Ben Mann Monthly 2020.08: Hair cutting, giant swings, 80k podcasts, moving, matchmaking
Purpose
An index for my memory
A menu of topics for my next conversation with you
A faster way to share what I’m excited about without the barrier of writing a complete blog entry on it
A skimmable way to spread content I found valuable
Experiments and experiences
More haircutting
This month I did 10+ haircuts, including learning how to do layering and undercut. It wasn't difficult! For the cost of one normal haircut you can buy the equipment and try it. I adopted a disciple to take over for me after I leave the house.Custom mask
My sister sewed me a custom mask! It's much more comfortable than the ones I've gotten from Costco and Amazon because it fits my face and the straps aren't too tight or too loose.Matchmaking service
A few of my friends have asked for romantic introductions. I decided to open up a general pool for any of my friends. Let me know if you'd like to join, and if so what you're looking for and where. Most people are in the bay area, but some are in DC, Seattle, NYC, etc. No promises!Giant swing
We strung up some swings from the overpass over Esprit Park. We all reconnected with our childhoods, wore helmets, and compared optimal pushing and rope tying strategies.
Life updates
Work sprint done! Huge success 🚀
Signed lease for an apartment in Mission Bay! Moving Sep 8 🏡
Upgraded monitor arm & monitor 💯
California is burning 🔥Trying not to breathe in too much smoke, so confined to 7-minute workouts
Bought a full-face respirator to fly to Boston
Content
5 point Likert ratings for “I would recommend this content to a friend”, sorted
Jennifer Doleac on ways to prevent crime other than police and prisons 4/5
A fascinating look into how to improve American criminal justice
Reducing drug sentencing wouldn't have much impact on incarceration since most longer sentences are due to violent crime
Reducing lead exposure is still one of the easiest changes we can make to improve crime!
There are tons of natural experiments such as daylight savings and police training with limited resources that don't require RCTs
Professor Marc Lipsitch on whether we're winning or losing against COVID-19 4/5
Clear-eyed survey of the pandemic situation, how it's been handled so far, and our prognosis for the immediate future
US might safely open back up mid next year
The American medical system is too biased towards causing no harm due to bad past experience with non-consensual drug trials. We could save many lives through programs like https://1daysooner.org/
A.J. Jacobs on radical honesty, following the whole Bible, and reframing global problems as puzzles 4/5
Funny and honest free-wheeling interview
My favorite part was AJ's attempt to practice radical honesty. Generally it was great, but sometimes it backfired. My feeling is that you can be radically honest but still phrase things generously 🤷♂️
Networks ruin TV based on good content 😢
Movable Housing for Scalable Cities 4/5
We should decouple houses from their foundations and utility hookups
We should tax land/foundation instead of incomes
If we do this, we'll get tons of knock-on benefits, like tech companies that build houses
Professor Stuart Russell on why our approach to AI is broken and how to fix it 4/5
A much better resource than Nick Bostrom's Superintelligence on why AGI alignment is hard and important
Puts a lot of weight on things like CIRL, but not sure how effective that will be with today's systems. Still worth thinking about!
Amusing rants from the life of the author
Not particularly thought provoking