Rich Ideas

The Rich Are Not Like You And Me

Henry Farrell | Programmable Mutter | 27th July 2025

Social scientists are trained to assume that markets and governments are distinct, and that individual whims get smoothed out in the collective. This may not fit the world today. The growing isolation of the billionaire class from mortal concerns recalls sci-fi writer William Gibson‘s words — “she knew, with an instinctive mammalian certainty, that the exceedingly rich were no longer even remotely human” (1,700 words)

Nomido is the Browser's daily word game. Play today's before it's gone!

Efficiency, Fat Ideas, And False Negatives

Ben Reinhardt | Spectech | 24th July 2025

In innovation, “lean ideas” and “fat ideas” are two ends of a continuum. Reusable rockets, electric cars, artificial fertilisers, airplanes, AI are all lean ideas — they’re characterised by assertions of great difficulty with a high payoff at the end. Lasers, cars, the Internet, germ theory are all fat ideas — they’re initially perceived as being niche or useless, involving “a lot of piddling around” (2,400 words)