Can today’s US productivity good news story become a permanent narrative? Why today’s chaotic times can be likened to a ’neo-medieval’ era. The story of Palentir and AI in Ukraine on the battle field and well beyond. The story of small and smart states. The incredible tale of MrBeast.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
ARTICLE OF THE WEEK
Talmon Joseph Smith, Can America Turn a Productivity Boomlet Into a Boom?
(The New York Times, 14 February 2024)
As Krugman (an economist and Nobel laureate) famously said: “Productivity isn’t everything, but in the long run, it’s almost everything.” This article is US focused but what it describes for the US is probably also true for the rest of OECD countries. After drooping in 2022, the output of US businesses per worker has surged (it increased 2.7% in 2023, and over the last two quarters has been growing at more than double the rate from 2005 to 2019). Economists wonder if the trend -a game-changer – can continue, and who stands to benefit the most. Could it be that technology is at last enabling us to work smarter, but not harder? (Gifted article, reads in 6-8 min).
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Joshua Keeting, Welcome to the “neomedieval era”
(Vox, 6 February 2024)
Nations like the US have more firepower than ever before — but they also appear weaker than ever. The upshot is a world that feels out of control. This article argues that to comprehend the chaotic era we live in, we need to go beyond the well-worn 20th-century analogies. A recent paper from the Rand Corporation depicts it as a “neomedieval era” characterized by “weakening states, fragmenting societies, imbalanced economies, pervasive threats, and the informalization of warfare.” This means that states are no longer the core units of international relations. Longish but well-argued. Read-on (free access, reads in 15min-ish).
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Vera Bergengruen, How Tech Giants Turned Ukraine Into an AI War Lab
(Time, 8 February 2024)
Palantir is often described as “the AI arms dealer of the 21st century.” This is the story of how Karp (its CEO) convinced Zelensky they could team up “in ways that allow David to beat a modern-day Goliath” by creating a war lab for the future. Ukrainian officials are now using Palantir’s data analytics for projects that go far beyond battlefield intelligence. This includes collecting evidence of war crimes, clearing land mines, resettling displaced refugees, and rooting out corruption (all provided free of charge to showcase Palantir’s capabilities) (metered paywall, reads in 15-20 min).
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Armen Sarkissian, The power of small and smart states
(Arab News, 12 February 2024)
In his recent book (“The Small States Club: How Small Smart States Can Save the World”), Armen argues that the survival of today’s 150 small states cannot be taken for granted in an increasingly multipolar world. Yet, as survival is their paramount preoccupation, small states often tend to be smart states, proving agile and adaptable, and training “their populations to be jacks of all trades.” He thinks that small, tech-savvy states can compete with large states because “technology has eroded the capacity of large powers to remain the predominant centers of progress and achievement” (metered paywall, reads in 6-7 min).
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Belinda Luscombe, In the Belly of MrBeast
(Time, 15 February 2024)
This is about a 25-y old who epitomizes how the new media ecosystem, and the world of ‘content’ has changed. MrBeast has more than 200 million YouTube subscribers and over 400 million across all social media, much more than any major institution in entertainment and information. He claims he can “make almost anything go viral.” His first big success in 2017: counting from 1 to 100,000 on camera and getting 6.5 million views in just a week. It’s been upwards ever since, mostly, but not only, through stunts and large-scale charitable giveaways. The article describes him as black box to people over 30 (metered paywall, reads in about 10 min).
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