Be My Mirror
I've been blogging for 20 years. What do you see that I don't?
I’ve been blogging now for two decades — seventeen years for EconLog, three for Bet On It. A few of you have actually been reading me since 2005, and more of you have probably sifted through my archives. Seeing oneself is always a challenge, so today I’m asking long-time readers to answer the following questions in the comments.
The list of questions:
How long have you been reading my blog? (Counting EconLog as well as Bet On It).
What are my best posts?
What are my worst posts?
How has the content of my writing changed over time?
How has the quality of my writing changed over time?
If you notice any high or low points chronologically speaking, please note them.
Since the subtitle of Bet On It is “Caplan and Candor,” I humbly request full Candor about Caplan.
Update: Sorry, I didn’t mean to limit comments to premium subscribers. Fixed now.
Posts need a feature to let you rate each one on a scale.
Get the feedback immediately after a read.
Maybe Substack can help?
"Be my mirror, my soul and shield, my missionaries in a foreign field."
~ Coldplay
Dr. Caplan,
I have learned a lot from you. I especially like your comic books: Build Baby Build and Open Borders. They present your arguments well and are quite interesting. I also enjoyed some of your longer works especially the Case Against Education and Selfish Reasons to have more children.
I remember the main premises from each:
* Case Against Education: Education isn't inherently all that valuable. It is mainly a way to signal that you had certain traits that you had before you went to school, namely: intelligence, conscientiousness and conformance to social norms. That's why people with a degree get paid more. Not because they actually learned all that much in school.
* Selfish Reasons to have more kids: Kids aren't actually all that expensive. You just think they're expensive cause you think you have to enroll them in all these expensive extra-curricular activities to ensure they'll grow up to be successful in life. But such expensive extra-curricular activities barely make a difference. Their future success is mainly genetic.
Although I found a lot of the pages to be a "data dump".
But you're asking about your blog, not your books...
I especially enjoyed one of your blog posts in EconLog where you published my e-mail! 😁
And you introduced me to Huemer, Szaz, etc. and I love when you feature other people such as the Lewis brothers, etc. and give them the last word. I found your ongoing debate with Scott Alexander about psychiatry to be quite thought provoking. Although, I, ultimately, found myself agreeing more with the Lewis brothers and Dr. Alexander.
Generally speaking, if you really want to know what people think of your posts, maybe read the comments? 😛
Some of my favourite posts: Don't be a Feminist, the one about do libertarians actually care about liberty and the ones about how Covid restrictions were dumb and sometimes anti-colonialism is dumb.
I find some of your ideas absurd, like: only using disposable dishes and I strongly disagree about ruling Third World countries! I liked your post about carrying your tired daughter through Paris. It was touching and I could relate. Though, I think trying to relate that to how anti-immigration Europeans call immigrants "rapefugees" fell flat amongst the people you were most trying to convince.
In some of your posts like "Sour Grapes" and the one about "Abundance" the book, you seem to be insisting too hard that you're not jealous or bitter that you come off sounding jealous and/or bitter.
Also, I like the private AMAs for paid subscribers, but you should do it at least once per month to make it worth it. I didn't renew my annual subscription because of that. But I just bought a monthly subscription just to post this comment. 😛
Overall, I really enjoy your blog, sir, and hwhilst I don't agree with you on everything (can anyone agree with ANYONE on everything??), I have learned a lot from you and you have really made me think!
So, thank you for that!