manipulation as redefinition

The social networks deliberately promote the word "sharing" rather than "showing". You are meant to feel like you are displaying things for generosity, rather than vanity. Also, in "sharing" mode, you become less aware of the fact that you are disclosing bits of your private life.

Incubators use the word "investment" in an uncommon sense. The only thing they provide to the budding entrepreneurs is some office space and a little bit of mentoring. There is often no actual transfer of money. Incubators (at least those in Turkey) are mostly in the business of maintaining a good public image and a high turnover of new projects.

Lesson: Words are powerful and meanings are malleable. That is why every manipulation starts with a redefinition. Hitler has done it. Facebook has done it. Your run-of-the-mill marketers are doing it everyday.

Exercise: Write your own political manifesto by subtly redefining the notion of justice.

forms of cruelty

There are two types of concerns when it comes to evaluating the pros and cons of an economic policy: Efficiency and equality. The former type arises more from intellectual deliberations, while the latter type stems more from emotional considerations.

All forms of cruelty are exercised in the name of either efficiency or equality. Masculine types are more ruthless about matters related to efficiency, while feminine types are more ruthless about matters related to equality.

subject undefined

I have long held psychology in suspicion since it is tremendously difficult to conduct proper experiments on human beings in their natural habitats. We behave differently under different circumstances. We assume different roles in the presence of different people. There is literally no single, continuous personality that can be experimented on. You end up altering the subject the minute your test conditions and measurement mechanisms become sources of interference.

Inter-generational studies are even harder to conduct, and this difficulty poses a problem for biology as well. Given sufficient amount of time, the lineage will accumulate genetic mutations and adjust its bacterial flora in reaction to the experiment conditions. How can you test whether milk is harmful for human beings if lactose tolerance builds up over time? Your scientific mission will be in danger of turning into a tautology: Milk is harmful for lactose intolerant human beings.

exogeneity and spontaneity

"Exogenous shocks" play the same theoretical role in macroeconomics as "spontaneous symmetry breaking" does in particle physics.

• They are comical devices intended for covering up the severe short-comings of a theory that is supposed to be all-encompassing.
• They are devices whose mere existence is contradictory: There can be nothing exogenous to a macroeconomic system, and there can be nothing spontaneous (un-caused) in a physical theory.