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Good tokens 2025-05-27

2025-05-27

Worth your time

1. People Are Losing Loved Ones to AI-Fueled Spiritual Fantasies and China’s superstition boom.
2. Using Claude to make weapons of mass destruction.
3. Slate Truck is a $20,000 American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, and no touchscreen <- I’m very interested in this one, although I’d go with the SUV.
4. And old post of mine about how recycling in Switzerland works.
5. SEO for Chatbots. It begins. I guessI shouldn’t look down too much on this.
6. Sacred vs. secular values. When people see an issue as a moral imperative, asking them to compromise on it with money offends them and makes a compromise less likely. Instead, the key is to offer respect and a compromise on a similarly important issue.
7. The invention and commercialization of stainless steel.

   Commercial success demanded blending science and marketing; a steelmaker had to recognize not just the value of a new alloy, but its potential use. Benno Strauss, of the Krupp Works, later spoke about recognizing the potential of his stainless steel in plumbing, cutlery, medical equipment, and mirrors. He, like Brearley—who realized his stainless steel would be useful in spindles, pistons, plungers, and valves—was focused.

Things I learned

One step back, two steps forward

“Research on third-grade retention policies [holding kids back in 3rd grade] has found that students who are retained tend to have better long-term outcomes than those who are not” from this article on the Mississippi Miracle.

Trade laws of nature?

The distance elasticity of trade (the rate at which trade between two cities drops off as they get farther away from each other) seems to be the same today as it was in ancient Assyria.

Musings

The fact that exposure therapy works with phobias (e.g., if you’re afraid of airplanes, the cure is actually getting on a plane and seeing that it works out okay) makes me more sympathetic that the idea that one should act brave in order to become brave.

The EV transition

2023-06-23

An analysis from Boston Consulting Group found that between 25 and 80 percent of gas stations nationwide could be unprofitable in 12 years — and that analysis was conducted in 2019, before a slate of new policies, including federal tax credits, were passed to promote electric vehicles.

From Grist.

It's not as simple as gas stations becoming charging centers because most people will charge at home (no one fills up their car with gas at home each night) and charging on the road takes longer and so is more likely to be coupled with things besides a convenience store.

Apparently repurposing the sites is easier said than done because of the contamination from the underground gas tanks.

2021: The Year That Was and Wasn’t

2021-12-31