Top all-time · #218
Ben Hunt
Personal blog · epsilontheory.comeconomicspolitics
Ben Hunt writes Panoptica featuring Epsilon Theory, a personal blog at epsilontheory.com about economics and politics. Since 2017, 207 different Hacker News readers have linked it 298 times, most often “The Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect”. No feed was found, so read it on the site itself.
Sometimes recommended · 7 of 40 sampled comments recommend it?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Ben Hunt's blog mostly for the Gell-Mann amnesia post, cited when journalism gets a topic wrong, and for the 'too clever by half' and 'things fall apart' posts.
- Recommended for · 7 comments
- Called a favourite, excellent, worth reading and a great blog; one commenter plans to read every post on the site.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 40 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Panoptica is the Zeitgeist, quantified. Powered by AI but written and edited by humans, Panoptica is the clearinghouse for the world's stories.
Most-linked posts?
- The Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect77 people · 90 mentions · first linked 2019-08-29
- Too Clever by Half (2018)13 people · 15 mentions · first linked 2018-09-18
- In Praise of Bitcoin6 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2021-04-30
- Sheep Logic (2017)4 people · 7 mentions · first linked 2018-10-21
- Anti-mimetic tactics for living a counter-cultural life4 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2021-12-17
- Too Clever by Half4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2018-05-14
- Hollow Men, Hollow Markets, Hollow World4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2022-07-15
- Things fall apart: Centrist politics can no longer hold3 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2018-09-11
- Too Clever by Half3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2018-02-08
- Sheep Logic3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2018-05-17
What Hacker News says?
> Similar effect when reading the news on a topic that one is an expert in - they usually get it incredibly wrong. This is the argument behind the Gell-Mann amnesia effect: https://www.epsilontheory.com/gell-mann-amnesia/
Comment linking /gell-mann-amnesia/
on “I Am Deleting the Blog”Submitted Too Clever by Half as a story · 704 points
HN discussionI looked it up since I was unfamiliar with the name (but familiar with the concept). In case anyone is wondering - https://www.epsilontheory.com/gell-mann-amnesia/
Comment linking /gell-mann-amnesia/
on “My Resignation from the Intercept”Submitted Anti-mimetic tactics for living a counter-cultural life as a story · 632 points
HN discussionI would have also recommended the Economist until I experienced a Gell-Mann amnesiac effect [1] with regards to an article they wrote about South Africa, a country where I lived much of my life in, in which they so horrifically butchered the coverage I simply canceled my subscription for fear of how inaccurate everything else might have been. [1]: https://www.epsilontheory.com/gell-mann-amnesia/
Comment linking /gell-mann-amnesia/
on “Things you notice when you quit the news (2016)”Submitted The AMA is a tax-exempt hedge fund and licensing corporation as a story · 277 points
HN discussionreading those bills makes me feel quite hopeless, considering Gell-Mann Amnesia[1]: Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect is as follows. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. In Murray’s case, physics. In mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it actually pr…
Comment linking /gell-mann-amnesia/
on “An even worse anti-encryption bill than EARN IT”Submitted The Hertz Story Isn’t What You Think as a story · 252 points
HN discussion> If the person proposing the idea is reasonable, then they know how implausible it sounds. And yet they're proposing it anyway. That suggests they know something you don't. And if they have deep domain expertise, that's probably the source of it. I am not an expert, but this sounds related to Gell-Mann Amnesia. https://www.epsilontheory.com/gell-mann-amnesia/ If a domain expert suggests a radical idea, by mere stat…
Comment linking /gell-mann-amnesia/
on “Crazy New Ideas”Submitted Pushback against Saudi funding endangers Silicon Valley valuations as a story · 226 points
HN discussionThis is known as Gell-Mann amnesia: https://www.epsilontheory.com/gell-mann-amnesia/
Comment linking /gell-mann-amnesia/
on “Things people blamed on bicycles”Submitted I believe US could see rolling series of “Ireland events” over next 2 months as a story · 169 points
HN discussion> [4] https://www.epsilontheory.com/too-clever-by-half/ Thank you for this link. I'm halfway through that article and will probably read every single one on that website.
Comment linking /too-clever-by-half/
on “Efficiency is dangerous and slowing down makes life better”Submitted Too Clever by Half (2018) as a story · 145 points
HN discussionThis seems like it sort of ties in with NN Taleb's idea of "Anti-fragile" [1]. Perhaps also Chesterton's fence [2]. Maybe also the whole premature-optimization thing [3]. And of course the too-clever-by-half coyotes [4]. Really maybe it just comes down to "be wary of making changes that reduce resiliency." I was hoping to come up with something cohesive with this comment, but really I guess I just agree with what yo…
Comment linking /too-clever-by-half/
on “Efficiency is dangerous and slowing down makes life better”Submitted I’m trying to understand hedonic adjustments as a story · 103 points
HN discussionA lot of it is path dependency whereby various practices turn into processes, regulations and laws. On top of this narratives form that guide peoples thinking as to what the right financial decisions are, then people can start to believe these narratives over time without questioning them. Eventually companies can create certain processes or habits on the basis that those narratives need to be true: https://www.epsi…
Comment linking /what-do-we-need-to-be-true/
on “Docker Desktop no longer free for large companies”Submitted Sheep logic (2017) as a story · 90 points
HN discussionThe same author has another post that describes in more detail his views on sheep and how the modern popular connotation is not at all the way sheep actually behave. http://epsilontheory.com/sheep-logic/
Comment linking /sheep-logic/
on “Too Clever by Half”Submitted The Spanish Prisoner: On the Future of Libra and Bitcoin as a story · 60 points
HN discussionThe immediate amnesia thing: https://www.epsilontheory.com/gell-mann-amnesia/
Comment linking /gell-mann-amnesia/
on “Long Beach has temporarily suspended container stacking limitations”Submitted Taiwan Is Now Arrakis as a story · 16 points
HN discussionWith shows like this, people have a case of Gell-Mann amnesia too. https://www.epsilontheory.com/gell-mann-amnesia/ I think Oliver is funny. His show makes good points and gives good arguments. It should not, however, by itself be the sole basis of one’s opinion on any given topic (not many things should) as many take it to be. It is intelligent and honest but also one-sided and biased. They are, at least, not gener…
Comment linking /gell-mann-amnesia/
on “U.S. is said to open criminal inquiry into Boeing”Submitted Anti-Mimetic Tactics for Living a Counter-Cultural Life as a story · 13 points
HN discussionAnother blog post that I love along very vaguely similar lines is https://www.epsilontheory.com/things-fall-apart-pt-1/
Comment linking /things-fall-apart-pt-1/
on “Ask HN: What's the most life-changing blog post you've ever read?”Submitted The Intellectual Rot of the Industrially Necessary University as a story · 11 points
HN discussionReminds me about https://www.epsilontheory.com/too-clever-by-half/ which is incidentally very much about the mammalian species you are thinking of, as well as canids.
Comment linking /too-clever-by-half/
on “Gorilla Youngsters Seen Dismantling Poachers’ Traps (2012)”Submitted Too Clever by Half as a story · 11 points
HN discussionI think that literally the only way to dismantle the CIA and other blatantly and obviously criminal portions of the US government without using violence is to spread wide the fact that they are a portion of the government that operates entirely outside of the rule of law, and that we can't be said to actually have the rule of law/democracy/freedom/etc if it doesn't apply equally to everyone. If enough people shout a…
Comment linking /sheep-logic/
on “CIA black site detainee served as training prop to teach torture techniques”Submitted Crashing the Car of Pax Americana as a story · 9 points
HN discussion
