What Is Democracy?
Nice explainer.
Politics
How Bread vs Rice Molded History
What we eat influences how our society works. “Crucially, this labor cannot be delayed—if you miss the planting window or harvest late, the crop is ruined. As a result, rice farmers developed reciprocal labor exchange: neighbors help each other transplant… Read More »How Bread vs Rice Molded History
Authoritarianism of Code
Many IT guys are like this. And their companies follow. “Believing whatever someone in a position of authority says even in the face of clear evidence that it is false.Allowing someone in a position of authority to break the rules… Read More »Authoritarianism of Code
Intelligence is not the main bottleneck
“Because the people at these labs made fortunes betting on ideas that once looked insane, the world now takes nearly everything they say on faith. That, I think, is a mistake. It is not a given that AI will solve… Read More »Intelligence is not the main bottleneck
Dubai
Turning weaknesses into strength. “Why did it work for Dubai? A big reason was that it was weak. That weakness was an asset, not a liability: The port was not huge, the Sheikh was not powerful, so if he tried… Read More »Dubai
Optimizing things in the USSR
And more like this. “To reduce the dimensionality of the problem, administrators would often track the total tonnage of a few broad classes of steel tubes in the models, rather than using a more detailed classification scheme. While their models… Read More »Optimizing things in the USSR
Why Could Lebanon Be Rich, but Is so Chaotic?
The OGs. “The Phoenicians were thus the main vector of civilization and technology spread in the Mediterranean. The Greeks and Romans are simply their technological heirs, learning from them how to navigate and trade.” https://unchartedterritories.tomaspueyo.com/p/why-could-lebanon-be-rich-but-is
How Complex Systems Fail
It is not matter of if, but matter of how. “The failures change constantly because of changing technology, work organization, and efforts to eradicate failures.” https://how.complexsystems.fail/
Why US Isn’t Broke Yet
How countries go broke.
Solar Energy Solves Global Warming
Are some people counting on stuff like this so much that we do not do much now to cut emissions? “If pulling CH4 from the ground is only getting more expensive, and the energy needed to pull it from the… Read More »Solar Energy Solves Global Warming