This was great! There is so much “person shakes fist at cloud” energy these days. Perhaps it was always like that and I just didn’t know it! But I love the observation “everything is terrible but I’m fine”. I’ve always thought it was funny that people hate Congress, but their representatives are great. I think it’s sorta similar.
I recently heard the Surgeon General on a podcast rattle off a statistic that “[X]% of people believe that parenting is harder today than it was 20 years ago,” as support for an argument that social media is rotting our youth. What a useless fact. This strikes me as exactly what you’re pointing out here. It’s just vibes, but when it’s quoted enough as reality, people see it as reality.
Anyone who ever catches me complaining about a younger generation’s work ethic or habits, please feel free to punch me in the face. Even if those arguments were true, then ok boomer whose fault would it be? Who raised them and set the example? Infuriating
I was literally packing up quotes from your newsletter into boxes of "truth" to share with friends.. and then I saw the comic... I love this newsletter.
Additionally, we have moved to a knowledge economy which requires spending a lot more thinking or collaborating than physical work of manufacturing society and makes people think that people are producing less or not working hard. There will always be people who will not work or will find excuses not to work and the opposite is also true.
I don’t know if the jobs are as good as our popular metrics would indicate. Many have brought up the fact of young, early career, professionals that were layed off as part of the tech layoffs over the past year and still have yet to find work are not being captured in unemployment numbers. For job seekers the market is definitely not good.
I appreciate your word choices, “wrangled” and “frolicking”, for example. Your symphony of words reassure me that wit and intelligence will continue to wreak havoc upon the doom and gloom.
Great post as usual. One thing that should be instructive about the spilled ink over the debt ceiling is that the doomer panic “default position” for the chattering classes is empty of content. If the debt ceiling wasn’t happening, there would have been some other potential disaster waiting to happen.
I run an experiment with myself sometimes: I pick a week to close myself off from media and try to predict what the zeitgeist will fret about by the end of it. I’m usually wrong.
Truth is not fluid and does not change, truth is based of facts. If you have all the facts you have the truth. The problem with today’s society is they either are unable to get the facts or they are so emotionally bent they don’t believe the facts. People think they know the truth weather they have the facts or not. The civil war was real, the holocaust was real, these are facts that cannot be changed by any means short of global time travel.
Yes facts are real, but often the truth in the present is fluid. It’s based on assumptions and half-knows that change as we discover more, especially in business as we can’t wait until the full truth is discovered - we have to move on the best knowns. I think that is what she’s referencing.
Social media, which we now use as daily entertainment, makes us think that things are worse than they are by giving everyone a voice.
Versus the past, when daily entertainment was more joyful experiences and media like magazines, movies, physical activity, etc
Things aren’t necessarily worse - we just spend more time consuming more information than there’s ever been about the bad things happening
Couldn't agree more. It's funny how quickly you become optimistic once you get rid of or limit your exposure to social media.
This was great! There is so much “person shakes fist at cloud” energy these days. Perhaps it was always like that and I just didn’t know it! But I love the observation “everything is terrible but I’m fine”. I’ve always thought it was funny that people hate Congress, but their representatives are great. I think it’s sorta similar.
Eventually all will need the knowledge you share 🤔😊
Keep it coming 😊
Great reads.
I recently heard the Surgeon General on a podcast rattle off a statistic that “[X]% of people believe that parenting is harder today than it was 20 years ago,” as support for an argument that social media is rotting our youth. What a useless fact. This strikes me as exactly what you’re pointing out here. It’s just vibes, but when it’s quoted enough as reality, people see it as reality.
Anyone who ever catches me complaining about a younger generation’s work ethic or habits, please feel free to punch me in the face. Even if those arguments were true, then ok boomer whose fault would it be? Who raised them and set the example? Infuriating
I was literally packing up quotes from your newsletter into boxes of "truth" to share with friends.. and then I saw the comic... I love this newsletter.
“Nobody wants to work anymore” has been around for over 100 years (https://twitter.com/paulisci/status/1549527748950892544), and every generation thinks that the next one does not want to work. The work has to be meaningful to motivate people to be excited and work hard. When several new jobs are bullshit (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullshit_Jobs), it is hard for people to stay motivated. Most people work hard when they see their work is making a difference or adding value, but that is not true for many new jobs (https://www.currentaffairs.org/2022/09/why-you-hate-your-job).
Additionally, we have moved to a knowledge economy which requires spending a lot more thinking or collaborating than physical work of manufacturing society and makes people think that people are producing less or not working hard. There will always be people who will not work or will find excuses not to work and the opposite is also true.
If you want to know about vibes, fluid truth, and believe "...we also have no concept of measurement" this is the substack you are looking for.
I don't go for any of that myself. I'm just here poking around.
I don’t know if the jobs are as good as our popular metrics would indicate. Many have brought up the fact of young, early career, professionals that were layed off as part of the tech layoffs over the past year and still have yet to find work are not being captured in unemployment numbers. For job seekers the market is definitely not good.
Whose hope are you promoting?
I appreciate your word choices, “wrangled” and “frolicking”, for example. Your symphony of words reassure me that wit and intelligence will continue to wreak havoc upon the doom and gloom.
When and how can I pre-order your book?
found it on AMZ "In This Economy?: How Money and Markets Really Work", to be published Feb 6, 2024. PRE-ORDERED.
So does Felix Salmon pronounce his last name like the fish? Or does he pronounce the "L"?
Great post as usual. One thing that should be instructive about the spilled ink over the debt ceiling is that the doomer panic “default position” for the chattering classes is empty of content. If the debt ceiling wasn’t happening, there would have been some other potential disaster waiting to happen.
I run an experiment with myself sometimes: I pick a week to close myself off from media and try to predict what the zeitgeist will fret about by the end of it. I’m usually wrong.
Truth is not fluid and does not change, truth is based of facts. If you have all the facts you have the truth. The problem with today’s society is they either are unable to get the facts or they are so emotionally bent they don’t believe the facts. People think they know the truth weather they have the facts or not. The civil war was real, the holocaust was real, these are facts that cannot be changed by any means short of global time travel.
Yes facts are real, but often the truth in the present is fluid. It’s based on assumptions and half-knows that change as we discover more, especially in business as we can’t wait until the full truth is discovered - we have to move on the best knowns. I think that is what she’s referencing.