Mar 28, 2025
People love trying to find holes in the drowning child thought experiment. This is natural: it’s obvious you should save the child in the scenario, but much less obvious that you should give lots of charity to poor people (as it seems to imply). So there must be some distinction between the two scenarios. But...
Mar 28, 2025
Jake Eaton has a great article on misophonia in Asterisk.
Misophonia is a condition in which people can’t tolerate certain noises (classically chewing). Nobody loves chewing noises, but misophoniacs go above and beyond, sometimes ending relationships, shutting themselves indoors, or even deliberately trying to...
Mar 21, 2025
Last month, I put out a request for experts to help me understand the details of OpenAI’s forprofit buyout. The following comes from someone who has looked into the situation in depth but is not an insider. Mistakes are mine alone.
Why Was OpenAI A Nonprofit In The First Place?
In the early 2010s, the AI companies...
Mar 21, 2025
Sorry, you can only get drugs when there's a drug shortage.
Three GLP-1 drugs are approved for weight loss in the United States:
- Semaglutide (Ozempic®, Wegovy®, Rybelsus®)
- Tirzepatide (Mounjaro®, Zepbound®)
- Liraglutide (Victoza®, Saxenda®)
…but liraglutide is noticeably worse than the others, and most people...
Mar 21, 2025
Most headlines have said something like New NAEP Scores Dash Hope Of Post-COVID Learning Recovery, which seems like a fair assessment.
I feel bad about this, because during lockdowns I argued that kids’ educational outcomes don’t suffer long-term from missing a year or two of school. Re-reading the post, I still...