Top all-time · #2696
Grey Enlightenment
Personal blog · greyenlightenment.compoliticsscience
Grey Enlightenment is a personal blog at greyenlightenment.com about politics and science. Since 2014, 28 different Hacker News readers have linked it 551 times, most often “Malcolm Gladwell – Bait and Switch”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-31, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (10) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link this blog for economics and politics commentary, including inflation, wages, US economic dominance and the 10,000-hours myth. One commenter lists it among favourite individual blogs.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 10 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Most-linked posts?
- Malcolm Gladwell – Bait and Switch3 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2016-07-21
- Advice to Ignore2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2016-12-24
- Palo Alto Housing vs. Everywhere Else2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2015-08-09
- Your Antivirus Software is Useless (and what I do instead)2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2018-03-12
- The Myth of Bitcoin Liquidity2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2024-12-13
- Caning, punishment, and prison: more thoughts2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2025-04-17
- White-collar jobs will continue to thrive despite AI2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2025-01-31
- Pre-employment cognitive screening is common and legal2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2023-05-22
What Hacker News says?
> Political terms are hard. It ain't helping that the definition of these terms often hinges on where you are talking about something because the local context can be very different for these terms, like American Libertarianism vs European Libertarianism [0] Add to that how most people still only use the traditional left vs right axis, while imho something like the Nolan chart which also accounts for an authoritaria…
Comment linking /american-libertrianism-vs-european-libertarianism/
on “EU agrees on total ban of bee-harming pesticides”Submitted Entrepreneurism Is Overrated as a story · 102 points
HN discussionThe thing is, Wall St. already factored all that stuff into their valuation and determined that the 'fair price' is $290/share (as of today). Tesla's car business is quite profitable and has huge growth...that's what matters http://greyenlightenment.com/another-correct-prediction-tesl... In the late 90' during the tech bubble, companies that had negative cash flow operation were bid to the stratosphere. Tesla and Am…
Comment linking /another-correct-prediction-tesla
on “Tesla Passes Ford by Market Value”Submitted The Age of Rage: Why Are People Are So Angry? as a story · 64 points
HN discussion- https://greyenlightenment.com - https://www.joelonsoftware.com - https://meltingasphalt.com - https://lukesmith.xyz/blog
Comment linking /
on “Ask HN: Favorite Blogs by Individuals?”Submitted The “10,000 Hours of Practice” Myth as a story · 37 points
HN discussionhttps://twitter.com/sama/status/1505597901820477441 >Most of all, it's clearly a bad deal for many students, or we wouldn't have the student debt crisis. People keep saying that, and it's not true. The evidence still suggests college is a good deal 1. College loan debt has lower interest rates, more forbearance options and payment plans compared to consumer debt, like credit card or car loan debt. Credit card debt h…
Comment linking /2021/12/22/higher-ed-may-be-broken-but-the-alternatives-solutions-are-not-that-great-either/
on “I think US college education is nearer to collapsing than it appears”Submitted Intellect: The Universal Solvent as a story · 31 points
HN discussioneven though I'm a 'free market' guy, nice to see action being taken against pseudoscience. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/brain-training-doe... http://greyenlightenment.com/brain-training-doesnt-make-you-... 'Brain training' no better than 'penis enhancement'...just as dubious
Comment linking /brain-training-doesnt-make-you-smarter/
on “Lumosity fined $2M for deceptive ads of “Brain Training” app”Submitted Bitcoin and Gold Both Fail Miserably as Hedges, Investments as a story · 30 points
HN discussionOn question is: why? The examples in differential geometry can be difficult and time-consuming , unlike simple calculus, and are best done with computer, not by hand. A single tensor, as found in general relativity, may have dozens of components...writing them out would be taxing. My question is, what do want to do with this knowledge. There is value in learning complicated, abstract math to signal intellect and thu…
Comment linking /post-2008-wealth-creation-guide/
on “How to Learn Advanced Mathematics Without Heading to University – Part 3”Submitted The internet is overflowing with bad content. Users are fighting back as a story · 27 points
HN discussionNetflix has a ~200 PE ratio, there is no means for it to ever justify its existing valuation (400 million global subscribers? no chance), much less a far higher one. Their present business model has never proven the ability to produce good margins, content has perpetually sapped their earnings potential and is likely to continue to do so. Facebook and Google will stagnate and grow into their valuations. Google parti…
Comment linking /will-the-silicon-valley-tech-fortunes-dissolve-like-the-rockefeller-carnegie-and-vanderbilt-fortunes-no/
on “Just own the damn robots”Submitted Cope culture. Doctors make a lot of money, and that is fine as a story · 26 points
HN discussiona meta study showed the effect to be minimal to zero https://greyenlightenment.com/2021/08/02/the-effects-of-lead...
Comment linking /2021/08/02/the-effects-of-lead-exposure-on-crime-and-iq-likely-overstated/
on “Lead exposure in last century shrunk IQ scores of half of Americans: study”Submitted Why Bitcoin is so volatile as a story · 24 points
HN discussionMSTR down 10% to $500 (60% off the highs) depsite btc only being down 24% from highs. Put options on MSTR plus being long BTC seems like a good micro-strategy. MSTR is overleverged and at risk of defualt if btc falls below $10k. https://greyenlightenment.com/2021/03/16/microstrategys-bad-... MSTR will probably need to sell more debt to cover existing debt and at very unfavorable terms.
Comment linking /2021/03/16/microstrategys-bad-strategy/
on “$365B wiped off cryptocurrency market after Tesla stops accepting Bitcoin”Submitted For every $1 of Bitcoin converted into cash, up to $25k of wealth is destroyed as a story · 18 points
HN discussionmstr down 10% ah hmmm back of envelope math shows potential default if btc falls below 10k. https://greyenlightenment.com/2021/03/16/microstrategys-bad-... I hope Mr Saylor saved some $ for the inevitable lawsuits. Very reckless on their part.
Comment linking /2021/03/16/microstrategys-bad-strategy/
on “Tesla has suspended vehicle purchases using Bitcoin”Submitted Why Bitcoin is guaranteed to be a crappy investment as a story · 17 points
HN discussion5. And we wonder why tuition keeps increasing? 1) Demand increases with population increase. 2) Demand increase with more people seeking 4 yr degrees. 3) Demand increases with the US subsidizing the ever living shit out of college tuition. 4) Supply stays relatively constant. Demand is increasing due to the college wage premium, which keeps widening with no end in sight even despite Covid and online learning. The co…
Comment linking /2022/09/22/blame-college-wage-premium-for-tuition-surge-not-government/
on “Bloated college administration is making education unaffordable”Submitted The Myth of the Super-Successful ‘C’ Student as a story · 16 points
HN discussionRegarding the horse example, there US horse population is 9 million. The demand for horses never went away despite automation and has remained steady. If one tried to extrapolate the early 20th century horse population trend to the future, there should presently be no horses alive. Although the labor force participation rate is falling, the total labor force size has not (although it has flattened in recent years).…
Comment linking /two-nations-within-a-nation/
on “Technological Unemployment: Much More Than You Wanted to Know”Submitted Fast or slow metabolisms are not a "lie" as a story · 15 points
HN discussionI'm of the tiny, minority unpopular opinion that believes you can beat the market by picking stocks,. I have done so consistently for the past decade. Pick large cap companies with huge growth, high barriers to entry, insulated from economic trends, no debt, and high profit margins. My favorites: MA, V, BABA, GOOG, FB, JNJ, GILD, HD That's not many, but these are some of the best long term investment ideas I can fin…
Comment linking /?p=1540
on “Hard-won lessons about money and investing”Submitted Claims of college grade inflation and dumbing-down are overblown as a story · 11 points
HN discussion"It's not like the rich a consuming an increasingly large percentage of a fixed pie. https://greyenlightenment.com/the-99-vs-1-who-is-exploiting-... They are consuming an increasing percentage of a much slower growing pie. This is a problem. Nobody is talking about enforcing equality but about avoid inequality growing even more.
Comment linking /the-99-vs-1-who-is-exploiting-...%22
on “If wages are to rise, workers need more bargaining power”Submitted The Meaninglessness of the National Debt as a story · 11 points
HN discussionyou have to take into account that the total economy is growing and total wealth is growing. It's not like the rich a consuming an increasingly large percentage of a fixed pie. https://greyenlightenment.com/the-99-vs-1-who-is-exploiting-... The pie is growing, so it's possible for the rich to have a larger percentage but everyone still see gains. This is manifested by rising standards of living, more purchasing powe…
Comment linking /the-99-vs-1-who-is-exploiting-whom/
on “If wages are to rise, workers need more bargaining power”Submitted Academic-style writing persists because it works as a story · 10 points
HN discussion
