The Amazing Things & Ideas - #93 – The true source of innovation
Neither of the brothers who invented the airplane went to college.* The Wright Flyer—the first legitimate airplane—cost the brothers less than $1,000 (about $28,000 in today’s dollars) to construct, which they earned through profits from their bicycle business. At the same time that the Wright brothers were designing and testing their flying machine, professor Samuel P. Langley, one of the most highly regarded American scientists of that time and secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, was also designing his. Langley spent $70,000 (over 2 million dollars in today’s dollars) of grant money from the the U.S. War Department and the Smithsonian to develop this piloted airplane, which he called the “Aerodrome”. On its first flight attempt, the Aerodrome failed to fly and dropped into the Potomac River immediately after launch. The scene repeated on its second attempt a couple months later. This time, the pilot very nearly drowned in the river. Nine days after Langley’s second attempt, the Wright brothers made history by managing four successful flights near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. This story illustrates an interesting competition between government subsidies and the free market as the true source of innovation. No, the free market does not invariably succeed and government subsidies don’t always fail. But the reality is that innovation involves a lot of trial and error. It requires setbacks, failures, and mistakes. And the ability to correct them. The free market is simply a superior playground from which to have all those failures since no single individual possesses sufficient knowledge to be the sole source of solutions. In contrast, the government’s tendency to place its faith in the “expert” is seldom a good strategy. *In fact, Orville Wright never completed high school and Wilbur Wright was posthumously awarded his high school diploma on his 127th birthday! The weekly roundup1. Book I’m readingThe Machinery of Freedom: Guide to a Radical Capitalism by David D. Friedman 2. People are significanceGreat article by Tom Hyde on “the human condition”. In scare quotes because its unlike any description of the term commonly used. An account of the deepest and most optimistic explanation of people: 3. Immortality in natureTIL about the Turritopsis dohrnii, a jellyfish that’s virtually immortal. This incredible creature can revert to its juvenile state after reaching maturity and then grow up again, repeating the process indefinitely. Talk about aging backwards! All credit to this tweet by Michael Golding. (I can’t embed Twitter links on here anymore.) 4. A saint said
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#92 – A different kind of tradition
Monday, April 10, 2023
Nature eventually weeds out even those irrational ideas people dogmatically hold—usually causing destruction to the people who held them.
#91 – Non-compulsory schooling
Sunday, April 2, 2023
And the vastness of the cosmos, battle against AGI doomerism, and questioning the known
#90 – The unselfishness trap
Sunday, March 26, 2023
If you follow the thesis “the way to be happy is to sacrifice your happiness for the happiness of other people” to its logical conclusion for everyone—nobody in the world is ever going to be happy.
#15 – Naval Ravikant and Brett Hall: Knowledge, Constraints, and Truth-Seeking Mechanisms
Saturday, March 25, 2023
Listen now (33 min) | Apologies for sending you another email. The links to the video and audio podcast in the previous email are broken. This email has them updated. Please enjoy! Airchat: https://www
#15 – Naval Ravikant and Brett Hall: Knowledge, Constraints, and Truth-Seeking Mechanisms
Saturday, March 25, 2023
Listen now (20 min) | Airchat: https://www.getairchat.com Naval on Airchat: https://www.getairchat.com/naval Brett on Airchat: https://www.getairchat.com/bretthall Keith on Airchat: https://www.
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