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THE ORIGINS OF EFFICIENCY
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The Surprisingly Long Life of the Vacuum Tube
The last several decades of technological progress have, in large part, been about finding more and more things we can do with semiconductors and the…
Jan 15
•
Brian Potter
77
19
6
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Reading List 1/10/2026
Waymos as kid shuttles, naval reactors for data centers, welder’s anthrax, flood buyouts, and more.
Jan 10
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Brian Potter
44
4
1
How Did TVs Get So Cheap?
You’ve probably seen this famous graph that breaks out various categories of inflation, showing labor-intensive services getting more expensive during…
Jan 8
•
Brian Potter
168
29
10
Reading List 01/03/2026
Automated code checkers, meranti wood, shifting snowfall patterns, launching spacecraft with bullwhips, and more.
Jan 3
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Brian Potter
35
3
2
Should US homebuilders emulate Sweden?
A common sentiment I see with folks interested in improving US homebuilding is that we should try and emulate Sweden.
Jan 1
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Brian Potter
131
81
7
How Accurate Are Learning Curves?
We’ve talked several times on this substack (as well as in my book), about the learning curve, the observation that costs of a produced good tend to…
Dec 24, 2025
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Brian Potter
96
21
7
Reading List 12/20/25
Tesla’s robotaxi crash reports, a fusion startup merger, the decline of US injection molding, Wyoming’s snow fences, and more
Dec 20, 2025
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Brian Potter
61
3
2
How Bell Labs Won Its First Nobel Prize
Bell Labs, as we’ve noted before, was for years America’s premier industrial research lab.
Dec 18, 2025
•
Brian Potter
124
13
11
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