mapping the crazy AI world

a huge societal adjustment to “refactor” the basis of identity in a world without the structure and incentives provided by work.

Economists have long derided the so-called “lump of labor fallacy,” which posits that there’s a fixed amount of work to be done—so more automation implies less human work.15 We are equally skeptical of what we believe is an emerging, AI-era manifestation of this notion, the “lump of expertise fallacy,” that posits that there is only so much novel... See more

Productive friction has three main principles:

1. Immediate feedback: You understand when you've failed and can see why.


2. Cumulative learning: Each attempt builds your reference library.


3. Transferable principles: The specific teaches the general.

But the core insight that scarcity creates value remains essential. The question becomes: What forms of scarcity persist in a world of abundant artificial intelligence, and what social, distributional, and governance challenges (alongside opportunities) does this pose?

The principle “Life cannot be delegated” is simply a guidepost.5 It keeps before us the possibility that we might, if we are not careful, delegate away a form of life that is full and whole, rewarding and meaningful. We ought to be especially careful in the cases where what we delegate to a device, app, agent, or system is an aspect of how we... See more

AI can't generate good taste, but it can help you transform the raw material of your taste into something beautiful.

AI could make game theory the permanent architecture of human society, optimizing every interaction for strategic advantage rather than human flourishing.