Weekend Reads

This Week on the Lindy Newsletter

The new vision of the future is AI replacing millions of jobs. This is a scary vision of the future and no one knows what is going to happen. What happened to the vision of the future from 2020? The Remote work revolution. In 2020 almost every job that could be remote, became fully remote.

Instead, people went back to the offices. Some were offered a hybrid situation. Remote work is an individual perk. There was a brief moment where the future could have changed dramatically. It didn’t happen.

Weekend Reads

Right now there's a separation from the online world and real life. But each generation is more online than the last. We are slowly seeing the narrowing of these two worlds. Discord member details how sensitive documents on the Russia/Ukranian war leaked from closed chat group

Water itself has no color, taste, or smell to the average person. Maybe that’s part of evolution, so we are sensitive to anything in water that makes it taste different. But some molecules you cannot taste. The Environmental Protection Agency proposed drinking water regulations on Tuesday for certain types of "forever chemicals," a pervasive group of industrial chemicals that have affected drinking water quality across the U.S. Meanwhile, "Nineteen people fell ill with a diarrheal disease in Montana last year after drinking untreated water that many believed to be from a natural spring but which was, in fact, just creek drainage brimming with pathogenic bacteria."

The United Nations has said India’s population is projected to surpass China’s sometime this year. These countries have been going back and forth with population sizes throughout history. Many demographers estimate it could happen this month, if it hasn’t already. India’s population is expected to reach 1.429 billion by the end of the year, according to the U.N. China will fall to second place, with 1.426 billion people. Both dwarf the U.S. at a projected 340 million."

It is said that a visitor once came to the home of Nobel Prize–winning physicist Niels Bohr and, having noticed a horseshoe hung above the entrance, asked incredulously if the professor believed horseshoes brought good luck. “No,” Bohr replied, “but I am told that they bring luck even to those who do not believe in them.” Even when we know they’re “fake,” placebos can tame our emotional distress

There is a military recruiting crisis that has started since the Defense Department brought a new medical records platform, known as Military Health System Genesis, online at Military Entrance Processing Stations, where applicants are medically examined before they can sign up. The process is too efficient and won’t allow any leeway.

Should you buy disability insurance?

New Cars Are Finally Selling Below Sticker. What’s most surprising to me is that the average car purchase was $48K. Seems like a lot of money given that the average salary in the US is $60k.

How many people die from snakebites? A study of the monkey brain suggests that primates are uniquely adapted to recognize the features of this slithering threat and react in a flash. The results lend support to a controversial hypothesis: that primates as we know them would never have evolved without snakes.

South Korea set a new record low for fertility, TFR of 0.78 this year. No other developed country is even close. Among OECD, second lowest is Japan at 1.33, which is 70% higher. Here is a thread by a South Korean explaining why he will never have children.

Dave Ramsay has a great gimmick. He is a conservative southern man who only talks about basic personal finance. As America gets weirder and weirder, his show becomes more entertaining. For example, this clip is about runaway student loans and credit card debt held by a middle class couple.

A great thread on the failed colonies of the Americas.

Music