ZD 24.13: Now Distilling Weekly!
Momentum creates momentum, or so the self-help books say.
Production Note: For a while I’ve been feeling like I’m stuffing a bit too much into a bi-weekly issue. I am getting the hang of substack and my editorial process. I am going to try a slightly different weekly format for the summer.
Expect to see a revamped Distilled Spirit section with the same handful of links and a bit more context. Also expect one highlighted link of the week; if you have time to check out one and only one thing this is the piece for you. I do intend to do the monthly-or-so guide or deeper dive like the AI or grilling guides many have enjoyed in the past. I hope this gives readers more of what they want more frequently while being as easy to handle as a bigger bi-weekly post.
As always I would welcome, appreciate and love honest feedback from readers. Comments are great, if you want to be more direct please DM me on this platform or email me directly. It is great to connect with readers. Thank you for your support!
The Distilled Spirit
💵 Banks in Disguise (Net Interest)
Have you ever wondered how many big, venerable consumer facing companies are really banking schemes with company scrip instead of currency?
🎶 The Genre-less Song of the Summer (Slate)
Espresso is catchy but takes on the amorphous, unnamed feel of the post-disco era and is in the running for Song of the Summer. I still think the the Irish tweens are catchier and they still have my vote. YMMV.
🏛 Revenge of the Humanities (Adjacent Possible)
Steven Johnson writes Adjacent Possible when he isn’t writing seminal works on thought and guiding Google’s NotebookLM project.
⚖ Litigate to end Exclusionary Zoning? (Bet on it)
Is there a constitutional argument to end exclusionary zoning through the takings clause of the fifth amendment? At least one legal scholar thinks so.
🍛 Who’s Curry is it Anyhow? (Chinese Cooking Demystified)
Curry is a term westerners developed to apply to a wide variety of Asian stews. But over the years it has taken on an undefinable life of it’s own. Chinese Cooking Demystified explores three different implementations that will make your mouth water.
Signal of the Week
🌞 The Solar Industrial Revolution (Casey Handmer)
Technologists around the world — this one included — have been all about AI in the last 18 months since ChatGPT started doing parlor tricks. But a bigger revolution is brewing — solar energy is set to create a boom of cheap, abundant energy for all. Energy could become so cheap and unbounded we could explore projects like desalination of land and the datacenters to support the overhyped AI revolution to name a few. This does not happen without supporting technologies. Especially the battery which Noah Smith thinks is still the technology of the 2020s.