Category Archives: Uncategorized

Thus far this week (see here and here), I have posed a first-order question about Adam Smith’s “impartial spectator”: who, or what, is this imaginary moral judge? (See, for example, the short video posted below.) I, however, will now have … Continue reading →

I began my previous post by asking, Who (or what?) is the “impartial spectator” in Adam Smith’s first magnum opus, The Theory of Moral Sentiments? (This is just one of the many open “Adam Smith problems” my colleague and friend … Continue reading →

My colleagues Daniel Klein, Nicholas Swanson, and Jeffrey Young provide their interpretation of Adam Smith’s imaginary being in their essay “The Impartial Spectator Rises” in the most recent issue of Econ Journal Watch (see here or below). As it happens, … Continue reading →

All I will say (for now) is that the incumbent FBI director, Kash Patel, better be careful, as his political enemies may want retribution when they resume control of the White House in the future. In the meantime, here is … Continue reading →

I hate to have to defend such an unlikable CEO as Mark Zuckerberg, but what’s also funny about this anti-Meta meme are its logical and legal fallacies. Can you spot them?

In addition to my usual fare of scholarly papers and erudite essays, below are some of the books that I am reading (or in the case of item #4, re-reading) this fall: Neil Gaiman, Norse Mythology (W. W. Norton, 2017) … Continue reading →

Delete your academia.edu accounts, if you have not done so already. Here’s why. See also the screenshot of their super-scammy updated user agreement below:

Julie Bort, OpenAI’s research on AI models deliberately lying is wild, Tech Crunch (18 September 2025). Nils Köbis, et al., Delegation to artificial intelligence can increase dishonest behaviour, Nature (17 September 2025). u/MinuteDistribution31, Why ChatGPT isn’t a good tool for … Continue reading →

What is the real reason he resigned from his post after only 17 months? Was he forced out? Why is this motherfucker still being paid $1 million dollars a year?