transform us? Is it art if it doesn’t? Is the object art, or is art what happens in the… Read More »Can art corrupt?; or, Changing the subject
“If it was easy for them to have made a meaningful improvement, they would have done so already.”: Megan Stevenson on social change and constraints
(Still) recommended. Perhaps there is something unique about the people studied by RCTs in the criminal legal space that could limit generalizability. For instance, the… Read More »“If it was easy for them to have made a meaningful improvement, they would have done so already.”: Megan Stevenson on social change and constraints
Hannah Arendt on Marx’s equivocal view of labour
Marx’s attitude toward labor, and that is toward the very center of his thought, has never ceased to be equivocal. While it was an “eternal… Read More »Hannah Arendt on Marx’s equivocal view of labour
Cascades, tides and shifting stars in social interventions: Megan Stevenson on cause, effect and the limits of RCTs
Recommended. A wide-lens view on more than fifty years of RCTs in the criminal legal space reveals a few common themes: most interventions don’t work,… Read More »Cascades, tides and shifting stars in social interventions: Megan Stevenson on cause, effect and the limits of RCTs