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THE ORIGINS OF EFFICIENCY
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Reading List 04/18/2026
A quadruped welding robot, the China Shock 2.0, transformer startups, China’s mysteriously moving satellites, and more.
Apr 18
•
Brian Potter
99
Reading List 04/11/2026
Is the Strait of Hormuz open yet, building code cost benefit analysis, Intel joining Terafab, sponge cities, and more.
Apr 11
•
Brian Potter
119
3
4
Helium Is Hard to Replace
The war in Iran, and the subsequent closure of the Strait of Hormuz, has unfortunately made us all familiar with details of the petroleum supply chain…
Apr 9
•
Brian Potter
273
41
23
Reading List 04/04/2026
Aluminum disruptions, the EV rust belt, the ongoing transformer shortage, SpaceX’s IPO, and more
Apr 4
•
Brian Potter
117
2
Information and Technological Evolution
I spend a lot of time reading about the nature of technological progress, and I’ve found that the literature on technology is somewhat uneven.
Apr 2
•
Brian Potter
154
21
11
March 2026
Reading List 03/28/26
Plastic price jumps, crypto-backed mortgages, a proposed AI data center pause, US battery manufacturing, and more.
Mar 28
•
Brian Potter
96
1
2
The Age of the Amplifier
As we’ve noted more than a few times before, for most of the 20th century AT&T’s Bell Labs was the premier industrial research lab in the US.
Mar 27
•
Brian Potter
194
8
9
Reading List 03/21/26
Damage to the Ras Laffan LNG facility, housing bubble risks, North Korea’s naval production, Bezos’ $100 billion for manufacturing automation, and more.
Mar 21
•
Brian Potter
90
1
2
How Much Computing Power is in a Data Center?
Every day there’s some new story about the enormous amounts of investment in building AI data centers.
Mar 19
•
Brian Potter
158
18
6
Reading List 03/14/26
Closure of the Strait of Hormuz, banning build-to-rent homes in the US, Honda’s EV losses, Travis Kalanick’s new company, Corpus Christi’s water crisis…
Mar 14
•
Brian Potter
101
6
3
The Elusive Cost Savings of the Prefabricated Home
It’s long been believed the constantly rising costs of new home construction, and lackluster improvements in construction productivity more generally…
Mar 12
•
Brian Potter
168
58
12
Reading List 03/07/2026
Data centers disconnecting from the grid, solar PV efficiency records, repairs for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, Ford’s EV missteps, former OpenAI…
Mar 7
•
Brian Potter
62
1
4
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