Lynne Kiesling: “Knowledge is not data, and data are only an incomplete surrogate for knowledge. Knowledge is perception, interpretation, and judgement; the distillation of those elements into action in an economic system with prices (and profit and loss) creates data. Economic calculation has an irreducible cognitive dimension because it is grounded in subjective personal judgements about opportunity costs. Clarifying these differences between knowledge and data suggests that the complex economy is in fact not computable, at least not in any meaningful sense that reflects underlying human values and can adapt to unknown and changing conditions in dynamic systems. AI can generate, process, and analyze data, but AI cannot react to data and take actions without contextual knowledge grounded in human cognition. AI cannot perform economic calculation without human input.” [via Arnold Kling]
WSJ: “Aura—a lighthearted quantification of a person’s cool factor—has quickly become the slang of the moment among tweens, teens and 20-somethings. What started with students in classrooms and commenters online has grown big enough that shoe brands and political parties are now adopting the term, giving and taking away points at whim. Aura, or positive aura points, are a compliment. “When you have a really, really, really good aura, I feel like that really translates from online to the other side of the phone,” said Hina Sabatine, a 27-year-old influencer based in Los Angeles. “Some people just have it.”…Got someone’s number? +100 aura points. Pushed a pull door? -100.”
FT: “I was at lunch recently with a wealthy start-up founder guy in Stockholm, where there seems to be a ton of them. Smooth, successful, swathed in cashmere, socially adroit: he was sharing his top tip when it comes to hiring a new employee. After the interview, if they passed the first part, he would take them out to lunch. But if it took them more than a couple of minutes to order, he would give the job to someone else. I wondered if there were caveats. For example: what if the candidate deferred to the waiter’s expertise and knowledge of the menu and then took his advice? This could show a lack of initiative, said the Swede, and an inability to make choices for oneself. However, he continued, he would be happy if the candidate were to copy the choice he had made himself. I liked his logic. Why hire a timewaster when efficiency is all?…In a world of infinite choices, rapid thinking has become a superpower.”
WSJ: “Nearly five million Americans work for tips. Almost 70% of them are women. But according to a 2023 Bankrate survey, two-thirds of Americans have a negative view of tipping, probably because we’ve been inundated. Why do we tip? London taverns in the 17th century suggested tipping “To Insure Promptitude.” Now it’s the cheeky “To insure prompt service.” Tipping spread to the U.S. in the 19th century. In 1899 the New York Times called it the “vilest of imported vices.” Probably so. The Pullman Company hired former slaves as porters at low wages. They mainly worked for tips. Wealthy Americans obliged.”
Mudar Patherya on India’s win in the T20 cricket World Cup: “We have heard this often: ‘It is never over until it is over’. Part believed; part sniggered. But when India won from a point when South Africa needed 30 in 30 balls with five standing – it could have got them by patting each ball to third man and walking their singles – I am beginning to believe that Anupam Kher’s overused hype (‘Kuch bhi ho sakta hai’). See the sequence of what transpired thereafter: 1, 2, 0, 0, 1, 0, W, 0, 1, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 1, W0, 1, 0, 0, 1, 2, 1, 0, W, 4, B1, L1, Wd, W, 1. The winner is not necessarily the one who never goes down; the winner is the one who gets up each time…The biggest comeback artist of the tournament was the humble bowler. Virtually banished from the IPL. Sent to exile. Mocked by eight-year-olds. Shunned by self-seekers. The Player of the T20 World Cup was a bowler. Retrieved the game from a run orgy.”
