Number of words: 150 In a seminal 1981 paper, the economist Sherwin Rosen worked out the mathematics behind these “winner-take-all” markets. One of his key insights was to explicitly model talent—labeled, innocuously, with the variable q in his formulas—as a factor with “imperfect substitution,” which Rosen explains as follows: “Hearing a succession of mediocre singers … Read more
Number of words: 224 Brynjolfsson and McAfee call the group personified by Nate Silver the “high-skilled”. Advances such as robotics and voice recognition are automating many low-skilled positions, but as these economists emphasize, “other technologies like data visualization, analytics, high speed communications, and rapid prototyping have augmented the contributions of more abstract and data-driven reasoning, … Read more
Number of words: 167 To explore this macro perspective we turn to a pair of MIT economists, Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee, who in their influential 2011 book, Race Against the Machine, provide a compelling case that among various forces at play, it’s therise of digital technology in particular that’s transforming our labor markets in … Read more
Number of words: 184 In an industrial economy, there was a small skilled labor and professional class for which deep work was crucial, but most workers could do just fine without ever cultivating an ability to concentrate without distraction. They were paid to crank widgets—and not much about their job would change in the decades … Read more
Number of words: 1,972 Unless you’ve spent quality time on the International Space Station, this is probably not a view you are super familiar with. This is the east coast of the United States. That’s New York down there in the lower right, and it’s a band of light all the way up through Washington DC. Those cities are shining … Read more
Number of words: 1,334 Do you ever wonder why we’re surrounded with things that help us do everything faster and faster and faster? Communicate faster, but also work faster, bank faster, travel faster, find a date faster, cook faster, clean faster and do all of it all at the same time? How do you feel about cramming even more into every … Read more
Number of words: 2,531 I grew up with my identical twin, who was an incredibly loving brother. Now, one thing about being a twin is, it makes you an expert at spotting favoritism. If his cookie was even slightly bigger than my cookie, I had questions. And clearly, I wasn’t starving. When I became a psychologist, I began to notice favoritism of … Read more
Number of words: 2,654 We are stealing nature from our children. Now, when I say this, I don’t mean that we are destroying nature that they will have wanted us to preserve, although that is unfortunately also the case. What I mean here is that we’ve started to define nature in a way that’s so purist and so strict that under … Read more
Number of words: 1,897 The little engine that could , the saggy baggy elephant, and the scruffy tugboat – they were cute, they were often overmatchedand we were happy for them when they succeeded. In fact to this day I remembar how found I was of those little creatures but no way did I identify … Read more
Number of words: 9,619 What determines the economic, social, and political trajectories of nations? Why were settlers in colonies like Jamestown and Australia able to escape the extractive systems desired by their British masters, while colonial subjects in Barbados and Jamaica were not? In his latest book, Daron Acemoglu elevates the power of institutions over theories … Read more
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