“The awards are part of the Healthy Longevity Global Competition, a multiyear, multimillion-dollar international competition seeking breakthrough innovations to extend human health and function later in life.” | learn more
JB Straubel, the Tesla co-founder and former CTO, is deep in the battery recycling game. Historically recycling compliance for batteries has been low, but that must change as the volume keeps increasing. “Why Amazon and Panasonic are betting on this […]
This is an intriguing blog post about negative prices. “Landfill is an interesting product. The price fluctuates far enough that it can fluctuate from positive to negative and back again. If someone is building a tunnel, you can probably get […]
“The challenge of distributing a smallpox vaccine in the 19th century was even greater because aside from fewer resources the vaccine, cowpox, was geographically rare and infected humans only with difficulty. Moreover, the best method of storing the vaccine was […]
Last week I shared a compilation of Peter Thiel quotes on progress and stagnation. This week, we have a similar compilation of Naval Ravikant’s words. | learn more
Contrary to popular belief, evolution doesn’t necessarily happen over millions of years. Evolution has two components: random mutation and natural selection. Speedy changes in environment can drive quick outcomes via natural selection. The story of the peppered moth is instructive. | learn […]
“The radical fix for a noxious landfill in Staten Island: Bury the trash, plant some grass and do nothing for 20 years.” | learn more
“According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there were only 2.5M people here in 1776… and many of those people (or their parents or grandparents) came here from somewhere else.” | learn more
A few weeks ago I shared The Four Quadrants of Conformism where Graham writes about independent-minded people and the institutions they tend to inhabit being less hospitable over time. He ended with hope, for the “independent-minded are good at protecting themselves.” This […]
Another recent essay by Paul Graham. “I’m going to call it orthodox privilege: The more conventional-minded someone is, the more it seems to them that it’s safe for everyone to express their opinions.” | learn more