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Jag Bhalla
Science Writer, Blogger, and Essayist
Jag Bhalla is a writer and entrepreneur. Current projects include this "Thought Fix" blog series for Big Think. And NanoSalad a zero-prep way to zap veggie gaps (by BodZoo LLC, a future-friendly, basic-by-design business, see www.bodzoo.com for further details). Prior projects include "Errors We Live By," a series of short exoteric essays exposing errors in the big ideas running our lives. And I'm Not Hanging Noodles On Your Ears, a surreptitious science gift book from National Geographic Books, which explains his twitter handle @hangingnoodles.
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Preferences often differ from prudent interests, and economics, business, and politics address (and regulate) imprudent choices differently: 1. Are American’s prudent? 69% eat imprudently, and 75% don’t save enough. […]
Maxims often beat maximization. Much in life isn’t quantifiable, much less numerically maximizable. It’s unwise to ignore that evolution fitted us for maxims, not math, to manage life’s complexities. 1. […]
The label “rational” is being used illogically. Economists (even the better behavioural kind) often misapply it, ignoring Shakespeare’s wisdom (he understood human nature better) and our evolved relational rationality. 1. […]
We know to be wary of demagoguery, but “plutogoguery” also has perils. Especially if it promotes elite psychological patterns that history warns against: 1. Demagogues are leaders (agogos = “lead”) […]
Two of America’s core values—democracy and meritocracy—seem increasingly conflicted and the way we talk about them isn’t helping: 1. “-ocracy” means “rule of.” Democracy is rule of the demos, the […]
A new “happiness” is needed. The goal many pursue now ignores useful old wisdom and the logic of our biology. A verb capturing the necessary recurring effort would improve on […]
“If it feels good, do it” is no formula for happiness. Happyologist and free-marketeer Arthur Brooks rightly calls it popular but “life ruining advice.” His essay mixes old wisdom with […]
Happiness has gotten confusing. Despite its importance it’s puzzling even our smartest scientists. “Bentham’s bucket error” is to blame, but “Plato’s Pastry” parable and a rare case of reality in […]
Plato recently confessed his 10 biggest mistakes on twitter. They came via his current spokesperson Rebecca Goldstein author of the entertaining and educational Plato at the Googleplex. Here they are in reverse order: 10. […]
Plato recently tweeted his 10 biggest mistakes (channeled via Rebecca Goldstein author of Plato at the Googleplex). Two mistakes concern mathematics and an almost irrational faith in its powers: 1. […]
Key logic in America’s founding documents is now neglected. Let’s test your grasp of what workable independence requires: 1. What does “the Declaration” list as the first justification for America’s […]
All meaning is relational (otherwise it’s potentially useless and unhealthy). That’s true for both senses of meaning, and Nozick’s “Pleasure Machine” shows why workable individualism must be relational. 1. Individualism’s […]
You are by nature self-deficient. Your constitution guarantees it, initially, chronically, and inalienably. Biology defying individualistic ideas now hide these once self-evident truths. 1. Though the opposite is claimed, no […]
Nothing in nature works quite like money. Or seems as complex as an economy. I’d welcome counterexamples, but something seems fishy. 1. Here’s the usual big picture: Competitive markets allocate […]
This is an updated version of a Scientific American post: In future economics should be seen as more like history than physics. Steven Pinker says, “No sane thinker would try […]
Our ruling ideas grow evermore ethically evasive. Ignoring evident big picture problems, they have us mindlessly seeking the mathematically and morally absurd. Simple maxims can clarify: Economics, the study of […]
“Should economists be advocates or engineers?” asks Noah Smith. Tradeoffs reveal how reliably they perform as either. Smith worries that his trade’s “engineering” aspects are being sacrificed for “political advocacy” […]
History’s most successful(4) euphemism(1) is making original idiots(2) of us. “Idiotic” first meant the opposite(3) of “political,” but they’re almost synonyms(5) now. 1. Here are definitions of the euphemism and […]
There are two kinds of success. One kind damages or destroys what it depends on, the other doesn’t. History and theater teach that distinction about the ambitious, evolution and religion […]
If politics is mainly “the economy, stupid,” can cherished ideas from the former help the later? Lincoln proclaimed good government is “of the people, by the people, for the people,” […]