Sometimes the smartest thing to do is to know who to ask.

Running away is often the best way of avoiding death in combat. If everyone on your side runs away, then you will probably all get killed. And thus is a cowards’ dilemma born. Imagine that you and many others have been drafted. You are now in combat facing enemy troops.

Let’s assume that none of you are very patriotic, and your paramount objective is personal survival. The best way to avoid danger would be if you ran away, but all your fellow soldiers stayed and fought. Of course, if everyone else on your side ran away, then it would be even a better idea for you to abandon your combat position, for you certainly don’t want to be the only one facing the enemy when they cross your lines. Running away is therefore the safest strategy you could follow regardless of what your fellow soldiers do.

A dilemma arises because if everyone on your side runs away, it will be easy for the enemy to hunt you all down and kill you. Thus, you all might be better off if everyone stayed than if everyone ran away. Individually you are all better off being cowards. Collectively you’re all better off being brave. Armies solve this cowards’ dilemma by the court-marshaling the soldiers who run away. The potential for being killed for cowardice thus actually helps soldiers as it saves them from the dilemma.

Before the personal computer, there were mainframes. IBM was the primary producer of mainframe computers. Large companies, not individual consumers, bought mainframes. Apple was the first company to sell easy-to-set-up computers to consumers and its early success caused IBM to enter the desktop computer market.

IBM wanted to sell a desktop computer, but it didn’t want to design all of the computer parts itself, so IBM asked Microsoft to write an operating system for its personal computer and asked Intel to manufacture its computer’s microprocessor. IBM’s personal computer was a huge success and far more people bought personal computers from IBM than Apple. Unfortunately for IBM, the sale of clones caused most of the profits from the personal computer industry to go to other firms.

IBM clones worked almost exactly as an IBM-manufactured computer did. Most importantly, they would run software that had been explicitly written for IBM personal computers. These IBM clones still mostly used Microsoft operating systems and Intel microprocessors. Microsoft and Intel made far more money from personal computers than did IBM or Apple. The vast majority of the personal computers in use today have Microsoft operating systems and Intel microprocessors—not necessarily because of these products’ quality, but rather because of network externalities and coordination games.

Almost all things mankind has ever conceived is overrated.

Even Love. Sometimes it really makes me wonder why people destroy themselves over love.

There are a gazillion things you could spend your time thinking about, but many of us concentrate on those things that we find most upsetting or distressing.

I feel you should not ignore what bothers you, but don’t let yourself focus on it so much so that you forget about the things you enjoy most.

And I don’t not need to show you the stats that people who regularly ruminate over negative subjects and unhappiness are less likely to feel content than those who do not.