solidity terms

view markdown

2022

  • [Opinion I Came to College Eager to Debate. I Found Self-Censorship Instead. - The New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/07/opinion/campus-speech-cancel-culture.html)
  • [Opinion Laundered Money Could Be Putin’s Achilles’ Heel - The New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/24/opinion/russia-ukraine-sanctions-offshore-accounts.html)
    • The Europeans, unfortunately, have fecklessly allowed themselves to become highly dependent on imports of Russian natural gas.
    • can go after the vast overseas wealth of the oligarchs who surround Putin and help him stay in power.
  • [Opinion Wealth Inequality Drives the Appeal of Crypto - The New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/31/opinion/crypto-nfts-inequality.html)
    • “The only way a technology that solves a problem that no one knows they have — a “disruptive” technology — becomes culturally powerful is that someone has to subsidize it until it becomes profitable”
  • China’s Covid-Era Controls May Outlast the Coronavirus - The New York Times
  • [Opinion When I Applied to College, I Didn’t Want to ‘Sell My Pain’ - The New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/09/opinion/college-admissions-essays-trauma.html)
  • The myth of the “great resignation” - Slow Boring
    • “The quits rate is unusually high, but the hires rate is also unusually high, and the ratio of hires to quits is very normal.”
  • [Opinion You Know What Would Help Exhausted Doctors and Nurses? More Money. - The New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/08/opinion/hazard-pay-covid-nurse-doctor.html)

2021

  • Web3 is Bullshit
    • three technical issues of the narrative are:
      1. Compute Problem - blockchain networks don’t scale
      2. Bandwidth Problem
        1. Who will pay for the global data centers to serve content?
        2. Whose lawyers will respond to the DMCA requests?
      3. Storage Problem - who owns / can edit the data?
  • [Opinion The End of Roe Is Coming, and It Is Coming Soon - The New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/01/opinion/supreme-court-abortion-mississippi-law.html)
  • [Opinion Here’s a Fact: We’re Routinely Asked to Use Leftist Fictions - The New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/19/opinion/heres-a-fact-were-routinely-asked-to-use-leftist-fictions.html)
    • That selective schools regularly admit Black students with adjusted standards is undeniable
  • [Opinion ‘Woke’ Went the Way of ‘P.C.’ and ‘Liberal’ - The New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/16/opinion/woke-progressive-liberal.html?action=click&block=associated_collection_recirc&impression_id=3a831030-4a5b-11ec-b19b-93fbdbccdf8d&index=0&pgtype=Article&region=footer)
    • “Politically correct,” unsurprisingly, went from describing a way of seeing the world to describing the people who saw the world that way to describing the way other people felt about the people who saw the world that way
  • [Opinion The Suburbs Are Poorer and More Diverse Than We Realize - The New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/18/opinion/suburbs-poor-diverse.html)
  • What Is Critical Race Theory, and Why Is It Under Attack?
    • core idea is that race is a social construct, and that racism is not merely the product of individual bias or prejudice, but also something embedded in legal systems and policies
    • Some critics claim that the theory advocates discriminating against white people in order to achieve equity
  • The 37-Year-Olds Are Afraid of the 23-Year-Olds Who Work for Them - The New York Times
  • [Opinion Why ‘Evangelical’ Is Becoming Another Word for ‘Republican’ - The New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/26/opinion/evangelical-republican.html)
  • The True Cost of Upgrading Your Phone - The New York Times
  • [Opinion Chappelle’s Netflix Show Just Isn’t Funny - The New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/15/opinion/chappelle-netflix-trans.html)
  • A ‘Pacemaker for the Brain’: No Treatment Helped Her Depression — Until This - The New York Times
  • [Opinion Why Sex-Positive Feminism Is Falling Out of Fashion - The New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/24/opinion/sex-positivity-feminism.html)
    • “demisexual” refers to those attracted only to people with whom they share an emotional connection
    • Somehow, as sex positivity went mainstream and fused with a culture shaped by pornography, attention to emotion got lost
  • Ezra Klein’s Why We’re Polarized excerpt: The media’s role - Vox
    • “News emerges not from individuals seeking to improve the functioning of democracy but from readers seeking diversion, reporters forging careers, and owners searching for profits.”
  • [Opinion What We Are Not Teaching Boys About Being Human - The New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/06/opinion/boys-gender-books-culture.html)
  • [More Is More: The End of Minimalism The Walrus](https://thewalrus.ca/more-is-more-the-end-of-minimalism/)
    • Marie Kondo’s decluttering dominance is over. Make way for maximalism, where the more stuff, the merrier
  • The Climate-Change Agenda Goes Out With a Bang - WSJ
  • The Movies Are Back. But What Are Movies Now? - The New York Times
    • Global blockbusters, engineered to appeal to the widest possible mass audience, are conversation-stoppers by definition, offering vague themes and superficially complex plots
  • [Opinion Post-Covid Happiness Comes in Groups - The New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/10/opinion/sunday/covid-group-emotions-happiness.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage)
    • Peak happiness lies mostly in collective activity.
  • How Indian Americans Came to Love the Spelling Bee - The New York Times
  • [Hahaha vs. Hehehe The New Yorker](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/hahaha-vs-hehehe)
  • [Opinion The Jeff Bezos Paradox - The New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/03/opinion/jeff-bezos-space-amazon.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage) - As the fortunes of the company and its founder have increased, their public images have taken a beating
  • [Opinion Maybe Trump Wasn’t the Worst President Ever? - The New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/01/opinion/trump-worst-presidents.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage)
  • [Opinion Why Is It OK to Be Mean to the Ugly? - The New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/24/opinion/why-is-it-ok-to-be-mean-to-the-ugly.html)
  • Placebo pills can help treat people in pain. But how? - Vox
  • An American Epidemic of ‘Covid Mania’ - WSJ
  • [Opinion There Could Never Be a Female Andrew Yang - The New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/19/opinion/nyc-mayor-andrew-yang.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage) - “Male candidates can embody possibility and run as repositories for people’s diffuse hopes. Women usually have to pay their dues”
  • How to Answer the ‘Trap Question’ - WSJ
    • “the social purpose of a company is to find profitable solutions to the challenges of people and planet”
    • “Driving broad economic growth is perhaps the biggest thing that a company can do,” Mr. Nadella added.
    • “In order to have the pie distributed evenly, the pie should first grow.”
  • What I Wouldn’t Give for a Shave That Isn’t Woke - WSJ
    • “Many companies take Republican customers for granted. Perhaps they’re right.”
  • [Opinion Texas, Land of Wind and Lies - The New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/18/opinion/texas-storm-power.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage)
    • Republican politicians and right-wing media, not content with run-of-the-mill blame-shifting, have coalesced around a malicious falsehood instead — the claim that wind and solar power caused the collapse of the Texas power grid, and that radical environmentalists are somehow responsible for the fact that millions of people are freezing in the dark, even though conservative Republicans have run the state for a generation.
  • [Opinion The Plot to Help America’s Children - The New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/15/opinion/child-tax-credit.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage)
  • Lionel Messi, Barcelona and the Crippling Cost of Success - The New York Times
  • [Opinion The Science of Changing Someone’s Mind - The New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/31/opinion/change-someones-mind.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage) - ask and listen rather than debate
    • asking people how their preferred political policies might work in practice, rather than asking why they favor those approaches, was more effective in opening their minds
  • The Stock Traders of Reddit and TikTok - The New York Times
  • [Opinion Children Need to Be Back in School Tomorrow - The New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/28/opinion/coronavirus-schools-unions.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage)
  • [Opinion What Kamala Harris Means For Girls - The New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/22/opinion/kamala-harris-girls.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage)
  • [Opinion The Extraordinary Courage of Aleksei Navalny - The New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/17/opinion/aleksei-navalny-russia.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage)
  • [Why Eric Lander’s Controversial Paper “The Heroes of CRISPR” Is Not Solid Historical Research American Scientist](https://www.americanscientist.org/blog/macroscope/why-eric-lander%E2%80%99s-controversial-paper-%E2%80%9Cthe-heroes-of-crispr%E2%80%9D-is-not-solid-historical)
  • Why Aren’t We Wearing Better Masks? - The Atlantic
  • [Opinion This Is When the Fever Breaks - The New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/07/opinion/capitol-riot-republicans.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage) (David Brooks)
  • [A Rebuttal to some CS Academics’ “Free Speech” Open Letter to the ACM by David Karger Jan, 2021 Medium](https://david-karger.medium.com/a-rebuttal-to-some-cs-academics-free-speech-open-letter-to-the-acm-729ce1cb6caf) - cancel culture needs calibrate its threshold to balance false positives and false negatives
  • [Does Class Warfare Have A Free-Rider Problem? Slate Star Codex](https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/09/14/does-class-warfare-have-a-free-rider-problem/)
    • [Too Much Dark Money In Almonds Slate Star Codex](https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/09/18/too-much-dark-money-in-almonds/) - many don’t donate for fear that others won’t, leading to a surprisingly low amount of political donations

2020

  • [Opinion Yes, We Mean Literally Abolish the Police - The New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/12/opinion/sunday/floyd-abolish-defund-police.html)
    • a better term for “abolish the police” would be “make the police obsolete”
  • China is What Orwell Feared (The Atlantic)
    • China’s surveillance is very far along
  • Think Cancel Culture Doesn’t Exist? My Own ‘Lived Experience’ Says Otherwise (Quillete)
  • Fake News Comes to Academia
    • Liberal-leaning PC studies got through peer review bc no one wanted to question them.
  • Why Do Chinese Liberals Embrace American Conservatives?
    • For some Chinese liberals, Mr. Trump’s strident opposition to the Chinese Communist Party automatically made him seem like an ally. True for Jimmy Lai
  • Liberalism and Its Discontents (Francis Fukuyama)
    • Classical liberalism can best be understood as an institutional solution to the problem of governing over diversity
    • most fundamental principle enshrined in liberalism is one of tolerance
    • newer understanding: liberalism is not simply a mechanism for pragmatically avoiding violent conflict, but also a means of protecting fundamental human dignity
    • liberalism and democracy are different: Liberalism is allied to democracy through its protection of individual autonomy
    • from 1950-1970s, liberal democracy flourished
    • first discontent: economic
      • neoliberalism - pejorative, overly free markets
        • aggregate incomes rise, but so does inequality
    • second discontent: cultural
      • liberal state does not tell you how to live your life, often filled with consumerism etc.
      • stress on individualism contradicts biological social nature of people
      • critics of liberalism on the right feel that it has undervalued the nation and traditional national identity
      • critics on left: doesn’t do enough to root out deep-seated racism, sexism, and other forms of discrimination, so politics must go beyond liberalism– want the deeper bonding and personal satisfaction of associating—in this case, with people who have suffered from similar indignities.
    • effects
      • shifts politics towards identities
      • fails to define boundaries of citizenship and rights: if rights are fundamental to all humans, how can we deny citizenship / rights to migrants?
  • [Opinion 2020 Was the Year Reaganism Died - The New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/28/opinion/reagan-economy-covid.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage) (Paul Krugman) - this year, we saw gov. aid to unemployed works lead to very good outcomes with essentially no drawbacks

misc old

workism

racism

ai

tech

economy

  • Where Have All the Houses Gone? - The New York Times
    • way fewer houses for sale during pandemic (less houses for sale = less houses for )
    • government-backed loans prevented some foreclosures (and corresponded to less houses for sale)
    • since housing crash, less housing has been built relative to historical averages
  • Big Tech and Big Finance Breed Hubris - WSJ
    • BlackRock has ~$9 trillion under management (along w/ 2 closest rivals, exerts around 25% voting control over most publicly traded companies)
    • this allows it to impose its beliefs on economy

sports

  • [Opinion The N.F.L. Bets on Betting - The New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/18/opinion/NFL-gambling-bets.html)

humor

  • [Learning the Ropes The New Yorker](https://www.newyorker.com/humor/daily-shouts/learning-the-ropes)

emotions

  • attending to the other
    • “attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity”
    • Wittgenstein said that “you cannot enter worlds for which you do not have the language.”
    • Hartmut Rosa calls a similar mode of relating resonance. Instead of viewing ourselves as closed off, independent systems bent on controlling the other, we should leave ourselves open to being affected by the world

speeches

  • This Is Water by David Foster Wallace Full Speech - YouTube
    • learning how to think is about reconsidering your default believes and deciding how you see things
    • everything you experience has you at the center of it
    • everyone worships something (e.g. money, success)
      • the problem with many of these are that they are unconscious
    • One way to practice attention is to notice the non-logical aspects of communication