Favorites November 11th 2023
This graph probably has something to do with why buying military hardware has gotten so ridiculously expensive.
If you haven't seen Humane's product, it's a pin that you wear on your shirt with no screen. It appears to essentially just function as a way to access ChatGPT. Their core selling point is that it frees you from the tyranny of your phone, at this point their only chance for an exit is acquisition, probably by Apple, who they've been trashing for months. Woops.
I'm very happy to see this, next they should do housing. Like British Columbia recently did. It seems that for land use questions, it's key that they're done the reform at the province level. It's so important to take this out of the hands of local electeds.
From the article, the family in question is the Abatti family, and they mostly grow hay.
Important economic concepts as memes
Longer Reads
• Very long thread about labor productivity in a tight labor market (like what we have now). TL;DR: tight labor markets result in companies investing in labor saving technology, raising productivity.
Flotsam and Jetsam
– Tim Lee argues that Cruise should be very much shooting for #2 (to Waymo's #1) at this point (src)
– Did you know both parties have pitched Dwayne Johnson on running for President, Nate Silver argues he could probably win. (src)
– The South African Anti-Apartheid movement's stated goal was multi-racial democracy. People accused them of lying, but their stated goals were clear. The main anti-zionist palestinian faction explicitly does not claim to have similarly egalitarian aims. Yglesias argues that we should simply be less involved in the middle east. (src)
– US car companies using the Chinese playbook, import knowledge from more advanced Chinese EV manufacturers. Relately EV car sales are "slowing" but they're still massive. (src)
– Ukraine aid is mostly spent within the US (src)
– Worlds first successful eye transplant (src)
– A bunch of people leaving DSA over it's support for Hamas and loss of moral authority. (src)
– Study about how social media makes you mad (src)
– "The US neglecting this superpower is like Superman intentionally exposing himself to kryptonite." (src)
– It appears that the junta that took over after the coup in Myanmar is losing ground, which seems good. (src)
– Eric Adams, mayor of New York, had his phones seized by police. His security detail had to step away so that they could do it. Wild. (src)
– Crime prevention is very susceptible to 'cost disease', especially as long as we can't use technology to make it cheaper. Which the ACLU is trying to prevent. (src)