When a sinusoid is racing an exponential, it will lose eventually, no matter how big the head start. For example, the price of electricity generated by fossil fuels, and the price of electricity generated by solar panels.

In praise of tipping:

• one of the only "gift economy" aspects left in the U.S., where so much else has been made into a purely market-based process
• the beneficial (mental) impact on the tipper is just as important, or more so, than the (economic) impact on the one being tipped
• replacing tipping with an equal amount of pay raise is not as good
• classical economics really does not understand tipping, and would never predict its existence or viability from first principles

Pool noodles are an apt metaphor for the problems with the modern economy. It gives the appearance of added utility, but in fact you are not even slightly happier. On the other hand, if you don't have it and want it, you are unhappy when you wouldn't have been, had it not been invented. Craving is easier to create than utility.

The discomfort of progressives and libertarians with hierarchy (see Jonathan Haidt, et al) is reflected in their tendency to have fewer children. The importance of loyalty, authority, and sacredness is greater when there are parents who must be obeyed, children who you must sacrifice your own present for the future of, and spouses who you must not cheat on lest the basis of the family arrangement be endangered. This is why conservatives are reproducing more successfully than progressives, while libertarians are not (even though they are often on the political right on economic issues).

Don't use a rocket ship to go get your groceries, even if you are a rocket scientist.

Beware institutions, ideas, and people who are in a death spiral, even if you mean them no harm. They are desperate, irrational, and unpredictable, and likely casting about for someone to blame.

The early 21st century is Peak Cat.