First Derivative [17]
African energy—video games—power corrupts—Whole Foods—bad genes—zero days—blockchain—generic drugs—Thucydides trap—policing fear
NEW: If you're interested in a specific area, reach out to me and I can keep an eye out for items to forward
The Race to Solar-Power Africa
The cacao-farming community of Daban, in Ghana, is seven degrees north of the equator, and it's always hot. In May, I met with several elders there to talk about the electricity that had come to the town a few months earlier, when an American…
Robert Caro's biography of LBJ (first vol) has an amazing chapter about life in TX hill country w/o electricity in the 20th century and just how much it meant when they got it. Makes me excited to see the lights turning on in Africa.—TK
Young Men Are Playing Video Games Instead of Getting Jobs. That's OK. (For Now.)
Video games, like work, are basically a series of quests comprised of mundane and repetitive tasks: Receive an assignment, travel to a location, overcome some obstacles, perform some sort of search, pick up an item, and then deliver it in exchange…
'Young men without college degrees have become increasingly detached from the labor market. And what they appear to be doing instead is playing video games.'
Really interesting article re: leisure, unemployment. Relevant re: automation, basic income—TK
If power were a prescription drug, it would come with a long list of known side effects. It can intoxicate. It can corrupt. It can even make Henry Kissinger believe that he's sexually magnetic. But can it cause brain damage? When various lawmakers…
Really interesting and the first I've ever heard of the neurologically corrupting effects of power. Seems like the flip side to the documented effects of poverty and stress on brain plasticity (Elizabeth Gould)—TK
Back in 2006, when the iPhone was a mere rumor, Palm CEO Ed Colligan was asked if he was worried: “We've learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone,” he said. “PC guys are not going to…
good analysis of the Amazon/Whole Foods deal—TK
There's a well-to-do couple thinking about having children. They order a battery of genetic tests to ensure that there's nothing untoward lurking in their genomes. And they discover that they each carry one copy of the sickle cell gene. If their…
'Sickle cell was a case in point. The gene is usually found in people who live in, or whose ancestors came from, sub-Saharan Africa, the Arab world and India; in those places, having one copy of the gene can prevent the worst symptoms of malaria.'
Google's Elite Hacker SWAT Team vs. Everyone
'Although an ordinary consumer is unlikely to recognize any one of their names—James Forshaw, Natalie Silvanovich, Gal Beniamini—the world owes them a debt of gratitude for sealing up the devices and services that run our digital lives.'
Why the White House Is Reading Greek History
The Trump White House isn't known as a hot spot for Ivy League intellectuals. But last month, a Harvard academic slipped into the White House complex for an unusual meeting. Graham Allison, an avuncular foreign policy thinker who served under…
Venture capitalist Albert Wenger has done well by investing in Web businesses—he was an early backer of Etsy and Tumblr. But at his urging, Union Square Ventures, where he is a partner, is backing a company founded on the principle that the…
Teddy Kim I had lunch with Albert Wenger this week and though we didn't talk about Blockstack this is a really interesting company and technology advancing a more decentralized, open view of the Internet vs. the trend now towards siloed prop data housed by giants.—TK
The Unwritten Law That Helps Bad Cops Go Free
Yesterday afternoon, Minnesota officials finally released the full video of the traffic stop that cost Philando Castile his life. It's a tough video to watch. I'm embedding it below, but beware, it is very raw: If you watch carefully, two salient…
Pharma companies fight behind-the-scenes wars over generic drugs
ll good things must come to an end” is a proverb that brand-name drug makers have trouble taking to heart. Just look at the strategies used to prevent competitors from bringing less-expensive generics to market. Pharmaceutical research has…
'drug companies are increasingly using complex strategies to elevate prices and keep generic competitors off the market.'