First Derivative [22]
suspicious pirates—command & control—artificial VC—productivity slump—annoying liberals—obama's legacy—Huntington's prophecy—India vs. China—military gender
not much tech/VC this week, more of a geopolitical focus
The Hijacking of a $100 Million Supertanker
Nestor Tabares must have known the hijackers were out there, waiting. It was his 13th day at sea aboard the oil tanker Brillante Virtuoso, and as the ship turned east, into the pirate-strewn waters off Somalia, the 54-year-old chief engineer would…
“article about marine insurance fraud, which involves pirates, car-bomb murders, Special Forces rescues, and a general James Bond atmosphere” —Matt Levine
A fascinating underbelly story—TK
Why the Scariest Nuclear Threat May Be Coming from Inside the White House
On the morning after the election, November 9, 2016, the people who ran the U.S. Department of Energy turned up in their offices and waited. They had cleared 30 desks and freed up 30 parking spaces. They didn't know exactly how many people they'd…
The title isn't a reference to Trump but rather the current state of the Department of Energy. If you don't know what the DoE does, don't worry, neither did Rick Perry. Scary read from a great writer (Moneyball, Big Short, etc.)—TK
A computer was asked to predict which start-ups would be successful. The results were astonishing
In 2009, Ira Sager of Businessweek magazine set a challenge for Quid AI's CEO Bob Goodson: programme a computer to pick 50 unheard of companies that are set to rock the world. The domain of picking “start-up winners” was - and largely…
Thought the results were fascinating. Check out the new list from this year.—TK
Maybe We've Been Thinking About the Productivity Slump All Wrong
American businesses are doing a terrible job at making their workers more productive. Productivity growth is the weakest it has been since the early 1980s — only 0.8 percent a year over the last half a decade, compared with 2.3 percent on…
Liberals can win again if they stop being so annoying and fix their 'hamburger problem
I've been haunted by a claim my KCRW colleague Rich Lowry made on our radio show a few weeks ago: That Democrats keep coming up short in elections because they won't give any ground on 'cultural issues' to win back the working-class voters they've…
Good analysis—TK
The Triumph of Obama's Long Game
This was a great week for conservatism. I know, I know. That word — as it has been reverse-engineered by the modern GOP — no longer means in America what it once meant across the West, and I should probably stop pretending otherwise.
Again, a great Andrew Sullivan column. I really enjoyed the part about gender—TK
Too Many Americans Live in a Mental Fog
When it comes to economics, we spend most of our time thinking about better ways to organize human activity. This is the main purpose of debates about minimum wage, universal health care, deregulation, taxes and other common economic policies. But…
Samuel Huntington, a prophet for the Trump era
Sometimes a prophet can be right about what will come, yet torn about whether it should. President Trump's recent speech in Warsaw, in which he urged Europeans and Americans to defend Western civilization against violent extremists and barbarian…
Why do transgender people join the military in such high numbers?
The Pentagon announced June 30, 2016, that it is lifting the ban on transgender people serving openly in the military. Transgender people have long served at rates disproportionate to their representation in the general population…
Doklam: Paths ahead for India and China
As the India-China standoff at the Doklam tri-junction area enters its second month, it is clear this is the most serious crisis between the two countries in 30 years. There are several ways in which it might develop. Unilateral concessions and…
something to keep an eye on—TK