My 2022 Highlights

In the end of year reflection spirit, I thought it would be fun to go through my top highlights and moments from 2022. This post is out of character for this blog… but I haven’t posted in over 6 months… and I would definitely be interested in reading something like this from any of my favorite writers… so it’s making the cut.

I’m not sure highlights are a great way to holistically reflect on a year (they don’t include lowlights, things I DIDN’T do, or long term projects and changes), but they are a fun way to force yourself to look back. And it’s great to have them recorded for the future. They can also be a good way to trick yourself into thinking your year went better than it actually did 🙂 (for better and worse)!

Book Review: The WEIRDest People in the World

(Writer’s note: I have a newfound appreciation for good book reviews! This was so much more challenging and time-consuming than other posts)

Why did the Industrial Revolution take place in Western Europe? Why has the West continued to pull away from the rest? Why are Westerners so individualistic? These are some big questions! According to Joe Henrich, the answer to all three is… the Western Church. Bet you weren’t expecting that! I sure wasn’t (even after reading ~ 20 economic development books).

Development Economics Series: Preflection

One of the main motivators for starting this blog was to write a series of posts on development economics. Well, we’ve been going for about 18 months now, and so far I have completely failed in that mission. 

But don’t worry! It’s still on the docket. I just may have underestimated the challenge.

Train Horn Reflection

Surround Yourself

 

Surround yourself with the type of people you hope to become, they said. If you have positive and inspirational examples in your life, you’ll strive to be more like them and improve yourself. You don’t want to be around less successful people because they will just make you feel sad about their circumstances and content with yours.

Surround yourself with the type of people who aren’t quite at your level, they said. If your peers are less physically and intellectually capable than you are, you will feel better about your life. You’ll win most of your arguments and games and people will look up to you. When you compare yourself to others, you’ll be proud of how much more successful and capable you are than your friends. You don’t want to be around successful people because they will just make you feel pathetic about your lack of accomplishments.

A Nation At The Crossroads: A Cost Benefit Analysis of Blaring Train Horns

Co-written/researched w/ @SJ

For the past 3 years, your co-authors lived within a few blocks of a railroad crossing. Around five times a day (and usually at least once in the middle of the night), a train would blast through, blaring its horn for a long 30 second approach. We were probably 400 meters from the crossing, and we couldn’t leave the windows open at night or we’d be woken up. Most confusingly, that crossing had signals with the arms that come down across the road whenever a train comes, so no one was going to be driving across the tracks. Who is this horn for? How many people are at the crossing when they roll through at 3 AM? Surely blaring lights and descending gates should be enough for them to not be an idiot!

The noise really gets under your skin after a while, and we were bothered by the seeming uselessness of this constant annoyance, so we’ve gathered you here today for a little cost-benefit analysis on the evil that is the train horn. It sounds pretty trivial, but disrupted sleep, stress, and general annoyances aren’t! Multiply the suffering over 100,000 train crossings in the US and even a small cost at each one is going to add up. We couldn’t find any serious analysis* pitting the costs of loud train horns against their benefits (presumably a reduction in collisions/deaths), so we’re going to try our hand at one.

Let’s start with the basics. How easy would it be to just… not honk? Lots of people hate the honking. Does anyone think it’s necessary and do they really have to do this?