Thursdays are all about longform links on Abnormal Returns. You can check out last week’s linkfest including a look at why AI unlikely to kill us all.
Quote of the Day
"Doctors today generally caution against framing malignancy as an enemy that one must personally defeat."
(Matt Huston)
Books
- An excerpt from "The Phoenix Economy: Work, Life, and Money in the New Not Normal" by Felix Salmon. (bigthink.com)
- A Q&A with Henry Grabar author of "Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World." (insidehook.com)
- An excerpt from "SBF: How the FTX Bankruptcy Unwound Crypto’s Very Bad Good Guy" by Brady Dale. (engadget.com)
- An excerpt from "King: A Life" by Jonathan Eig. (wsj.com)
Technology
- The big AI battle is going to be between centralized models and open source. (stratechery.com)
- Silicon Valley's governing ethos is splitting before our eyes. (tabletmag.com)
Nature
- Why the monarch butterfly is threatened. (atmos.earth)
- What it takes to be the person who has seen the most bird species ever. (outsideonline.com)
Gambling
- How one widow rebuilt her life as a professional poker player. (esquire.com)
- A first-hand story of a gambling addict in the age of widespread access. (macleans.ca)
Longreads
- A big wealth transfer is under way in the U.S. (nytimes.com)
- How the "we buy ugly houses" business works. (propublica.org)
- A robot could be dispensing your next Sweetgreen ($SG) salad. (bloomberg.com)
- The end of the pandemic has not stopped some doctors from continuing to peddle ivermectin. (time.com)
- Designer handbag knockoffs are getting really good. (nytimes.com)
- The long, strange history of the baseball cap. (mlb.com)