Facebookers write for the next few minutes or hours. Newspapermen write for the next few days. Corporate entertainers (consultants, economists, and all sorts of "thought leaders") write for the next few months or, more rarely, years. A minority of academics write for the next decade or beyond. Men of letters write for time and for… Continue reading The Half-Life of Information
The Theory of the Leisure Class
Invest in a quality, non-collapsible umbrella. On rainy days, at times when you are standing on escalators or waiting for someone, rest your hands on it instead of checking your smartphone. It is an advertisement that the bearer's hands are employed otherwise than in busy efforts, and an evidence of leisure and superiority. For the… Continue reading The Theory of the Leisure Class
Two Parables on the Information Economy
1. Immanuel Kant's observations on student note-taking in 1778: Those of my students who are most capable of grasping everything are just the ones who bother least to take explicit and verbatim notes; rather, they write down only the main points, which they can think over afterwards. Those who are most thorough in note-taking are… Continue reading Two Parables on the Information Economy
The Contemplator
In The Brothers Karamazov, Dostoevsky makes reference to this painting by Ivan Kramskoy (The Contemplator, 1876) in describing Smerdyakov: "he stands as if he were lost in thought, but he is not thinking, he is 'contemplating' something." A contemplator greedily stores up impressions he had been under while contemplating, even without realizing it. Why and… Continue reading The Contemplator
The Anglo-Russian Rivalry
It's sad to see how much the Anglo-Russian rivalry has degraded. It used to be about the Eastern Question over the Ottoman Empire, the Great Game in Central Asia, the Cambridge Spy Ring. Today it's about the respective countries' hooligans rioting in football games during Euro 2016. We live in a mediocre age.
Your Place in the Digital Economy
In five years' time, I predict that you'll see Uber rides in which both drivers and passengers are not humans. It's easy to see on the driver side: Uber has already announced that it is testing self-driving cars. On the passenger side, you'll soon see decentralised autonomous investment funds running on blockchains, not controlled by humans.… Continue reading Your Place in the Digital Economy
The Foresight of Natsume Sōseki
The majority of writers just makes noise, but some can see well ahead of their time. I find Japanese novelist Natsume Sōseki such kind of writer. As early as 1908, he wrote in Sanshirō that "Japan is going to perish." His advice: "Even bigger than Japan is the inside of your head. Don't ever surrender yourself - not… Continue reading The Foresight of Natsume Sōseki
The Political Logic of China’s GDP Growth Target
I'm a political analyst, not an economist. But in many situations, it's more than enough for me to understand the logic behind the Chinese economy. As an important example: in the March 2016 National People's Congress session, why did Xi Jinping set 6.5% as the GDP growth target for the next 5 years? This number… Continue reading The Political Logic of China’s GDP Growth Target
On Posture
In politics, posture is very important. This includes physical posture. The picture shows Japan's surrender to China at the end of WWII. Standing on the left and right are the Commander-in-Chief of the Chinese (Ho Ying-chin) and the Japanese (Yasuji Okaruma) Army respectively. It looks as if China was bowing to Japan. The relative heights… Continue reading On Posture
Andy Yee 