Five Things: Billionaires, Beta Internet, Bowling, Taste, Airpods
It's Sunday. Read this now.
Hello and welcome back to Five Things!
I just love this time of the year. The sun rises at 5 in the morning and goes down at 10 in the evening. This is just so amazing. My birthday was on Thursday, so that’s probably why I like this time of the year so much. Mid-Summer is just amazing. Shorts, t-shirt, Birkenstocks, when I get to wear that, I’m pretty happy. I’m a simple guy…
I had a pretty fantastic birthday with great presents and lots of good food with my family. I did get some reading done, so please go ahead and read these Five Things!
How the Billionaires Took Over
Welcome to the American oligarchy. America always had rich people, and they always influenced government. But never before have the rich amassed money and power on anything like this scale, and Trump helped them get there. After Trump’s 2017 tax cut, the combined wealth of America’s billionaires doubled to $6 trillion, according to a July 2024 report by Americans for Tax Fairness. Going back to the start of the twenty-first century, American billionaire wealth increased ninefold. There aren’t enough billionaires in America to fill Carnegie Hall, but they own 3.8 percent of the nation’s wealth.
It’s really so absurd. Yet nobody will ever pass laws with proper taxation because everybody hopes to become a billionair soon.
The Entire Internet Is Reverting to Beta
My point isn’t that generative AI is a scam or that it’s useless. These tools can be legitimately helpful for many people when used in a measured way, with human verification; I’ve reported on scientific work that has advanced as a result of the technology, including revolutions in neuroscience and drug discovery. But these success stories bear little resemblance to the way many people and firms understand and use the technology; marketing has far outpaced innovation. Rather than targeted, cautiously executed uses, many throw generative AI at any task imaginable, with Big Tech’s encouragement. “Everyone Is Using AI for Everything,” a Times headline proclaimed this week. Therein lies the issue: Generative AI is a technology that works well enough for users to become dependent, but not consistently enough to be truly dependable.
I remember the late 90s when the internet had lots of promise, but could rarely deliver, which annoyed lots of people as they expected so much more. We’re at a transformative stage right now, that’s for sure.
Changing Lanes
More than fifty million Americans bowl at least once during the year, according to the most recent survey of American sports participation by the Sports & Fitness Industry Association (SFIA). Bowling outranks golf, tennis, basketball, yoga—just about all fitness activities, other than hiking, running, and walking. It’s even ahead of pickleball, the fastest-growing sport, now at nearly twenty million players. It’s true that the majority of occasional bowlers are just out to chuck a ball down a lane. But with more than a million league bowlers around the nation—and over eight million people considered by SFIA to be “core participants,” defined as bowling at least thirteen times a year—the trade in high-end bowling balls, shoes, and other equipment is strong. And as long as alleys find ways to draw new customers, there will always be those who start trying to figure out how to get good. (One way is to buy a better bowling ball.) Some will get sucked in, start competing regularly, and end up hooked on the most popular declining sport in America.
Just the other day one of my daughters asked my if I liked bowling. I actually haven’t been near a bowling alley for a couple of decades. In my teens I quite liked it and preferred it to the German Kegeln (9-pin bowling), which seemed so old-fashioned in comparison to the American bowling.
Taste is the New Intelligence
Taste isn’t something you’re born with. It’s something you tune over time.
You sharpen it by paying attention—to what moves you, what drains you, what you return to without being told. You study the things that linger. The book you keep thinking about. The line that made you pause. The image that reorganized your mood.
You build taste the same way you build strength: by choosing the heavier lift. The richer input. The slower hit. The thing that doesn’t give you a dopamine spike, but gives you a deeper signal.
This is a marvelous piece.
How People Decided It’s OK to Wear AirPods Anywhere, Anytime
Hi. Excuse me. Hey. Do I have your attention?
I can’t tell because your AirPods are in.
Human communication was awkward enough before AirPods and their non-Apple brethren became so ubiquitous, but at least some pockets of life seemed off-limits. Not anymore.
Quite often I talk to my youngest child and then, when I finally get her attention, she takes out the airpods and pays attention to me, reluctantly. I myself oftentimes wear my airpods until the battery is empty after back to back videocalls. Still, when I walk the dog, I usually listen to something and hope that other dog-walkers won’t try any useless chitchat about dogs…
That’s it. Have a great Sunday! If you missed last Sunday’s edition of Five Things, have a look here:
— Nico