"If you have two segments of the economy with different approaches, and one of them has a higher exponential growth rate then in the long run it will come to dominate, even if it starts out as a very small enclave… if you want to transition from a dominant, fast-growing economic model to something else, you either need that something else to grow even faster, or you need to kneecap the dominant, fast-growing segment." @ZaneSelvans https://amateurearthling.org/2023/11/04/the-math-of-ethical-growth/
Link.
For free.
Your actually linking stuff is our only refuge from corporate-controlled algorithms and paid influencers.
The more humans link to work they think excellent or important, the less our thinking, our very being, becomes collectively subject to the small fraction and faction that holds nearly all the purse strings.
Link.
Joyfully. Promiscuously. But with curation, discrimination.
Link.
"the globalized system in which state planning is outsourced to private consultancies, and with time even the supervision of the consultants is outsourced to consultants, is an Anglosphere special, dating from the 1990s onward… It’s turned entire countries, like the United Kingdom, incapable of building more than about one line per generation." @Alon https://pedestrianobservations.com/2024/06/22/meme-weeding-high-wages-and-baumols-cost-disease/
i think we should poll the electorate on their view of politicians who carefully hew to poll numbers when crafting messaging to the public.
what if as a third party candidate we had “randomly selected eligible citizen” on the ballot?
would that beat RFK Jr etc? from which major party candidate would it pull more? might it win?
“This has been a key part of China’s success with building large-scale infrastructure. Multiple competent, well-resourced construction firms compete for contracts. If there are any issues, contractors can be swapped out relatively easily. And the parent SOEs help to maintain this balanced set of competitors, making sure that no single subsidiary gets too weak or too dominant.” #KyleChan https://www.high-capacity.com/p/managed-competition-in-chinas-state
#JoeWeisenthal captures what makes me sad about the state of crypto. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2024-06-20/five-things-you-need-to-know-to-start-your-day-americas ht @delong
“If they were stand-alone companies, the three biggest P.B.M.s would each rank among the top 40 U.S. companies by revenue. The largest, Caremark, generates more revenue than Ford or Home Depot.” https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/21/business/prescription-drug-costs-pbm.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
// PBMs are a reaction to the monopoly power of drug companies, theoretically serve kind of as unions of drug buyers to exert bargaining power + secure lower prices. but they are not unions, they are for-profit firms. they collude not to trim the fat but to increase and share it.
it can be surprisingly hard sometimes not to be a dick, but it is good work to try.
“reaching full employment is a key first step, but you then need to use the leverage it provides to actually change the terms of working life in America.” #MaxMoran https://prospect.org/power/2024-06-20-capital-wont-love-you-back-mr-president/
[new draft post] It isn't sprawl if it's dense. https://drafts.interfluidity.com/2024/06/20/it-isnt-sprawl-if-its-dense/index.html
[tech notebook] Sprouted https://tech.interfluidity.com/2024/06/20/sprouted/index.html
what they don't tell you is, the older you get, the nearer to the past you grow.
"Now hear me out, but What If...? browser development was in the hands of some kind of nonprofit organization?" @jwz https://www.jwz.org/blog/2024/06/mozilla-is-an-advertising-company-now/
it’s not tinnitus you’re just hearing my cognitive dissonance.
the human condition could be a more humane condition.
Ten Fundamental Economic (Mis)understandings @SteveRoth https://wealtheconomics.substack.com/p/ten-fundamental-economic-misunderstandings
A great little essay on Keynes, a reaction I think to reading @zachdcarter's book, by #BrankoMilanovic https://glineq.blogspot.com/2024/06/the-life-of-maynard-k.html
i feel like we're living in the era of the scopes trial monkey's paw.
“Tech companies would like everyone to use their products in the ways they expect, so that we become dependent on them and more predictable, more exploitable — more under their control. Part of mastering some piece of software is learning in part how to counter that control.” #RobHorning https://robhorning.substack.com/p/born-sloppy