Links to Consider, 10/4
Jacqueline Nesi and Cara Goodwin on kids' screen time; Michael Leibowitz and me on TLP; Rachel Lu on Communism; The Zvi on the VC game
Jacqueline Nesi and Cara Goodwin write,
In particular, when parents are distracted by their screens, children may show more behavioral problems to get their attention, or they may miss out on opportunities to learn social-emotional skills from parents.
In other words, put down that phone and pay attention to your kid. I would say: especially when I’m biking toward you and your toddler is running loose on the path. The authors have more advice.
Here is a podcast with Michael Leibowitz and me talking mostly about The Three Languages of Politics.
people crave solidarity and a greater sense of security. Communism promises both. …
Communists do not win free and fair elections. Instead, their leaders court small, disaffected, and ideally well-armed groups, converting them into the shock troops that are needed to impose totalitarian control on a larger population….
Communism attracts men who are ruthless, depraved, and highly innovative.
In terms of personality psychology, men with the Dark Triad (narcissistic, psychopathic, Machiavellian) are attracted to an ideology of total power. I would speculate that the subjects who let these men take over are high in neuroticism and perhaps also agreeableness.
Silicon Valley tells founders several things at once.
You will probably fail.
You have to believe you will succeed, or we won’t fund you.
You have to swear to everyone you will succeed, or we won’t fund you.
When you fail, if you do it the right way, we won’t hold it against you.
Venture capitalists do not want founders who understand how to take carefully calculated risks and make precise Bayesian estimates.
Venture capitalists want founders who will risk it all to try and hit is big, whether or not that makes any financial sense for the founder, or the odds are any good.
I like the phrase, elsewhere in the essay, “Chips on shoulders lead to chips in pockets.” I had a chip on my shoulder when I started my company, and when it worked out ok, I lost the competitive edge.
Mowshowitz offers many insights in the essay. One of them is that although a VC has to be willing to back a business when others are skeptical, it has to hope that the others’ skepticism soon goes away. Otherwise, the business will run out of money before it can succeed.
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I am usually among the first to claim that, in a lot of ways, smartphones are The Devil.
However, even I have to concede, that at least in my personal experience, being able to use one and even communicate with a single free thumb while the rest of my body had to remain in paralyzed silence for an extended period during the many such times infant care requires such conditions, was a blessing which reduced the perceived cost of child rearing considerably.
We finally made good friends with another family that they hang out with a lot, but we have very different attitudes on screens and its a challenge.