ARNOLD KLING
August 14, 2011
The Top Political Contributors
August 11, 2011
Gender and the New Commanding Heights
August 11, 2011
Jamie Galbraith Makes an Assumption
August 11, 2011
Macroeconometrics: The Science of Hubris
August 10, 2011
Real and Nominal Bond Yields
BRYAN CAPLAN
August 14, 2011
The Effect of Thumb Sucking on Income
August 12, 2011
The Voice of Cold, Hard Truth to All Would-Be Educators
August 12, 2011
Ability, Morality, and Prosperity: A Paper and a Report
August 11, 2011
The Theory of Time and Frittering
August 10, 2011
Male Variance and the Remnants of the Gender Gap
DAVID HENDERSON
August 9, 2011
Hayek in "Unbroken", Part Two
August 8, 2011
Hayek in "Unbroken"
August 5, 2011
James Bovard on the Peace Corps
August 4, 2011
Summers Way Off on FDR and 1941
August 3, 2011
The "Amazon" Tax
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Item 20 is also a great read.
"20. The Folly of Accountabalism "
Mr. Shirky writes about how open systems allow for a lot of experimentation and the success of the vast number of failures demonstrates a filtering process to weed out success more efficiently.
How is this fundamentally different when it's done with open systems than with closed products/services produced by firms? For example, 95% of small businesses fail within 5 years. Doesn't this also represent an experimentation and filtering process?
What about open systems makes it's particular form of filtering better than closed products form of filtering? Is it volume? Is it cost of entry? Time to market? I don't understand what's fundamentally new here.
Of course public schools don't want to be held accountable. They don't have to compete on any sort of merits and we are just supposed to pretend that they are effective. Spending-per-pupil doubling over the last 30 years and test scores not budging? Well screw tests then. Faculty-per-pupil increasing at the same time as students-per-classroom? Well how do we now those extra faculty members aren't performing an essential role? There's no measurable accountability! Indulge your preference for ignorance!
Actually, in open-source, the individual in many cases is only able to 'risk' some of his time because he has a good paying job or some other resources to cover his living expenses which leave him with 'free' time to do as he will (ie., party on the weekend, go see a movie, write open-source software).
If it wasn't for his market economy job (or dependency on someone who has a market economy job) the programmer likely wouldn't have the time and money to 'risk' on an open source project.
On the other hand, the market economy allows the burden of risk to be shouldered by those who can afford it (investors). Their investment then pays for those who couldn't otherwise afford to spend their time developing software.