kenny

Here's my monthly media recap. Notes are recorded in my phone and then made into simple HTML with Claude. No frills, low quality commentary, but I like to document what I read/listen to. Here it is:

• Big-World Intuitions (Sarah Constantin): On “big-world heuristics,” basically the idea that, for many situations, you can behave according to principles rather than doing utilitarian calculus. Link
• The End of Reading, in Bullet Points (Ben from Flyover Takes): Notes on the reading crisis. I second his recommendation for cold calling and blue books as effective techniques at universities. Link

8/3/2026

• Smash, bang, and civilization (Henry Oliver): Henry continues his exploration of American institutions, this time attending a demolition derby. Link

8/4/2026

• Money Stuff: Hedgehog Hedge Fund (Matt Levine): Maybe consider slightly deleveraging your multibillion dollar hedge fund when some of your bets pay off? Aschenbrenner is far smarter than me, but I do remember reading his situational awareness manifesto and thinking that the whole AI thing might grow a bit more complicated than he believed. Link

8/5/2026

• Money Stuff: Leveraged ETF Crash Hedging ETF (Matt Levine): “If finance is getting more efficient, then that should mean that alpha is getting scarcer: It is harder to beat the market, and the returns to being smarter than everyone else should be getting lower and harder to find. But if finance is getting more efficient, the that should mean that tax alpha is getting more plentiful: It is easier to beat the IRS, and the returns to being smarter than the IRS should be getting higher.” Link

8/6/2026

• What to make of Michigan (Nate Silver): on Abdul El-Sayed’s victory in the Democratic primary for US Senate. Link
• What Will the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act Do for Housing Supply? (Brian Potter): A nice summary of some of the provisions on the ROAD to Housing Act. I’d never heard of point-access buildings before, but they seem like a promising type of construction. Link

8/7/2026

• Money Stuff: Fake SpaceX Stock Isn’t Worth as Much (Matt Levine): I wasn’t aware that US stocks had tick sizes of $0.125 until 2000. Link

8/8/2026

• “Without Reason or Art” (Ben from Flyover Takes): On the divergence of critical opinion between the Italian and Northern Renaissance. While the Dutch Golden Age had many realistic landscape paintings, 19th century French “Realists” like Courbet gained reputations as innovators due to their closer association with (and divergence from) the tradition of the French academy. Link
• Modernist Gothic in Copenhagen (Henry Oliver): Henry Oliver admired Grundtvig’s Church in Copenhagen and calls for making the old new and the new old. “The new aesthetics doesn’t have to be a new Bauhaus. It could be a new modernist gothic, a new way of putting the new-old idea into the right new-old material.” Link

8/9/2026

• Banning data centers would blow up the U.S. economy (Noah Smith): The US public has decisively turned against data centers. It seems to me that concerns about water are mostly bogus, but those about energy/electricity are somewhat justified. Link
• The Gables of Elsinor (Henry Oliver): More on Copenhagen’s architecture. I like all the older buildings he shows and maybe half of the newer ones. Link

8/10/2026

• July 2026 Links (No Magic Pill): Linkthreadception! Link

8/11/2026

• Don’t Dither (Sarah Constantin): If you’ve made up your mind about something, don’t dither. Truly weighing a decision is defined differently, as doubting. Link

8/13/2026

• Money Stuff: AI-Backed Securities (Matt Levine): More on paid access to Truth Social, CFTC/Kalshi. Link

8/14/2026

• Money Stuff: Bilateral OTC Goat Hedge (Matt Levine): Using Kalshi to hedge against the possibility of goat herder wage reform in California (herders basically work 24/7 and could be required to be paid 24/7 if the legislation passes). Link

8/15/2026

• CARRY UNWIND? (Anton Wagner for Polymarket): A brief overview of the yen carry trade and its possible downfall. Link

8/16/2026

• Roundup #86: Unintended consequences (Noah Smith): “The MAGA decline; The labor share decline; OPTs and American jobs; AI and Indian outsourcing; Drug users; AI and productivity; Botswana; Interracial Marriage; AI writing.” A worthwhile post for the interracial marriage chart from Cremieux (and Flemish Giant rabbits) if nothing else. Link
• The American Sports Plutocracy Is Bullshit (Derek Thompson): Key issues with American sports ownership include oligopoly (the number of teams is limited and leagues are exempt from antitrust legislation), advantageous labor laws (the worst teams get the best draft picks), and stadiums that often end up subsidized by the public. Link

8/17/2026

• Sentinel Global Risks Watch: When you want to worry about things, just read this newsletter! Link

8/18/2026

• Daron Acemoglu on Liberalism, Automation, and the Educated Elite (Conversations with Tyler podcast): Link

8/19/2026

• Submerged memory: C.S. Lewis and the art of forgetting (Henry Oliver): On the role of submerged memory in storytelling and literary criticism. Link
• Other large industries show how impoverished the data center debate is (Andy Masley): What happens if you subject other industries to the same questions as those being asked of data centers? Link
• Why does everyone hate data centers? (Nate Silver and Jasmine Sun): A discussion of Jasmine’s research on opposition to data centers in Michigan and Wisconsin. Link
• Andrew Graham-Dixon on Vermeer, a Forgotten Sect, and Underrated Artists (Conversations with Tyler podcast): Graham-Dixon focuses on a single hypothesis: that Vermeer’s work must be read in the context of the Remonstrant sect. Link

8/20/2026

• Economists should be worried about birth rates (Noah Smith): Contra Acemoglu’s latest claim that population scarcity stimulates innovation (which contradicts his earlier claims about AI and robotics failing to improve productivity. Link
• A Sunday in Hell (directed by Jorgen Leth): 10/10 documentary on the 1976 Paris-Roubaix, which began with a labor protest. I’m a sucker for these older, more meditative documentaries. Link

8/21/2026

• You're Living Through the Fastest Revolution in History | Tyler Cowen (Two Percent podcast with Michael Easter): I’m always refreshed by Tyler’s relative optimism and simple advice (even when I don’t necessarily believe it). I’m also vexed by his constant defense of social media. Link

8/23/2026

• Building Without Predicting (Derek Sivers): Derek bought a piece of land in New Zealand and, inspired by Stewart Brand’s “How Buildings Learn”, built a home from literally nothing. Link

8/24/2026

• Tyler Cowen (Tetragrammaton podcast with Rick Rubin): Surprisingly good, slightly less off the wall than their podcast from last year. Link

8/26/2026

• Money Stuff: Who Should Control Anthropic? (Matt Levine): The section on LETF arbitrage had a phrase I’m surprised I’ve never heard before: “buy the rip, sell the dip.” Link
• Chabuduo World (Jack Despain Zhou): Jack argues that AI has reached the point where it’s good enough for non-experts in most use cases. He relates this “good enough-ness” to the Chinese concept of Chabuduo and worries that people won’t even begin to pursue certain skills that they might have been interested in before AI. Link

8/31/2026

• Taxes are Community Benefits (Ben from Flyover Takes): An argument against providing tax abatements for development and simultaneously forcing the developer into a community benefits agreement. This process taxes and subsidizes the same property, leading to increased administrative burden and more veto points. Link