Lars P. Syll

CDU-politiker Friedrich Merz — ein total unverschämter Drecksack Vor 14 Jahren soll Friedrich Merz seinen Laptop am Berliner Ostbahnhof verloren haben. Doch der damalige Unions-Fraktionsvize hatte Glück, ein Obdachloser fand das Gerät und gab es zurück. Nun erinnert er sich … In der „Taz“ erzählt der heute 53-Jährige nun, was er und sein Kumpel Micha sahen, als sie den Laptop einschalteten … Er hoffte auf einen angemessenen Finderlohn. Friedrich Merz hatte...

Even a genius has to work hard Several years later I developed a broader theory of what separates the two general classes of learners—helpless versus mastery-oriented. I realized that these different types of students not only explain their failures differently, but they also hold different “theories” of intelligence. The helpless ones believe that intelligence is a fixed trait: you have only a certain amount, and that’s that. I call this a “fixed...

Hannah Arendt im Gespräch  [embedded content] Advertisements

Ten theory of science books that should be on every economist’s reading​ list • Archer, Margaret (1995). Realist social theory: the morphogenetic approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press • Bhaskar, Roy (1978). A realist theory of science. Hassocks: Harvester • Cartwright, Nancy (2007). Hunting causes and using them. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press • Chalmers, Alan  (2013). What is this thing called science?. 4th. ed. Buckingham: Open...

One problem among social researchers is the tendency to view specificity and concreteness as equal to Science and Rigorous Thinking … But this ‘precision’ is often achieved only by analyzing​ surface causes because some of them are readily measured and operationalized. This​ is hardly sufficient reason for turning away from broad generalizations and causal principles. Advertisements

När jag ser de sista skälvande solstrålarna kasta sitt förföriska ljus och lysa upp mitt hem tycker jag mig ana det rofyllda gulaktiga nordiska skymningsljusets förmåga att försänka oss i en vag och obestämt transcendental känsla av existentiell mystik … Advertisements

Krugman on math and economics Another clip from my MasterClass (actually burn the *math*) pic.twitter.com/4BVyXNniLz — Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) November 20, 2018 Yours truly have no problem with Krugman’s views on the use of math in this video in his recent tweet. I have said similar things myself for decades. But there is a BUT here … At other times Krugman — although admitting that economists have a tendency to use ”excessive math” and “equate hard...

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P-values are no substitute for thinking  [embedded content] A non-trivial part of statistics education is made up of teaching students to perform significance testing. A problem I have noticed repeatedly over the years, however, is that no matter how careful you try to be in explicating what the probabilities generated by these statistical tests really are, still most students misinterpret them. This is not to blame on students’ ignorance, but rather on...

Listen to BBC 4 where Duncan Weldon tries to explain in what way Hyman Minsky’s thoughts on banking and finance offer a radical challenge to mainstream economic theory. As a young research stipendiate in the U.S. yours truly had the great pleasure and privelege of having Hyman Minsky as teacher. He was a great inspiration at the time. He still is. Advertisements