Tech Frees Labor, Humans Keep Creating New Jobs
People will accuse me of being sarcastic but I mean this sincerely: These 2 posts are why AI's never going to replace everybody's job. Tech reduces the labor intensity of existing sectors, freeing up cash for other stuff, and ppl are unstoppable at coming up with new shit https://t.co/NjtaFawmBO
Hollywood's Triple Crisis Sparks Creative Renaissance via Gaming
New pod: THE TRIPLE CRISIS IN HOLLYWOOD—AND THE FUTURE OF MOVIES, WITH @SeanFennessey Just a really fun conversation about the state of film, the evolution of media, and the future of culture. Feat.: The triple crisis - Ticket sales per capita down...
Media A/B Tests Headlines; “Erratic” Isn’t Defamation
I have so much disdain for the lazy armchair conspiracy theorizing that so reliably goes viral among some ideological groups. The Atlantic a/b tests its headlines. All the time. The headline below was already changed to the one on the right...
Algorithmic Sorting Fuels Fleeting Monoculture
Current Thing Monoculture is where everybody you know seems to be talking about the same thing for 36 hours and then moves on Creates the impression that there’s nothing big that sustains attention (which is what we used to call monoculture)...
AI’s Future Mirrors Early‑electricity’s Regulated Monopoly Era
In thinking about the right historical analogy for AI, I've become very interested in the early history of electricity in the early 1900s. With early 20th century electricity, you had: - famously feuding private inventors creating/scaling the early technology (Edison, Tesla,...
AI Shifts to Supply Shortage, Security Holdbacks, Utility Regulation
New newsletter: AI’S TRIPLE VIBE SHIFT We’re passing into a new era of AI, thanks to several phase changes 1. From fears of a demand shortage (ie, a bubble) to the reality of a supply shortage (ie, not enough compute for...
Live Nation Sells Ten Times More Tickets than Nearest Rival
"In the multibillion-dollar concert business, where Live Nation/Ticketmaster has been a colossus with no equal. Last year, the company put on 55,000 events and sold 646 million tickets around the world—*10 times* as many tickets as its closest rival, AEG." https://t.co/yfOqtcUBJM
All Today's Crises Reduce to Energy Battles
New pod: SUDDENLY, EVERY NEWS STORY IS A FIGHT ABOUT ENERGY -> The Iran War is about energy flows -> The AI buildout is an energy project -> The future of populism—i.e., AI, electricity prices, data center moratoria—is an energy debate w/ @NatBullard Plus: -...
US Sentiment Hits Record Lows Across Multiple Surveys
america's not ok three separate surveys -- the umich consumer sentiment survey, the general social survey, and the gallup world happiness survey -- all put US self-reported sentiment at record-low levels https://t.co/RHx0k3LLK1
Even the Ultra-Rich Are Flocking to Podcasting
The urge to pod cannot be denied. Tech VCs and David Rubenstein are richer than god. What do they want to do in their enormously valuable spare time? Fire up a mic and pod. What does Jamie Dimon want to...
Corporate Speaker Claims Bitcoin Could End Iran War
The corporate speaker who added a last-second slide to his future-of-crypto PowerPoint entitled **HOW BITCOIN CAN END THE IRAN WAR—SERIOUSLY** is having an amazing morning rn
AI's Power Mirrors Nuclear Threat, Prompting Government Takeover
The frontier AI labs have built extraordinary things and I’m in awe of their accomplishments. But if you compare your technology to nuclear weapons, predict that it will disemploy tens of millions of people, and announce the invention of a...
Fox Embeds Betting Data, Blurring News and Prediction Markets
When I wrote this in November about the logical conclusion of prediction markets in media—ie, Fox News hosts doing branded segments about how viewers could make money on political bets—I was joking. But these days, the line between parody and...
Zoning, Permits, and Costs Stall California’s Housing Boom
Very important question: If YIMBY/Abundance is winning in California, why isn't the state building more homes? Brian Hanlon (@hanlonbt): "The main reasons we don’t have housing come down to three basic things." - First, zoning. It’s illegal to build dense housing...
Trump Fires 9 of 11 Top Generals in 14 Months
JPM's Michael Cembalest: In the ~160 years after the Civil War, US presidents fired 11 four- and five-star military officers. In Trump's first 14 months, the White House has fired 9 of them. https://t.co/volNDO7T3A