Americans’ exposure to economics is limited to a 15-week course in school, focused on US-centric, outdated free-market principles. The curriculum neglects behavioral economics, socialism vs communism, global trade, and… tariffs. +
Yet another Coordination Problem example, Aslice — a music revenue-sharing platform launched in 2022 — closed. It encouraged DJs to report setlists and pay a % of their fee to the artists they played (à la GEMA-Vermutung). Top-paid DJ refused to participate +
Our current economic system does not serve humans well. As a community (fighting cruel wars in XXI centuries) or as the individual (born to compete against others, running through kindergarten to nursing home on SSRIs, painkillers and Ritalin) +
Yann Le Cunn, a Chief AI Scientist at Meta, writes that only a few book authors make significant money from book sales, so most books should be freely available for download. The lost revenue for authors would be small, and the benefits to society large by comparison. +
We’ve had opposite extremes — capitalists & communists, Adam Smithians & Karl Marxists — completely miss the obvious. Humans are not rational, deterministic “utility functions” optimizing for individual or collective “good”. Free markets’ invisible hand will correct? +
Woha! Very unexpected reversal. Figma and Adobe have abandoned their proposed merger, after facing regulatory hurdles in Europe and the UK in particular, where the Competition and Markets Authority rightly determined the deal “would harm the design software market” +
Even online, the French struggle with “customer service”. A retailer of running shoes, i-Run, has been sending me monthly e-mails warning that the €8.29 credit I had after buying from them will expire today, if I do not re-order immediately. They’ve just sent me a +
“I’m a consumer, what’s wrong with that?” The way you consume? The quantity? The fact that luck gave you an opportunity to NOT be an animal, to use that neocortex to create a better world, maybe? +
Today, “Generative AI by Getty Images” launched on an NVIDIA Edify / Picasso framework, trained on Getty’s own stock of photographs. Same as previously done by Adobe. And Shutterstock. And… Send me an e-mail when you need a one-of-a-kind, human-made +
Fascinating how the film “Limitless” by Neil Burger starring Bradley Cooper paints a dreamy picture of a struggling artist with an external solution to everything — a pill, stolen by the artist — to be used by the artist to pursue: 1) money 2) sex 3) power… and his art? +
You know what? Russians still living in Russia, the remaining 140 million of them, don’t care about the war. Nor do they care about their rulers or the Western sanctions. Or the Western companies having left or banned. Russia is stuck in yet another historical +
As a civilization, we’d known about our impact on climate since the 1950-60s. We’ve also continued to fail to agree on anything that would have prevented its negative impact… since the 1970s. 50 years later, the IPCC reports, again, that nothing’s changed. We will not +
“America is a kind, generous place… if you have money. It’s a rapacious, violent place if you don’t have money. To be wealthy in America is to be loved. People find you interesting, they want to know you. You have a broader selection of mates. +
Where does this voguish idea of everyone becoming a glamorous and fun entrepreneur come from? Sorry, but: 1) most people are not born with the DNA required to run a business; 2) while being an entrepreneur adds a lot of positive nouns to your life, +
“Cheap Sex” is a great book by sociologist Mark Regnerus to compliment David Buss’ “Evolution of Desire”. It describes the current personal and interpersonal sexuality / gender relations state of affairs in the US. The local trends and stats which do or will impact the +
What is an Express Delivery by a European company, within the EU (no customs)? Ordered: Thursday 14:00, courier picked up on Friday, delivered next week on Wednesday 18:00. 🙄 Similar service name by an American company, also in the EU: picked up same day 20:00, +
In the US state of Nebraska, a 17-year-old girl got pregnant, decided to abort but couldn’t because of local laws, received help from her mother to buy and administer mifepristone and misoprostol, miscarried, buried the fetus… and discussed the details on Facebook Messenger… The private +
The observable universe is a sphere of 93 billion light years in diameter. Our Universe contains 200 billion trillion stars (with their planets). And yet, people are against a “World Government” for a puny rock that you can fly around under 45 hours in a +
Impressive to watch such a hysterical Descent of Man. Despite decades of his “studies” of Russian literature and totalitarianism, Jordan Peterson completely misunderstands what’s going on in Russia, NATO, rouble (un)currency, global economy, and uses a real war killing real people to talk about a +
Bizarre Google Reviews of European logistics centers, such as Dachser, Geodis, Kuehne+Nagel… 4-5 stars from truckers — hauling the semi-trailer 1-2 stars from end-customers — businesses and consumers unable to schedule a pick-up or delivery 🤷🏻♂️ Truck drivers commenting the tidy toilets and lacking space +
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