Agency > Intelligence I had this intuitively wrong for decades, I think due to a pervasive cultural veneration of intelligence, various entertainment/media, obsession with IQ etc. Agency is significantly more powerful and significantly more scarce. Are you hiring for agency? Are

From friend - current US in late Qing malaise Flooded with opioids Closed to foreign trade Navy rotten to the core Government in paralysis Misuse of military funding Governors ignoring central orders Throwing birthday parties for the emperor Fixing up imperial gardens

I think reducing everything to a casino will have some negative long term consequences for society

The dirty little secret of edtech: the biggest names don’t actually care if you learn anything. As co-founder of Udemy, it is something I reckon with every day… Duolingo - edtech’s only decacorn, worth $14B. Brilliant app, addictive product, and great for motivation. But let’s

big if true

It’s so jarring to me that biology becomes increasingly machinic the deeper you look It starts feeling very biomechanical

Normally I would never say that there is just "one weird trick" that you need to master to understand China, but after reading the new book *The Highest Exam* I think I might nominate the exam system (gaokao) as the key that unlocks a lot of how Chines society works.

hey - they’re doing technical analysis on prediction markets

Does anyone have more of this genre of image of old and new cultures colliding

Imagine standing on top this building with your boy and your boss as the entire financial system collapses waiting for the real boss to fly in on a helicopter

Bro who's the Jensen of HVAC?

What’s the matter with India? It is not inevitable that India be poor. Its people are certainly capable of being extremely productive. Indian immigrants to the United States and elsewhere have been very successful. India’s government has been stable since independence, and

The new PPP index (much better than the Big Mac index)

NYC brands (Kith, Noah, ALD) go through these phases: 1. Underground 2. Cool with NYC kids 3. Cool on the internet 4. Becoming Mainstream 5. Endless Slop Machines 6. French tourist core

This guy literally dropped the best marketing lesson you'll ever see

Every man secretly wants to build a HoldCo with his friends that owns boring high-margin cash-flowing assets.

If only there was a parallel China that was governed by the KMT after the civil war so that we could compare, perhaps on a nearby island