Capitalism, Profitability & Rule Sets

Posted on December 31, 2008 by max

Earlier tonight I ended up talking with my mom about creative capitalism.

She was talking about how she heard that drug companies stopped researching a HIV treatment because it wasn’t profitable. And she directed this complaint somewhat antagonistically towards the abstract, corporate capitalistic establishment. She lamented the fact that Viagra is extremely profitable yet provides little social benefit, while a drug to treat HIV for people in sub-Saharan Africa would have enormous social benefit, but the research was ditched because it wasn’t profitable due to the fact that Africa has no money and thus no market. I tried to tell my mom that capitalism is not to blame here. Based on my limited knowledge of drug development, developing a drug is an incredibly risky venture. Millions of dollars can be spent developing a drug only to find out it is a failure. And this happens frequently. When drug companies do find an effective drug they need to market the hell out of it to make up for the millions of dollars spent on failed drugs.

If this HIV treatment my mom heard about was even just a little bit profitable then there would be a market for developing it. But there isn’t a market because the drug doesn’t have enough upside to even render it an investment that could be even slightly profitable much less have the potential for extreme profitability that the drug companies desire. There’s no market for something with negative profitability. But, I don’t think the conversation should end there.

If the market doesn’t allow research on a drug that is highly beneficial to society like HIV treatment then what that indicates is the the rule sets of the market need to be changed. For a free market to work, value needs to be lined up with profitability. And don’t give me any crap about how the market will not be free anymore. Earlier today I read a paragraph where Thomas Friedman impressively rebuts this point:

Is it a good idea to meddle so extensively with the free market for energy?
[Laughing.] Oh, yeah, a totally free market dominated globally by the world’s biggest cartel, dominated domestically by fossil-fuel companies who have written all the rules in Congress—pages’ worth of depletion allowances and tax shenanigans that these guys have written in to give themselves advantages. We wouldn’t want to upset that free market, would we? There is no such thing as a free market, no more than there is a farm or a garden that grows without fertilizer, without proper plowing, without intelligence brought into it. Markets are shaped by rules, incentives and disincentives, and right now our market is shaped by the dirty fuel system.

One way to change the rule sets in order to make the research of HIV treatments a more profitable venture is to offer government subsidies. My knowledge of economics is limited so I don’t know of many other ways to make this research economically viable but I’m sure solutions are out there. The main concept I want to point out in this post and reiterate again is that if a system doesn’t allow for something that makes complete sense, such as putting money towards finding HIV treatments, there’s a good chance then that the system’s rule sets are out of whack.

The concept of rule sets is very powerful and one I’ve recently added to my conceptual vocabulary. This concept has been covered extensively by Thomas Barnett in the Pentagon’s New Map, the book I’m currently reading. Which by the way is an amazing book. I’ll be writing more about this great book at some point in the future.

Reading Is Programming Your Mind

Posted on December 30, 2008 by max

If you think about it, you don’t remember most of what you read. So why is reading so highly valued? You may say it is esteemed because it is an enjoyable activity, but I don’t think that really captures it. Television is enjoyable yet it is frowned upon by many. A typical answer to why reading is regarded as an edifying activity would be, “when you read you learn things about the world.” But I would only be satisfied with that answer if I remembered most of what I read. I, like most of you, only remember a very small fraction of the ideas I come across. Yet I consider reading to be one of the best ways to develop intellectually and increase the chances of being successful in the world, however you chose to interpret that concept. Reading isn’t about memorizing facts but programming your mind to think in the ‘right way’.

How you think and what you think about are largely determined by the thoughts you put in your mind. Every time you read you’re filling you mind with the worldview and ideas of the author. Copying their insights about the world onto your internal map.

But I urge you to be careful because not all programming is good programming. Pay close attention to what you’re reading. The mind doesn’t care how it’s programmed. It will readily accept a hateful, self-destructive worldview just as easily as an accurate and fulfilling worldview. If you have inaccurate beliefs eventually they will catch up to you and affect your ability to operate effectively in the world.

Every time you read you’re incrementally brainwashing yourself. Either by painting over old areas or creating new ones. I try to brainwash myself to think like people who I consider brilliant and insightful. I want my thoughts to be flavors of ideas from people I respect. Note, that even some of the most brilliant people ever to exist were full of flaws. So I just want to understand and internalize their gems of insight. Ultimately, internalizing their thoughts gives me a high quality field of concepts I can use to interpret and reconcile my experiences with the world. Insightful ideas are usually the result of making connections across subject areas, synthesizing previously disconnected ideas.

How Does The Concept of Programming Affect What I Read?

Before you dive into reading somebody’s writing ask yourself if you really want to understand their worldview. Ask yourself, “will their worldview give me better insight into how the world works?” And furthermore, “will their worldview give me richer insight than the worldview of this other author I could read?” You cannot make the decision if a book is worth reading in a vacuum. You need to compare it to the alternatives. If you believe in optimizing in attempt to create the best possible life like I do, then you will constantly strive to read the books that will have the biggest influence on you.

But how do you find the most influential thing to read while swimming in more information than could possibly be read in a lifetime? As Clay Shirky notes here, this is not a new problem. There has been more information than a person could read in their lifetime since the library of Alexandria. But now, due in large part to the internet, the information superhighway, the abundance of information is much more in your face. A lifetime worth of information passes directly in front of our eyes everyday. In order to navigate this crowded world we need better filters. I’ll talk more about the filters I use, which are relatively primitive and subjective. Fortunately better tools are being created as we speak.

What Do I Want From a Book?

Two things come to mind. I want knowledge that can help me create changes in my behavior that will improve my life. Or I want new stimulating ideas that give me insight into new dimensions of the world. Those two are actually closely related. Stimulating ideas either add or force me to to reconsider aspects of my working theory of the world. And since my working theory of the world must be accurate enough to produce positive effects in the real world, both of the things I want in a book, behavioral change or interesting ideas, reinforce the underlying motivation of living a more effective life.

Ideas, insights and information are very interesting concepts to me. Below are some follow up topics I’m thinking of writing about:

What I Mean by a Working Theory of the World, Looking For Highly Processed Information, Striving For Intelligence Instead of Being Satisfied with Smarts,, Using Horizontal Scanning to Inform Book Reading, Articles Vs. Books, Reconciling the Self-Help Industry, The Reading-Writing-Discussing Feedback Loop, and How to Increase Retention of Ideas.

The Future of Writing Here

Posted on December 26, 2008 by max

The last few days I’ve been working hard to compile and organize my thoughts on all the things I might want to write about. It is a lot of work to gather all the thoughts I’ve been working on the last few years. But I think it’s really important to capture them in concise written form, creating in effect a foundation I can build off of. Once I have the foundation, it gives me the freedom to pursue new ideas in full without the need to describe tangential but contingent ideas. Instead, I can just reference them. So I’ve got about a hundred ideas I’m working on now, some with many paragraphs and some just with titles.

The nice thing about at least titling everything I might want to write about is that it lets me build on the ideas incrementally. Anytime I stumble on an idea that is similar to a topic I’ve outlined it’s likely to provoke more substantial thought since I’ve already given my mind permission to actively seek out content on that topic. Most of the sensory input that reaches the mind is filtered out or forgotten, so it’s important to remind the mind to focus on salient topics. Writing an idea down is one of the best ways to signal importance to the mind.

Continue reading →

Separating Writer and Editor

Posted on December 21, 2008 by max

As I said earlier, it’s a bit overwhelming approaching this blog as blank slate. It feels similar to what it must be like standing at the base Mount Everest, confronting an almost insurmountable challenge.

Internally my mind is like a well-developed spider web consisting of many intertwined, interdependent thoughts. How do I begin to approach such a thorny, convoluted structure when the end product must be clear, pithy posts? I realized the serial approach wouldn’t work. I can’t just pick one topic after another and bang through them one by one. It’s too hard to stay focused. Too many thoughts depend on other thoughts, which lead to tangents and thus an unfocused post. But letting the voice in your head filter for only relevant thoughts is not the answer. But this is what most people do. Most people sit there and wait for the next sentence to come while there mind runs through a tree of combinations, making a countless number of false starts before they finally stumble on something that kind of fits. This leads to writer’s block and overall stifles the creative process. Instead, separate the writer and the editor. They are two distinctly different functions of the mind, and for productivity’s sake, are mutually exclusive.

But it’s important to focus first on the ideas. Whenever you write you will invariably have to generate ideas and then edit them to get a finished product.

I don’t know why most of us developed the bad habit of alternating between idea generation and editing after every single sentence. I don’t know exactly how I broke out of it either, but I am sure glad I did. The central problem with this approach is it continually prevents your mind from getting in a state of flow, where ideas pour out in bunches. Flow states require sustained concentration in a particular frame of mind. Think of it like climbing an icy mountain where reaching the peak symbolizes reaching flow. When you’re switching from writer to editor every few seconds you’re constantly beginning to climb the mountain and sliding back down, never reaching peak creativity.

What I do now is just think of good writing as good thinking. And then I just let my mind run wild and free associate. I empty my mind of any ideas I have on a topic. The beginning of this process usually starts out slow but once I give my mind time to warm up I start making connections with breadth and depth I’m proud of. You know that feeling when you know you have a great idea but you just don’t have access to it? It’s like it is covered by a thinly veiled sheet that lets you roughly discern the shape of the idea, but it is so incredibly strong that the idea can’t break through and reveal itself. The solution is often just to let your mind climb a little bit higher up the icy mountain.

I hit writer’s block trying to write the second post of this blog. I want my posts to minimize tangents yet every time I went to write I was overwhelmed by the volume of different thoughts that came to mind. My mind in attempt to stay focused was constantly trying to edit these miscellaneous thoughts, but it stopped my creative mind dead in its tracks. The paradox was that by preventing my mind from thinking about ideas not pertinent to my topic, I wasn’t able to write anything down at all. There was this large cloud looming over my head every time I thought about the blog, because I couldn’t see how to untangle my large, haphazard web of thoughts through short focused snapshots. Fortunately, I realized what I was doing wrong. So yesterday for about two hours I just went on a massive brainstorm and wrote out initial ideas for 35 blog posts. Sometimes I wrote a few paragraphs sometimes I wrote just a sentence. It didn’t matter; I just let my mind wander from topic to topic. You may not see many posts from me for a while because I am brainstorming and gathering thoughts for a wide array of posts. Eventually I’ll reach a point where I have enough material and momentum on a particular topic and it will be easy to flesh out the idea in a concentrated way.

My brainstorms are almost always longer than the finished product. It’s easier much easier to achieve quality by paring down an idea than by expanding on it.

In conclusion, both have a central role in creating a finished product. Write all your thoughts down then edit them. And for creativity’s sake please file a restraining order.

Site Changes

Posted on December 21, 2008 by max

Bear with me, while I change the site around and try to find a design and style that suits me.

Max Enters the Blogosphere

Posted on December 20, 2008 by max

It’s time I finally make the jump. I’ve been debating for awhile whether I should start a blog.

I had some concerns about whether it would be a good investment of my time. But the last 6 months life has taken me along a path scattered with signs that clearly indicate starting a blog would be a good idea.

I was concerned about the time it takes to craft well thought out posts. It’s one thing to brainstorm a number of thoughts to yourself, it’s another to put them up on display to share with others. Though ultimately, this is good for me.

And if I do happen to build up a base of readers will I feel obligated to post too regularly? I want this to be a place where I post thoughts when I have something to say. I don’t want to feel compelled to articulate any casual musing that enters my mind.

But there are a lot of great reasons for starting a blog.

I want the opportunity to share my ideas and receive feedback. Frequently writing about things that interest me is probably one of the best ways to improve my writing and my thinking.

Writing my thoughts forces me to express my thoughts much more clearly than if they just lived abstractly and misshapen in my mind. Having an outlet for my thoughts will make me a more introspective person. I’ve already noticed measurable benefits since beginning to use Twitter this summer.

I’ve been writing many of my thoughts down for the last 2-3 years, so it’s a bit strange just jumping in now. I look forward to the time when many of my thoughts are written in posts and I can begin hyperlinking and referencing previously articulated ideas, because right now, starting with a blank slate, it’s very hard to prevent myself from escaping on tangents.

Having a blog also increases the serendipity factor in my life. The ‘serendipity factor’ is basically the degree to which my life is positively exposed to randomness. Writing here will open up a range of possibilities I currently don’t have access to.

And lastly, the world is getting busier by the second. There’s more and more that needs to be taken care of sitting in front of our screens. And it’s hard not to get completely caught up in it all. Although I intend to live a full, sometimes overstimulating life, knowing that I have a place to write about what’s on my mind gives me permission to stop and smell the roses. As the time we spend working increases and technology raises exponentially the number of people in our lives, the energy we would normally spend building a few deep relationships is thinned out across a larger network. Knowing more people is a good thing, but maintaining a sense of personal connection becomes a big challenge. I hope this blog can help me stay connected with friends and family even when we aren’t physically together.

I hope to write on a whole host of topics. Ranging from politics and psychology, to business and entrepreneurship, to more personal topics, examining important life decisions and attempting to tackle some pressing existential questions.

I’ve been meaning to do this for a while and I’m happy to have taken the first step on what I hope will be an interesting journey.

Max Marmer

Student Of Life, Twenty One Years In The Making

Monthly Archives: December 2008