Scott:
Ssc Journal Club Dissolving The Fermi Paradox by Scott Alexander – “Imagine we knew God flipped a coin. If it came up heads, He made 10 billion alien civilization. If it came up tails, He made none besides Earth. Using our one parameter Drake Equation, we determine that on average there should be 5 billion alien civilizations. Since we see zero, that’s quite the paradox, isn’t it? No. In this case the mean is meaningless. It’s not at all surprising that we see zero alien civilizations, it just means the coin must have landed tails.”
Rationalist:
Debt Anti Investment by Jacob Falkovich – Paying off debt with an interest rate r can be thought of as making a risk free investment with return r. Using this framework you can figure out if you are better off investing money or paying off debt once you decide how much to value ‘risk free’.
Misk:
Semi Annual Roundup 2018 by Venkatesh Rao – The last six months: nineteen articles published on ribbonfarm and a quick recap.
Podcast:
Rational Fiction by The Bayesian Conspiracy – Discussions about rational fiction and what qualities define ratfic.
