I know you’re frightened to see such a publicly display of man-love as the fat controller put on show in that last post. I know it was every bit as gut-retching as he imagined it was heart-wrenching. I know, and I’m sorry. This hasty post is designed to move it down the page, post-haste, for the good of the internets, hallowed be their name.
Author: thomasthethinkengine
Thomas the Think Engine is the blog of a trained economist. It comes to you from Melbourne Australia.
What Adam Bandt owes to Harold Hotelling
Adam Bandt is the Australian Greens candidate for the seat of Melbourne. Continue reading What Adam Bandt owes to Harold Hotelling
A plea for an end to this vile injustice
On Saturday night, 24 minutes into the World Cup match against Ghana, Australia’s soccer public was sent into a spiral of confusion, anger, doubt and foul language, with the sending off of marquee player Harry Kewell. Continue reading A plea for an end to this vile injustice
First Anniversary!
One year ago today, the blog published its first real post: https://thomasthethinkengine.wordpress.com/2009/06/11/a-new-kind-of-humility/
The end of the age of media*
I’m going to tell a story in three phases. The phases compress and distort history in order to illuminate vital elements. In that way the story is like a cut-away model, sacrificing wholeness for insight…
Media and communication are in flux. People are worried. The long journey of human communication – like the travels of a cruise ship – might not culminate in a fearsome drop into nothingness. Instead it may be more like a circumnavigation, where the waters we are entering are not as unfamiliar as they have seemed. Continue reading The end of the age of media*
An article exhorting the demise of the travel agency
I had the misfortune to be in one of these earlier today:
Continue reading An article exhorting the demise of the travel agency
National Broadband needlessness.
I’ve already unleashed a lot of emotive language on the National Broadband Network. Here’s why: Continue reading National Broadband needlessness.
Baking the dough of debt into the bread of financial crisis.
Debt seems to be a necessary trigger condition for global economic disasters.
Doesn’t matter if its private (subprime mortgages) or Government (Greek debt).
But Japan shows debt is not a sufficient condition for a meltdown. (Government debt = nearly 200 percent of GDP)
So what is the extra ingredient that turns the dough of debt into the crusty baguette of financial crisis? Continue reading Baking the dough of debt into the bread of financial crisis.
America + Football = Progress?
I’ve just found out about this: American Footy Star! It’s a genuine talent search wrapped up in a shiny reality TV show, and I love it. Putting NBA basketballers in the AFL was once purely hypothetical but now may be a reality.
It will increase the chance of recruiting dextrous, strong, tall ball players who can’t quite make the NFL / NBA. It will also take another tiny step to building a global appreciation for AFL. Continue reading America + Football = Progress?
Car Future Part V – Share the road, share the load
Thanks for reading Part I, Part II, Part III and Part IV of this series exploring the future of personal transport. This is the concluding part.
I love a logical argument, and I have a feeling this series is leading us towards a big conclusion: The future, it’s already here.
The recipe for the future will have the same ingredients, but the ratios will be changed. Continue reading Car Future Part V – Share the road, share the load
National Broadband Nuff-Nuffs
Now, I flipping LOVE the internet, so don’t get me wrong. But $43 billion for a national broadband network works out at $2000 for every Australian.
Please sir, can I have some more?
Tell me what you think about what I ate this week. I aspire to perfect nutritional harmony, 3 serves of fruit and 5 of vegetables, raw food and ethical choices. As you’ll see I have an aspiration-consumption dichotomy (ACD).
But I swear it’s not a standard week. I boozed more than normal, and the impetus for starting to record everything was eating so much on Monday night that I felt ill. On the other hand there’s some evidence the process might have kept snacking in check…
Continue reading Please sir, can I have some more?
Car Future Part IV – Big project failure
Thanks for reading Part I, Part II and Part III of this series exploring the future of personal transport. Part IV considers whether we’re likely to see cars go out with a bang or a whimper.
There’s a temptation to think that the problems of our car culture can be solved with one big heave-ho, if we all pull together. But big projects, even when they look simple, are doomed, ahem, prone to failure. Consider Myki, a project to get a transit smart card for Melbourne. Continue reading Car Future Part IV – Big project failure
I heart tax reform.
A big review whets people’s appetite for change. If taking a super-sized bite out of mining company profits with a resource rent tax is suddenly regarded as “underwhelming”, “safe” or “pragmatic”, it is only because the media have seen some of the fancier items on the Henry tax review menu.
Swapping metaphors now… Continue reading I heart tax reform.
Car Future Part III – Personal Rapid Transit
Thanks for reading Part I and Part II of this series exploring the future of personal transport.
Personal Rapid Transit is another concept proclaimed as the future of our cities.
It’s little driverless cabins running on a dedicated right of way. You get in, plug in your destination and are taken directly there. There may be up to four seats in the cabin, but you (plus any travelling companions) get the thing to yourself. The stations in the network are designed so the cabins pull off the track to stop. This means everyone gets an uniterrupted journey to their destination. Expected waiting times are under a minute. Continue reading Car Future Part III – Personal Rapid Transit
Should house prices be a consistent multiple of income?
No. Despite the fevered warnings of some commentators, this RBA graph does not portend a housing crash:
Continue reading Should house prices be a consistent multiple of income?
Car Future Part II – Robot Cars.
This is Part Two of the series. Part One is here.
ABS, because the car can brake better than we can.
Electronic stability control, because the car can manage corners better than we can,
Adaptive cruise control, because sometimes we take our eyes off the car in front.
GPS. Because we get lost.
Lane departure warning system. Because we’re playing with the radio.
Automatic parking from Toyota. Because we really don’t want to hit that Merc with our car.
So if you thought electric windows were the bleeding edge of autonomy, think again.
An Italian team is sending two cars on a mission. From Parma to Shanghai. With no drivers for 13,000 km. They’ll arrive in time for the Shanghai World Expo, theme: Better City, Better Life. Continue reading Car Future Part II – Robot Cars.
Car Future Part I
Welcome to a multipart series on the future of personal transport.
Cars are like cool girlfriends. Go out, live fast, have fun. But something tells me we don’t have a future together. It’s not you… It’s me… Continue reading Car Future Part I
Large numbers, meta-cognition and predictable mistakes
People don’t think accurately about problems. We take shortcuts across the logical landscape. We use rules of thumb, culture, tradition and old wives tales. We guess and intuit and estimate.
Most of the time, these shortctus get us to where we’re going. Sometimes we miss a bit to the left, sometimes we miss a bit to the right. But it works out.
However, there are some patterns of thought that we keep getting wrong. Some logical shortcuts lead us off in the same wrong direction every time. Like a forward who always kicks the ball off to the left.
This is where meta-cognition comes in. It’s like a coach. It says, Buddy, you always miss to the left. Why not just aim a bit more right? Buddy starts aiming right, and he kicks a lot more goals.
Meta-cognition is thinking about thinking. It asks us to put the goggles on, and examine all the rules, biases and heuristics we use in decision-making. If we find our decision making failing in a random way, oh well. But if we find our decision-making failing in a systematic, predictable way, EUREKA! We have something we can do something about.
Continue reading Large numbers, meta-cognition and predictable mistakes
From the fat but indefatigable New York Times: Weight-loss.
They say you can’t be too rich, or too thin. (That’s why I started this blog.)
Research into exercise and weight loss intrigues me. I was happy today to find that the fat but indefatigable New York Times has a great summary of the most recent research, confirming what everyone already knows, which is that exercise makes you hungry!
We’ve written about this before: Exercise won’t make you any less fat. Continue reading From the fat but indefatigable New York Times: Weight-loss.
Thomas the Think Engine 