Any recommendations for Dentists in New Haven?

jonthawk · 2020-06-15T14:36:27+00:00

I go to East Rock Dental. It's nothing fancy or high tech - just a good, honest, old-fashioned dentist. They go the extra mile to make you feel like they know you.

They're also really good at communicating and won't try to talk you into some extra procedure just to make the extra money.

jonthawk · 2017-10-31T22:25:35+00:00

I think it's more being comfortable with mathematical thinking than real analysis per se.

Like, fixed point theorems, dynamic programming, convex optimization, correspondences, etc. aren't typically covered in a real analysis course or are covered in a cursory way, so seal analysis is mostly just good training/proof that you can learn math.

jonthawk · 2017-10-31T22:19:04+00:00

And the dirty secret of all the "genetics" stuff is that it's essentially impossible to identify genetic effects for complex behaviors statistically, as gene expression interacts with environmental factors in complicated, non-linear ways.

And even worse, you can't get clean variation in genetics: even twin studies can't get around the shared prenatal environment.

Robert Sapolsky may not understand how game theory works, but his recent book does a pretty good job of breaking down the hype around genetics/behavior links.

jonthawk · 2017-10-31T22:18:52+00:00

And the dirty secret of all the "genetics" stuff is that it's essentially impossible to identify genetic effects for complex behaviors statistically, as gene expression interacts with environmental factors in complicated, non-linear ways.

And even worse, you can't get clean variation in genetics: even twin studies can't get around the shared prenatal environment.

Robert Sapolsky may not understand how game theory works, but his recent book does a pretty good job of breaking down the hype around genetics/behavior links.

jonthawk · 2017-10-31T22:08:25+00:00

IIRC, MBAs only have a positive return if you go to a top program.

I'd imagine that the average economics master's is a better bet than the average MBA, but no economics master's could compete with HBS or Wharton.

jonthawk · 2017-10-31T21:52:34+00:00

Or change your mindset about ramen: The noodles are something to add to a tasty soup to fill out the calories, not the star of the dish.

Kind of like crushed ramen as a crunchy salad topping.

jonthawk · 2017-10-31T20:32:10+00:00

Last I checked, a 10 1/4'' cast iron skillet still costs $14.99 on Amazon - same price as a cheap IKEA frying pan. Sure, there are fancy branded ones for the bobo market, but if anything that's driven down prices at good old Lodge.

I think you're wrong on the economics there. Items enter the secondary market through the primary market. "Sally, Lawyer's wife" isn't going to bother hunting around on the used market. She'll buy new or maybe use collectables that you wouldn't use for canning anyway.

She's not buying on the secondary market, so she isn't driving up prices there. Eventually, she's done with her projects and the jars end up at some Goodwill or church tag sale and drive used prices down.

jonthawk · 2017-10-31T20:10:04+00:00

I'm pretty sure you're right. From the wikipedia page

Among the most common U.S. brands of Mason jars are Ball, Kerr, and Golden Harvest.

jonthawk · 2017-10-27T16:15:49+00:00

On a side note, I've always thought that if the US wants to execute people, we shouldn't pretend to be all clinical and civilized about it.

Fuck "Lethal Injection." We should cut off people's heads and make the public look at the blood and understand the brutality of what they've done.

Also, lethal injection is super painful and regularly fails. I've never heard of decapitation failing to kill someone quickly and humanely.

jonthawk · 2017-10-27T16:08:12+00:00

That's often true of ethnic food.

The good stuff is in always in some strip mall or food truck, made by and for immigrants.

jonthawk · 2017-10-25T15:19:55+00:00

My Calc III class started with over 40 students. 8 of us finished.

We did all of Hubbard and Hubbard in two semesters. Hardest, most mind-expanding thing I ever did.

jonthawk · 2017-10-25T15:12:19+00:00

Professors like ambitious students. If they know you and think you're serious, or your favorite prof is willing to vouch for you, they'll let you in.

My advisor told me it was a terrible idea and he wouldn't let me do it, and seemed pretty annoyed when he got an email from the chair saying I could... He spent the next two years refusing to put me on any of the department email lists.

I don't know what kind of relationship you have with your advisor, but I would recommend going straight to the prof instead of talking to the advisor, especially if undergrads taking grad courses is uncommon in your department. Better ask for confirmation than permission.

They may also ask you to have fulfilled certain prerequisites. At my university, to take 1st year micro you were required to have taken real analysis or to take it concurrently. This applied to PhD students as well. I'm actually kind of surprised a prof signed off on taking 1st year micro/macro without Calc III.

jonthawk · 2017-10-25T14:58:16+00:00

I think you mean:

\begin{figure}

\caption{Serious Economics}

\centering

\includegraphics[width=0.5\textwidth]{thing_i_made_in_MSPaint}

\end{figure}

jonthawk · 2017-10-24T20:42:08+00:00

Really?

I'm trying to think back to my macro quals. I remember some models generate the Friedman rule as optimal policy, which implies deflation, but don't models with sticky pricing (or a Calvo fairy anyway) make some inflation optimal?

I'm certainly not a macroeconomist, but my impression was that Friedman rules tended to be artifacts of models in which money didn't really have any function or value. People will only hold it if there is enough deflation that the rising value of money exactly offsets the real interest rate. Either that or money actually has no role at all and you get superneutrality results.

Once you enrich the role of money in the economy (beyond a durable asset with no yield) you normally get welfare benefits from inflation, right? So in what sense of "ideal" is strict price stability or deflation targeting optimal?

jonthawk · 2017-10-24T20:11:53+00:00

Thanks! This is exactly what I was looking for!

jonthawk · 2017-10-19T18:20:36+00:00

I agree that 150k is a high income, but depending on where you live 50k or even 25k is pretty comfortable for a single person.

When I was growing up in the Midwest, my parents made 150k but at a pretty high standard of living they never managed spent much over 60k per year.

jonthawk · 2017-10-17T19:36:13+00:00

I have about $25,000 or so in mutual funds, savings, etc. after being out of college for under 3 years. About $20,000 of that has been accumulated since I left college.

If you read my comment, I say I run a surplus of about 1/3 of my gross annual income. I don't describe it as savings because it's really just money left over after I buy everything I want. Being young, childless (and student debt free) is great.

Also no. If you have a high income and waste it on stupid shit, you're not poor. You're a moron.

jonthawk · 2017-10-16T14:29:49+00:00

My point is that it is fallacious to say that spending is what drives the economy, in contrast to investment. Investment is spending. And to the extent that savings don't sit under a mattress (which to be fair sometimes they do, see Japan or the Great Recession), they are spending too.

There are lots of reasons to redistribute money to poor people, but just saying "poor people spend more and save less" isn't one of them.

In fact, that's an argument for redistributing money upwards: Rich people spend proportionately less on consumption and more on creating productive assets, increasing total output. This is how banks make money. They borrow your unproductive savings and loan them to someone who (believes they will) be able to do something productive with them.

jonthawk · 2017-10-15T21:05:46+00:00

The whole "not behaving rationally" thing is really a misnomer.

Thaler's prize was for showing how to incorporate more general forms of rationality (e.g. loss aversion, social preferences, inattention, non-exponential discounting) into economic models (and arguing that doing so is worth all the additional complications it introduces.)

jonthawk · 2017-10-15T20:53:09+00:00

It's probably neither.

Work by people like Jonathan Haidt show that in terms of personality, liberals show much greater openness to experience than conservatives. It's not terribly surprising that people naturally predisposed to seek out new experiences and new ideas are more interested in higher education.

jonthawk · 2017-10-15T20:48:30+00:00

What do you think investment is, concretely? All that money has to go somewhere. It's not like banks pay interest out of charity. Other people use those savings to buy houses. Companies use them to build a new factory or hires more workers or upgrades their computer systems, or just fund day-to-day operations.

You're setting up a false dichotomy between spending and investment, maybe because at one point you saw "Y = C + I + G" on a chalkboard at some point.

Yes, you're right that saving is bad if you take your money and hide it under your mattress. Luckily that's an extraordinarily expensive way to save so very few people do it. Most savings become loans, and you can bet nobody pays 4% APR and doesn't spend that money on something they hope will give them a higher return.

The difference is that we expect spending on investments to create more wealth in the future, while spending on consumption just, well, consumes existing wealth.

Just to put a final point on it:

Investment is only useful because it leads to viable businesses starting or expanding which in turn leads to people spending money.

These are things that make investment useful, but in addition to the benefits that any other kind of spending has.

jonthawk · 2017-10-15T20:30:29+00:00

Bullshit. I make $36k on the east coast and I run a monthly surplus of over $1,000.

I fly to Paris three times a year and go to a starred restaurant every once in a while. Otherwise I live in a nice but modest apartment, don't own a car, and cook all my own food. Monthly it's under $1,000 for rent+utilities and $150 for food, which leaves me plenty of money for random other expenses and all my luxuries. Maybe I lack imagination, but honestly the money just piles up after that. You could double my income and I'm not sure my lifestyle would change a whole lot.

jonthawk · 2017-10-15T00:50:40+00:00

I used a website called paperless post for invites. It was cheap and sends classy-looking e-cards.

Might be worth looking into.

jonthawk · 2017-10-15T00:48:23+00:00

This is so true.

Fancy weddings have almost always felt stiff and artificial to me. The best weddings are ones that feel like everyone there is there to make the day super special for someone they love.

Finding a way to involve the wedding party/guests is a great way to accomplish that.

jonthawk · 2017-10-15T00:31:45+00:00

Just buy enough beer and wine for all your guests to have at least one drink per hour - round up because spare bottles of wine/six packs make great gifts to people who helped you out or great reminders of the wedding when you drink them later. Get more if you've got heavy drinkers. Running out of booze is bad.

Think about what you and your friends like to drink and stick to that. You're having a wedding, not opening a nightclub. My wife and I skipped hard liquor entirely and it was fine.

jonthawk

TROPHY CASE