Thursdays are all about longform links on Abnormal Returns. You can check out last week’s linkfest including a look at why you aren’t quitting Twitter any time soon.
Quote of the Day
"Convincing people to buy something regardless of its underlying value is the job description of our era’s version of the celebrity spokesperson: the influencer."
(Malcolm Harris)
Book stores
- Jason Guriel, "The [book] shop’s most valuable contribution is its calm, authoritative curation." (longreads.com)
- How opening a book store made Ryan Holiday a better writer. (ryanholiday.net)
Science
- Science PhDs increasingly head to industry instead of academia. (statnews.com)
- It's going to hard to avoid using GMOs as climate, and temperatures, change. (ft.com)
AI
- Ben Thompson, "Just as the theory of crypto was decentralization but the product manifestation tended towards centralization, the theory of AI was centralization but a huge amount of the product excitement over the last few months has been decentralized and open source." (stratechery.com)
- What you need to know about generative AI. (unchartedterritories.tomaspueyo.com)
Soccer
- Why women soccer players are more at-risk of serious knee injuries. (sportingnews.com)
- Don't look too closely at the money behind international soccer. (motherjones.com)
Longreads
- The pandemic broke America's relationship with work. (washingtonpost.com)
- How rising farmland prices are driving young farmers off the land. (nytimes.com)
- Private equity is playing an increasing role in healthcare in the U.S. (khn.org)
- Ukraine's vast railroad network has been vital in its defense. (nytimes.com)
- Why some files about the JFK assassination remain classified. (politico.com)
- Rudeness is on the rise and it is contagious. (hbr.org)
- Why Hot Wheels have remained popular. (ft.com)
- Does BuzzFeed have another act in it? (theverge.com)