Category: Web/Tech
Assorted links
2. What determines how well you keep resolutions?
3. Which are the most remote places on earth? A map.
5. Markets in everything: chemotherapy cooking classes.
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1. Recent work in Austrian economics.
2. 121-hour long lecture (with breaks), the longest ever?
3. Scott Sumner on movies, great post.
4. Is it possible that 225,000 Haitian children are slaves? Read this too: "Researchers said the practice of young servants, known as 'restavek', is so common that almost half of 257 children interviewed in the shantytown of Cite Soleil were household slaves. The report found that most of the children are sent by parents, who cannot afford to care for them, to families just slightly better off."
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What does programmer productivity look like?
I am unable to judge the details of its contents, but this article intrigued me. The key question is why pay across highly-talented and lesser-talented programmers isn't more unequal. (That's a question I'd like economists to study more generally, given the disparities in productivity across individuals within a firm.) Here is an excerpt:
Software output cannot be measured as easily as dollars or bricks. The best programmers do not write 10x as many lines of code and they certainly do not work 10x longer hours.
Programmers are most effective when they avoid writing code. They may realize the problem they’re being asked to solve doesn’t need to be solved, that the client doesn’t actually want what they’re asking for. They may know where to find reusable or re-editable code that solves their problem. They may cheat. But just when they are being their most productive, nobody says “Wow! You were just 100x more productive than if you’d done this the hard way. You deserve a raise.” At best they say “Good idea!” and go on. It may take a while to realize that someone routinely comes up with such time-saving insights. Or to put it negatively, it may take a long time to realize that others are programming with sound and fury but producing nothing.
For the pointer I thank Hamilton Ulmer.
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1. Kim Peek has passed away; here is a tribute.
2. David Brooks on Kling and Schulz.
4. A new model of the block universe.
5. A critique of the critique of The Phantom Menace.
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1. Appreciative thinking, an underexplored virtue.
2. Markets in everything, wet nurse Baumol cost disease edition.
3. The transformation of Chile into a developed nation.
4. Proof that intercourse is special.
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1. Zimbabwe now has deflation, and see this photo.
2. Markets in everything: divorce vouchers.
3. More on the new Patricia Highsmith bio.
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1. Interview with Matt Kahn on urban economics and American cities.
2. Single transferable vote for the Oscars.
3. Will Richard Posner send him to jail?
4. Japanese man marries virtual bride from dating game.
5. The Russ Roberts Keynes vs. Hayek rap video.
6. It's less painful to just rip the band-aid off than to pull it slowly.
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1. Britain will give up on paper bank cheques [checks] altogether.
2. The new Hayao Miyazaki project.
3. The charcuterie resistance.
4. The constitutional crisis in Nigeria.
5. Betting markets in everything: Tiger and Elin's divorce settlement, plus who will sponsor Tiger next.
6. The Paul Samuelson Memorial investment tax credit.
7. Umbrellas of altruism: pay a premium and get them blunt.
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1. Gelman criticizes Levitt on drunk driving; Jeff Ely chimes in here.
2. A new method for measuring earthquakes, tweets per minute.
3. Political souvenirs, from Italy.
4. Wavvves is my favorite popular music album this year, except it isn't popular.
5. Germans are happier if they earn less than their neighbors.
6. Peter Thiel's favorite thinker is Rene Girard.
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1. Steve Levitt on driving drunk.
2. What English sounds like to foreigners.
3. What works in development? Links to excellent essays.
4. In a world of micro-credit, moneylenders flourish.
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1. Bhutan stocks trade twice a week, in the name of happiness, apparently.
2. Via Bookslut, 1986 interview with Thomas Bernhard.
3. Does travel have cognitive benefits?
4. Does beauty have a Darwinian downside?
5. Profile of Daniel Lippman (he supplies public goods and he is also an MR reader, correspondent, and link supplier).