NYT Year In Ideas
Dec 15 2004, 23:19 EST
The New York Times Magazine recently ran a feature called The Year in Ideas which is twenty one-pagers on various memes. Here is my take on some of them
- The Benign Corporate Oligarchy
A flattering piece about google. The gist is that Google's founders value long term growth instead of short-term things that bump up the stock price. Give it ten years and we'll see how it works out (and if it works out, expect imitators). - Debunking Photoshop Fakery
Here we see the fake photo of Jane Fonda & John Kerry together on stage as a lead in to a guy who writes software to detect fakes. Since the meat of the piece is deeply boring I can't but help think they just wanted to cry FAKERS about the J&J pic. Oh, and they don't mention the actual picture of J&J together at a war rally, just the fake one. - Feral Cities
This short and dull piece has a spicy lead-in "Falluja! Horrors!" Like the Kerry photoshop piece, I get the feeling the body (which is about future police actions in cesspools like Mexico City) is just an excuse for the intro paragraph. - Hawkishness as Evolutionary Holdover
Premise: people overestimate their ability to win battles. "On the ancient African savannah, it was actually rational to misestimate your own capacities: a fearsome appearance and bold tactics could intimidate the enemy and help carry the day during lightning raids on enemy camps." In closing it lists a few modern miscalculations: the Maginot Line, Vietnam, and fighting a land war in Asia. I have a new theory: Monday Morning Quarterbacking is an evolved trait dating back to African Shamans and other charlatans that just like to appear right all the time. Can I get a grant? - Popular Constitutionalism
Academic: Using the judiciary to achieve goals without popular support will backfire in the long term.
NYT's translation: shore up all our victories by calling existing law sacrosanct and pretend to be Federalists until this "red state" thing blows over. - Professional Amateurs
Nothing snarky on this one, a good refresher on how hobbiests contribute lots of top-grade work. They even mention this is the normal state of affairs throughout history. How I would have phrased it: except during the brief fad of statism (corporatism if you are a lefty) during the 20th century big guys get their lunch eaten on a daily basis.