Nathan Smith
OODA Loops and Media Bias
Republished with Permission Original article by Nathan Smith at the NZ Initiative As US military strategist John Boyd said about his “OODA loop” theory (observe, orient, decide, act), if one’s orientation is out by just a millimetre, the entire strategy fails. A new site called mediabias.co.nz measures
The Art of Thinking
Nathan Smith nzinitiative.org.nz “They” say a conspiracy theorist is someone who is correct ten years too early. What’s funny is this is the same definition of an economic forecaster. In fact, master Keynesian Paul Samuelson once joked that Wall Street has predicted nine of the last five
Burkean Democracy
Nathan Smith nzinitiative.org.nz The white doors opened gently and in strode the great Irish statesman Edmund Burke. He was five minutes late for the interview, but given that he’d just been reincarnated, I let him off. We shook hands and made small talk about the “crazy” New
Cannabis Use in ‘These’ United States
Nathan Smith nzinitiative.org.nz It is a pity Kiwis cannot build a mirror image “New Zealand v2” somewhere in the Pacific to test controversial policies like cannabis legalisation. Actually, that’s why the US is such a great political system. It was only last century that Americans began calling
Lack of Privacy
Nathan Smith Chief Editor nzinitiative.org.nz I don’t know why people are getting so worked up about private details being leaked to MPs. If the COVID-19 crisis taught us anything, it’s that privacy has no place in the “new normal.” The mantra of the internet is that
Statues, Rice and Ice Cream … Oh My!
Nathan Smith Chief Editor nzinitiative.org.nz As a Millennial, a worrying new trend among my generation is to simply cancel what you don’t like. Sure, some things might be outdated and it isn’t for me to tell a private company what it can or can’t do