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THE ORIGINS OF EFFICIENCY
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How an Oil Refinery Works
Though wind and solar continue to carve out larger and larger shares of world energy supply, the modern world still runs on petroleum, and will continue…
14 hrs ago
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Brian Potter
179
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Reading List 04/25/26
Transformer steel manufacturing, textile engineering, bringing power plants online quickly, infrasound, and more.
Apr 25
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Brian Potter
47
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Construction Costs Rarely Fall
Not long ago we looked at construction productivity trends for the US and for countries around the world. We found that in the U.S., and in most other…
Apr 23
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Brian Potter
155
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Reading List 04/18/2026
A quadruped welding robot, the China Shock 2.0, transformer startups, China’s mysteriously moving satellites, and more.
Apr 18
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Brian Potter
102
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Reading List 04/11/2026
Is the Strait of Hormuz open yet, building code cost benefit analysis, Intel joining Terafab, sponge cities, and more.
Apr 11
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Brian Potter
119
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Helium Is Hard to Replace
The war in Iran, and the subsequent closure of the Strait of Hormuz, has unfortunately made us all familiar with details of the petroleum supply chain…
Apr 9
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Brian Potter
281
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Reading List 04/04/2026
Aluminum disruptions, the EV rust belt, the ongoing transformer shortage, SpaceX’s IPO, and more
Apr 4
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Brian Potter
117
2
Information and Technological Evolution
I spend a lot of time reading about the nature of technological progress, and I’ve found that the literature on technology is somewhat uneven.
Apr 2
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Brian Potter
154
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