Author: Atanu Dey

Economist.

Viruses, Ideas and their Life Expectancy

The wiki page about virus says that it “is a small infectious agent that replicates only inside the living cells of other organisms. Viruses can infect all types of life forms . . .” Ideas are analogous to viruses because they too are infectious agents that replicate in living brains. The evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins coined the term meme to mean a unit of idea that can infect a brain and get transmitted to other brains. Viruses are responsible for genetic diversity through horizontal gene transfer. Analogously, ideas are responsible for diversity of human mentality.

Viruses of biological kind are generally bad for the organism, just like the software variety are bad for computers. There are no good viruses. In contrast, ideas come in two principle varieties: the benevolent and the malevolent. The good kind leads to overall benefits, both to the individual with the idea and to the collective of individuals that have that idea. The malevolent kind inflicts great harm but they eventually die out. There are two pathways. One, they just destroy the host collective, thus resulting in the extinction of the bad idea. Or, two, they mutate into a less malevolent form that does not kill the host, or even into a benevolent idea that benefits the host. Good ideas are forever and bad ideas are never forever.
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A Misplaced Sense of Pride

One of the Founding Fathers of the United States, polymath, inventor, scientist, writer, diplomat, etc., etc., Benjamin Franklin (1706 – 1790) observed that “We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid.” An analogous statement about nations could be that all nations are born poor but it requires hard work to keep it in poverty. Not surprisingly that hard work is properly done by the politicians of poor countries. What’s surprising is the evident pride they appear to take in their dismal accomplishment. They obviously revel in the fact that the country is poor and proclaim it loudly for all to marvel at. A recent statement on twitter (image below) by the official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs of India, retweeted over 1500 time no doubt approvingly by Indians, brought this to mind.
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Why blogging has been intermittent

Things have been slow around here, you may have noticed. A few people have asked why. Part of the reason has been that I have been really distracted. First there was the travel. I had left for India early December 2015. Visiting places and meeting people is distracting although fun. I started back from India on Jan 23rd. First stop was Brussels. I arrived at Zaventem airport in Brussels at 8 AM on Jan 23rd. That was two months ago. Seeing the pictures of the bombed-out departure hall brings back memories. I have walked that hall close to a dozen times over the last few years. Yesterday’s terrorist attack at Brussels airport felt somewhat personal to me. After Brussels, I stopped for a week on the East coast to visit friends in New Jersey and Boston, and got home to San Jose on 2nd February.
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Leadership is about being helpful

“You don’t lead by telling people what to do; you lead by being helpful.” George Shultz, former US Secretary of State, in conversation at the Hoover Institution on Jan 25th, 2016. He’s 96 years old.

A personal note. One day sometime in the early 1990s I was on the Stanford University campus for some work. I recognized Mr Shultz near a parking lot and went up to him and said hello. We chatted for a minute or two. A very gentle man and a gentleman.

Hello from Bangalore

Greetings from Bangalore. I arrived this morning to visit with friends. The journey from the airport to the city was predictably hellish. It looks like Bangalore’s traffic woes are going to get worse before it starts improving.

Charity should be voluntary, not coerced

All actions of a just society should be principles-based. One of the primary guiding principles of a just society is that coercion is kept at a minimum. That is, people should be free of coercion from others, including the government. Certainly, a case can be made for why there will have to be some coercion — but that has to be reserved for matters that are essential for the functioning of society. For these matters, government coercion is justified for raising revenues required for funding certain activities. Examples of such matters are policing (to maintain law and order) and the provisioning of collective goods such as public access roads or sanitation, etc. Aside from those limited exemptions, coercion is not justified.
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Where in the World is Yours Truly

This is for the information of friends and family. I am traveling a bit. I am in Nasik until Tuesday 29th. I leave for Bangalore from Mumbai on Wed 30th morning, and get back to Mumbai 3rd morning. Between 7th and 10th, I am in Pune. Jan 11, 12 & 13 I am in Mumbai. I leave for N Delhi 13th evening and get back to Mumbai 17th. I leave for Brussels on Jan 23rd morning. Then off to the East coast on Jan 25th. In the East coast, I will be in NJ, NY, Washington DC and Boston. Ping me in case you wish to meet up.

Constitution, Government, Economy – Part 3

In the previous parts (first and second) of this essay, I discussed some aspects of constitutions and governments. The discussion was general and was principles based. In this part, I examine the particular case of the Indian constitution and the governments that it gives rise to. And I conclude that the constitution needs to be replaced.
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Charlie Munger on Costco

I am a fierce Costco loyalist. I have been a card-carrying member of Costco for over 20 years, and have bought tens of thousands bucks worth of stuff from the store. It is somewhat comical this habit of mine: to my friends and acquaintances, I keep insisting that they get a Costco membership and buy stuff there. There’s something about Costco that warms the cockles of this economist’s heart. I end up going to Costco about twice a week at least. And since there’s one within a 12-minute walk — less than a mile — of where I live, I sometimes go there just for a slice of pizza. Did you know that Costco is the largest pizza retailer in the US?
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