Society

The last two years have been good to me, apart from the whole pandemic thing. I moved out to the coast, thanks to being one of the lucky people who can work remotely for most of the week. Just in general, I finally found my way back into a simpler life, much more in line with the way I grew up an

These indicators are mostly for travel and entertainment.    It is interesting to watch these sectors recover as the pandemic subsides. -...

Matt Levine entertains the possibility that all money is a ponzi: "But of course crypto people will happily tell you that fiat currency is...

Ah, the distaste for urban squalor, um, traffic. Why do a lot of people want to turn cities into something else?

Let’s say that everyone is totally reckless, and they go to Christmas Eve “Omicron parties.”  A week or two from now the virus has cleared their systems and I, who stay at home and blog, can then go out and frolic.  Even if they stay sick, or if they die, they are removed as sources […]

When talking about a supply chain it’s handy to use a flow chart. As such when talking about the supply chain crisis the New York Times put together this concise flow chart. The turmoil has r…

What if all these weird tech trends actually add up to something? Last time, we explored why various bits of trendy technology are, in my o...

So I've been thinking about this topic quite a lot these past few months and ended up writing the thoughts down. These are basically my highly opinionated notes on #remote #teams.

Which countries and regions contribute the most to the world economy? In this infographic, we break down all $94 trillion of global GDP by country.

Pondering the uncomfortable relationship kids and parents have with technology—and making a case that kids deserve the chance to fall in love with gadgets.

Blockchains are polarising the tech community. I have repeatedly criticized, that current Blockchain-based solutions are mostly hype and little substance. However, that is an oversimplification of …

It can be difficult to wrap our minds around just how short recorded human history is -- 5500 years is not actually all that long

As you’ll recall in my dispatch from Friday, Stanislav and I enjoyed a nice meal with a husband and wife in the city of Płock. Once we had finished our luncheon, it was time to get down to bu…

Prizes  are a really good way of funding  science  but are not used enough. All sorts of prizes from longitude to private space have speed...

One of the most important issues in contemporary societies is the impact of automation on human work. With AI becoming ever more advanced, what will its impact on automation be?

The Critical Power of Big Data

The Cluetrain Manifesto had four authors but one voice, and that was Chris Locke’s. Cluetrian, a word that didn’t exist before Chris (aka RageBoy), David Weinberger, Rick Levine and I m…

When it comes to inflation, economists get it wrong. Inflation is always and everywhere differential.

The most popular and most important posts on Stratechery in 2021.

It used to be easy to put off the future until after you retired or died. We could live with the world we had long enough to avoid dealing with significant cultural or technical change. Sure, teena…

The expectation of connectivity now extends to low-wage workers—and the consequences go far beyond gig economy jobs.

Most everyone would like to spend less time on social media. Yet our desire to dial down our surfing habits is constantly thwarted by the incessant, overweening itch to know what’s going on. We stay glued to our ever-refreshing feeds to ensure we don’t miss anything — to answer the burning question: “What’s happening?!” Well, […]

I knew someone who bought skis to match their outfit–the entire set was coordinated, and it ended up being used once or twice. And when you register for an old-fashioned wedding, they might t…

Markets often persuade us that we don’t have enough. Communities remind us that we do.

From the pandemic to climate change, Americans are still expected to work no matter what happens.