Quotation of the Day
A great conversation is between two people who think the other is wrong. A bad conversation is between those who think something is wrong with you. Micah Goodman, as written in David Brooks’ book How to Know a Person
Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
A great conversation is between two people who think the other is wrong. A bad conversation is between those who think something is wrong with you. Micah Goodman, as written in David Brooks’ book How to Know a Person
Such are the prosaic problems of the modern traveller. The transport part takes no time at all these days; it is the bureaucracy that is interminable. We are constantly being told that we live in a world without borders, in a globalized age, but only if you have the right passport and the right papers.…
From a Lex Fridman interview with theoretical physicist Lisa Randall. “Stocks may not achieve a precise value until they’re traded, but that doesn’t mean we can’t approximate their worth until they change hands. Similarly, electrons might not have definite properties, but they do exist. It’s true that the electron doesn’t exist as a classical object…
We ought not be ashamed of appreciating the truth and of acquiring it wherever it comes from, even if it comes from races distant and nations different from us. For the seeker of truth, nothing takes precedence over the truth, and there is no disparagement of the truth, nor belittling either of him who speaks…
“There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.” Oscar Wilde
An economist’s algorithm, at its best, values being simple, being reasonably easy to analyze, and having clear mathematical properties that show why it’s optimal (or least-bad) for the task that it’s trying to solve, and ideally proves bounds on how much damage someone can do by trying to exploit it. An engineer’s algorithm, on the…
You’re mistaken when they think that technology just automatically improves. It does not automatically improve. It only improves if a lot of people work very hard to make it better. And actually it will, I think, by itself degrade actually. If you look at great civilizations like ancient Egypt and they’re able to make the…
In politics: He who desires to attempts to reform the government of a state, and wishes to have it accepted, must at least retain the semblance of the old forms; so that it may seem to the people that there has been no change in the institutions, even though in fact they are entirely different…
“I write only when inspiration strikes. Fortunately it strikes every morning at nine o’clock sharp.” W. Somerset Maugham
As heard at ISPOR 2023 in Boston: On high US drug prices: “My hope as a European is that US never gets its health system in order.” And his Yoda-like pronouncement: “Affordability is important; but value is critical” Michael Drummond HT: Peter Neumann. See also Dr. Neumann’s ISPOR recap thread