ecmendenhall

Markets generate efficient solutions to enormously complex allocation and optimization problems by aggregating distributed information and sending price signals. What else can they compute? What are their computational properties? Are market systems Turing-complete or universal in some other sense? What is the most interesting research on this subject?

I asked this question a while ago on both Quora and Ask MetaFilter, but many of the answers were hung up on the metaphors. ("Don't think of your life as a decision tree" was one popular response). I think HN readers are more likely to appreciate the structure. I'm not trying to write a system of equations and solve for happiness. But I do find the following formulations a useful way to approach a set of very big questions:

  -How can I engineer my life to maximize happiness, financial security, and independence?
  -How can I reconstruct as much of my decision tree as possible before making big decisions?
  -What choices did you make that locked you into a suboptimal outcome in these areas, and how could you have avoided them? 
  -In your experience, what small actions or decisions offer the greatest marginal returns on these categories?
  -Of the decisions I face now (or soon), which will have the greatest impact on future branches of the tree (i.e. eliminate or open up future paths or options)?

I'd love to hear answers on all scales, from, e.g., "buy the best noise canceling headphones you can afford" to "ride a bike everywhere" to "don't have children."