Author Archives: idj4thinking

Dynamic Deductions: Why SALT kills good governance

Surely you’ve heard that SALT is bad for you. Too much sodium, and you’ll get a heart attack and die. A very different kind of salt, aimed at tax policy is similarly toxic. SALT stands for State and Local Tax deduction, and the premise behind it is that the money you pay to your municipality,Continue reading “Dynamic Deductions: Why SALT kills good governance”

Are we going to be honest about net neutrality?

I remember the Internet shutting down over the idea that ISPs, or internet-service providers being able to charge differential rates was a travesty to justice, and that the internet would be irreparably broken. Despite net neutrality being stopped in 2017, rather than a hellscape where nothing went, a barren wasteland on the internet, things prettyContinue reading “Are we going to be honest about net neutrality?”

Let’s Reform Healthcare: 6 ideas for cost-cutting without harming outcomes

I don’t think anyone disagrees about whether the US healthcare system is a mess. But, many disagree about why. Some people think it’s the patchwork of insurance companies robbing the American consumer blind. Others think that its the greed of pharmaceutical companies. The more economically-minded may see a bunch of principal-agent problems, and limited mechanismsContinue reading “Let’s Reform Healthcare: 6 ideas for cost-cutting without harming outcomes”

Picking a fight with Hunter Walk on former-google-worker-supremacy

This was written ten years ago, but republished today. It’s a little dated, so I’m not going to argue whether Google is especially transformative today. Instead, I want to challenge a bit of the argumentation that those who work at high leverage companies are especially equipped to execute excellently. His argument is that working atContinue reading “Picking a fight with Hunter Walk on former-google-worker-supremacy”

Is blogging just failing in public?

Although I’ve had several false-starts when it came to blogging, I definitely feel that I’ve gotten into a good rhythm of it. I’ve been watching a lot of creator centered media, and something that I find really interesting is that a lot of the stuff is bad before it’s good. A lot of the time,Continue reading “Is blogging just failing in public?”

In Defense of Walter Block

I’ve been on the receiving end of a friend-group cancellation for an intolerable opinion before, and a desire not to shut up. In the choice between pretending my beliefs were repulsive, or leave and venture into new groups, I opted to stick with intellectual honesty. I wouldn’t belabor anyone for deciding to do things differently,Continue reading “In Defense of Walter Block”

Blessed are the IT Managers, for they shall inherit the earth

When I was deciding on a career, I tried to understand where I’d be able to add the most value. I think increasingly being involved in IT is going to have increasing returns to scale, given the rise of LLMs, Generative AI, Cloud Products, and more. It seems just about every company nowadays is anContinue reading “Blessed are the IT Managers, for they shall inherit the earth”

Super Elite Animal Products

Recently, I’ve been trying to figure out where on the margin I can reduce the amount of seed oils and ultraprocessed food I’m consuming without spending tons of time or money making stuff that I can stomach. Yesterday, I bought a fryer chicken and cooked it with tons of spices in my kitchen. It wasContinue reading “Super Elite Animal Products”

About that exhilarating spring clean…

There’s an asymmetry to cleaning which unfortunately infects the minds of the hoarding-inclined, and it goes something like: “I have what I need, so in case X happens, I’ll have Y and be able to solve for it”. The major problem is that this type of thinking fails to consider both the costs Z, andContinue reading “About that exhilarating spring clean…”