Thursdays are all about longform links on Abnormal Returns. You can check out last week’s linkfest including a look at how new weight loss drugs will change how we view obesity.
Quote of the Day
"While the tech sector has led the way on blanding, we see the trend towards flatter, more lifeless, identities playing out in categories from the high-end world of fashion to the more mass world of personal care."
(Alex Murrell)
Books
- David Epstein talks with Emre Soyer author of "The Myth of Experience: Why We Learn the Wrong Lessons and Ways to Correct Them." (davidepstein.substack.com)
- Five insights from "The Great Displacement: Climate Change and the Next American Migration" by Jake Bittle. (nextbigideaclub.com)
Environment
- Cruise ships are not great for Alaska's waters. (hakaimagazine.com)
- What will it take to refill the Great Salt Lake? (nytimes.com)
Longreads
- Can you take the 'index mindset' too far? (betterletter.substack.com)
- How life for older Americans has gotten worse in a Covid world. (msn.com)
- Cigna company doctors routinely reject claims without reading them. (propublica.org)
- How to interpret images when we are separated by time and distance. (daily.jstor.org)
- Why coincidences seem magical or supernatural. (aeon.co)
- Why Sweden has such an outsized influence on pop music. (escapingflatland.substack.com)
- Can AI help you win at the racetrack? (on.ft.com)