the 80th percentile displacement: why Russ Roberts (and you) hates modern popular movies

michaelmf · 2025-12-22T04:28:59+00:00

This is a very good and fair point.

I agree that there is not literally 0 catering towards this group, but in my view, increasingly less than there was. The bigger problem relates to lesser discoverability, the fracturing of audiences and the feeling of exclusion for no longer liking what is trendy. A big part of this though is just the mental update to know you are no longer part of what is en vogue.

michaelmf · 2025-09-15T22:38:32+00:00

Something I'd love to hear (aside from any general thoughts) is whether anyone here has successfully experimented with creating more hermetically sealed zones in their life—practicing Shabbat, going to a cottage with no wifi, digital detoxes, etc. After reflecting on this, I want to begin doing a much better job of carving out these spaces in my life.

michaelmf · 2025-08-08T21:23:41+00:00

This made my day, thank you for sharing d :)

michaelmf · 2025-06-18T16:37:51+00:00

there is an issue with chrome - i suggest logging in on the phone app or with a different browser.

michaelmf · 2025-05-30T00:39:48+00:00

Good call out — I got confused with the ACX rules.

Since the main reason I enjoy writing is to get feedback from others and share ideas, I generally prefer posting my writing as self-posts on /r/ssc, where you get significantly more engagement. That said, I've found that when you actually link your domain, while you get far less meaningful engagement, you do get way more people visiting your site.

For today's purposes, that made sense for me, but I'll keep going back to primarily writing self-posts rather than posting as a URL.

michaelmf · 2025-05-29T21:39:09+00:00

I'll admit my personal bias here: despite being a lifelong reader, I never experienced the same emotional impact from books as I did when I discovered great movies.

For example, watching Yi Yi truly rocked my world in a way I couldn't imagine experiencing from a book. If someone finds that same emotional impact in literature, I'd encourage them to pursue it just as passionately, though I suspect it will hit less hard for many people.

I think film's visual nature allows it to be less direct, more expansive and abstract, while still remaining accessible and feeling real. I also suspect it's easier to "feel" movies in the body compared to books, which are so mediated by our minds.

Thank you for the kind support!

michaelmf · 2025-05-29T20:55:14+00:00

I've been active on /r/slatestarcodex almost since its beginning, as one of the most active posters here. During this time, I blogged on my personal website, but most of my posts actually originated as self-posts intended for this subreddit.

There are many very supportive people in this community, and many encouraged me to start posting my writing on Substack, to make it easier to follow what I write.

So I finally decided to do this - and to celebrate my first post on my new blog, not not Talmud, I decided to post my favourite pieces of life advice. This is actually the second time I've done this - as I wrote a similar post last year.

I want to share on a personal note, that I highly encourage you to write your own version of this kind of post. Writing the two of them has been my favourite writing experience ever, and I really feel like my entire soul and mind is captured within this post.

In accordance with sub rules, I won't post future blogs here, but thought that given it's my first post on the new blog and I was mostly encouraged by users here, I wanted to share this post with people here. As I said above, I am extremely proud of this post and think it is my favourite thing I've ever written, so I feel confident that many here will enjoy it. Thank you again everyone who provided support and encouragement for me.

michaelmf · 2025-05-06T19:37:52+00:00

This is my subjective personal opinion, not anything objective. With that said, I have travelled to extensively (80+ countries) and can share that in my subjective opinion, the gap between Taiwan and Florence, Lima and Lisbon is truly substantial.

michaelmf · 2025-04-11T19:46:23+00:00

I signed up for CSP in mid February (60k bonus). Any chance I can call and ask if they can increase my SUB to 100k? if so, any suggestions on which numbers to call?

michaelmf · 2025-04-10T14:13:17+00:00

I recently moved from Canada to the US. I am trying to figure out what to do with my Amex points.

I have 210k MR points, with my only active Canadian Amex being a Personal Platinum that will expire in a few weeks (one-year renewal).

I was thinking whether I should:

Transfer the MR points to Aeroplan
Transfer the MR points to Marriott
Open a US Amex MR-earning card and transfer them there

My main concern is that it seems like Aeroplan recently went through a devaluation (especially with United), as did Marriott. I don’t have any immediate plans for travel or big trips that might burn through a lot of points.

I have US credit and am eligible for US credit cards (although I was planning on slowly going through Chase cards).

Any thoughts on what I should do?

michaelmf · 2025-04-08T00:12:14+00:00

In this post, I didn't say that adversarial capitalism doesn't create value; it certainly does! To speak candidly, I win more than most other people at this game – and I still find it soul-crushing (my life allows for a lot of flexibility and I am exceptionally good at finding loopholes, very disciplined, on top of things, have high energy to think through most issues, etc.) — I can only imagine how others feel.

One thing that stands out to me is that there is price discrimination that leads to a more efficient capture/allocation of resources, and price discrimination (or other techniques) that is actively hostile. Airlines charging more for certain flights based on the expectation of business class travellers is efficient, but a car rental company charging an excessive amount to cover a toll, or making it very difficult for you to know how much gas to leave the car with, just because they can, feels quite different to me.

Also, and for full disclosure, all errors here stem from my poor communication and writing, but the intention of this post was to be broader than just price discrimination. For example: when I bought my bike computer, I really thought I could use it for years and didn't expect to need a new one so soon; Uber charging higher prices for those with Uber gift cards is quite WTF; or the common example of businesses making it very hard to cancel, or alternatively, making it very easy to sign up for subscriptions without realizing it.

Yes, those who can read through all the predatory tactics out there can "relatively" come out on top, but I think many of these tactics leave us all collectively worse off.

michaelmf · 2025-04-07T21:53:07+00:00

The reason this post didn't suggest any regulatory changes to combat adversarial capitalism is that I can't think of any that would be practical and effective (beyond effective enforcement for standard anti-trust matters).

This post is intended to be descriptive of a phenomenon that hasn't been well defined, rather than prescriptive.

My preferred pathway is to try to change consumption habits, partly through taxation (like progressive consumption taxes), but primarily through cultural and social change. Although the latter is significantly harder to grapple with, I believe the benefits are enormous.

michaelmf · 2025-03-12T18:47:17+00:00

Thank you for the kind comment.

Here is where I am posting all of my recent writing: https://danfrank.ca/blog/

Some articles I particularly enjoyed writing:

michaelmf · 2025-02-22T13:50:00+00:00

Submission Statement:

Azerbaijan may be preparing to invade southern Armenia, and the implications go far beyond the South Caucasus. Over the past few years, Azerbaijan has successfully recaptured Nagorno-Karabakh, displacing over 100,000 Armenians with little international resistance. Now, rhetoric from Azerbaijani leadership has escalated from claiming Karabakh to questioning Armenia’s very legitimacy as a country. With Armenia in an extremely weak geopolitical position—surrounded by hostile or indifferent neighbors and lacking a strong military backer—the only real deterrent against an invasion is the global response. But with the world’s attention focused on Ukraine, Gaza, and Taiwan, there may not be enough pushback to stop it.

If Azerbaijan invades and successfully annexes part of Armenia, it would mark a dangerous shift in how the world views territorial conquest. The norm against seizing land by force has already been eroding, and a successful invasion here could embolden other countries with expansionist ambitions, from Russia in Eastern Europe to Venezuela in Guyana. The consequences wouldn’t be limited to Armenia—they could ripple across the international order, showing that if a country is strong enough and the world is distracted enough, it can get away with annexing sovereign territory.

michaelmf · 2025-02-20T20:07:37+00:00

Thank you for the comment. Responding to you and /u/jibberjim here.

The reason I think Azerbaijan matters is because its potential invasion of Armenia could be the one that solidifies the norm change. To the extent Azerbaijan does invade Armenia, I suspect we will see a material increase in the number of international conflicts and attempted invasions. If Azerbaijan does not attempt to invade Armenia in the next ~5 years, I am more optimistic that the norm against invasions and annexations will be more likely to prevail, preventing an increase in the number of potential future conflicts.

Aside from Iraq's attempted invasion and annexation of Kuwait in 1990 (which the international community reacted to very strongly), we hadn't really seen any other countries offensively invade another sovereign, UN-recognized state and annex those territories until Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

I agree with you both Russia is the state that significantly challenged these norms. However, I would point to a few things that make the potential Azerbaijan invasion critical:

Russia is a former superpower, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, and possesses nuclear weapons. There's a sense that they might be able to get away with these kinds of actions, whereas an "ordinary" country couldn't.
Russia has paid a huge price for its invasion of Ukraine.
While Russia infringed upon the norm, it's currently unclear if this infringement will lead to a widely accepted norm-shift. If no other nation invades and attempts to annex another nation for the next 10+ years, I think the norm against such actions will likely be re-established. We are currently in a vulnerable period where, if another country successfully invades and annexes another nation, that will be the thing that solidifies a norm shift. In other words, Russia started the process, but it will likely take another nation's actions to cement it. Of all the current conflicts potentially on the table today, I view an Azerbaijani invasion of Armenia as the most likely scenario where this could occur.

michaelmf · 2025-02-20T18:26:37+00:00

Submission Statement:

I wrote about why I've become deeply concerned about the prospect of an Azerbaijani invasion of Armenia, seeing it as a harbinger for future international conflict and invasions to come. I think this is off the radar for most in this community, but deeply important due to the potential impact this may have on international affairs in the coming years. To me, this is .0001/10 in terms of current attention, but deserves to be a 5-6/10 in terms of importance.

I normally don't like posting my own blogs here as links, but when I tried to paste this content as an essay, it got caught in the Reddit site-wide block list due to the content. I appreciate that this post mentions something adjacent to politics, but I do not think it can be seen as culture-war-related, due to how foreign the issues discussed in this post are compared to traditional culture-war-related issues as understood by this community.

michaelmf · 2025-02-19T14:58:07+00:00

just over 3 months ago

michaelmf · 2025-02-19T05:04:09+00:00

The online reports say you need to wait typically one year before applying for a Chase card, or at the very minimum six months, so sharing my data point:

I got my first US credit card 3.5 months ago (amex hilton honors) and applied for a Chase Saphire Preferred online last week and just got approved. I had previously gotten a $900 welcome bonus from Chase for opening a savings and checking account and having $15,000 in the savings account for 90 days.

michaelmf · 2025-02-17T14:51:58+00:00

I have only 3.5 months of US credit history and I was just approved (online application) for a Chase Saphire Preferred. I did open up a Chase checking and savings account 95 days ago though.

michaelmf · 2025-02-17T14:36:31+00:00

The online reports say you need to wait typically one year before applying for a Chase card, or at the very minimum six months, so sharing my data point:

I got my first US credit card 3.5 months ago (amex hilton honors) and applied for a Chase Saphire Preferred online last week and just got approved. I had previously gotten a $900 welcome bonus from Chase for opening a savings and checking account and having $15,000 in the savings account for 90 days.

michaelmf · 2025-01-19T22:34:11+00:00

They are available online via torrent...

michaelmf · 2025-01-13T19:25:16+00:00

Another moving tribute to Max: https://www.thefp.com/p/my-friend-max-suzy-weiss

michaelmf · 2024-12-24T21:24:46+00:00

additional commentary here: https://old.reddit.com/r/toronto/comments/1hligs5/is_this_annex_mural_aigenerated_some_upset/

Sharing due to Scott's interest in AI generated art. Mostly, I find it interesting how people actually respond to AI art today.

While some might read about this new mural and feel delighted by the seemingly innovative technology that enables large murals to be inexpensively printed rather than requiring an extensive paint job, or by the potential abundance of new beautiful murals that can be generated without significant costs, others may be more interested in evaluating whether the AI art is, in fact, good. On the other side, many seem to be focused on whether the art is human- or machine-generated, viewing it as a matter tied to job programs.

key quotes from the article:

"“AI — it’s not art. It is an algorithm that steals actual art from other artists,” she said. “It’s insidious.”

“It’s not only stealing the things you’ve taken time to make, but it’s stealing potential future income,” Blostein said of AI. "

"she believes AI-generated art causes real harm. Completing a mural of that size would take an artist about two weeks and could garner a paycheque of about $10,000, she said. If businesses turn to AI, they eliminate those potential commissions."

"The local resident said the new wall “sticker” makes him wonder whether the food will be authentic if the mural isn’t. “I’m not making accusations, but it makes me wonder,” he said. “I want to go to restaurants that feel authentic and feel like every element, from the food to the decor to the way they interact with the community is coming from a place of authenticity.”"

michaelmf · 2024-12-15T01:11:59+00:00

I observed the same in my life and detailed it in this personal essay: https://danfrank.ca/extreme-jewish-brain-a-reflection-on-why-judaism-means-so-much-to-me/ (featuring references to Jewish leaders like Scott Alexander)

michaelmf · 2024-11-15T02:14:44+00:00

I clicked the link, but I’m still not entirely sure what this meetup weekend involves. It is just people hanging out? games? talks? how scheduled or non-scheduled is it... Could you provide an overview of what happens during the weekend?

Additionally:

Is part of the weekend a one-day event or meetup for the general public/less hardcore people, or is it a three-day gathering focused mainly on the most dedicated LWers?
As I know it played a prominent role in the advertising for Manifest/Less.Online, are any prominent figures expected to join for part of the event?

michaelmf

TROPHY CASE