Monday morning articles
The venture capitalist’s dilemma: The embarrassing investor meltdown surrounding Silicon Valley Bank should drive us to consider new models. (Molly White)
Society’s Technical Debt and Software’s Gutenberg Moment. There is immense hyperbole about recent developments in artificial intelligence, especially Large Language Models like ChatGPT. And there is also deserved concern about such technologies’ material impact on jobs. But observers are missing two very important things: Every wave of technological innovation has been unleashed by something costly becoming cheap enough to waste. Software production has been too complex and expensive for too long, which has caused us to underproduce software for decades, resulting in immense, society-wide technical debt. (Irregular Ideas with Paul Kedrosky & Eric Norlin of SKV)
What Is Bill Ackman Up To? The failure of Silicon Valley Bank and the looming bank crisis is fueling the hedge fund manager’s new passion: Twitter. (Institutional Investor)
No, Bitcoin isn’t pumping because it’s a “safe haven” from banks: There are more reasonable explanations for the price increase, and more than a few flaws with the “safe haven” narrative. (Molly White)
The doomers are wrong about humanity’s future — and its past: I could tell you that a little more than 200 years ago, nearly half of all children born died before they reached their 15th birthday, and that today it’s less than 5 percent globally. I could tell you that in pre-industrial times, starvation was a constant specter and life expectancy was in the 30s at best. I could tell you that at the dawn of the 19th century, barely more than one person in 10 was literate, while today that ratio has been nearly reversed. I could tell you that today is, on average, the best time to be alive in human history. But that doesn’t mean you’ll be convinced. (Vox)
The strongest evidence for a Universe before the Big Bang: The hot Big Bang is often touted as the beginning of the Universe. But there’s one piece of evidence we can’t ignore that shows otherwise. (Big Think)
Long COVID Comes Into the Light: We’re finally starting to see the truth about the vexing condition. It’s not what we thought. (Slate)
Elon Musk’s Global Empire Has Made Him a Burning Problem for Washington: Between Twitter, Starlink, SpaceX and Tesla, the CEO’s clout — and unilateral decision making — has made him a big headache for Biden. (Bloomberg)
Adam Sandler doesn’t need your respect. But he’s getting it anyway. In a rare sit-down interview, the former SNL star and comedy icon reflects on his career as he receives the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. (Washington Post)