yhoiseth

[Question] Is Bjorn Lom­borg roughly right about cli­mate change policy?

[Question] 45% to 55% vs. 90% to 100%

[Question] Do we have a term for the is­sue with quan­tify­ing policy effect Scott Alexan­der stum­bled on mul­ti­ple times?

[Question] Should gov­ern­ment set in­ter­est rates?

• yhoiseth 26 May 2021 16:25 UTC

  1 point

  in reply to: yhoiseth’s comment on: If in­di­vi­d­ual perfor­mance is Pareto dis­tributed, how should we re­form ed­u­ca­tion?

  Never mind. https://​​www.lesswrong.com/​​posts/​​RDokeedGWxHGggvAh/​​if-individual-performance-is-pareto-distributed-how-should?commentId=8MSALh9tWNcrEbwrg brought the point home for me.

• yhoiseth 26 May 2021 16:23 UTC

  1 point

  in reply to: jacopo’s comment on: If in­di­vi­d­ual perfor­mance is Pareto dis­tributed, how should we re­form ed­u­ca­tion?

  Thanks a ton. That is very helpful. I think I understand your point now. (Others in the comments have also said something similar, but I didn’t grasp it until now.)

  Let me try to work through it in my own words and apply your insight to my question:

  Education contributes to people’s abilities — at least, that’s the idea. It also certifies them. Ability is roughly Gaussian, so tests and teaching should assume that. Which they currently do.

  Results, however, depend on many other (possibly overlapping) things, such as

  1. luck;

  2. market structure;

  3. intellectual property rights;

  4. economies of scale;

  5. branding; and

  6. network effects.

  For education policy, Pareto results don’t matter. Schools can only affect the input, not the output.

  I still think my reform suggestion is good. But I am no longer convinced that Pareto performance implies anything for education education reform. Unless, of course, it turns out that ability does follow a Pareto distribution. But that seems unlikely to me.

• yhoiseth 26 May 2021 8:15 UTC

  1 point

  in reply to: freedomandutility’s comment on: If in­di­vi­d­ual perfor­mance is Pareto dis­tributed, how should we re­form ed­u­ca­tion?

  Good question. You might be right about that.

• yhoiseth 25 May 2021 16:52 UTC

  3 points

  in reply to: jacopo’s comment on: If in­di­vi­d­ual perfor­mance is Pareto dis­tributed, how should we re­form ed­u­ca­tion?

  Thanks for the insightful comment. I agree that the performance measures used tend toward zero-sum games. I don’t, however, think that research is an example of a (roughly) zero-sum game. Scientific breakthroughs to be made is not a limited resource in anywhere near the same sense as sports trophies is a limited resource. When we’re counting papers, we’re getting closer to zero-sum, but I still think it’s significantly positive-sum.

  Leaving that aside, I still think we need more examples from positive-sum games. We could look at things like

  1. jobs created by entrepreneurs;

  2. wealth created by entrepeneurs;

  3. salaries;

  4. books sold by authors;

  5. returns made by investors; and

  6. records sold by artists.

  My hunch is that these also follow a Paretian distribution, but I’m only about 70 percent sure of that. Hypothetically, if I was right, what would you think then?

• yhoiseth 25 May 2021 15:33 UTC

  1 point

  in reply to: CellBioGuy’s comment on: If in­di­vi­d­ual perfor­mance is Pareto dis­tributed, how should we re­form ed­u­ca­tion?

  I’m not sure if I understand what you mean. Would you care to elaborate?

• yhoiseth 25 May 2021 15:32 UTC

  3 points

  in reply to: James_Miller’s comment on: If in­di­vi­d­ual perfor­mance is Pareto dis­tributed, how should we re­form ed­u­ca­tion?

  Good idea. Would love to hear if anyone has any experience trying this.

• yhoiseth 25 May 2021 15:31 UTC

  1 point

  in reply to: Dagon’s comment on: If in­di­vi­d­ual perfor­mance is Pareto dis­tributed, how should we re­form ed­u­ca­tion?

  Public, large-scale, youth education is mostly about child-care and socialization, and only incidentally about skill or knowledge development.

  I agree that child-care and socialization are big parts of it, but I also think skill and knowledge development play a big role. For example, I care about my doctor’s education due to the skill and knowledge development (as well as certification) that happened during their formal education.

  People such as voters and parents also care at least to some degree what people learn in school. They might be mistaken a lot of the time, but they do care.

[Question] If in­di­vi­d­ual perfor­mance is Pareto dis­tributed, how should we re­form ed­u­ca­tion?

Mo­du­lar em­piri­cal science

• yhoiseth 30 Mar 2020 12:49 UTC

  1 point

  in reply to: romeostevensit’s comment on: What can we call the mis­taken be­lief that some­thing can’t be mea­sured?

  Would you mind explaining the term?

[Question] What can we call the mis­taken be­lief that some­thing can’t be mea­sured?