Please contact us or support us on Patreon!
We are moving the show to fortnightly. We still love you all, it's just a lot of work (mostly for Brian)
This week we talk about total factor productivity growth, and whether higher wages (through worker power, alternatives like UBI or minimum wage laws) cause greater innovation. Chris forgets that the Dutch had colonies despite his Oma (grandmother) growing up in one, and we discuss peak culture, and whether the Affix Podcast actually *is* peak culture and it's all downhill from here.
You can also find us on discord or reddit
Big list of coffee bets - now also on Melange app.
9 is unlucky in Japan, not China - in Japan specifically, the number 9 is a bad-luck number that sounds like “suffering” when spoken aloud
Our main article by Noah Smith on total factor productivity growth.
Hotels are investing in robot vacuum cleaners.
Labour cost differences during the industrial revolution.
The superstar effect vs unions.
Brian's topic this week is "This is what peak culture looks like"
The Three Body Problem - an amazingly imaginative science fiction trilogy.
Why didn't we invent the bicycle a hundred years earlier?