I gave a ton of books to the university library a few months ago, but I’m generally a very big fan of having a lot of books around. In response to an article saying students should keep their textbooks, I offer the following advice: Be on the lookout for textbooks at thrift stores. I’ve gotten […]
Don’t Listen to Music with Lyrics While You’re Trying to Work
About ten years ago, I read a piece of advice that has definitely increased my productivity: don’t listen to music with lyrics. It’s fun to rock out sometimes when I’m doing something that doesn’t require serious concentration (like checking email), but I find that if I listen to music with lyrics I end up getting […]
My First (But Not Last) Experience With Airbnb
I spent part of the second week of August in an apartment in Brooklyn that my wife and I had rented with Airbnb. We were in town to celebrate her birthday, and we had a great time visiting the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, the Brooklyn Museum, and some of the great restaurants Brooklyn and Manhattan have […]
Eating in Moderation from The Onion
I’ve learned that for me, going to a restaurant is sometimes like taking an alcoholic to a bar. I have a wholly dysfunctional relationship with food. This wasn’t a problem when I was a teenager who could eat anything in any quantity and stay rail-thin, but as my metabolism slowed into adulthood it started to […]
A Chronicle Of My Thoughts On The TSA
The US Government responded very poorly to the terrorist attack on September 11th by creating the Transportation Security Administration. The TSA is a perpetual monument to a frightened electorate that is very bad at Math. Specifically, the TSA represents a gross overreaction that causes more problems than it solves. On Transportation Security Mises Institute, November 11, […]
The Stadium Scam
Check out these articles I’ve written about subsidizing stadiums. Dobelli on Stadiums: What are the Alternatives? It’s Time for Governments to Get Over the Edifice Complex Health Care, Wage Gaps, Walmart, Stadiums And Spending: Notes From Stossel’s ‘Liar, Liar’ WEB EXCLUSIVE: The Stadium Scam Your City Probably Doesn’t Need a Government-Financed Stadium or Convention Center […]
Why Jason’s Deli Is My Default Lunch Place?
You know those days when you really want to eat fairly healthy but you don’t want to stand in a line or (honestly) talk to anyone? Enter Jason’s Deli’s salad bar kiosk. Tap the screen. Swipe. Pick up your tray and plate. Eat. Exchange plate for a clean plate if you want seconds. Or thirds. […]
In Defense of Candy Crush
How much time should you spend playing Candy Crush? Or SimCity? Or Tetris? or Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes? If you think these are just time wasters, you’re wrong. In a really interesting TED Talk and similarly interesting interview on Tim Ferriss’s podcast, Jane McGonigal (creator of SuperBetter) has discussed how gaming per se improves brain […]
5 Things I’m Not Going to Do Today
A few days before the beginning of the Fall semester, Jason Womack posted a prompt on Facebook that popped up just as I was about to close it. He asked, “What five things are you NOT going to do today?” Here were my responses: Respond to that thing that just came across my Facebook feed. Someone […]
Arnold Kling, “Three Languages of Politics”
It looks like most political commentators are just talking past one another. Why? Arnold Kling hazards a guess, arguing that people don’t understand one another because they have fundamentally different visions of how the world works. According to Kling, conservatives see the world as a conflict between civilization and barbarism, liberals see it as a […]