{"id":7785,"date":"2025-09-05T18:54:47","date_gmt":"2025-09-06T01:54:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/?p=7785"},"modified":"2025-09-05T18:54:47","modified_gmt":"2025-09-06T01:54:47","slug":"things-glen-found-interesting-volume-520-the-honesty-tax-and-other-counterproductive-things","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2025\/09\/05\/things-glen-found-interesting-volume-520-the-honesty-tax-and-other-counterproductive-things","title":{"rendered":"Things Glen Found Interesting, Volume 520: the honesty tax and other counterproductive things"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/a>\n<\/p>

You\u2019ve heard of TGIF? This is TGFI: Things Glen Found Interesting<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Fridays I share articles\/resources about broad cultural, societal and theological issues. Be sure to see the explanation and disclaimers at the bottom. I welcome your suggestions. If you read something fascinating please pass it my way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Things Glen Found Interesting<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
    \n
  1. The Honesty Tax<\/a> (Kelsey Piper, The Argument): \u201cWe set high \u2014 stupidly, counterproductively high \u2014 standards and then minimally enforce them because full enforcement would be a disaster. So, almost everyone just lies. Then, the people you punish are the people who are unwilling to lie, or who don\u2019t know the rules about what kinds of lies are \u2018normal\u2019 and what kinds are seriously out of bounds. Those less likely to know these informal rules are not a randomly selected group of people \u2014 the more connections you have in D.C., the more you know what \u2018not to mention.\u2019 But lying is bad! Selecting for liars is bad! This may end up looking sort of similar to the result you\u2019d get if you just had a reasonable policy in the first place, but it\u2019s actually a lot worse \u2014 you screened out everyone who wasn\u2019t willing to be dishonest.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. What Is Man, That Thou Art Mindful Of Him?<\/a> (Scott Alexander, Astral Codex Ten): brilliant and difficult to excerpt. Dwarkesh Patel hosts a podcast with God debating Iblis over whether humans are truly intelligent and whether biological intelligence is even possible. Don\u2019t assume it is Christian based on the title \u2014 it is definitely not. <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. What Happens If No One Reads<\/a> (Spencer Klavan, The Free Press): \u201cIf ChatGPT could tell you what a meal tastes like, would you not feel the need to eat it? \u2026I asked Grok about The Brothers Karamazov<\/em> and it told me, \u2018We\u2019re all a mess of contradictions.\u2019 And so we are. Why didn\u2019t Dostoyevsky just say that?\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. The Millionaire Who Left Wall Street to Become a Paramedic<\/a> (Christopher Maag, New York Times): \u201cJonathan Kleisner didn\u2019t know what he wanted to be when he grew up, except a success. After attending Fordham Prep, a Jesuit high school in the Bronx, he went to Boston University, dropping out a semester before graduation to take a job at a small trading firm on Wall Street for $40,000 a year. It was 1991, it looked as if the recession was over and the mood on the street was buoyant.\u201d