Some time back my brother recommended I watch the documentary film Medora, about a high school basketball team from rural Southern Indiana. I finally got around to doing it. Someone described this film as an "inverse Hoosiers", which is an apt description. Hoosiers is a fictional retelling of the Milan Miracle, the legendary story of how tiny Milan High School (enrollment 161) won the state's then single-class basketball championship in 1954. There's no such happy ending in prospect in Medora (available on Netflix). The town's basketball … [Read more...]
Archives for July 2016
Moving Beyond Resilience
Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder by Nassim Nicholas Taleb I had never read any books by Nassim Taleb of "black swan" fame until some hilarious retweets from his Twitter account caused me to start following him. Taleb is a witty and opinionated fellow. He's lately been hating on what he labels the "Intellectual Yet Idiot" class. Here's a recent Facebook post of his on the topic that went viral. What's a IYI? Intellectual Yet Idiot: semi-erudite bureaucrat who thinks he is an erudite; pathologizes others for doing things he … [Read more...]
How Demographics Explain the World
Demographics may not be destiny, but they do play a huge role in driving the fortunes of society and the economy. Sami Karam of Populyst joined me for a podcast on demographic trends around the world. The conversation ranged from the rise of China to the fall of Japan - and even why Occupy Wall Street failed to achieve lift-off. Topics include: 0:00 Introduction and overview of Sami Karam’s work 2:20 Why Occupy Wall Street didn't take off 3:15 Demographics on the problems of the Japanese economy 3:50 What does demographics tell … [Read more...]