Equality and Efficiency, Metaverse, Herbert Simon

🎒What I’m learning at school -

1. Difference between firms and markets. Firms represent a concentration of economic power: a. Owners and managers direct work. b. An “order” is a command. Markets are characterized by a decentralization of economic power: a. Transactions are voluntary. b. An “order” is a purchase.
2. Herbert Simon (1916–2001). An individual trained as a political scientist but remembered as an economist. I don’t know why? That must of pissed him off. Simon won the Noble Prize in 1978 for his research in understanding the decision-making process in firms. For further illustration, his work addressed why firms hire workers? And there were two conclusions:
3. When tasks are easily specified in a contract, firms contract work to individuals or other firms.
4. When tasks are uncertain and difficult to write into a contract, firms hire workers to follow the boss’s orders.
5. Social Dilemma Essay. I have been trying to write out circumstances of dilemmas in my life. The best I could come up with is when and friend and I were tired to rent bikes. Heads up, maybe I’ll pose it here next week.

What I’ve been reading -

📰 News. Markets: The combo of the war in Ukraine and upcoming Fed rate hikes has taken its toll on stocks — the Dow took another licking for its fourth straight losing week. There were plenty of hurts to go around yesterday, but travel stocks were especially bludgeoned. Damn, this war is taking a huge toll on all of us. I guess, having conflicts in this globalized century has lots of consequences.

📰 News. Ukraine latest: Western leaders condemned Russia’s attack on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine early Friday morning. “By the grace of God, the world narrowly averted a nuclear catastrophe last night,” the US envoy to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol has been besieged by Russian forces, and its mayor said residents have no water, heat, or electricity. Did you know that Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is based in Enerhodar, Ukraine, and is the largest nuclear power plain in Europe and among the 10 largest in the world? 1st is still Kashiwazaki-Kariwa.

📰 News. The Russian government blocked access to Facebook and Twitter in the country, and not because it’s worried about screen time addiction. Yeah, that would be a better reason. The ban is part of the government’s broader attempt to control the narrative of the war by clamping down on what it considers fake news. Russian citizens can still access most sites via Telegram or through personal VPNs, but many Russian independent news organizations have already pulled Ukraine content or simply shut it down due to tighter censorship policies from the Kremlin.

📝 Article. John Nash. I have been wanting to read a short Biography of him because he was a rare circumstance in economics. I’m learning a lot about his theories and works but not having enough background about him. Absolute joyful read.

📝 Article. Various Types of Social Dilemma. This was an article I read to understand better about types of social dilemmas for my upcoming essay. It’s interesting.

📖 Book. Equality and efficiency, the big tradeoff written by Arthur Melvin Okun. We touched on the topic of why inequality can’t be mitigated without sacrificing efficiency in an economy. So, that got me curious about further arguments made by Okun. This book isn’t super technical but I would encourage you to be curious while reading.

What I’ve been listening to -

🎙 Podcast. Mark Zuckerberg: Meta, Facebook, Instagram, and the Metaverse. Wow! This is a great listen. I think you can learn a lot about the future from this podcast episode. They talk about vision and where they see Metaverse taking place. Here are some notes I took:

To help balance and when you’re building something like this, there’s a lot of pressure. You want to build out your teams because there’s a lot of stuff that you need to get done and everyone always says don’t compromise on quality, but there’s this question of, okay, well how do you know that someone is good enough and I think my answer is I would want someone to be on my team if I would work for them. But I think it’s actually a pretty similar answer to like if you were going to go if you were choosing friends or a partner or something like that.

AI Translation: We were basically getting from, you’ll be able to go between about 100 languages seamlessly today. Being able to go to about 300 languages in the near term and so from any language to any other language.

When do you think the metaverse will provide those experiences for a large number?

There was someone I read this piece that framed a lot of people think that the metaverse is about a place but one definition of this is, it’s about a time when basically immersive digital worlds become the primary way that we live our lives and spend our time. I think that that’s a reasonable construct and from that perspective. I think you also just want to look at this as a continuation.

I listen to podcasts on Airr. I discovered this app from Ali Abdaal. You can take notes while listening to your favorite episode. 🤯

🎶 Music. Billie Jean by Michael Jackson. All-time classic and can never go wrong. I was listening to this before starting my public speaking class.

I listen to my music from Spotify. If you are interested, check out my studying playlist.

What I enjoyed watching -

📽 YouTube. How to Network. Tim Ferris shares his personal story of how humility, openness, and sincereness got his book “4-Hour Workweek” into a NewYorkTimes bestseller.

💭 Quote that I’m pondering -

“In talking with people, don’t begin by discussing the things on which you differ. Begin by emphasizing — and keep on emphasizing — the things on which you agree. Keep emphasizing, if possible, that you are both striving for the same end and that your only difference is one of method and not of purpose.”

How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. With the help of 📥 Readwise.

I hope you are having a great week,

Banza