In my draft book “World After Capital” I have a section on the need for increased “Informational Freedom.” There I write:By design, the Internet does not embody a concept of geographic regions. Most fundamentally, it constitutes a way to connect networks with one another (hence the name “Internet” or network between networks). Since the Internet works at global scale, it follows that any geographic restrictions that exist have been added in, often at great cost.As well as:The same additional ...

In my draft book “World After Capital” I have a section on the need for increased “Informational Freedom.” There I write:By design, the Internet does not embody a concept of geographic regions. Most fundamentally, it constitutes a way to connect networks with one another (hence the name “Internet” or network between networks). Since the Internet works at global scale, it follows that any geographic restrictions that exist have been added in, often at great cost.As well as:The same additional ...

There is lots wrong with the healthcare and health insurance system in the US. One can also have a rational debate of the pros and cons of the Affordable Care Act and how we might proceed from here. What should not happen, however, is pushing through poorly thought through measures just for the sake of making a change. Even more so, when there has been ample of time to come up with a something well designed. So I was glad to see that three GOP senators voted against the latest half baked atte...

There is lots wrong with the healthcare and health insurance system in the US. One can also have a rational debate of the pros and cons of the Affordable Care Act and how we might proceed from here. What should not happen, however, is pushing through poorly thought through measures just for the sake of making a change. Even more so, when there has been ample of time to come up with a something well designed. So I was glad to see that three GOP senators voted against the latest half baked atte...

The dominant position of companies such as Google, Facebook, Amazon is sure receiving a lot more attention these days. There is critical media coverage, including in traditionally pro business publications such as the Wall Street Journal “Can the Tech Giants Be Stopped?” and Bloomberg “Should America’s Tech Giants Be Broken Up?” There is also the Democratic Party’s “Better Deal” memo which focuses more broadly on the negative effects of corporate power. And then of course there is the Europea...

The dominant position of companies such as Google, Facebook, Amazon is sure receiving a lot more attention these days. There is critical media coverage, including in traditionally pro business publications such as the Wall Street Journal “Can the Tech Giants Be Stopped?” and Bloomberg “Should America’s Tech Giants Be Broken Up?” There is also the Democratic Party’s “Better Deal” memo which focuses more broadly on the negative effects of corporate power. And then of course there is the Europea...

Last time in Uncertainty Wednesdays, I introduced continuous random variables and gave an example of a bunch of random variables following a Normal Distribution.Now in the picture you can see two values, denoted as μ and σ^2, for the different colored probability density functions. These are the two parameters that completely define a normally distributed random variable: μ is the Expected Value and σ^2 is the Variance. This is incredibly important to understand. All normally distributed rand...

Last time in Uncertainty Wednesdays, I introduced continuous random variables and gave an example of a bunch of random variables following a Normal Distribution.Now in the picture you can see two values, denoted as μ and σ^2, for the different colored probability density functions. These are the two parameters that completely define a normally distributed random variable: μ is the Expected Value and σ^2 is the Variance. This is incredibly important to understand. All normally distributed rand...

Just as a reminder, we have been spending the last few weeks of Uncertainty Wednesday exploring different measures of uncertainty. We first looked at entropy which is a measure based only on the states of the probability distributions itself. We then encountered random variables, which associate values or “payouts” with states and learned about their expected value and variance (including continuous random variables). Today we will look at functions of random variables. We will assume that we...

Just as a reminder, we have been spending the last few weeks of Uncertainty Wednesday exploring different measures of uncertainty. We first looked at entropy which is a measure based only on the states of the probability distributions itself. We then encountered random variables, which associate values or “payouts” with states and learned about their expected value and variance (including continuous random variables). Today we will look at functions of random variables. We will assume that we...

So far in Uncertainty Wednesdays we have only dealt with models and random variables that had a discrete probability distribution. Often in fact we had only two possible states or signal values. There are lots of real world problems though in which the variable of interest can take on a great many values. For example the time between two events taking place. We could try to break this down into discrete small intervals (say seconds) and have a probability per second. Or we could define a cont...

So far in Uncertainty Wednesdays we have only dealt with models and random variables that had a discrete probability distribution. Often in fact we had only two possible states or signal values. There are lots of real world problems though in which the variable of interest can take on a great many values. For example the time between two events taking place. We could try to break this down into discrete small intervals (say seconds) and have a probability per second. Or we could define a cont...

I previously wrote a review of Yuval Harari’s Sapiens, which I highly recommended, despite fundamentally disagreeing with one of its central arguments. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same about Homo Deus. While the book asks incredibly important questions about the future of humanity, it not only comes up short on answers, but, more disappointingly, it presents caricature versions of other philosophical positions. I nonetheless finished Homo Deus because it is highly relevant to my own writi...

I previously wrote a review of Yuval Harari’s Sapiens, which I highly recommended, despite fundamentally disagreeing with one of its central arguments. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same about Homo Deus. While the book asks incredibly important questions about the future of humanity, it not only comes up short on answers, but, more disappointingly, it presents caricature versions of other philosophical positions. I nonetheless finished Homo Deus because it is highly relevant to my own writi...

I have written several posts on token sales and ICOs already, including some “Thoughts on Regulating ICOs” and “Optimal Token Sales.” With the continued fundraising success of new projects, here are some observations on investment terms and their potential implications for achieving successful outcomes. Many projects these days have a private fundraising event that precedes any public token offering. These take varying forms, including investments in corporations and some type of SAFT (Simple...

I have written several posts on token sales and ICOs already, including some “Thoughts on Regulating ICOs” and “Optimal Token Sales.” With the continued fundraising success of new projects, here are some observations on investment terms and their potential implications for achieving successful outcomes. Many projects these days have a private fundraising event that precedes any public token offering. These take varying forms, including investments in corporations and some type of SAFT (Simple...

We are rapidly approaching the first half year of Trump’s Presidency. I am genuinely curious whether there is anyone attempting a cogent defense of the record so far. If you have read something you think qualifies, please link to it in the comments. I would also love to see someone go back and ask people, like Peter Thiel, who supported Trump’s candidacy about their assessment of his performance to date. I just spent a week in Germany leading up to the G20 summit. While the following is a com...

We are rapidly approaching the first half year of Trump’s Presidency. I am genuinely curious whether there is anyone attempting a cogent defense of the record so far. If you have read something you think qualifies, please link to it in the comments. I would also love to see someone go back and ask people, like Peter Thiel, who supported Trump’s candidacy about their assessment of his performance to date. I just spent a week in Germany leading up to the G20 summit. While the following is a com...

The women who have come forward in tech in the last few weeks, including Susan Fowler, Niniane Wang and Sarah Kunst have shown great courage. Their courage will be the catalyst for lasting change, provided all of us turn this into a sustained effort. Having been in tech for over two decades as an entrepreneur and investor, I have sadly looked into allegations of sexual harassment on more than one occasion. The majority of these cases turned out to frustratingly go nowhere, as initial allegati...

The women who have come forward in tech in the last few weeks, including Susan Fowler, Niniane Wang and Sarah Kunst have shown great courage. Their courage will be the catalyst for lasting change, provided all of us turn this into a sustained effort. Having been in tech for over two decades as an entrepreneur and investor, I have sadly looked into allegations of sexual harassment on more than one occasion. The majority of these cases turned out to frustratingly go nowhere, as initial allegati...