Business

America’s New Millionaire Class: Plumbers and HVAC Entrepreneurs. A friend of mine who has psent 35 years in the corporate world told me that his teenager son would not go to college. The son, instead, had already several HVAC certificates and raked in cash from his trade. These trades are recession-resistant, decently paid and in demand.

The Illusion of Acceleration. “I’m not saying that slow adoption is good, just that it might be unavoidable if you have a truly revolutionary product. And I’m not saying that fast adoption is bad, just that there is a danger in simply believing “things are adopted faster”: these are probably not the things that are going to change the world.”

Microsoft and OpenAI’s Close Partnership Shows Signs of Fraying. This is probably one of the reasons why OpenAI recently raised a lot of money, in case they need to leave Microsoft and have to spend a lot on computing somewhere else. But where will they go? Google and Amazon both have their own version of LLMs. Those companies want to make their models work. Sure, they will be interested in OpenAI’s tech, but they have the scale and the leverage to negotiate good terms. And I will be interested to see how OpenAI can get out of the existing contract. It sounds easy enough that OpenAI’s Board can determine when it reaches AGI. Microsoft’s lawyers will have a thing or two to say about it. Having Microsoft as a backer has its own pros and cons. What did Denzel Washington say in the Equalizer? “When you pray for rain, you gotta deal with the mud too”.

The Powerful Companies Driving Local Drugstores Out of Business. A little look into pharmacy benefit managers.

Other Stuff I Find Interesting

Germany’s 49-euro ticket resulted in significant modal shift from road to rail. I wonder if the increase in the state-subsidized ticket came from the fact that the German government is under pressure to balance budget. Regardless, it’s an interesting example of how a government’s subsidy can impact the use of public transportation and carbon emissions.

Led by Believers in the City’s Future, Detroit Is on the Rebound. It’s good to see that Detroit is heading in the right direction and there are signs of progress.

Worldwide Efforts to Reverse the Baby Shortage Are Falling Flat. Countries that face a population decline have two choices. One is to embrace immigration, and the other is to design incentives and subsidies that encourage families to have kids. Each has pros and cons. Pick your poison. Whatever it is, it’s probably better than doing nothing and letting your population shrink unmitigated every year.

Egyptologist Answers Ancient Egypt Questions From Twitter

A Message From the Past (Thoughts on Nostalgia). “The past wasn’t as good as you remember. The present isn’t as bad as you think. The future will be better than you anticipate.”

Stats

“The average monthly payment on an electric-car lease has fallen from $950 at the start of last year to $582 in August”