Category: history
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(Arts and AI Series) The Entropy of Creativity: A Revolution or the Decline of Human Creativity?
AI and arts – it is such a vast and fascinating topic that I intend to keep writing about this. Let’s see where I will go with this. This topic fascinates (and worries) me because arts are the souls of human beings. Without art, we lose one of the most important markers as a unique…
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The real threat to American prosperity
Given that I just wrote about the dominant status of US on the global economy, it seems strange that I now write about the downfall of the US. Well, while the US is still ahead, I am also convinced that the danger is real. Financial Times recently published a long article by Daron Acemoglu titled…
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The American Civil War was a War on Supply Chains
I love to look at the Early Modern Period and the Modern Age through a capitalist lense. I see the significance of capitalism in almost every turn of historical events when I read the excellent book “Americana: A 400-year history of American Capitalism” by Bhu Srinivasan. After I read the chapter on the American Civil…
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Shakespear in Business
Photo credit: Bookstore at Shakespeare’s Globe, London, 2019 “ We at the height are ready to decline.There is a tide in the affairs of menWhich, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;Omitted, all the voyage of their lifeIs bound in shallows and in miseries.On such a full sea are we now afloat,And we must…
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Why China’s Economy is in Trouble
This is a short post reflecting on how exactly China’s economy is doing. There are a lot of statistics floating around such as GDP or export. But recently I watched a few videos which drew me to a single measure: Labor share of GDP. Labor’s role in GDP is important for several key reasons: Labor…
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Why is Africa Poor? Social Intuitions
I have been doing research in the area of providing affordable and clean energy to Africa for years. During these years, I have always, in the back of mind, suspected that we need to look closely at the role of social institutions. My intuition was confirmed when I read the work of Daron Acemoglu and…
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Democracy and Prosperity
Photo: Boston, January 2024 One of the longest debate that was going on in my mind is this question: Can you have economic prosperity without democracy? Can democracy lead to prosperity? This question has perplexed since my college years. Many people pointed to China and say “Look. Here is a country that has no democracy…
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India has the potential to overtake China as the world’s manufacturing hub, even though it may take a while
Photo: Building material in Home Depot, 2022. It was reported in the WSJ today that “China Finally Has a Rival as the World’s Factory Floor“. While some of the claims in the article are a bit ahead of themselves, I largely agree with the central message. To be sure, China is not going away from…
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If Facebook (Meta) disappeared 3 years from today (in 2025), I will not be surprised
Warren Buffet famously said that “Forecasts may tell you a great deal about the forecaster; they tell you nothing about the future.” So, do not treat this as a forecast. Just treat me as a bad forecaster. But really, I am trying to apply a theory about clockspeed into this specific case. Many years ago…
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EV is not just about making cars. It is about the Supply Chain.
JB Straubel, Tesla co-founder and its former chief technology officer, recently gave an interview, where he warned that some auto manufacturers may have not thought through when they announced that they were going to switch to 100% EV by a certain date. Indeed, if you look at how a car is made, whether EV or gasoline ones,…
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The One and Only Michael Dell
I have seen Michael Dell in person once (that was in Boston), and I have read about him and taught about him and his company many many times. Even though I knew his story by heart, I was nevertheless very pleasantly surprised to see a very relaxed Michael Dell talk about his life story (the…
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The Dawn of the Modern Power Grid Started Right Here in Massachusetts (and It was Clean Energy!)
Electrification is indeed the single great achievement of our society. And yet, I was delighted to find out the modern power grid actually started in Massachusetts, a state I live currently. In the late 1800s, technologies started to converge to build an electrified society. In 1882, Edison’s direct current (DC) system was built in Manhattan.…