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Comment by thundergolfer | Hacker News Reader

I would highly recommend the author's new book, Why We're Polarized. The model of the USA political system that he's built reminds me of the model Ben Thompson of Stratechery built to analyse the technology sector.

Just as Stratechery takes the latest happenings in tech, applies the core model, and spits out an article, Ezra Klein here has taken Andressen's blo, applied his model, and spat out an article.

In my opinion, if you want to know why the USA didn't respond properly to COVID-19 and why its national infrastructure is failing, ask Ezra Klein instead of Andressen.

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I haven't read Ezra Klein's book, but as far as I can tell Ben Thompson's articles are mostly just-so stories[1]. His model seems to be able to predict everything that happens in tech, and when your model predicts everything that usually means it isn't very powerful at all.

Here's a thought experiment: can you use aggregation theory to make sufficiently powerful predictions to beat the stock market in the tech sector? Can Ben? My strong guess is that the answer is to both questions is no.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just-so_story

The problem is you're not able to test the alternate unless you're a VC: companies that don't follow the model (or are in the wrong part of it) probably fail before they ever become public.

I guess it depends who you trust more. Some people will trust vox writer, some will trust a VC

I've actually read Klein's work and Andressen's work and evaluating both against my own understanding. That's the basis on which I gave the recommendation to seek Klein's answers.

I'm not just trusting a "vox writer" over a "VC".

Totally respect your approach to this issue. I didn't mean to imply it that way, I was talking more in a general sense. Sorry I will try to be more explicit it my further comments

No worries, thanks for clarification.

>recommend the author's new book

Who wrote it? Wonkbook Ezra, or Vox Ezra?

What a dissapointing also-ran Vox turned out to be.

Not familiar with Wonkbook Ezra, but the book is very wonk-oriented.

The number of research and researchers referenced per-page is very high. At times the book feels like it exists to nicely knit together of a bunch of poli-sci, sociology, and psychology research.

>the USA didn't respond properly to COVID-19

What does this mean exactly? I keep seeing statements like this, but I can't figure out what people are referring to.

The complete disregard for scientific recommendations, ignoring recommendations from other agencies, dragging feet and not doing anything for at least a month after the severity was clear, not even doing the bare minimum of preparation when alerts first started coming out before the full severity was understood, not collaborating with states or other agencies, providing conflicting information, refusing to take any responsibility, spreading well known misinformation, lauding unproven treatments.....the list can literally go on and on.

Can you give an example of this though? Everything I can find shows the US did follow recommendations, just like the rest of the west, and that's precisely why it has been so bad here. The WHO said there was no human to human transmission. The WHO said not to wear masks. The WHO said not to close borders. The WHO said not to "overreact" and shut anything down. I seem to recall people complaining that the US was taking things TOO seriously because they stopped flights from China during the phase where the WHO was still downplaying things.

There were a lot more recommendations and warnings from organizations other than the WHO.

From who then? Please provide an example. Show me what the US did differently from European countries, and explain why the US fatality rate per capita is better than many European countries despite apparently doing everything wrong.

> why the US fatality rate per capita is better than many European countries

A combination of better healthcare infrastructure (# of hospitals, beds, ventilators, nurses, doctors, etc) and also having a less deadlier strain than the one on Europe (although the deadliest strain was reported in Washington but luckily hasn't made it to the east coast).

I know this will likely go in one ear and out the other, but you should really stop listening to Fox news.

Every strain identified so far has been found in the US. You have provided absolutely nothing to support the claims that the US has handled this badly, or that they have ignored advice from experts. And you simply dismiss the evidence that proves objectively that you are wrong with "the US has better healthcare", despite the US ranking low in healthcare.

>I know this will likely go in one ear and out the other, but you should really stop listening to Fox news

Do you think that meets the HN posting guidelines? Do you think that is a constructive thing to post? Does assuming anyone who presents information you dislike is ignorant create better, more informative discussions? Perhaps you should start listening to the WHO.

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