Thursday, October 18, 2007

Amatuer hour at Slate

Labor economics is a big area with a lot of literature. It's probably the area of academics that can most completely address the exceedingly complex issue of immigration and it's effect on societies.

Tim Wu doesn't know labor economics. His article on Slate is what happens when amateurs write about difficult economic issues. Things get simplified, things get ignored, and so TIm gets things wrong. If I were writing on Tim's areas of expertise, copyright and telecom law, I would try to avoid sweeping policy recommendations and conclusions. Tim on the other hand seems unaware of his ignorance. It's the things that you don't know that you don't know you don't know that get you into real trouble.

What does Tim seem unaware of? Mostly negative externalities and the divide between the interests of elites and the interests of the country. These things are so obvious it is painfully annoying to review them, but patient people have done just that:

Negative externalities

Elites vs. the rest

Practicing law without a license is a crime. Writing about economics without a clue isn't, and shouldn't be, but it's tacky, and at the margin damages the national discourse.

So please, a little humility when you write outside your field. Read a study, or maybe even two.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Ikea Review - FREDRIK Computer work station

Setup was a bit of a hassle. one part of the click system on one of the pieces was just a bit to narrow to fit as designed. Half an hour of repetitive attempts to force it worked like a charm.

The cable shelf is a bit mystifying. From the instructions, it seems you are supposed to place a power strip in the shelf before assembly, (after assembly, the bottom of the shelf is to narrow for either three or two prong plugs to fit through) then plug all your power cables into a power strip about two feet above the floor on the shelf rather then a power strip on the floor. This wouldn't work for me. I have a one of the wide power strips that seems more common these days.

I like the shelf, though, as it is just wide enough to fit my cable modem and router inside, and relatively safe from babies, puppies, and ants (ants once set up a colony inside of my router, with larvae and everything).