John
@johnawahba
Software by day, economics by night. Member of Technical Staff OpenAI, X-Stripe, X-twitch
I'm not too worried about America ramping up energy capacity for AI. Nobody fought for nuclear because fossil fuels were plentiful and more politically palatable. Lots of things become more palatable when you're hungry.
In the early 2000s, most words on the internet were written by someone who could figure out html. I bet the perceived drop in media literacy is actually just less-educated people coming online. This is not a bad thing, but you shouldn't uncritically assume things are worse!
Living space is a rounding error when it comes to conservation. The average human uses 1.5 acres of land in agriculture globally. You can knock it down to 0.3 acres if you go vegetarian. Move the whole world to sardine-apartments and it basically won't matter.
I get joy out of hearing left-wingers defend free trade. I really just wish they'd apply that logic to things like income taxes. Kevin Malone knows math as long as it's about food.
Yes, that is what GLP-1s would imply...
Americans now spend more on health care than groceries or housing, with health care accounting for approximately 20% of household expenditures, according to the New York Times.
TIL Germany has Jizya
Millions of Germans leave the Church every year. If you’ve never heard of "Kirchensteuer", this is going to sound insane. Here’s how it works: if you’re registered as Catholic or Protestant in Germany, the government takes around 8–9% of your income tax and gives it to the…
My most libertarian position is that this system is evil and that organ markets are far more just.
New York Times reporters Brian M. Rosenthal and Julie Tate have just published this new article: “ A Push for More Organ Transplants is Putting Donors at Risk.” They document the MANY cases where organ procurement pushed to harvest the organs of people who were still alive. For…
Gerrymandering is actually good. It elects more moderates by forcing politicians to appeal to a more politically diverse base.
CNN: House Democrats are actively exploring redrawing congressional lines in California, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York and Washington state in the midst of Texas redrawing their congressional map to favor the GOP. cnn.com/2025/07/20/pol…
Ex-boyfriend of Delilah decided to destroy the temple with last jolt of strength.
BREAKING: An ex-girlfriend of Jeffrey Epstein characterized his relationship with President Trump as “very close and up to no good,” per the Daily Beast.
The section 174 changes in the big beautiful bill probably led Zuckerberg to splash the pot with large cash bonuses instead of better-aligning equity. Have companies started hiring more in the US after the partial section 174 repeal?
I read MoE as mixture of experts instead of medium of exchange. Kind of has me reflecting on how I've naturally come to the conclusion that technology is more important than economics over the years.
David Graeber: "there is absolutely no consensus among economists about what money really is." 99% of economists: Money is a Generally Accepted MoE
“Always keep your foes confused. If they don’t know who you are or what you want, they can’t know what you plan to do next.” - JD right now
This feels like that episode in the office where Dwight Schrute beat the website. Super impressive but this will be the last time this is true.
Humanity has prevailed (for now!) I'm completely exhausted. I figured, I had 10h of sleep in the last 3 days and I'm barely alive. I'll post more about the contest when I get some rest. (To be clear, those are provisional results, but my lead should be big enough)
Hot potato, hot potato!
It’s a privilege to welcome Windsurf to Cognition. Here are more details in the note I sent to our Cognition team this morning: Team, As discussed during our all-hands, we are acquiring Windsurf. We have now signed a definitive agreement and we couldn’t be more excited. Here’s…
Bill Odenkirk is Bob Odenkirk's more educated brother with a PhD in organic chemistry, wrote for Futurama/Simpsons, and helped kickstart Bob's career in Hollywood. I wonder if they had a long conversation about the plot of Better Call Saul...
There's something a little off about Gavin's edginess. His heart is clearly not in it.
JD is back in California. He won’t take the time to debate and defend gutting our Medicaid system, taking away kids school meals, militarizing America’s streets, or adding trillions to the debt. Instead, he’s off to Disneyland. Probably to detain Mickey Mouse at this rate.
Costco can be as woke as it wants as long as it keeps early executive member hours.