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Charles II: the world's largest landowner

2023-08-11

via the Madison Trust. The full list is at the link, but the top 3 are the English Crown, the Catholic Church, and the Inuit People of Nunavut via an agreement with the Canadian government. Lots of Australian individuals represented as well.

What types of innovation create human flourishing?

2023-08-10

I’ve been pondering this question a bit lately as a prompt for where it’s worth focusing time and attention. I do mean flourishing here in the broadest, most sincere sense, although noting that it is tough to truly flourish if you don’t have access to shelter or clean water.

A comment a good friend of mine made a long time ago was about the impact of energy production on human productivity and thriving. Through a certain lens, more efficient and cleaner sources of energy are the only things that matter. This is why people get so excited about fusion.

I think a similar exercise can be done for public health interventions. Access to clean water, for instance, seems like basically a sure bet for adding healthy, productive years to people’s lives.

So here is my hypothesis list, written not with the assumption that is it is all correct, but so that I can refine it over time.

  1. Energy sources: Cleaner, cheaper, more abundant energy
  2. Agriculture: improvements in productivity or efficiency
  3. Public health interventions: including things like clean water and disease prevention
  4. Education: both access and improvements in quality
  5. Land use: More optimal allocation
  6. Transportation: Faster, more efficient transportation
  7. Faster, more effective communication
  8. Expansion of political freedom
  9. Access to credit (probably?)

I’m almost definitely missing something and will refine this over time.

What is neglected by media but will be studied by history?

2023-07-26

This is a Twitter thread by George Mack:

The ones that stood out to me most:

  • The fall of mental hospital and the rise of prisons populations. Link
  • Overdoes are the leading cause of death in the US for people under 45 Link
  • The boom in homeschooling, from thousands of kids in the 1970s to 2.5 million in 2019, rising again to 5 million in 2021 (likely due to the pandemic school closures). Hard not to believe that this one won't have ripple effects, for better or worse. Link
  • 1 in 5 teens report being almost constantly on YouTube. Somehow, YouTube continues to be underrated. Link
  • Japan has virtually eliminated homelessness Link

I think the frame of "what will seem consequential to us in hindsight" is an interesting one!