ZD 26.24: The Miracle on Aisle 3

Year-round avocados are a miracle of science and more curated thoughts for the week.

🥑 The Miracle of Year-Round Avocados (Software is Feeding the World)
How would you feel if you could not get avocado toast year-round? What if Super Bowl parties were guac-less? We put them to sleep to keep them hard and green and let you ship them worldwide. Just-in-time ripening puts them in neat, day-coded bins at your local grocery store.

💵 A Minimum Wage Natural Experiment (Arin Dube)
The classic argument is that raising the minimum wage will hurt low-wage workers by reducing jobs or hours. Some 30 states have passed laws setting minimum wage above the federally mandated $7.25 an hour.

🤖 AI Washing Job Cuts (AI as Normal Technology)
AI is an easy excuse for job cuts, but the Decide, Execute, Deliver sandwich needs human elements. The execution layer might get more AI but the surrounding decision-making and delivery is in the human domain.

👨We Borrowed the Wrong Words For AI (Slow AI )
We talk about AI like we talk about the human mind. Fabrication might be a better term than hallucination. Words drive thinking.

🧑‍🎓 Graduating into a Dying World (Jasmine Sun)
The spring of 2026 probably feels like a not-so-great time to enter the adult world. 2021 graduate Jasmine Sun has some advice for her youngers. People skills matter. Touch grass. Be like Analyst #3 but remember to take breaks too.

💣 Can Ukraine Isolate Crimea? (Phillips’s Newsletter)
Are better motivated, paid and trained Ukrainians using UAVs to isolate Crimea?

⚽ World Cup Match Geopolitics (Joey D'Urso)
There is a geopolitical story in every group stage game.

🏀 The Knicks Won the Parity Era (Neil’s Substack)
The Knicks could be called the NBA’s most under-utilized asset. The team broke conventional NBA wisdom about building around superstars on the way to the best-ever playoff point differential.

🍷 What Would Jesus Drink? (The Guardian)
Faith has found the energy drink craze.

The Look

Stock markets are booming, unemployment is low and life expectancy is high, yet belief in the American Dream is at an all-time low. Bruce Mehlman investigates why Americans are so anxious.

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