korrents

← People and their mental models

Noah Smith's mental models

5 claims Noah Smith made fit 4 mental models. Most often: Collective action problems, Bottlenecks, Incentives. Everything they said here.

Models they name

Their own words name the idea.

Collective action problems

What everyone would gain from, nobody provides alone, so shared goods need someone or something to hold people together.

Used by 18 others

A country without cultural unity struggles to provide public goods, because its politics turns into an ethnic spoils system.

  1. Noah Smith Economics writer; author of the Noahpinion newsletter More pragmatically, nations without cultural unity have difficulty providing public goods; politics tends to break down into an ethnic spoils system instead of being run for the benefit of the masses. Yes, assimilation is goodnoahpinion.blog · 9 Apr 2026All korrents from this piece
    Their wordsMore pragmatically, nations without cultural unity have difficulty providing public goods; politics tends to break down into an ethnic spoils system instead of being run for the benefit of the masses.

    ↗Yes, assimilation is goodnoahpinion.blog

    9 Apr 2026

Social media is destroying society in a bad equilibrium that quitting cannot fix and that requires government regulations.

  1. Noah Smith Economics writer; author of the Noahpinion newsletter Social media is destroying out society. Quitting doesn't help because everyone else is still on it. It's a bad equilibrium. It needs to be solved with government regulations. @Noahpinion on Xx.com · 15 Sept 2026
    Their wordsSocial media is destroying out society. Quitting doesn't help because everyone else is still on it. It's a bad equilibrium. It needs to be solved with government regulations.

    ↗@Noahpinion on Xx.com

    15 Sept 2026

Incentives

Look at what people are rewarded for; it explains more behaviour than what they say, your own included.

Used by 84 others

Models we see in what they say

Our reading: their claim applies the idea without naming it. The claim is theirs; filing it here is ours.

Bottlenecks

A system moves only as fast as its narrowest point; speed up anything else and nothing changes.

Used by 88 others

Japan's loss of innovation is mostly a finance story: companies can no longer get the cheap plentiful bank loans they had in the 70s and 80s.

  1. Noah Smith Economics writer; author of the Noahpinion newsletter In the 70s and 80s, Japanese companies could get cheap plentiful bank loans to develop new products and explore new markets. Today, they can't. Innovation is downstream of finance. @Noahpinion on Xx.com · 29 Aug 2026
    Their wordsIn the 70s and 80s, Japanese companies could get cheap plentiful bank loans to develop new products and explore new markets. Today, they can't. Innovation is downstream of finance.

    ↗@Noahpinion on Xx.com

    29 Aug 2026

Second-order thinking

Ask "and then what?": follow a decision past its first effect to the ones that come after.

Used by 86 others

Tariffs on Chinese products by Europe would encourage Chinese companies to produce goods overseas, boosting industrialization in poorer nations.

  1. Noah Smith Economics writer; author of the Noahpinion newsletter Europe should put more tariffs on Chinese products, in order to push Chinese companies to make their products overseas -- which will give industrialization a boost in poor countries all over the world. @Noahpinion on Xx.com · 25 Sept 2026
    Their wordsEurope should put more tariffs on Chinese products, in order to push Chinese companies to make their products overseas -- which will give industrialization a boost in poor countries all over the world.

    ↗@Noahpinion on Xx.com

    25 Sept 2026