Six Ideas That Made Us Think

1. It Doesn’t Add Up

Quanta profiles Hannah Cairo, who, while still in high school, solveda math problem that had stumped mathematicians for decades. Deciding not to waste four years as an undergrad, Cairo applied directly to graduate programs. Most rejected her because she didn’t have a college degree. Alex Taborrak sees “institutional failure” in admissions offices:

Their sole mission is to identify and nurture talent. They have armies of admissions staff and tout their “holistic” approach to recognizing creativity and intellectual promise even when it follows an unconventional path. Yet they can’t make room for a genius who has been vetted by some of the top mathematicians in the world?

2. This Time It’s Different 

Renowned economist Kenneth Rogoff offers hard-to-refute evidence that the United States is closer to a debt crisis than most people realize. He explores the options and outlines “financial repression” strategies the government could take. It makes for a depressing end-of-summer read:

How and when a debt crisis in the United States could unfold is now the $37 trillion question. In one scenario, the trigger will be a collapse of confidence by investors in U.S. Treasuries—a “crack in the bond market,” as Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, warned in May—meaning a sudden spike in interest rates that revealed a larger problem. This is not as hyperbolic as it may sound; debt crises often build up steam quietly for what seems like forever before erupting unexpectedly.

3. Unreadable

Joseph Epstein, in his probing history of literary and political biographies, reaches a firm conclusion. They’re too long:

Americans seem to specialize in lengthy biographies. This began with Mark Schorer’s 1961 biography of Sinclair Lewis, which weighed in at 867 pages. Ron Chernow’s new biography of Mark Twain is 1,174 pages. Robert Caro’s still unfinished biography of Lyndon Johnson, which currently runs to more than 3,000 pages, is in its fifth volume and is only now dealing with the bulk of Johnson’s presidency. Sam Tanenhaus’s biography of William F. Buckley Jr. is 1,140 pages and took, we are told, no less than 30 years to write. If this trend continues, biographies of the future may be longer and take longer to write than the lives they purport to describe.

4. Giving Like Crazy

Nike founder Phil Knight just announced he’s giving $500 million to Oregon Health and Science University. His gift is one of many huge donations in recent years. Yet Stuart Buck, writing in Palladium, argues that philanthropy, even as it grows in sum, has lost its imagination. He contends that “funding the usual suspects at traditional institutions” crowds out the sort of oddball ideas that once led to the discovery of germ theory, continental drift, and relativity. It’s time for wealthy donors to think differently:

Given the challenges of our times, we need to revitalize crazy philanthropy—that is, donations to unusual issues, to individuals outside the traditional university system, and to genuinely outside-the-box ideas that could lead to the creation of entirely new fields. Philanthropy can have much higher impact if it doesn’t just piggyback on existing institutions and ideas.

5. The Economics of Flight

The Economist examines the finances of Delta and other big U.S. airlines and finds that they make more money from branding credit cards and loyalty programs than from selling actual tickets:

You might expect America’s most valuable airline to earn its keep flying passengers. But you would be mistaken. In the second quarter of the year Delta Air Lines notched up an operating profit of $2.1bn, comfortably ahead of its domestic rivals. Buried in the financial statements, however, was a more revealing figure. Had it relied solely on revenue from passengers, it would have operated at a loss.

6. This is Africa

While fertility rates decline in the West and throughout Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa is booming, reports Wessie du Toit in Unherd:

On average, women in sub-Saharan Africa have 4.3 children each. In some countries, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia and Chad, they have more than six each. Whereas, in 1975, Africa had half as many people as Europe, by the middle of this century it will have three times more, and the median African will still be in their mid-20s. This growth will be concentrated in urban Africa. The continent has 15 of the world’s 20 fastest-growing cities, and in the coming decades many of its urban centers will double or triple in size. 

Websites Worth Reading

Stripe/Anthropic Discussion: Over a pint of Guinness

Who Said It?: RFK or Dr. Nick from The Simpson’s?

Work-from-Home Stats: From the BLS

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