Author, Investor, Speaker, Mentor
What do Elon Musk, Roe v. Wade, James Harden, and professional soccer have in common? They all illustrate the near-universal human disgust with “working the refs”. “Working the refs” is a term I know from professional basketball. Working the refs consists of influencing the decision-making of the referees, who call fouls and enforce the rules … Continue reading Working The Refs
I tend to be a supporter of increased gun legislation. I don’t own a gun, I didn’t grow up with guns, and I don’t believe I’ve ever even held a gun or been present when one was fired. So from a practical and personal standpoint, I would prefer to minimize private gun ownership. However, I … Continue reading A Principled Argument for 2nd Amendment Rights
In the past, I’ve extolled the virtues of the miserly safety net, especially when it comes to housing. It just occurred to me that it might be possible to expand this net to cover all the essentials of life. When I think about the essentials of life in the United States, it boils down to … Continue reading The Miserly Safety Net: Another Modest Proposal
When people talk about power, they invariable are referring to hard power. Hard power is the power of authority and might. Hard power is swift and decisive. Hard power is the ability of the President of the United States to order assassinations, and have them carried out half a world away by drone strike. In … Continue reading Hard Power and Soft Power
As the saga of Silk Road plays out, a lot of attention has been focused on the mistakes that Dread Pirate Roberts made that helped the Feds catch up with him. The Verge has a good longform piece on this topic: http://bit.ly/1aQExxL It appears that the current Dread Pirate Roberts (for we all know that … Continue reading Why The Fall of Silk Road and Bitcoin Is Inevitable
I was affected and inspired by Paul Tough’s recent book, “How Children Succeed.” In this book, Tough combines neuroscience, educational research, and striking stories to explain how both sides of the political spectrum are both right and wrong about how to fix America. Conservatives are correct that character is the keystone of success. Over, and … Continue reading Grit, Policy, and Politics
Let me emphasize that I am neither an economist or politician. Yet when I read articles like this recent New Yorker piece on the minimum wage, I feel compelled to share my take. In his piece, James Surowiecki does a good job of teasing out some of the main issues around low-wage work these days. … Continue reading Why The Minimum Wage Doesn’t Help The Poor
If you’re a psychology junkie like me, you’ve probably heard about the Stanford marshmallow experiment: http://bit.ly/Wga2Ne In this experiment, 5 year olds were offered a choice: Eat a marshmallow now, or be left alone in a room with a marshmallow. If they went 15 minutes without eating the marshmallow, the researcher would give the child … Continue reading Self-control is irrelevant to success in the game if you believe the game is rigged
I preface this post with the admission that I have always been a child of privilege. I come from a family of well-educated Chinese immigrants; my mother is the only member of her generation on either her or my father’s side of the family that didn’t earn a Ph.D. (she only has a measly Masters, … Continue reading Searching for Equality in a Winner-take-Most World
One of the people who commented on my recent post on sexism in high tech made a very good point. Beth noted, “What’s our take away. What do we want, exactly? It’d be easier to speak to both sides if we had a clear objective.” I’m far from an expert on effecting social change. In … Continue reading 2 Concrete Steps To Combat Sexism At Tech Conferences