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Society, Policy & Culture
The most popular blog posts about society, policy & culture on Hacker News. 13,067 posts.
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A record-high share of 40-year-olds in the U.S. have never been married
As of 2021, 25% of 40-year-olds in the United States had never been married, a significant increase from 20% in 2010.
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Is there a housing shortage or not?
The housing shortage in the US is a perennially popular topic of conversation for the urbanist crowd (which online includes basically everyone.) The basic argument is that housing starts collapsed after the financial crisis and have never truly recovered.
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“That Deep Romantic Chasm”: Libertarianism and the Computer Culture (1999)
"THAT DEEP ROMANTIC CHASM": LIBERTARIANISM, NEOLIBERALISM, AND THE COMPUTER CULTURE
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People are realizing that degrowth is bad
The mad schemes degrowthers advocate are a fantasy that distracts us from real efforts to save the planet
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Why Open Offices?
If one person is wrong, they’re wrong. If a lot of people, some of whom got extremely rich off of their wrong ideas, are wrong, there’s a good possibility I’m the wrong one. At …
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Two centuries of rapid global population growth will come to an end
Global population grew rapidly over the past century, but this period of fast growth is coming to an end.
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The loophole that made cars in America so big
Here's why American cars and trucks are so big
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Up to a Quarter of Rental Inflation Is Due to Price-Fixing
From 2020-2024, rent prices spiked by a third. How much of that is due to collusion by corporate landlords and a software coordinator? And where is the Fed?
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Silicon Valley is in denial in face of widespread backlash
The backlash against data centers is difficult to understand if your salary depends on your not understanding it.
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Apple Silicon MacBook batteries can't be replaced under warranty by third party
I bought a new M1 MacBook Pro in April 2022. A little over two years later, I'm seeing a service recommended message, and the maximum capacity of the battery is now down to 78%. Admittedly, my MacBook Pro experiences heavy usage: basically all day, every day. The batteries in my previous 2014 Intel MacBook Pro, which…
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The branch banking model
Ever wondered how bank branches work at a nuts-and-bolts level? Let's dig into the logic and economics of them.
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If Nerds Can Learn Linux, Why Can't They Learn Not To Interrupt People?
Your life is the best story! Just start your blog today!
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A foreigner's guide to WeChat payments in China
Set up WeChat Pay and AliPay as a foreigner in China: linking a foreign card, loading and transferring RMB, and paying by QR code without cash.
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Apple, Hey, and the Path Forward
A delightfully fresh take on email + calendar, from 37signals
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I speak at Harvard as it faces its biggest crisis since 1636
Every week, I tell myself I won’t do yet another post about the asteroid striking American academia, and then every week events force my hand otherwise. No one on earth—certainly no one who reads t…
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The South Asian Polycrisis
In deciphering the global polycrisis it can be helpful to break down the interplay of crisis dynamics into regional systems.
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Can Claude Fly a Plane?
I asked Claude to look up the X-Plane 12 API and try to fly a Cessna from Hainan to somewhere nearby. It kept a pilot's log. Everything below is Claude's own notes from during the flight. I occasionally had to remind it to keep the pilot log running, and had to tell it when it crashed as xplane would quickly restart…
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Desirable streets: where do people prefer to walk?
Where do people prefer to walk?
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The case for energy optimism
I’ve been working on a few more involved projects but thought it would be good to put down my thoughts on recent energy developments.
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The scourge of Rec dot gov (2021)
Recreation DOT gov gets managed by the multi-billion dollar DC beltway firm of Booz-Allen-Hamilton. And here’s why I think it’s awful.
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Security Guidelines for Congressional Campaigns
Thank you for attending a training session! We covered a lot of ground, so these notes are meant to serve as a reference and reminder of the advice we gave you.
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The privilege of risk
Another of those values that has seeped into everyday life from start up culture is the cherished status of risk. You know the inspirational quotes people like to post on Twitter “the biggest risk is not taking a risk”, “those who will not risk, will not win” etc. And I get it, personally and professionally it’s…