Thursdays are all about longform links on Abnormal Returns. Wherever possible, free links for premium sites are used. You can check out last week’s linkfest including a look at the world’s growing demographic crisis.
Quote of the Day
"It takes more than a tool to make a great blogger or a great podcaster. Similarly, in the AI age, it will require much more than a tool to be a creator."
(Om Malik)
Books
- Jack Raines talks with Kyla Scanlon about her new book "In This Economy?: How Money & Markets Really Work." (sherwood.news)
- An excerpt from "Triumph of the Yuppies: America, the Eighties, and the Creation of an Unequal Nation" by Tom McGrath. (politico.com)
- An excerpt from "In the Shadows: True Stories of High-Stakes Negotiations to Free Americans Captured Abroad" by Mickey Bergman. (whyisthisinteresting.substack.com)
- An excerpt from John Seamon’s book "Memory and Movies: What Films Can Teach Us About Memory." (thereader.mitpress.mit.edu)
- Five key insights from "Silk: A World History" by Aarathi Prasad. (nextbigideaclub.com)
College
- What does it mean to get a graduate degree these days? (annehelen.substack.com)
- The case for a bull market in the humanities. (read.lukeburgis.com)
- Benjamin B. Bolger has spent his life amassing college degrees. (nytimes.com)
Business
- The tech sector has a growth problem that AI can't solve. (sherwood.news)
- China is ready to sell the world a cheap EV, if countries will let them. (on.ft.com)
- The unlikely story of Birkenstock's ($BIRK) rise to prominence. (bloomberg.com)
Music
- The post-pandemic live music boom seems to be over. (businessinsider.com)
- Bruce Springsteen's biggest hit “Born in the U.S.A.” is widely misunderstood. (theringer.com)
Longreads
- Sam Altman doesn't own a stake in OpenAI, but he's still doing okay. (wsj.com)
- Why the state of Colorado is deprioritizing highway growth. (nytimes.com)
- Why so many homicides in St. Louis go unsolved. (features.apmreports.org)
- The lab-leak hypothesis is still the most likely. (nytimes.com)
- We have been counting calories for well over a century. (smithsonianmag.com)
- Has the U-shaped happiness curve disappeared over time? (afterbabel.com)
- Why isn't Hungary bigger? (unchartedterritories.tomaspueyo.com)
