Good economics teaches that scarcity can be reduced. Bad economics teaches that scarcity can be eliminated. In other words, good economics tries to harness the logic of human action, while bad economics tries to ignore it.

Entrepreneurship is the art of turning strangers into collaborators. Politics is the art of turning neighbors into enemies.

Commerce is an attempt to overcome barbarism. Politics is an attempt to sugarcoat barbarism.

Bad economics teaches that without the state, monopolies would destroy the market. Good economics teaches that without the state, the market would destroy monopolies.

An economically illiterate ethicist believes that money is the root of all evil. An economically literate ethicist believes that fiat money is the root of much evil.

A bad economist believes that pay can be legislated. A good economist believes that legislation can be paid for.

A bad economist believes that he knows what to do to make the world prosperous. A good economist believes that he knows what to do to let the world make itself prosperous.

We must look at the price system as a mechanism for communicating information if we want to understand its real function... The most significant fact about this system is the economy of knowledge with which it operates, or how little the individual participants need to know in order to take the right action.

You are the tree. What you are losing may simply be leaves.

This is Fine.

Taxation is the price we pay for failing to build a civilized society. The higher the tax level, the greater the failure. A centrally planned totalitarian state represents a complete defeat for the civilized world, while a totally voluntary society represents its ultimate success.

Fist my bump

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The real lesson is to accept scarcity, respect prices, and seek your comparative advantage in a world where AI is just another tool—not to retreat into a lonely, inefficient attempt to do by hand what your tools could help you transcend. View quoted note →

Even if AI seems superior at many specific tasks, it cannot replace the human ability to set aims, make judgments, and shoulder uncertainty. In that sense, AI remains a tool—a powerful one—while humans supply the values and intentions that steer it. The relationship between them is not rivalry but interdependence. View quoted note →

However powerful the machines become, you still face the same basic constraint: you are limited. You have only so many hours, so much attention, so much energy. Every decision you make is an attempt to move from a state you value less toward one you value more. Choosing one course of action always means leaving another undone. The value of that forgone alternative—the thing you could have done instead—is your opportunity cost. Now add AI to the mix. You still have the same 24 hours, but you also have access to tools that can draft emails, summarize documents, generate code snippets, sketch marketing copy, and filter noise. These tools are not magic. They are ways of rearranging scarce resources—your time, your employer’s capital, server capacity—in the hope of satisfying people’s wants more effectively. View quoted note →