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asymmetricinfo's profile
Megan McArdle
Megan McArdle
Megan McArdle
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@asymmetricinfo

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Megan McArdleVerified account

@asymmetricinfo

Columnist at the Washington Post. Opinions my own. Email me: Megan.McArdle -at- http://washpost.com  Buy my book, The Up Side of Down http://amzn.to/1a3i2tK 

Washington, DC
Joined September 2008

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    Megan McArdle‏Verified account @asymmetricinfo 6 Mar 2020

    Megan McArdle Retweeted James Surowiecki

    I am told that in movies, they actually try not to make the numbers in things like heists too big, because people can't grasp a billion dollars. You have to put the numbers close enough to the average person's frame of reference that they can understand what it buys.https://twitter.com/JamesSurowiecki/status/1235920566537895942 …

    Megan McArdle added,

    James SurowieckiVerified account @JamesSurowiecki
    What I don't understand is how not one person involved in putting this segment together - building the graphic, talking about the tweet, etc. - said: "Hey, wait a minute! That makes no sense!" https://twitter.com/KFILE/status/1235808311834021888 …
    5:31 AM - 6 Mar 2020
    • 20 Retweets
    • 180 Likes
    • RyeFrost2018 April Burke Liberty Lambs - Semper Fi! Lock Her Up AF - Ninja Grifter Nation Sharer of scary COVID news and cat videos Chris Donnelly Ellen Anderson Sam Liedtke (ANTI pumpkin popsums) ❤BKLYN☦️
    31 replies 20 retweets 180 likes
      1. New conversation
      2. Megan McArdle‏Verified account @asymmetricinfo 6 Mar 2020

        Most people can basically grasp what a million dollars looks like, in consumer goods. If you live in an expensive city, you have a good idea of what you'd buy with, say, $50 million. But unless you yourself are ultrawealthy, you have no emotional grasp of what $1 billion means.

        19 replies 16 retweets 100 likes
        Show this thread
      3. Megan McArdle‏Verified account @asymmetricinfo 6 Mar 2020

        For readers: this is why I often give you some stupid number for context on government figures, like "It's enough to buy a brand-new Ferrari for every member of the Harvard graduating class". It's easier for most people to understand Ferraris than intuit $$$ past 7 figures.

        4 replies 4 retweets 73 likes
        Show this thread
      4. Megan McArdle‏Verified account @asymmetricinfo 6 Mar 2020

        (Not you, dear reader, of course. But other readers). Anyway, we like to think we're far beyond the cultures that have number systems like "1,2,3,many"--but not so much farther as we think. Which is how mistakes like this get made.

        4 replies 7 retweets 128 likes
        Show this thread
      5. Megan McArdle‏Verified account @asymmetricinfo 6 Mar 2020

        The inability to grasp large numbers is also, as @charlescwcooke pointed out, how so many Sanders/Warren supporters believed that we could fund a welfare state that consumes 60-70% of GDP almost exclusively by taxing the top 1%, who collect <20% of national income.

        41 replies 111 retweets 414 likes
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      6. End of conversation
      1. New conversation
      2. Reluctant Exister‏ @IriathZhul 6 Mar 2020
        Replying to @asymmetricinfo

        Billion dollar heist would have to be in a post-inflationary science fiction setting

        2 replies 0 retweets 2 likes
      3. Megan McArdle‏Verified account @asymmetricinfo 6 Mar 2020
        Replying to @IriathZhul

        For cybercrime, seems possible; instead they piddle in the millions.

        3 replies 0 retweets 8 likes
      4. Show replies
      1. New conversation
      2. Moses Kagan‏ @moseskagan 6 Mar 2020
        Replying to @asymmetricinfo

        If normal people understood how rich rich people actually are, the guillotines would be out already.

        3 replies 0 retweets 5 likes
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      1. New conversation
      2. Cheesetrader‏ @cheesetrader1 6 Mar 2020
        Replying to @asymmetricinfo

        Excellent observation - people's eyes gloss over above a certain level where you just can't grasp the size of the numbers involved

        0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
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