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 U.S. cultural dominance.
Quote of the Day
"You might think that new technologies would eliminate the need for jobs that facilitate communication, but instead the opposite has happened."
(David Deming)
Autonomous driving
- Austin Vernon, "Humans being awful drivers leads to a massive increase in vehicle costs and weight, makes cars more dangerous to people outside of them, and imposes significant costs on infrastructure like roads." (austinvernon.site)
- What's it going to take to reach full autonomous driving? (stratechery.com)
Defense
- Europe isn't prepared to defend itself absent the U.S. (bloomberg.com)
- How lasers can be used to combat drones. (wsj.com)
Longreads
- The optimistic case for AI from the CEO of Anthropic. (darioamodei.com)
- Why shoplifting remains a problem. (theatlantic.com)
- A crackdown on immigration would devastate American (dairy) farms. (nytimes.com)
- Katie Gatti Tassin, "Looking for a place to live forces you to locate yourself somewhere on this socioeconomic spectrum. It is as much a ritual of self-stratification as it is a practical operation about budgets and commutes." (moneywithkatie.com)
- OnlyFans is booming. What are users actually getting? (hollywoodreporter.com)
- How new running shoes are helping runners improve their marathon times. (nytimes.com)
- A look the most remote point on the globe, Point Nemo. (theatlantic.com)
