@rysiek that's a masterclass in passive-aggression, Michal. Well played!
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alberto_cottica@mastodon.green
@alberto_cottica@mastodon.green
Posts
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Happy ninth Mastodon Won't Survive Day to all who celebrate!https://mashable.com/article/mastodon-wont-survive -
Yes, @pluralistic , participating in markets costs cognitive energy.@pluralistic amen to that.
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Yes, @pluralistic , participating in markets costs cognitive energy.So yes, participating in markets is exhausting. And simplifying market offers is an underestimated, and underpursued, source of efficiency.
8/fin
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Yes, @pluralistic , participating in markets costs cognitive energy.This has very real consequences on markets where the balance of power is skewed – which is most of them, as @pluralistic tirelessly reminds us. Amazon can pay 10 PhDs who are working full time in tweaking the price vector of, say, backpacks to extract the maximum surplus from me. Not being a homo economicus, but just a human facing a cost from market participation, I cannot parse that in real time, and fall prey to extraction.
6/n
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Yes, @pluralistic , participating in markets costs cognitive energy.And yet, when designing or calling for a "market-based solution", the assumptions of perfect rationality and infinite computing power are always lurking in the background. For example, the public transit company in Brussels, where I live, has over the years replaced its single fare with 12 types of tickets and 16 types of season passes: https://www.stib-mivb.be/home/buy/product-catalog-tickets .
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Yes, @pluralistic , participating in markets costs cognitive energy.On top of that, they understand economics. They will do things like second-guessing policy makers, in some cases defanging macro policies. This is called "rational expectations".
Economists know that these things are not literally true, but simplifications built for the purpose of illustrating a theoretical model. They capture an aspect of the reality of participating in markets, not that reality itself. It's not even the most important aspect, just the one that was easiest to model.
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Yes, @pluralistic , participating in markets costs cognitive energy.They can instantly fetch, say, all price-location-amenities combinations of all hotels in Paris, and then compare those against their preferences via a "utility function". They can even integrate risk, because they can estimate, say, the probability that a noisy construction site will spoil their stay, and integrate *that* into their choice.
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Yes, @pluralistic , participating in markets costs cognitive energy.2/n
In neoclassical economics, this is not recognized as problem. The reason is that, in order to make the partial equilibrium math work, 19th century economists, who were working with 17th century math, incorporated several assumptions in their model of the economic decision maker ("homo economicus"). One of these is that decision maker have infinite computing power and good math. Another is that they have perfect information.
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Yes, @pluralistic , participating in markets costs cognitive energy.Yes, @pluralistic , participating in markets costs cognitive energy. Especially in real (as opposed to theoretical) ones, where suppliers hate to compete on price, and so make all kinds of baroque bundles that are not 1-to-1 comparable with the bundles of the competition ("$20 for the first month, then $60 from the second month on, but you need to sign up for a minimum of 12 months" and so on).
THREAD 1/n
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There is a scene in "The Algebraist" (2004, Ian M. Banks) the leader of the invading space army (who is ruthless and petty) makes a demand for information of the gas giant aliens known as "the dwellers."@futurebird and the Dwellers win that one by not caring. "Oh dear, we hope you do not run out of people". I don't know if there is moral in it, I hope not.
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X offering the use of Grok to create and share pictures of undressed women and children is horrendous.@hennavirkkunen great to see a Commissioner here. Welcome!
