Our brains evolved to tell stories before they evolved to speak.
This has fundamental implications for our susceptibility to communication in the networked age.
Recent major media stories that feel to us like they’re part of a larger narrative campaign.
Recent major media stories that feel to us like they’re part of a larger narrative campaign.
Recent major media stories that feel to us like they’re part of a larger narrative campaign.
The outcomes of NFL games are inordinately influenced by officials relative to other sports. This is not new. The Narrative environment faced by the NFL in 2021, however, IS new.
I’m not sure they’re ready for it.
When a famous person shakes his or her finger at you, they’re not telling you a fact.
They’re telling you how to think about a fact.
Called It - Election Edition
Men of God in the City of Man is a nine part series about a narrative virus that infected the charismatic and Pentecostal churches in the United States. It isn't a story about Christian Nationalism. It isn't a story about January 6th. It isn't a story about why people voted for Trump. It is a story about a story. It is a story about the language that created a self-sustaining movement defined by its unwavering belief in a fundamentally corrupt electoral system.
Recent Notes
Complex Systems, Multiscale Information and Strange Loops (by Silly Rabbit)
Complex systems, machine learning software creating machine learning software, one-shot imitation and the power of the platform.
She Screams, He Kidnaps (by Silly Rabbit)
Proximity of verbs to gender, wiki-memory, fool me once (and twice), and a veritable zoo of machine learning techniques.
And They Did Live by Watchfires: Things that Don’t Matter #4
For the bored (read: profitable) investor, the bias to action is a constant threat. As we become more passive in our strategies, the moral license to ‘do something’ is exaggerated, and must be curtailed.
Mo’ Compute Mo’ Problems (by Silly Rabbit)
On hard problems, lazy XKCD references, the myth of superhuman AI, and valley grammar.
Westworld
If political parties in Western democracies were stocks, we’d be talking today about the structural bear market that has gripped that sector. Show me any country that’s had an election in the past 24 months, and I’ll show you at least one formerly big-time status quo political party that has been crushed.
1999 v2.0
On episode 21 of the Epsilon Theory podcast, Dr. Ben Hunt is joined by Brad McMillan, CFA, CAIA, the chief investment officer at Commonwealth Financial Network®. Brad graciously hosts us at Commonwealth’s headquarters in Waltham, Massachusetts. Ben and Brad talk about their mutual love for Terry Pratchett, narrative causality, the French elections, and how technology is changing the financial advisory business.
Future Flash Crashes, Digital Darwinism & the Resurgence of Hardware (by Silly Rabbit)
My view is that we are heading into a far more ‘interesting’ era of flash crashes of confused, or deliberately misled, algorithms.
Alibaba’s AI, JP Morgan’s Risky Language & the Nurture of Reality (by Silly Rabbit)
Starcraft mastery from AI, risky language, and the map of physics. Also Zen vs. Tantra, because why not?
Break the Wheel: Things that Don’t Matter #3
Almost as much as we love stock discussions, we love talking about our favorite fund managers. These discussions are unfortunately almost always a complete waste of time.
AI Hedge Funds, Corporate Inequality & Microdosing LSD (by Silly Rabbit)
On DARPA explainer videos, Burning Man invocations, and the impact of bad weather and high taxes on AI talent pools.
Change is in the Air
By the time we got to episode 20 of the Epsilon Theory podcast, change was bound to happen. Coming to you from our New York office, Dr. Ben Hunt and producer Michael Corrao talk about changes to the Epsilon Theory website, Ben’s role, and the entire political system.
The Horse in Motion
Many of the gaps in our knowledge are the result of our insistence on accepting our priors and using technology to answer questions we see as new. But what if we could develop techniques to challenge those priors with new questions?
What a Good-Looking Question: Things that Don’t Matter #2
We meet with our fund managers and financial advisers with a goal in mind. But we always end up talking stocks. If you insist on buying the tank, they’ll sell you a tank, folks.
Information, Please.
On episode 19 of the Epsilon Theory podcast, Dr. Ben Hunt is joined by Rusty Guinn, Salient’s executive vice president of asset management. Picking up from their last conversation on fake news, Ben and Rusty consider the kinds of information that we have at our disposal and if we are asking the right questions in our analysis — or just searching for the answers we want.
Salient and Other Just-So Origin Stories (by Jeremy Radcliffe)
An introduction to Jeremy Radcliffe, the Rabbit Hole and why it seems like the best asset management executives would be far happier as general managers of sports teams.
The Rabbit Hole: The War on Bad Science (by Jeremy Radcliffe)
If questioning everything you ever thought you knew about science sends you into a downward spiral of crippling anxiety, this may not be the Rabbit Hole for you.
Protected: Selected COVID-19 Resources
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
I Am Spartacus: Things that Don’t Matter #1
Oh, we all use index funds. ETFs. We all avoid the evils of acting trading, sure. But in the end, we are all active managers, friends. Yes, you, too.
Big Data, Big Compute
On episode 18 of the Epsilon Theory podcast, Dr. Ben Hunt is joined by Neville Crawley, the former CEO of Quid, Inc., a data intelligence software company based in San Francisco. Dr. Hunt and Neville speak about advancements in big data and big compute, and the potential to further impact investing.
Mailbag: Life in Trumpland
The best part about this job, other than being recognized in random bars by 50-year old financial advisors who are always good to buy me…