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THE ORIGINS OF EFFICIENCY
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Reading List 07/18/26
A setback for California Forever, a $500 million artillery shell plant not producing any shells, the difficulty of recycling EV batteries, manufacturing…
Jul 18
•
Brian Potter
118
2
2
How Predictable Are Laws?
An enormous amount of ink has been spilled (some of it by me) on the trials and tribulations of complying with the National Environmental Policy Act…
Jul 16
•
Brian Potter
152
21
10
Reading List 07/11/26
Adults living with their parents, Samsung’s profits, Native American data centers, Puerto Rico’s electricity grid, and more.
Jul 11
•
Brian Potter
108
2
2
Reading List 07/04/26
Households without homeowners insurance, crackdowns on AI chip smuggling, Japan’s two electrical frequencies, Meta’s AI compute business, and more.
Jul 4
•
Brian Potter
122
2
3
The Fall and Rise of Screwworm
Every spring, as sure as the seasons, and for generations unknown, screwworms began their annual march northward from their overwintering sanctuaries in…
Jul 3
•
Brian Potter
335
20
45
June 2026
Reading List 06/27/26
Trump refuses to sign a housing bill, the high cost of US-made doors, slow trucking, why we stopped making new land, and more.
Jun 27
•
Brian Potter
113
1
US Subways Build Too Many Cross Passages
I wrote the following piece for IFP’s Transit Abundance Playbook, a collection of 15 ideas to improve transit delivery in the US.
Jun 25
•
Brian Potter
177
9
7
Reading List 06/20/26
A new housing bill, General Motors joining the grid-scale battery game, skepticism about data center delays, solid-state air conditioning, and more.
Jun 20
•
Brian Potter
111
2
Converting Coal Plants to Natural Gas
For the better part of the last several hundred years, coal was the fuel of choice for generating power.
Jun 19
•
Brian Potter
160
6
9
Reading List 06/13/2026
Homes being built on top of libraries, Patriot missile manufacturing, an effort to construct new US coal plants, a tunnel between the US and Russia, and…
Jun 13
•
Brian Potter
110
1
1
Biological Evolution and Information Acquisition
A few weeks ago we looked at a simulation of technological evolution by economist Brian Arthur, in which he was able to start with simple building…
Jun 11
•
Brian Potter
135
7
5
Reading List 06/06/26
Chatbots replacing realtors, Chinese synthetic diamonds, Australian batteries, Meta’s data center tents, and more
Jun 6
•
Brian Potter
109
4
2
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