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The United States needs to learn how to learn
I just saw an announcement from November of 2020 in which the Federal Transit Administration proposes to study international best practices… in on-demand public transit. It goes without sayin…
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Society, Policy & Culture
The most popular blog posts about society, policy & culture on Hacker News. 629 posts.
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Et Tu, Procter and Gamble?
Apple’s new privacy rules will only work if Apple enforces them — even in China.
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Sovereign writers and Substack
Substack is at the center of media controversy, most of which misses the point that sovereign writers — not Substack — are in control.
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The uncanny absence of nihilism
Nihilism, like botulism, is not an ideology or conceptual system. It is a stance: an emotionally-charged way of being.
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Internet 3.0 and the Beginning of (Tech) History
The actions taken by Big Tech have a resonance that goes beyond the context of domestic U.S. politics. Even if they were right, they will still push the world to Internet 3.0.
457
Definitive Account of the CIA/Media/BigTech Fraud
An axis of the CIA, Big Tech and the DNC-allied wing of the corporate media spread an absolute lie in the weeks before the 2020 election. We now have definitive proof.
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Finally, on CBS, the football matches the business cards
The score bar at the bottom of the screen during a football game has an obvious function: It tells you how many points a team has scored. In some cases, such as the 2021 Chicago Bears, this function is ceremonial. Nonetheless, we primarily use the score bar as an information
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Why are there so many Canadians in India?
Any time India comes up in the context of Firefox and Data I know it’s going to be an interesting day. They’re our largest Beta population: They’re our second-largest English user…
460
The Death of the Festival
<p>(Part 1 of a multi-part series)</p> <p><em>We live a double life, civilized in scientific and technical matters,</em> <em>wild and primitive in the things of the soul. That we are no longer conscious of being primitive, makes our tamed kind of wildness all the more dangerous.</em> – Hans Von Hentig</p> <p>The…
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Your Money and Your Life (Edward Snowden)
Central Bank Digital Currencies will ransom our future
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The Shame of Swedish Education: J’Accuse
The following article was written by Swedish high school teacher Filippa Mannherheim and translated by retired Swedish educator Sara Hjelm. It appeared in the Swedish publication Expressen. Sweden …
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The Mother of All ‘Abandoned’ Airports (2015)
West Berlin's lifeline during the Soviet Blockade, Tempelhof Airport has since become the city’s biggest park. Berliners will fight to keep it that way.
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The myth of the myth of the lone genius
The Myth of the Lone Genius is a bullshit cliche and we would do well to stop parroting it to young people like it is some deep insight into the nature of innovation.
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Web3 is not Decentralisation – it’s a Ploy to put Crypto Bros in Charge
People are right to be concerned about the centralisation of power on the Web — but we embrace blockchain at our peril
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Bombs vs. Bugs
I’ll be taking some time in the next months to talk about the newly hostile-by-default nature of technology, and how I deal with it.
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A man whose software ate the world
Marc Andreessen on building, COVID, and how the Internet is taking us back to previous forms of thinking
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The promise and paradox of decentralization
Plus! Valuation Arbitrage; Labor Liquidity; Pricing Power; Diff Jobs
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An open letter to Jason and David
Dear Jason and David, aka the founder-owners of Basecamp who up until 2021 earned 100% of the company’s profits along with Jeff Bezos, As you know, I am writing this while on medical leave fr…
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Public Staircases
Create beautiful emails, automate campaigns, and track performance. Try it now and see how our tools can drive your business.
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English is relatively easy to learn, but not to master (2018)
English is a (relatively) simple language to learn enough of to communicate (rather than to master) because it’s had so many non-native adults learning and using it.
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Beware Centralization
Imagine merging three public firms, by making each firm into a division of a single new firm with one new boss.
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How I learned to stop worrying and love the lab-leak theory
In early spring 2020, I reported an article for The New York Times on which I put the tentative headline: “New Coronavirus Is ‘Clearly Not…
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American trains need more than railfan nostalgia
A review of "Amtrak, America's Railroad"