Links - November 20, 2016

I am actively trying to de-emphasize content about Trump, and the election, but it is tough. Expect to find traces and parallels to these themes for the next few months.

• A Bad Carver
  Sarah Perry - Ribbonfarm
  

  A dose of historical perspective for these times of economic anxiety and anomie. Unbundling and specialization leads to recondensation and reformation. In cycles, humanity tends towards complexity.

• A Country Is Not A Company (1996)
  Paul Krugman - Harvard Business Review
  

  This is not about Trump. This is about (macro)economics, business, and the mind-bending realization that they are inherently different. Macro versus micro, closed systems vs. open systems, zero-sum games vs. growing pies. Out of all my classes at Northwestern, International Finance was probably the most unexpectedly enlightening. This is it, in a nutshell.

• I’m a Latino in Tech, and I Think the ‘Diversity’ Discussion Is Broken
  Eric M. Ruiz - Observer
  

  A piece that echoes a lot of my own thouhgts on identity, well-summarized by quoting Nassim Taleb’s Black Swan: “…a philosopher from Peru resembles a philosopher from Scotland more than a janitor from Peru.”

• Fake News
  Ben Thompson - Stratechery
  

  Facebook is a scapegoat among the aggregators. Hacker News could be just as guilty of this same issue, but they don’t operate at scale, and are not frequented by Average Joe. People are lazy, including me, and we will read whatever confirms what we already think. Some of us just do a bigger effort than others to keep our biases at bay.

• Who Will Command The Robot Armies?
  Maciej Cegłowski - Idle Words
  

  In classic Pinboard style, Cegłowski starts up high with evil armies, police, and governments, but shows how in the end individuals - in this case, technical individuals - are on the hook. Facebook, Amazon, Google, and yes, Apple, all are comprised of individuals. What do we do to make sure that our decisions remain moral?

• You Are Still Crying Wolf
  Scott Alexander - Slate Star Codex
  

  The media is a shit-show. Yesterday I watched Amanda Knox (which I definitely don’t recommend), and the whole time I kept thinking of this article. Unfounded phrases get repeated over and over for views and clicks, making monsters and presidents out of thin air. Trump is bad, but I trust that things will not change that much in the short term.

• Wind Waker Graphics Analysis
  Nathan Gorodn - Medium
  

  Reading about graphics and procedural generation has become a new hobby for me.

• Language, Meaning and Machines
  agibs010 - Goldsmiths, University of London
  

  Honestly, I don’t remember how I found this article. I assume Twitter. Finding who to give credit for it was impossibly hard. In any case, while the whole thing was interesting, the most valuable piece was learning about Pierre Jaquet Droz and his 18th century robots.

• A Trunk Full of Truffles
  Planet Money
  

  A fun look at an extremely small market, dealing only in high luxury fungi.

• The Backlash Has Arrived
  Exponent
  

  Aggregation Theory applied to Trump.