Peerless stylist of his generation, a serious thinker, and somehow managed to be fun alongside all of that. I haven’t kept up with his novels since Yellow Dog, but could recommend each and every one I’d read for…
Whether the acting party is a friend or an enemy distinguishes the guilty from the blameless. Anything can be rationalized post facto. It’s the bedrock principle of contemporary politics and it’s breathtaking to witness.
I’m fairly certain that I’ve yet to visit an upper middle class household without a high end gas range, albeit hooded. Surely this disproportionally affects the foodies and amateur chefs of the world.
Plenty of think tanks and NGOs are on it. Google “personal carbon quota”
Vibe shift is just another term for a change in elite aspirant opinion. The vibe is localized to highly trend conscious social and professional milieus. These scenes are often regarded as a cultural vanguard, but are in…
I think I understand your larger point, but whatever corrections or amendments need to be made to the myth of Jobs, the idea that he was in any way average shouldn’t be one.
I was politically conscious for his presidency (and a few more before it), and you make a good point or two, but I’d take issue with this characterization of the Bush years. His presidency was dynastic. He was a member…
I’d describe Trump and Musk as similarly adapted to the attention economy. But it is a similarity of style, as you said, and not necessarily politics. While Bush II was far from the inventor of executive dissimulation,…
There are only two sides in the culture war. Any free-thinking criticism of one side places you in or aligns you with the opposition. “If you’re not with us, you’re against us.” Intelligent commentators mocked the…
There are a few responses people have found useful to misdirect and shut down conversation around this topic. Nothing burger, and the claim that it was about revenge porn, are strong signals that this is one such stock…
It does depend on the details. In special fields, like medical software, regulation might alter the market—although code even there is often revealed to be of poor quality. But of all the examples of cheap and…
Anyone who has doubts has to look at the price. It’s free for now, and will be cheap enough when openai starts monetizing. Price wins over quality. It’s demonstrated time and time again.
That stereotypical insecure sportscar owner is certainly real. But not every one of them is insecure. Some just feel like they’ve won and deserve the spoils. And of course there are far more variables than I listed. I…
A few weeks ago, no one would have predicted a major Google service going down before Twitter.
The question about cars is largely one of personality. Who drives bland cars? People who feel social pressure to not stand out, possibly who feel powerless, or who appreciate anonymity. Who drives flashy cars? People…
I enjoyed the observations in this essay, but I missed the answer to the question in the title. I have a few thoughts in that direction. Neutral colors like greige are fitting for our hypernetworked, hyperconformist…
Google seems to be holding back due to AI safety concerns, and the problems inherent in doing anything at Google scale. I’m curious to see if potential market competition will change that.
I enjoy Rao’s writing, but he has a tendency to overindulge the occasional (and not particularly funny) mean-spirited joke, as well as over-stuffing his essays with half-formed ideas and references to his other work.…
That sounds like a bad experience, but it’s not universal. It’s challenging to understand a platform from our individual vantage points (without access to internal dashboards), particularly on a network with between 2–3…
I regretted the Twitter comparison as soon as I reread my comment. I was thinking in broader terms — apps where the bulk of users follow creators and not personal contacts tend to grow and sustain very differently. But…
It is remarkable how hard it is for a business to simply last a decade. To do it at the scale of the incumbent apps is astounding to me. While TikTok is growing quickly, we still don’t know its long term potential, how…
I’d bet a solid majority, like it is on any social platform. Most users don’t post or engage. Biggest predictor for Facebook and IG use among my sample of friends is whether they’re married and have families, or in many…
One thing is clear: the problem—the problems—are too multivariate for any one solution. Programs like these are triage, the root causes are distant and largely unaddressed.
That is a reasonable assumption, however, many opioid users deliberately use fentanyl. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S09553...
I’m far from bullish on meta long-term, but reporting like this would have you believe that nobody uses Facebook, and that Instagram is soon to share its fate. Optimists that they are, tech reporters overweight growth…
Peerless stylist of his generation, a serious thinker, and somehow managed to be fun alongside all of that. I haven’t kept up with his novels since Yellow Dog, but could recommend each and every one I’d read for…
Whether the acting party is a friend or an enemy distinguishes the guilty from the blameless. Anything can be rationalized post facto. It’s the bedrock principle of contemporary politics and it’s breathtaking to witness.
I’m fairly certain that I’ve yet to visit an upper middle class household without a high end gas range, albeit hooded. Surely this disproportionally affects the foodies and amateur chefs of the world.
Plenty of think tanks and NGOs are on it. Google “personal carbon quota”
Vibe shift is just another term for a change in elite aspirant opinion. The vibe is localized to highly trend conscious social and professional milieus. These scenes are often regarded as a cultural vanguard, but are in…
I think I understand your larger point, but whatever corrections or amendments need to be made to the myth of Jobs, the idea that he was in any way average shouldn’t be one.
I was politically conscious for his presidency (and a few more before it), and you make a good point or two, but I’d take issue with this characterization of the Bush years. His presidency was dynastic. He was a member…
I’d describe Trump and Musk as similarly adapted to the attention economy. But it is a similarity of style, as you said, and not necessarily politics. While Bush II was far from the inventor of executive dissimulation,…
There are only two sides in the culture war. Any free-thinking criticism of one side places you in or aligns you with the opposition. “If you’re not with us, you’re against us.” Intelligent commentators mocked the…
There are a few responses people have found useful to misdirect and shut down conversation around this topic. Nothing burger, and the claim that it was about revenge porn, are strong signals that this is one such stock…
It does depend on the details. In special fields, like medical software, regulation might alter the market—although code even there is often revealed to be of poor quality. But of all the examples of cheap and…
Anyone who has doubts has to look at the price. It’s free for now, and will be cheap enough when openai starts monetizing. Price wins over quality. It’s demonstrated time and time again.
That stereotypical insecure sportscar owner is certainly real. But not every one of them is insecure. Some just feel like they’ve won and deserve the spoils. And of course there are far more variables than I listed. I…
A few weeks ago, no one would have predicted a major Google service going down before Twitter.
The question about cars is largely one of personality. Who drives bland cars? People who feel social pressure to not stand out, possibly who feel powerless, or who appreciate anonymity. Who drives flashy cars? People…
I enjoyed the observations in this essay, but I missed the answer to the question in the title. I have a few thoughts in that direction. Neutral colors like greige are fitting for our hypernetworked, hyperconformist…
Google seems to be holding back due to AI safety concerns, and the problems inherent in doing anything at Google scale. I’m curious to see if potential market competition will change that.
I enjoy Rao’s writing, but he has a tendency to overindulge the occasional (and not particularly funny) mean-spirited joke, as well as over-stuffing his essays with half-formed ideas and references to his other work.…
That sounds like a bad experience, but it’s not universal. It’s challenging to understand a platform from our individual vantage points (without access to internal dashboards), particularly on a network with between 2–3…
I regretted the Twitter comparison as soon as I reread my comment. I was thinking in broader terms — apps where the bulk of users follow creators and not personal contacts tend to grow and sustain very differently. But…
It is remarkable how hard it is for a business to simply last a decade. To do it at the scale of the incumbent apps is astounding to me. While TikTok is growing quickly, we still don’t know its long term potential, how…
I’d bet a solid majority, like it is on any social platform. Most users don’t post or engage. Biggest predictor for Facebook and IG use among my sample of friends is whether they’re married and have families, or in many…
One thing is clear: the problem—the problems—are too multivariate for any one solution. Programs like these are triage, the root causes are distant and largely unaddressed.
That is a reasonable assumption, however, many opioid users deliberately use fentanyl. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S09553...
I’m far from bullish on meta long-term, but reporting like this would have you believe that nobody uses Facebook, and that Instagram is soon to share its fate. Optimists that they are, tech reporters overweight growth…