Thursdays are all about longform links on Abnormal Returns. Wherever possible, free links behind the paywall are used. You can check out last week’s linkfest including a look at US Steel’s disappointing history.
Quote of the Day
"Profound distrust has risen within my lifetime; it is intensifying, and it threatens to make democracy impossible."
(Jedediah Britton-Purdy)
Books
- A Q&A with Hannah Ritchie "Not the End of the World: How We can Be the First Generation to Build a Sustainable Planet." (fasterplease.substack.com)
- An excerpt from "Silent Cavalry: How Union Soldiers from Alabama Helped Sherman Burn Atlanta — and Then Got Written Out of History" by Howell Raines. (washingtonpost.com)
Technology
- Does the NY Times ($NYT) have a case against AI and OpenAI specifically? (stratechery.com)
- How the requirements of Google ($GOOGL) shapes the Internet. (theverge.com)
- What Twitter users lost when Elon took it over. (newyorker.com)
Nature
- Brendan Borrell, "Scientists estimate that 85 percent of native oyster reefs around the world have been lost." (hakaimagazine.com)
- Humans have completely transformed what it means to be a chicken. (noemamag.com)
Longreads
- America is rich, but not an easy place to raise children. (theatlantic.com)
- In theory multi-generational living makes sense. That doesn't mean it's easy to manage. (thewalrus.ca)
- The teen mental illness epidemic is not isolated to the U.S. (afterbabel.com)
- Post-pandemic truancy is on the rise. (propublica.org)