Curt Doolittle

Form: Quote Commentary

  • INTUITIVE ECON: THE INTERNET INCREASES PRICES —Economists have two standard ve

    https://shar.es/17xxNnCOUNTER INTUITIVE ECON: THE INTERNET INCREASES PRICES

    —Economists have two standard very simple models of product competition: firms can compete on price or compete on quantity.—

    —“whether firms compete on price or quantity depends more on which of these they must commit to earliest, not which is easier to change at the last minute. Knowing this, once you heard that it would be easier to change prices at the last minute for products sold on internet, you should have predicted that the internet would increase quantity competition and reduce price competition. Which it in fact has. Economics is general and robust enough to predict things like how selling products on the internet changes competition. But you have to use it right.”—

    The author is trying to make a different point, but I want to riff off it to show that firms compete in commodity and non-commodity spaces. And to some degree economists study commodity activity where noise and signal cancel one another out. But that isn’t how companies think about competition, it’s how distributors do.

    I have taught the following means of competition by firms:

    1) Price,

    2) Quantity,

    3) Profitability or Debt

    4) Rents (firms like polities accumulate renters)

    5) Adaptation Costs (innovator’s dilemma).

    6) Geographic Housing Costs (salary costs)

    7) Segmentation (startups start in niches and expand)

    Why? Decreasing production cycles, increasing distribution of production, the increasing importance of TALENT and innovation service industries. vs capital or credit in manufacturing and distribution companies.

    In a highly efficient market, one can sacrifice profits for talent while larger organizations accumulate internal rents. This is most frequently the reason

    Generally speaking, higher profits incentivize more rents. And while prices are sticky, internal rents are much stickier than prices.

    Generally speaking, adaptation costs vary dramatically from industry to industry: service firms trade out people and production firms trade out people and capital. The difference being that GAP regulation and tax policy obscure the tail of fixed vs human capital, largely because we can finance against the illusion of fixed capital value while we cannot finance against the obvious lack of control over human capital.

    Curt Doolittle

    The Propertarian Institute

    Kiev, Ukraine

    Source date (UTC): 2015-09-27 18:43:00 UTC

  • TECHNOLOGY ETHICS This is an interesting question in the sense that it’s a clear

    https://www.quora.com/What-are-ethics-for-an-IT-professional/answer/Curt-Doolittle?srid=u4Qv&share=1INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ETHICS

    This is an interesting question in the sense that it’s a clear application of the problem of asymmetry of information, understanding, and power, in the control of a utility (a commons).

    In any niche where one has power and influence over others, because of an asymmetry of knowledge of a common resource that the others cannot understand without extraordinary personal investment, and where he possesses power over others’ use of a common resource, we encounter the challenges of:

    (a) Free-riding: pretending to work in exchange for payment, while not providing market-value in return, because one is not subject to competition which would discover and cure one’s free-riding.

    (b) Corruption : seeking favors or privileges by granting favors or privileges.

    (c) Privatization : obtaining personal benefit from a common resource that could be consumed by others.

    (d) Punishment : deliberately punishing individuals and groups by virtue of one’s control over the provision of the common resource.

    (e) Harm : Deliberately causing the failure of individuals or groups by virtue of one’s control over the function of the common resource.

    (f) Functioning As An Agent: allowing one’s self to be used to free ride, engage in corruption, privatization punishment or harm.

    THEREFORE

    Take no personal benefit, give no favors, do no harm, preserve ethical independence from agency, and make decisions at all times by the business value of the work to be performed.

    CHALLENGES

    Political hierarchies exist by in all bureaucracies, whether private or public, which operate independently from market competition, which constantly discovers inefficiencies (corruption).

    While one an usually adhere to (a) thru (e) in one’s job, it is very hard in a bureaucracy not to be pressured into (f) (Agency) in a bureaucracy. In fact, the trading of such favors (corruption) is the currency that forms the economy of bureaucracies that are insulated from the market.

    HISTORICAL INFLUENCES

    In the 20th century, ethical pragmatism (outcome-based ethics) has replaced ethical absolutism (rule-based ethics) due to the constant pressure of left intellectuals’ attack on western high-trust ethics. This has allowed the ethical pragmatism of lower trust polities to spread in western culture. As such it is difficult to operate ethically in private life, commercial life and public life, because such unethical action is beneficial to the individual while harmful to society.

    This is why westerners are the only people to develop high trust societies. It’s very hard.

    Source date (UTC): 2015-09-27 17:20:00 UTC

  • Explaining American Directness and Volume to Foreigners

    —“The speaking volume in the United States for most conversations is very loud, which in many other countries would be considered rude. … Also, business people in the United States use very direct language and tight time management when communicating and running meetings, which people from many other countries might find off-putting.” –Raj Patel

    ON VOLUME It’s counter-intuitive, but our volume is an expression of high trust: that if I can be said, it can be said in public, and with confidence or it should not be said. Or conversely, quiet people who speak in whispers may have other nasty habits. ORIGINS It is beneficial to remember that Anglo and Germanic civilizations only split in 1830, and that america was founded by pre-1830 anglos, and that the majority of white americans are at least of partial german decent. America is an english speaking germanic country. That is what separates English speaking America from english speaking Britain, Canada and Australia. (This insight is rather profound and you will find that it explains many american cultural peculiarities. America is a Tudor,German, Civilization with english institutions, law and language). We can also recall that the world now operates Military, Aircraft, and Seas in English (germanic english) using English commands and manners, because we found out that the rest of the world operates on face (lying), hierarchical(untrue), indirect(untrue), and permissive (untrue), language suitable for village life but not for running DANGEROUS environments where truth, clarity, and directness save lives. But the question is, why did germanic anglos invent this kind of direct language? BECAUSE WESTERNERS WERE ALL MEMBERS OF THE MILITIA. German evolved as an aristocratic, martial, language. And westerners have been practicing decentralized (militia) warfare for over 5000 years – at least since they invented the Chariot. So even today, the first thing you are taught in basic training is to speak clearly, loudly, confidently, and TESTIMONIALLY (truthfully), regardless of the social impact of your speech – because otherwise PEOPLE DIE. Americans and Germans retain (Germans more so) this military culture in daily life: speak directly, clearly and truthfully. Quiet speech means you are not to be trusted, and not a fully mature adult. Until the last few generations, we were taught GRAMMAR AND RHETORIC (public speaking) as a requirement. COMPARISON FOR HINDUS You are correct in stating that this directness eliminates cooperative economic friction, decreases the necessity of developing trust (it’s assumed) and increases the use of litigation when it fails. That is because america does not regulate what we do, it punishes what we do if we fail. (This is profound difference between the napoleonic ‘parental and permission” model of law. It is not obvious but while we have very similar genetic origins, and while we both have inherited the common law, that the reason India is so pervasively corrupt, is that it is not a high trust society that has succeeded in creating a universal militia independent of class, tribe and family biases. (and the decline in truth telling in favor of political correctness and postmodern argument in all walks of life is the reason for increasing corruption in america.) The west has been through a 5000 year meat grinder military service and the relative success of the west in all fields – science, commerce, and law – is because we tell the testimonial truth regardless of cost to anyone. Because as a martial people, doing so is your path to status and enfranchisement. And because in a martial people, the truth means people live in battle. And martial people were led by martial aristocracy. It has only been since the enfranchisement of women that these requirements for disciplined truth telling have been systematically undermined. And just as martial truth-telling (testimony) is the secret of the west’s evolutionary velocity compared to older civilizations, the secret of our downfall is the decline of this tradition of martial truth telling due to the inclusion of women in the electorate. (Look at the voting data. Look at today’s voting data. American white men vote red everywhere other than main and Seattle.) And that’s pretty scary really.

  • Explaining American Directness and Volume to Foreigners

    —“The speaking volume in the United States for most conversations is very loud, which in many other countries would be considered rude. … Also, business people in the United States use very direct language and tight time management when communicating and running meetings, which people from many other countries might find off-putting.” –Raj Patel

    ON VOLUME It’s counter-intuitive, but our volume is an expression of high trust: that if I can be said, it can be said in public, and with confidence or it should not be said. Or conversely, quiet people who speak in whispers may have other nasty habits. ORIGINS It is beneficial to remember that Anglo and Germanic civilizations only split in 1830, and that america was founded by pre-1830 anglos, and that the majority of white americans are at least of partial german decent. America is an english speaking germanic country. That is what separates English speaking America from english speaking Britain, Canada and Australia. (This insight is rather profound and you will find that it explains many american cultural peculiarities. America is a Tudor,German, Civilization with english institutions, law and language). We can also recall that the world now operates Military, Aircraft, and Seas in English (germanic english) using English commands and manners, because we found out that the rest of the world operates on face (lying), hierarchical(untrue), indirect(untrue), and permissive (untrue), language suitable for village life but not for running DANGEROUS environments where truth, clarity, and directness save lives. But the question is, why did germanic anglos invent this kind of direct language? BECAUSE WESTERNERS WERE ALL MEMBERS OF THE MILITIA. German evolved as an aristocratic, martial, language. And westerners have been practicing decentralized (militia) warfare for over 5000 years – at least since they invented the Chariot. So even today, the first thing you are taught in basic training is to speak clearly, loudly, confidently, and TESTIMONIALLY (truthfully), regardless of the social impact of your speech – because otherwise PEOPLE DIE. Americans and Germans retain (Germans more so) this military culture in daily life: speak directly, clearly and truthfully. Quiet speech means you are not to be trusted, and not a fully mature adult. Until the last few generations, we were taught GRAMMAR AND RHETORIC (public speaking) as a requirement. COMPARISON FOR HINDUS You are correct in stating that this directness eliminates cooperative economic friction, decreases the necessity of developing trust (it’s assumed) and increases the use of litigation when it fails. That is because america does not regulate what we do, it punishes what we do if we fail. (This is profound difference between the napoleonic ‘parental and permission” model of law. It is not obvious but while we have very similar genetic origins, and while we both have inherited the common law, that the reason India is so pervasively corrupt, is that it is not a high trust society that has succeeded in creating a universal militia independent of class, tribe and family biases. (and the decline in truth telling in favor of political correctness and postmodern argument in all walks of life is the reason for increasing corruption in america.) The west has been through a 5000 year meat grinder military service and the relative success of the west in all fields – science, commerce, and law – is because we tell the testimonial truth regardless of cost to anyone. Because as a martial people, doing so is your path to status and enfranchisement. And because in a martial people, the truth means people live in battle. And martial people were led by martial aristocracy. It has only been since the enfranchisement of women that these requirements for disciplined truth telling have been systematically undermined. And just as martial truth-telling (testimony) is the secret of the west’s evolutionary velocity compared to older civilizations, the secret of our downfall is the decline of this tradition of martial truth telling due to the inclusion of women in the electorate. (Look at the voting data. Look at today’s voting data. American white men vote red everywhere other than main and Seattle.) And that’s pretty scary really.

  • An Insight into the Damage by Monotheism and Psychology to Western Thought

    [J]ust an insight into one of the many ways authoritarian cosmopolitan pseudoscience of psychology has damaged our world view: introversion is the result of deep thinking, and ‘neuroticism’ (worry) is the result of deep thinking. Both of which are criticized rather than rewarded. Everyone else is just ‘noise’ without the deep thinkers. My work on Propertarianism taught me to see us as locally specialized ants, and that there is no such thing as an ideal individual other than one who does so honestly and knowingly. Our observable personalities advocate for acquisition on behalf of our genes. Because of our different reproductive costs, very desirable males, very desirable females, and every gradation in between, is merely negotiating using his or her necessary strategy. What makes us ‘crazy’ is when we construct lies. MONOTHEISM did this damage via ‘one-ness’. That’s how damaging it is. It’s freaking tragic. Polytheism did not do this to us. This is a profound restatement of the nature of man. We are expensive creatures. We must act to acquire ‘property’ – that which we inventory for our own use and consumption. Cooperation is so disproportionately rewarding a means of acquisition we must bias in favor of cooperation to acquire. But cooperation invites parasitism. So we must act to punish violations of cooperation. And cooperation is always an act of experiment: trial and error. So we must preserve non-cooperation in our genes in order to ensure that unlike lemmings, we break off when cooperation is no longer in our interests. This is man. Everything else is accumulated lie. Most of it from babylonian and levantine deceit. Meanwhile in every epoch europeans seek to overturn this authoritarian deceit and return to our pagan egalitarian origins. Propertarianism tells us how. (a) we are all different and therefore need our own ‘gods’ for use in our own virtue ethics. (b) Monotheism is more damaging because of ‘one-ness’ (and equality) whereas polytheism (correctly) preserves differences (and hierarchy). (c) Perfect rulers are infallible and demand we obey(positivism), and imperfect rules are not always working in our interests and demand only we do not irritate them (falsificationism). Freudian Psychology further expanded one-ness and servitude by demanding conformity to a personality type that could be forcibly indoctrinated through peer pressure, guilt and shaming (and it worked), whereas polytheistic reasoning, and darwinian reasoning, and scientific analysis tell us that we each fulfill niche’s that need exploiting. Monotheism, 20th century Democracy, and Freudian psychology, all perpetuate a catastrophic fallacy of man. But why was this fallacy developed? Well, in Judaism it was developed for the same reason monotheism was developed between the Iranians and the Indians, who were originally the same people: to put them into conflict so that the Iranians could be controlled (by lying). Just as the jews needed a reason to unite different primitive tribes (by lying). Whereas in the west we did not encounter this problem since rule was achieved by arms, not deceit. It was only once Rome was too weak to enforce rule by arms that Justinian closed the schools and imposed christianity on the west. The value of christianity is in that it was ‘germanicized’ and that the central proposition: extension of kin love to non-kin was useful in uniting Europe under christian kings sanctioned by the church. This criticism of ‘monopoly’ and ‘monotheism’ and ‘one-ness’ and ‘equality’ is an application of the propertarian principle of the intertemporal division of reproductive perception, cognition, knowledge, labor and advocacy, between the consumptive (feminine) productive (libertarian), and accumulative (conservative) biases, wherein the only means by which we can make use of all available perception, cognition, and knowledge in the spectrum, is to conduct voluntary exchanges between the classes in that division of perception, cognition, and knowledge, just as the only means by which we can make use of the knowledge in the market is by voluntary exchange, money, prices, and contract. This a profound reformulation of the enlightenment vision of man, and the necessary form of government that assists him in production, reproduction, and genetic persistence. Curt Doolittle The Philosophy of Aristocracy Testimonialism, Propertarianism, New Classical liberalism. The Propertarian Institute , Kiev, Ukraine.

  • An Insight into the Damage of Monotheism and Psychology to Western Thought

    [J]ust an insight into one of the many ways authoritarian cosmopolitan pseudoscience of psychology has damaged our world view: introversion is the result of deep thinking, and ‘neuroticism’ (worry) is the result of deep thinking. Both of which are criticized rather than rewarded. Everyone else is just ‘noise’ without the deep thinkers. My work on Propertarianism taught me to see us as locally specialized ants, and that there is no such thing as an ideal individual other than one who does so honestly and knowingly. Our observable personalities advocate for acquisition on behalf of our genes. Because of our different reproductive costs, very desirable males, very desirable females, and every gradation in between, is merely negotiating using his or her necessary strategy. What makes us ‘crazy’ is when we construct lies. MONOTHEISM did this damage via ‘one-ness’. That’s how damaging it is. It’s freaking tragic. Polytheism did not do this to us. This is a profound restatement of the nature of man. We are expensive creatures. We must act to acquire ‘property’ – that which we inventory for our own use and consumption. Cooperation is so disproportionately rewarding a means of acquisition we must bias in favor of cooperation to acquire. But cooperation invites parasitism. So we must act to punish violations of cooperation. And cooperation is always an act of experiment: trial and error. So we must preserve non-cooperation in our genes in order to ensure that unlike lemmings, we break off when cooperation is no longer in our interests. This is man. Everything else is accumulated lie. Most of it from babylonian and levantine deceit. Meanwhile in every epoch europeans seek to overturn this authoritarian deceit and return to our pagan egalitarian origins. Propertarianism tells us how. (a) we are all different and therefore need our own ‘gods’ for use in our own virtue ethics. (b) Monotheism is more damaging because of ‘one-ness’ (and equality) whereas polytheism (correctly) preserves differences (and hierarchy). (c) Perfect rulers are infallible and demand we obey(positivism), and imperfect rules are not always working in our interests and demand only we do not irritate them (falsificationism). Freudian Psychology further expanded one-ness and servitude by demanding conformity to a personality type that could be forcibly indoctrinated through peer pressure, guilt and shaming (and it worked), whereas polytheistic reasoning, and darwinian reasoning, and scientific analysis tell us that we each fulfill niche’s that need exploiting. Monotheism, 20th century Democracy, and Freudian psychology, all perpetuate a catastrophic fallacy of man. But why was this fallacy developed? Well, in Judaism it was developed for the same reason monotheism was developed between the Iranians and the Indians, who were originally the same people: to put them into conflict so that the Iranians could be controlled (by lying). Just as the jews needed a reason to unite different primitive tribes (by lying). Whereas in the west we did not encounter this problem since rule was achieved by arms, not deceit. It was only once Rome was too weak to enforce rule by arms that Justinian closed the schools and imposed christianity on the west. The value of christianity is in that it was ‘germanicized’ and that the central proposition: extension of kin love to non-kin was useful in uniting Europe under christian kings sanctioned by the church. This criticism of ‘monopoly’ and ‘monotheism’ and ‘one-ness’ and ‘equality’ is an application of the propertarian principle of the intertemporal division of reproductive perception, cognition, knowledge, labor and advocacy, between the consumptive (feminine) productive (libertarian), and accumulative (conservative) biases, wherein the only means by which we can make use of all available perception, cognition, and knowledge in the spectrum, is to conduct voluntary exchanges between the classes in that division of perception, cognition, and knowledge, just as the only means by which we can make use of the knowledge in the market is by voluntary exchange, money, prices, and contract. This a profound reformulation of the enlightenment vision of man, and the necessary form of government that assists him in production, reproduction, and genetic persistence. Curt Doolittle The Philosophy of Aristocracy Testimonialism, Propertarianism, New Classical liberalism. The Propertarian Institute , Kiev, Ukraine.

  • An Insight into the Damage of Monotheism and Psychology to Western Thought

    [J]ust an insight into one of the many ways authoritarian cosmopolitan pseudoscience of psychology has damaged our world view: introversion is the result of deep thinking, and ‘neuroticism’ (worry) is the result of deep thinking. Both of which are criticized rather than rewarded. Everyone else is just ‘noise’ without the deep thinkers. My work on Propertarianism taught me to see us as locally specialized ants, and that there is no such thing as an ideal individual other than one who does so honestly and knowingly. Our observable personalities advocate for acquisition on behalf of our genes. Because of our different reproductive costs, very desirable males, very desirable females, and every gradation in between, is merely negotiating using his or her necessary strategy. What makes us ‘crazy’ is when we construct lies. MONOTHEISM did this damage via ‘one-ness’. That’s how damaging it is. It’s freaking tragic. Polytheism did not do this to us. This is a profound restatement of the nature of man. We are expensive creatures. We must act to acquire ‘property’ – that which we inventory for our own use and consumption. Cooperation is so disproportionately rewarding a means of acquisition we must bias in favor of cooperation to acquire. But cooperation invites parasitism. So we must act to punish violations of cooperation. And cooperation is always an act of experiment: trial and error. So we must preserve non-cooperation in our genes in order to ensure that unlike lemmings, we break off when cooperation is no longer in our interests. This is man. Everything else is accumulated lie. Most of it from babylonian and levantine deceit. Meanwhile in every epoch europeans seek to overturn this authoritarian deceit and return to our pagan egalitarian origins. Propertarianism tells us how. (a) we are all different and therefore need our own ‘gods’ for use in our own virtue ethics. (b) Monotheism is more damaging because of ‘one-ness’ (and equality) whereas polytheism (correctly) preserves differences (and hierarchy). (c) Perfect rulers are infallible and demand we obey(positivism), and imperfect rules are not always working in our interests and demand only we do not irritate them (falsificationism). Freudian Psychology further expanded one-ness and servitude by demanding conformity to a personality type that could be forcibly indoctrinated through peer pressure, guilt and shaming (and it worked), whereas polytheistic reasoning, and darwinian reasoning, and scientific analysis tell us that we each fulfill niche’s that need exploiting. Monotheism, 20th century Democracy, and Freudian psychology, all perpetuate a catastrophic fallacy of man. But why was this fallacy developed? Well, in Judaism it was developed for the same reason monotheism was developed between the Iranians and the Indians, who were originally the same people: to put them into conflict so that the Iranians could be controlled (by lying). Just as the jews needed a reason to unite different primitive tribes (by lying). Whereas in the west we did not encounter this problem since rule was achieved by arms, not deceit. It was only once Rome was too weak to enforce rule by arms that Justinian closed the schools and imposed christianity on the west. The value of christianity is in that it was ‘germanicized’ and that the central proposition: extension of kin love to non-kin was useful in uniting Europe under christian kings sanctioned by the church. This criticism of ‘monopoly’ and ‘monotheism’ and ‘one-ness’ and ‘equality’ is an application of the propertarian principle of the intertemporal division of reproductive perception, cognition, knowledge, labor and advocacy, between the consumptive (feminine) productive (libertarian), and accumulative (conservative) biases, wherein the only means by which we can make use of all available perception, cognition, and knowledge in the spectrum, is to conduct voluntary exchanges between the classes in that division of perception, cognition, and knowledge, just as the only means by which we can make use of the knowledge in the market is by voluntary exchange, money, prices, and contract. This a profound reformulation of the enlightenment vision of man, and the necessary form of government that assists him in production, reproduction, and genetic persistence. Curt Doolittle The Philosophy of Aristocracy Testimonialism, Propertarianism, New Classical liberalism. The Propertarian Institute , Kiev, Ukraine.

  • Eric Field on Metaschools (from elsewhere) Broadly speaking there are three meta

    Eric Field on Metaschools

    (from elsewhere)

    Broadly speaking there are three metaschools of historiography for defining “Western” civilization.

    1. Classical, which takes the classical Mediterranean from the Greco-Roman civilization as being the origin and nucleus of what has become Anglo-American civilization.

    2. Medievalist, which views the rise of Christianity, usually the rise of the Church after the fall of Rome as the foundation of our current civilization.

    3. Or the sort of Nordic model that Oswald Spengler advocated that asserts that the northern Indo-Europeans (Germanic and Celtic tribes, but later Balts and Slavs as well) came south, smashed into Rome, destroying Classical civilization, but ultimately absorbing the remnants into their own culture.

    Academic elites in the West tended to use a mixture of theories 1 and 2. The United States is semi-unique amongst westerners for relying on a much bastardized version of theory two, which places Christianity as the defining role. I’m partial to the third model, but I am an ethnic German, and I think it does a great job reconciling Anglo-American frontier experience with a larger Northern European pattern of migration that goes back to at least the Völkerwanderung.

    The Point I’m trying to make with this really autistic unsolicited history lecture is of the three historiographical schools of western civ, Americans (especially the rightwing) tend to be shaped by a version that considers Christianity the central defining feature of this civilization.

    Source date (UTC): 2015-09-25 00:22:00 UTC

  • QUOTE OF THE DAY “Harvard is a hedge fund with a university attached to it.” -Jo

    QUOTE OF THE DAY

    “Harvard is a hedge fund with a university attached to it.”

    -Jordan Weissman, Slate

    Source date (UTC): 2015-09-20 10:17:00 UTC

  • VALUE OF MINDFULNESS (THE STOIC VERSION)

    http://www.willpowered.co/learn/value-of-mindfulness?utm_source=Outbrain&utm_medium=CPC&utm_campaign=RandomTHE VALUE OF MINDFULNESS (THE STOIC VERSION)

    Source date (UTC): 2015-09-20 05:56:00 UTC