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 rising costs of a visit to Disney World.
Quote of the Day
"These are the last days of social media, not because we lack content, but because the attention economy has neared its outer limit — we have exhausted the capacity to care."
(James O'Sullivan)
Books
- An excerpt from "The Story of CO2 Is the Story of Everything: How Carbon Dioxide Made Our World" by Peter Brannen. (bigthink.com)
- An excerpt from “iWAR: Fortnite, Elon Musk, Spotify, WeChat, and Laying Siege to Apple’s Empire,” by Tim Higgins. (wsj.com)
- An excerpt from "The Contemplative Leader: Uncover the Power of Presence and Connection" by Patrick Boland. (bigthink.com)
- An excerpt from "American Kings - A Biography Of The Quarterback" by Seth Wickersham. (theatlantic.com)
Dirtbag Billionaire
- Five insights from "Dirtbag Billionaire: How Yvon Chouinard Built Patagonia, Made a Fortune, and Gave It All Away" by David Gelles. (nextbigideaclub.com)
- An excerpt from “Dirtbag Billionaire: How Yvon Chouinard Built Patagonia, Made a Fortune, and Gave It All Away” by David Gelles. (nytimes.com)
Business
- The story of Uber ($UBER) is a tale of two CEOs. (quartr.com)
- Steve Cohen, owner of the Mets, is working hard to get a casino in Queens. (on.ft.com)
- NFL star Saquon Barkley has been an effective startup investor. (readtheprofile.com)
- Self-employment is a high-wire act. (annehelen.substack.com)
- Birding has become a big business. (audubon.org)
History
- How a 2019 SEAL raid into North Korea went wrong. (nytimes.com)
- How France built 40 nuclear reactors in a decade. (worksinprogress.co)
- Without Benjamin Franklin's wartime efforts in France, there is no U.S. (wsj.com)
America
- How favorable geography benefits the USA. (unchartedterritories.tomaspueyo.com)
- Americans are bound by shared culture, not ethnicity. (noahpinion.blog)
- Feeding the state of Alaska is no small thing. (hcn.org)
Housing
- America's housing stock is aging and an increasing number of people can't keep up. (msn.com)
- Despite all the talk, property taxes are here to stay. (progressandpoverty.substack.com)
Higher education
- The case for unbundling the American university. (persuasion.community)
- The humanities have always been in crisis. (thelocal.to)
Longreads
- The story of Mike Lynch and the sinking of the Bayesian. (wired.com)
- The newly pardoned Ross Ulbricht, of Silk Road infamy, is now on a comeback tour. (nytimes.com)
- Why the Gulf states have an affinity for Trump. (ft.com)
- Did equal-custody laws cause a drop in divorce rates in Kentucky? (wsj.com)
- Americans have forgotten, or never learned, the impact of a lack of childhood vaccinations. (npr.org)
- Remember when nanobots were going to change the world? (aeon.co)
- A look at some lost Ansel Adams photos. (sfgate.com)







