Curt Doolittle

Source: Original Site Post

  • What Are Some Problems People Will Be Surprised Mathematics Can’t Solve?

    I am not sure that there are problems mathematics cannot illustrate.  That seems unlikely.  I think there are LOGICAL problems with number theory that cannot necessarily be solved with certainty.  Math is  a pretty good way of describing the physical world.  It is a pretty good way of describing complex relations.  But that is different from saying that math can express everything about itself.  And that is probably the fundamental question that we would like to solve, but may not be able to.

    Jack Thompson below, asks the metaphysical question whether real numbers exist, and the answer is one of definitions not of existence.  No, real numbers are platonic entities. Natural numbers exist in nature.  All else is a product of mind. And even natural numbers are names for the act of counting. Everything else an act of calculating ratios.  🙂

    https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-problems-people-will-be-surprised-mathematics-cant-solve

  • Can I Get A Good Paying Job If I Studied International Relations?

    There are only two ‘good’ career paths in the present economy: Medicine and Programming.

    Medicine requires intelligence, reading comprehension, discipline, stamina, and exceptional memory skills. (It is not really mathematically rigorous. And is the last high paying occupation that we can say that of.)

    Programming (at least most of it) requires fairly good reasoning and concentration skills. Pay is immediate but tops out before you exit your twenties and you ‘age’ quickly in the discipline.

    Both fields present good opportunities for college graduates.

    If you want a good paying job with international scope then study quantitative macro economics. Unfortunately, economics requires the most mathematical skill and is one of the most challenging disciplines outside of physics or math – even if it tends to pay better.  If you can’t manage economics then it’s useful to study international finance.

    If you can’t manage finance then marketing research analyst requires basic statistical skills and is an interesting job.

    A legal degree used to be  passport but the market is oversaturated and it is becoming an ordinary job.

    Unlike finance, accounting is too tedious for someone with social and international interests, and is the modern entry level discipline for administrative labor.

    “International Relations” is a code word for ‘Administrative support’ or ‘I will sell telephones soon’. 

    The world has become extremely hostile to administrative and communications positions that have no quantitative and or statistical components to them.

    If you are a female who speaks multiple languages and wants to find a mate outside of her family and social circle it is an expensive but useful way to find one. Otherwise no, it is only a meaningful set of culture studies to prepare one for work in finance, law, tax, shipping, or marketing and without  statistical capability in one of those fields it will not be a ‘good’ job unless you’re counting on ‘luck’ to save you. 🙂

    https://www.quora.com/Can-I-get-a-good-paying-job-if-I-studied-International-Relations

  • Who Are The Most Influential Economists Alive?

    INFLUENTIAL TO WHOM?

    • Economists influence each other.
    • Economists influence other academics.
    • Economists influence policy makers.
    • Economists influence members of the financial system
    • Economists influence business and industry leaders
    • Economists influence the interested public.

    The group of economists who influence each group varies considerably.  In fact those who influence each other are very different from those who influence policy and society. 

    Unfortunately, the economists who write for newspapers are the most influential outside of academia.  Within academia, influence is largely determined by citations, as someone else in this thread has stated.

    THE ECONOMIST MAGAZINE
    Which economists are the most influential?
    Contains opinions by economists themselves.

    https://www.quora.com/Who-are-the-most-influential-economists-alive

  • What Does It Feel Like To Be Intelligent Enough To Understand How Dumb One Often Is?

    Well, it makes you feel like you’re profoundly stupid actually. And to feel horrified about how much more stupid everyone else is.  But to live in AWE of how we manage to work together using habits, norms, traditions, myths, narratives, writing, property rights, money, prices, accounting, contracts, law, measurements, and the scientific method.  That’s actually as close to magic as I think we’ve come.

    As for the problem of competency, the Dunning-Kreuger graph says it all. 

    • While people vary little in their perception of competence or incompetence, about all competence is actually held by only 20-25% of people.

    This statistic correlates with two other interesting rules of thumb:

    • The Pareto observation that 20% of the population owns 80% of the property. The reason being that they’re the only ones competent to make use of it. 
    • The IQ distribution that suggests that the minimum intelligence necessary to do anything meaningful is what we currently consider 106 or so.  That no more than 10% of the population can actually understand a liberal arts education.




    https://www.quora.com/What-does-it-feel-like-to-be-intelligent-enough-to-understand-how-dumb-one-often-is

  • Janet Yellen Selected As New Fed Chair (2013-14): Would Larry Summers Be A Good Choice For The Next Chairman Of The Federal Reserve?

    (This is an ideological question.  And a loaded question. But I will try to do it justice anyway.)

    Summers is a ‘status quo’ economist with personal relationship with both the president and prominent wall street Democrats.  He is unobjectionable to conservatives since he has said impolitic but true things at times that they agree with. The consensus is that he will not put the country at risk or in painfully controversial debate.

    So he is a capable, mainstream, status-quo economist, with personal relationships with important and powerful people that is politically acceptable to the other side.   And, as such, he will not add volatility to the markets or the political sector, and that is probably a good thing for the people making the decision.

    If you were a mainstream economist facing the possibility of the euro shock, and having a deep understanding of the possibly permanent condition of the US economy, then I would suspect that you would argue that the Fed should take independent action to stimulate the economy even further and to encourage congress to spend like crazy.   But Larry Summers won’t do that.

    If you were a partisan left wing economist like you would be torn since you’d rather have the spending. If you were a democratic leader you want to make sure you keep the white house so you probably want someone who doesn’t create trouble.

    This is probably a fairly accurate answer to the question.

    https://www.quora.com/Janet-Yellen-Selected-as-New-Fed-Chair-2013-14-Would-Larry-Summers-be-a-good-choice-for-the-next-Chairman-of-the-Federal-Reserve

  • Who Are The Most Influential Economists Alive?

    INFLUENTIAL TO WHOM?

    • Economists influence each other.
    • Economists influence other academics.
    • Economists influence policy makers.
    • Economists influence members of the financial system
    • Economists influence business and industry leaders
    • Economists influence the interested public.

    The group of economists who influence each group varies considerably.  In fact those who influence each other are very different from those who influence policy and society. 

    Unfortunately, the economists who write for newspapers are the most influential outside of academia.  Within academia, influence is largely determined by citations, as someone else in this thread has stated.

    THE ECONOMIST MAGAZINE
    Which economists are the most influential?
    Contains opinions by economists themselves.

    https://www.quora.com/Who-are-the-most-influential-economists-alive

  • What Does It Feel Like To Be Intelligent Enough To Understand How Dumb One Often Is?

    Well, it makes you feel like you’re profoundly stupid actually. And to feel horrified about how much more stupid everyone else is.  But to live in AWE of how we manage to work together using habits, norms, traditions, myths, narratives, writing, property rights, money, prices, accounting, contracts, law, measurements, and the scientific method.  That’s actually as close to magic as I think we’ve come.

    As for the problem of competency, the Dunning-Kreuger graph says it all. 

    • While people vary little in their perception of competence or incompetence, about all competence is actually held by only 20-25% of people.

    This statistic correlates with two other interesting rules of thumb:

    • The Pareto observation that 20% of the population owns 80% of the property. The reason being that they’re the only ones competent to make use of it. 
    • The IQ distribution that suggests that the minimum intelligence necessary to do anything meaningful is what we currently consider 106 or so.  That no more than 10% of the population can actually understand a liberal arts education.




    https://www.quora.com/What-does-it-feel-like-to-be-intelligent-enough-to-understand-how-dumb-one-often-is

  • Steering Libertarian Criticism Away From Socialism to Postmodernism, and The Completion Of The Anarchic Research Program

    [I] am trying to steer some of libertarian criticism away from socialism onto Postmodernism. And that’s partly why I spend so much time on the “Dark Enlightenment” and their attempt to dethrone universalism. The question is, if we dethrone universalism and admit our differences, then moral ends and therefore moral statements will be likewise different. And as such we would need institutions that did not depend upon moral or ideological homogeneity, but that still assisted us in cooperating on means, even if we possess different ends. All current political models were developed under ‘national’ homogeneity. Or like Chinese, forcible homogeneity in order to simply allow their political system to function. yet, we evolved the market to assist us in cooperating on means, even if we have complex or opposing ends. Given that the market functions by forcing all undesirable involuntary transfers (violence, theft, fraud, and free riding) be converted into desirable involuntary transfers via competition. And given that the investment in and development of commons cannot possibly be constructed via competition in the market because competition is an undesirable involuntary transfer in the context of a commons, then government is necessary in order to assist us in producing commons. However, how do we create government that cooperates as does the market, without involuntary transfer via competition? The European princedom model was in fact, little more than corporatist city states – because city states were in fact, private corporations. Thats where they came from. But acknowledging this fact casts doubt on the legitimacy of liberty. So we avoid it. I think I have solved this problem. If I HAVE done it, then for all intents and purposes, the Anarchic Research Program started by Rothbard will be complete: 1) Rothbards rule of the homogenous by homogenous morals (anarchic religion) 2) Hoppe’s rule of the homogenous by competing institutions (anarchic nation state) 3) My rule by of the heterogeneous by heterogeneous institutions (anarchic federation) There is no other combination that we yet know of that cannot be satisfied by these three solutions.

  • Why Would A Civilian Living Peacefully Need A Semi-automatic Gun?

    Because if he is living peacefully, he lives peacefully because he and those like him have guns.

    https://www.quora.com/Why-would-a-civilian-living-peacefully-need-a-semi-automatic-gun

  • Why Would A Civilian Living Peacefully Need A Semi-automatic Gun?

    Because if he is living peacefully, he lives peacefully because he and those like him have guns.

    https://www.quora.com/Why-would-a-civilian-living-peacefully-need-a-semi-automatic-gun