I would assume Sapolsky understands how terms are defined by their context, and that someone saying “free will” in a forum discussion about software doesn’t literally imply the strictest, academic definition of the term.
I'm curious as to what other definitions of the term exist, other than the academic one? I had never though of using the term in any other context. But maybe that's because I've been concerning myself with this specific topic for too long.
A capitalist society needs inflation in order to produce a desirable outcome. It is a driver of consumption, as opposed to people and organizations hoarding their money in a deflationary environment, as well as investments, because inflation leads to the devaluation of loans over time.
I hear this argument all the time, but I've always found it lacking connection with the human behaviour I observe as someone growing up low-middle class, now middle-upper class.
It completely misses the mark on human behaviour of those living in scarcity. Inflation forces them to save whatever they can in the most stable and liquid medium (cash). As a result it creates a very strong force pushing low income individuals further down, it takes a lot of hard work and luck to get out.
Those with enough wealth don't need the same liquidity or stability, they have the luxury to invest and see their wealth grow and outpace inflation. As a result of this security they are more willing to spend on products and services.
Inflation causes scarcity for the poor and security for the wealthy.
The lower inflation is the less scarcity for the poor, and they will be more willing to spend and invest. Even in a environment with 0 inflation the wealthy still have incentive not to hoard cash. The incencentive to invest was never about the devaluation of cash, but rather the outpacing return of value that investment brings. Theoretically that still exists even in a deflationary environment, though I do suspect high enough deflation would have drastic negative impacts on the market to the point where returns are too low to justify the risk.
Population growth is ending globally, so I suppose the strategy is to issue debt for clean tech, affordable housing, and similar at the lowest yield for the longest duration you can and let those loans devalue over time as the population declines. China is the closest model I can put forth in this regard: their property sector is imploding for investors, but housing is affordable, for example.
This is the gospel that is taught. It seems to help people tolerate the fruits of their labor being quietly separated from them over time. Just another tax, except the people have even less of a say in this one.
Can you provide counter arguments to mine, though? It does not reduce wealth if dealt with correctly as an individual. It is meant to incentivize investments rather than hoarding, i.e., doing nothing with your money, as I explained.
How can a word come from the Bible? It must have existed before the Bible in order to have a meaning inside of it. Or did you mean to write it came from Aramaic?
I mean that it already appears in the Bible, in old Hebrew (which is close to, but isn’t exactly Aramaic), with the meaning “to feed and provide” - and I did not find any documentation about how it formed (or came into) Hebrew.
Which means of course m, that it was already in use before the Bible was canonicalized.
I'm surprised at the small number of Windows users. At my workplace every computer has Windows installed and we didn't really have a choice about it, although I never asked. Also, as a fullstack web developer, I don't really see why I would prefer one over the other, since they all support VSCode and I can write code on any one of them. But then again, I exist inside of an echochamber of Windows users so I'm pretty clueless on how development is different on other OSs.
I was surprised in the opposite direction - I thought Windows would be <5% for dev. Big, cheap contracting agencies skew the Windows number up globally, and even just in the US, but this is just HN users so I expected a much smaller representation.
