Everything is a Trolley

Trade Deficits and Solvency: Correlation not Causation

What happens if we apply Elon’s favored “first-principles” approach to trade deficits.

Apr 8 • 

Vaishnav Sunil

19

11

March 2025

Responding to Bryan Caplan on Relative Status vs. Absolute Welfare

Bryan Caplan recently wrote that if people primarily cared about relative income—simply being richer than those around them—they would frequently choose…

Mar 25 • 

Vaishnav Sunil

17

3

November 2024

Against Tit-for-Tat as a Heuristic

This is probably obvious to some of you, but flawed humans like me need reminding

Nov 21, 2024 • 

Vaishnav Sunil

16

5

October 2024

Against Open Borders: Building America's Human Capital Portfolio

The US immigration system has almost everything entirely backwards.

Oct 6, 2024 • 

Vaishnav Sunil

62

34

September 2024

Morality as Trust at Every Scale - Part 1

Morality often involves the tension between different conceptions of rational self-interest.

Sep 25, 2024 • 

Vaishnav Sunil

11

Hostage Negotiations as Zero Sum Games with Negative Expected Value

A public choice analysis with case studies from Israel and India

Sep 9, 2024 • 

Vaishnav Sunil

39

23

August 2024

Liquid vs. Illiquid Careers

Note: This is the first post in a series of posts about career liquidity.

Aug 3, 2024 • 

Vaishnav Sunil

133

14

July 2024

Adverse Selection by Life-Saving Charities

GiveWell, and the EA community at large, often emphasize the "cost of saving a life" as a key metric, $5,000 being the most commonly cited…

Jul 10, 2024 • 

Vaishnav Sunil

30

32

June 2024

Selling Power, Not Buying Safety: America's Foreign Policy Vibe

Why was Chamberlain's policy of appeasement towards Hitler a bad idea?

Jun 23, 2024 • 

Vaishnav Sunil

30

22

Male Psychology and the Fear of Humiliation

Why men might be tempted to choose violence over rationality?

Jun 13, 2024 • 

Vaishnav Sunil

14

3

May 2024

Culture is just the error term

"Culture" is a useful catchall term that encapsulates values, beliefs, and norms for human interaction and cooperation within a specific group.

May 29, 2024 • 

Vaishnav Sunil

13

10

Socialism as parochial presentism

The left likes to see itself as the bastion of moral circle expansion.

May 19, 2024 • 

Vaishnav Sunil

49

11