Shows
Flux Podcasts (Formerly Theory of Change)Is politics holding back technological innovation?Episode SummaryIt’s tempting to look back on the technological progress we’ve seen in the past few years and marvel at how much things have changed, and they certainly have. But if you zoom out on the historical scale, it’s very arguable that the trends of today were set in motion by processes and ideas of the late 19th century.Brad DeLong, my guest on today’s episode argues just that in his book “Slouching Towards Utopia: An Economic History of the Twentieth Century,” making the case that the world of today began throug...2024-09-191h 11
"Hexapodia" Is the Key Insight: by Noah Smith & Brad DeLongPODCAST: Hexapodia LIV: We Go Off Message with Special Guest Brian BeutlerThe SubStackLand community gains another valuable member. We welcome him to the NFL SubStackLand:Key Insights:* Bing-AI says “Brian Beutler” is pronounced “Bryan Bootler”—that is, rhymes with “lion shooter”, which shows how far political incorrectness has penetrated Silicon Valley…* Noah has figured out a solution to his problem of losing the screws to his microphone stand: duct tape…* This started with Brad poking Brian on his belief there was a golden age of comity, common purpose, and energy in the left-of-center political sphere back in 2005 to 2008—saying that this misconceived as all mourning for...2023-10-1254 min
LuminaryNoah Smith on digital technology adoption, energy, and economic progress
Noah Smith is a renaissance man, blogger, and commentator. Noah’s popular blog, Noahpinion, focuses on economics, technology, and current events. He was previously a columnist for Bloomberg and an assistant professor of Behavioral finance at Stony Brook University.
Our wide-ranging conversation covers digital technology, economics, and energy. We discuss Noah’s framework for thinking about technology, digital technology adoption and its implications for economic activity, measures of technological advancement, opportunities and challenges for solar and nuclear energy, and the Noah Smith production function.
About and From Noah Smith:
Noah Smith (writer) – Wikipedia
Noahpinion
Noah Sm...2023-09-041h 09
"Hexapodia" Is the Key Insight: by Noah Smith & Brad DeLongPODCAST: “Hexapodia” Is þe Key Insight XXXI: History, Slavery, & National NarrativesKey Insights:* Nearly all successful political movements over the past 150 years have been strongly nationalistic* A successful cosmopolitanism must therefore be a nationalistic cosmopolitanism—one that says your country is great because it learns from and has important things to teach other nations.* We—somewhat surprisingly—find ourselves endorsing and agreeing with Matthew Desmond’s claim that an important root of some facets of American capitalism is found on the plantation.* We endorse Sandy Darity and Darrick Hamilton’s calls for reparations,* We enthusiastically and positively give a shout-out to the hig...2021-11-291h 10
"Hexapodia" Is the Key Insight: by Noah Smith & Brad DeLongPODCAST: “Hexapodia” Is þe Key Insight XXX: Faulty Torpedoes, WWII Submarines, Promotions, & Our Hideous Waste of Human PotentialKey Insights:* Matt Suandi—forced off of his India RCT development-economics project by the COVID plague—has taken the plague year to write a brilliant paper: Matthew Suandi: Promoting to Opportunity: Evidence and Implications from the U.S. Submarine Service * In the early stages of the Pacific War, whether a US submarine-launched torpedo exploded was a matter of luck.* If a submarine captain had an enlisted man marked out for promotion, those promotions happened much more often if the submarine returned from its cruise having succeeded in sinking ships.* Those promoted beca...2021-11-1749 min
"Hexapodia" Is the Key Insight: by Noah Smith & Brad DeLongPODCAST: "Hexapodia" Is þe Key Insight XX: Five-Item Grab-Bag: Vaccination & Votes; NIMBYism & California Growth, Aversion to UI, Google’s Quality, & Wilhelmine Germany & Contemporary ChinaZach Carter, who was supposed to be our guest this week, has a cold. So we have a grab-bag: vaccination & votes, NIMBYism & California growth, aversion to continuing UI, Google’s quality as a search engine, & Wilhelmine Germany & Contemporary ChinaKey Insights:* Red states will see a lot of COVID-hurt this summer fall and winter for… reasons we still find incomprehensible…* NIMBYism has not killed California growth because monkey-smarts are becoming, relatively, less important as a factor of production…* The right response to those who advocate cutting off UI now is Ezra Klein’s...2021-07-011h 03