better doing

Learnings from 30 years investing

He had me at “buy high, sell higher.” The author recently died, and the original website is gone, but this piece lives on via the Internet Archive Wayback Machine. “Ask me a question back then and I would have answered […]

oh, chicago

A tax on all your boxes

“With the pandemic bringing a host of financial problems Chicago’s way, 11th Ward Alderman Patrick Daley Thompson proposed a ground delivery tax.” The city’s never-ending search for ways into residents’ pockets goes on. Not content with taxing the contents of […]

fun facts

All about QR codes

Born in a Toyota laboratory in 1994, these fancy barcodes are now officially everywhere. In 2013 I told a manufacturer that their idea of putting QR codes on their products was dumb because almost nobody had readers. I reversed course in […]

fun facts

Time’s 100 best inventions of 2020

Some of my highlights: vodka made from thin air, a biodegradable grill, a handsfree toothbrush and microbial biofertilizer. Another fun fact: I recently read Time’s creators originally wanted to call it Facts but they concluded the definition of facts was too hard to pin down. | learn more

on the blockchain

Square sold a lot of bitcoin in Q3

“Square said that it sold $1.63 billion in bitcoin through its Cash App during 2020’s third quarter.” One side-note: I still don’t know anyone who uses this app. | learn more

big ideas

Floating cities: the future of civilization?

“Seasteading isn’t the answer to our most complex problems. The answer is more experiments in government. But at its core, floating cities would allow market competition “in the most powerful industry on earth: governance”” | learn more