Skip to content
By using Twitter’s services you agree to our Cookies Use. We and our partners operate globally and use cookies, including for analytics, personalisation, and ads.

This is the legacy version of twitter.com. We will be shutting it down on June 1, 2020. Please switch to a supported browser, or disable the extension which masks your browser. You can see a list of supported browsers in our Help Center.

  • Home Home Home, current page.
  • About

Saved searches

  • Remove
  • In this conversation
    Verified accountProtected Tweets @
Suggested users
  • Verified accountProtected Tweets @
  • Verified accountProtected Tweets @
  • Language: English
    • Bahasa Indonesia
    • Bahasa Melayu
    • Català
    • Čeština
    • Dansk
    • Deutsch
    • English UK
    • Español
    • Filipino
    • Français
    • Hrvatski
    • Italiano
    • Magyar
    • Nederlands
    • Norsk
    • Polski
    • Português
    • Română
    • Slovenčina
    • Suomi
    • Svenska
    • Tiếng Việt
    • Türkçe
    • Ελληνικά
    • Български език
    • Русский
    • Српски
    • Українська мова
    • עִבְרִית
    • العربية
    • فارسی
    • मराठी
    • हिन्दी
    • বাংলা
    • ગુજરાતી
    • தமிழ்
    • ಕನ್ನಡ
    • ภาษาไทย
    • 한국어
    • 日本語
    • 简体中文
    • 繁體中文
  • Have an account? Log in
    Have an account?
    · Forgot password?

    New to Twitter?
    Sign up
vgr's profile
Venkatesh Rao
Venkatesh Rao
Venkatesh Rao
@vgr

Tweets

Venkatesh Rao

@vgr

This is my conversational account. For my work follow @ribbonfarm, @breaking_smart, @artofgig. Tweets are 90% vacuous views, apathetically held. Mediocritopian.

Los Angeles, CA
venkateshrao.com
Joined August 2007

Tweets

  • © 2020 Twitter
  • About
  • Help Center
  • Terms
  • Privacy policy
  • Imprint
  • Cookies
  • Ads info
Dismiss
Previous
Next

Go to a person's profile

Saved searches

  • Remove
  • In this conversation
    Verified accountProtected Tweets @
Suggested users
  • Verified accountProtected Tweets @
  • Verified accountProtected Tweets @

Promote this Tweet

Block

  • Tweet with a location

    You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more

    Your lists

    Create a new list


    Under 100 characters, optional

    Privacy

    Copy link to Tweet

    Embed this Tweet

    Embed this Video

    Add this Tweet to your website by copying the code below. Learn more

    Add this video to your website by copying the code below. Learn more

    Hmm, there was a problem reaching the server.

    By embedding Twitter content in your website or app, you are agreeing to the Twitter Developer Agreement and Developer Policy.

    Preview

    Why you're seeing this ad

    Log in to Twitter

    · Forgot password?
    Don't have an account? Sign up »

    Sign up for Twitter

    Not on Twitter? Sign up, tune into the things you care about, and get updates as they happen.

    Sign up
    Have an account? Log in »

    Two-way (sending and receiving) short codes:

    Country Code For customers of
    United States 40404 (any)
    Canada 21212 (any)
    United Kingdom 86444 Vodafone, Orange, 3, O2
    Brazil 40404 Nextel, TIM
    Haiti 40404 Digicel, Voila
    Ireland 51210 Vodafone, O2
    India 53000 Bharti Airtel, Videocon, Reliance
    Indonesia 89887 AXIS, 3, Telkomsel, Indosat, XL Axiata
    Italy 4880804 Wind
    3424486444 Vodafone
    » See SMS short codes for other countries

    Confirmation

     

    Welcome home!

    This timeline is where you’ll spend most of your time, getting instant updates about what matters to you.

    Tweets not working for you?

    Hover over the profile pic and click the Following button to unfollow any account.

    Say a lot with a little

    When you see a Tweet you love, tap the heart — it lets the person who wrote it know you shared the love.

    Spread the word

    The fastest way to share someone else’s Tweet with your followers is with a Retweet. Tap the icon to send it instantly.

    Join the conversation

    Add your thoughts about any Tweet with a Reply. Find a topic you’re passionate about, and jump right in.

    Learn the latest

    Get instant insight into what people are talking about now.

    Get more of what you love

    Follow more accounts to get instant updates about topics you care about.

    Find what's happening

    See the latest conversations about any topic instantly.

    Never miss a Moment

    Catch up instantly on the best stories happening as they unfold.

    1. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 21 Jan 2019
      • Report Tweet
      • Report NetzDG Violation

      Venkatesh Rao Retweeted #TestAndTrace Smith  🐇

      I think both are super misleading. When you look at economic measures living standards get reduced to material well-being. If your mind is in the 17th century and your body is enjoying 21st century material conditions you do not in fact have the same living standards.https://twitter.com/Noahpinion/status/1087396110849605640 …

      Venkatesh Rao added,

      #TestAndTrace Smith  🐇Verified account @Noahpinion
      When we measure the economic welfare of the global poor, we should look at living standards, not wealth. It's almost impossible to measure the wealth of the global poor, because we don't know what they own (maybe a bit of land?) or the market prices of those things.
      Show this thread
      3 replies 6 retweets 26 likes
      Show this thread
    2. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 21 Jan 2019
      • Report Tweet
      • Report NetzDG Violation

      What you might call Roslingism (after Hans Rosling, RIP) is a 3-step fallacious reasoning pattern: 1. Discard first-principles sociology as junk 2. Paint a pure economics/numbers based whitish picture 3. Do an invalid extrapolation to rosy alt-sociological conclusions

      1 reply 2 retweets 9 likes
      Show this thread
    3. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 21 Jan 2019
      • Report Tweet
      • Report NetzDG Violation

      Roslingism is not false, but it’s a decidedly dangerous half-truth. High-modernist legibilization of sociology and psychology via neoliberal market economics lenses. Seeing like a market. The main thing it misses is human *cognitive* development accompanying material progress.

      2 replies 1 retweet 18 likes
      Show this thread
    4. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 21 Jan 2019
      • Report Tweet
      • Report NetzDG Violation

      It’s swept under the rug of formal education. Which really doesn’t work to replicate the effects of organic societal development in the West over centuries as opposed to globalization spillover. You can leapfrog technologically and materially but not sociologically.

      1 reply 0 retweets 9 likes
      Show this thread
    5. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 21 Jan 2019
      • Report Tweet
      • Report NetzDG Violation

      The rosy Roslingism picture of the developing world is dangerously delusional on 2 fronts: environmental externalities (recognized) and failure of “leapfrogging” on a sociological level (unrecognized). Result: neopatrimonialist medieval societies with a thin veneer of modernity.

      1 reply 0 retweets 5 likes
      Show this thread
    6. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 21 Jan 2019
      • Report Tweet
      • Report NetzDG Violation

      It’s a time bomb waiting to go off at the right level of political stress. Ignoring it and pretending All Is Well in the developing world is as bad an error as ignoring forces that brought us Trumpism in developed world. Smartphones for all don’t magically fast forward societies.

      1 reply 1 retweet 13 likes
      Show this thread
    7. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 21 Jan 2019
      • Report Tweet
      • Report NetzDG Violation

      You’d think we’d have learned by now that the economic numbers *never* tell the whole story. But even know, 3 years into the great weirding we have very smart people insisting All Is Well simply because the economics heat signature has been weak so far.

      1 reply 0 retweets 9 likes
      Show this thread
    8. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 21 Jan 2019
      • Report Tweet
      • Report NetzDG Violation

      We’re making the same mistake in projecting the future of the developing world. As someone with a foot in both worlds who lived through the “takeoff” in 1990s India, I’m optimistic, but not delusionally so. The growth has come at a real cost. The Piper remains to be paid.

      1 reply 0 retweets 8 likes
      Show this thread
    9. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 21 Jan 2019
      • Report Tweet
      • Report NetzDG Violation

      What people are feeling *matters*. It’s the half of the story sociologists and psychologists try, however poorly, to actually get at directly, instead of declaring “the graphs all point the right way so we must be happy and prospering. If you don’t agree you’re just confused.”

      3 replies 5 retweets 33 likes
      Show this thread
      Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 21 Jan 2019
      • Report Tweet
      • Report NetzDG Violation

      This has been shown to be untrue in the developed world and will be in the developing world as well. I see the growing subterranean sociological tensions every time I visit India or any part of the developing world. All is NOT well.

      2:43 PM - 21 Jan 2019
      • 3 Retweets
      • 11 Likes
      • Priya Emperor Joshua Norton II GreySmithereens Visakan Veerasamy foo David McDougall elliot Frank Scholten Michael Bolton
      5 replies 3 retweets 11 likes
        1. David McDougall‏ @dmcdougall 21 Jan 2019
          • Report Tweet
          • Report NetzDG Violation
          Replying to @vgr

          Insofar as the spread of Roslingism raises expectations of progress, and thwarted rising expectations lead to revolutions (J Curve hypothesis, etc), does the spread of Roslingism make revolutions more likely?

          0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
          Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. Undo
          Undo
        1. Ted Herman │‏ @tedherman 21 Jan 2019
          • Report Tweet
          • Report NetzDG Violation
          Replying to @vgr

          Unless you can show that in colored circles representing nations animated along a timeline, indeed all is not well.

          0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
          Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. Undo
          Undo
        1. GreySmithereens‏ @GreySmithereens 21 Jan 2019
          • Report Tweet
          • Report NetzDG Violation
          Replying to @vgr

          What major tensions have you observed that worry you or seem most important?

          0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
          Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. Undo
          Undo
        1. New conversation
        2. Arin Pal‏ @arinpal_tries 22 Jan 2019
          • Report Tweet
          • Report NetzDG Violation
          Replying to @vgr

          @threadreaderapp "unroll"

          1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
        3. Thread Reader App‏ @threadreaderapp 22 Jan 2019
          • Report Tweet
          • Report NetzDG Violation
          Replying to @arinpal_tries

          Bonjour the unroll you asked for: Thread by @vgr: "I think both are super misleading. When you look at economic measures living standards get reduced to material well-bein […]" https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1087474643324129280.html … See you soon. 🤖

          0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
        4. End of conversation
        1. David Högberg‏ @DavidoHogberg 5 Feb 2019
          • Report Tweet
          • Report NetzDG Violation
          Replying to @vgr @michaelbolton

          David Högberg Retweeted Rutger Bregman

          I think you'll find this interesting:https://twitter.com/rcbregman/status/1092709187665186816 …

          David Högberg added,

          Rutger BregmanVerified account @rcbregman
          This is a really, really good piece by @jasonhickel, that made me change my mind on several issues. Read it! https://www.jasonhickel.org/blog/2019/2/3/pinker-and-global-poverty …
          0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
          Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. Undo
          Undo

      Loading seems to be taking a while.

      Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.

        Promoted Tweet

        false

        • © 2020 Twitter
        • About
        • Help Center
        • Terms
        • Privacy policy
        • Imprint
        • Cookies
        • Ads info