Weekly Reads: Research, Free Markets, and Parenting Choices
Rethinking assumptions about research, intervention, and education.
Research as Understanding
When I was in university, I always thought "Research" is for the very smart - and I definitely wasn't one of them. When you hear "research", we think of novel ideas at the bleeding edge, complex theory, extreme left-curve IQ genius.
Anyone can do research. You just need curiosity, systematic exploration, and willingness to share what you find. The generating function for novel work is trying really hard to understand something until you pass through the edge of current human understanding, then continuing imaginatively onward.
More on Repealing the Laws of Economics
From the great Howard Marks (I'm also a fan of his book: Most Important Thing). In his memo, he is making the case that the economic man is a reactive adaptive man, not passive, and while government policy can sometimes achieve goals through well-designed incentives, poorly designed policies offer no free lunch - there's no solution that gives free benefits to everyone. He walks through examples like California's fire insurance price caps, which drove insurers out of the market and left homeowners uninsured for recent devastating fires. Overall, free-market solutions shall be used by default.
Why we’re still doing normal school
This piece captures the fascinating reality of being a parent trying to navigate what lies ahead for young kids in an uncertain future.
Julia Wise acknowledges that current schools prepare children for something like the present or past, which feels absurd when AI will likely transform work and daily life by the time her children are adults.
Yet she and her partner stick with traditional school for three main reasons: school is where the other children are, they don't want to quit their meaningful work, and the future is too weird and hard to prepare for anyway.
When thinking about education, it's not just about knowledge, it's also about developing social skills through relationships with other kids. Homeschooling can only optimize the knowledge (side) of education, there needs to be dedication to social and other forms of education (environmental, spiritual, etc). And even with all its limitations, school provides that community.
Even if parents are willing to commit full time to raising kids, there are still questions about the evolving nature of technology. Tech is forward-looking while traditional schools always lag and adapt late. Given that, parents need to figure out which skills and knowledge is most useful given a future scenario (like the rise of AGI).