Thursdays are now all about longform links on Abnormal Returns. You can check out last week’s linkfest including a look at why job interviews don’t work.
Book excerpts
- Why single family homes are increasingly owned by big corporations: an excerpt from "Underwater: How Our American Dream of Homeownership Became a Nightmare" by Ryan Dezember. (wsj.com)
- How the lights went out at GE ($GE) under Jeff Immelt, an excerpt from “Lights Out: Pride, Delusion, and the Fall of General Electric” by Thomas Gryta and Ted Mann. (nypost.com)
- "Heretics make the best writers." A look at Anne Applebaum's "Twilight of Democracy: The Failure of Politics and the Parting of Friends." (theguardian.com)
- How we navigate life phase transitions, an excerpt from “Life Is in the Transitions: Mastering Change at Any Age” by Bruce Feiler. (wsj.com)
- An excerpt from Leslie Kern's new book "Feminist City: Claiming Space in a Man-made World." (bloomberg.com)
Media
- Why the West should be wary of TikTok. (stratechery.com)
- The destruction of local news institutions across America is a slow rolling disaster for democracy. (theatlantic.com)
- What its like to launch a new tech media site, Protocol, in the face of the pandemic. (digiday.com)
- How the Slate Star Codex blog became a touchstone in the battle between Silicon Valley and the media, specifically the New York Times. (newyorker.com)
Texas
- What it means now that the Texas shale oil boom is in full retreat. (wsj.com)
- Austin was poised to be the next Silicon Valley and then the pandemic hit. (marker.medium.com)
Trump
- The Trump administration has seen a lot of turnover, one stalwart has been Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. (newyorker.com)
- A poker champion on why the President exhibits some of the characteristics of the worst poker players. (politico.com)
Sports
- How the Karolyis took over USA Gymnastics and why bad stuff happened. (espn.com)
- How did the Ivy League so thoroughly take over MLB back offices? (espn.com)
Longreads
- Jan Marsalek, the former COO of WireCard, "led multiple lives, with complicated and overlapping commercial and political interests." (ft.com)
- Why is a tech executive putting up surveillance cameras all over San Francisco? (nytimes.com)
- How the pandemic could change the way we think about architecture. (washingtonpost.com)
- Is there a right way to enjoy the outdoors in the age of Instagram? (outsideonline.com)
