Stowe Boyd
@stoweboyd
Work anthropologist, researcher, analyst, writer. www.workfutures.io. @index@stoweboyd.io The economics and ecology of work, in a time of accelerating uncertainty in our lives, society, and business. Work touches everything.
Liability At The Foundation Tristan Harris | ‘We can’t wait another year.’ Oops. | The Many Faces Of AI Regulation Liability has the power to wire new incentives into the foundation of AI businesses. | Tristan Harris China is doing better than us. www.workfutures.io/p/liability-...
Norm Ornstein | 'Trump is trying to lay the groundwork for seizing ballot boxes in key states and congressional districts based on false claims of foreign interference.' Who will follow those orders? margaretsullivan.substack.com/p/a-d-and-a-...
Short Takes #34: Here Lies The Way Out Jia Lynn Yang | The Decline of Capitalism | How Corporations Play | A Duopoly of Wheelchairs www.workfutures.io/p/short-take...
A few years ago, when I arrived in Prague in July, it was 102ºF, and no airco anywhere. June 2026 is the second hottest on record for Europe.
Short Takes #33: Ages of Change Karl Jaspers | Short Takes: dating but no hugging | Elsewhen: has anything changed? www.workfutures.io/p/short-take...
Keller et al | 'Millions have flocked to vehicles with hoods that are more than 50 inches tall — like the Ford F-250 and Chevrolet Silverado 2500 — whose ranks have increased more than five-fold since 2002.' www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
Keller et al | 'Our estimate is that about 200 to 400 pedestrians a year would not have died if vehicles had remained approximately the same size over the past quarter-century. That represents about 10 percent of the recent increase in pedestrian deaths.' Too big. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
Peter Frankopan | 'Once they are sent onto the battlefield, Russian fighters survive an average of 20 to 35 minutes.' 8 Russian soldiers die for every 1 Ukrainian. archive.is/idGqu#select...
Short Takes #32: Time Stands Still, We're The Ones That Move Bob Dylan | AI Threatens The Back Office | Short Takes: Luddites, Consent, Something You Buried Might Still Be Breathing www.workfutures.io/p/short-take...
Short Takes #31: Their Heart's Desire At Last H.L. Mencken | Everyone Hates Data Centers, But Isn’t AI the Real Culprit? | Short Takes www.workfutures.io/p/short-take...
Suspended Terror We're all canaries in this coal mine. Especially those closest to the coal face. People can live in suspended terror for only so long. | Tressie McMillan Cottom www.workfutures.io/p/suspended-...
Paul Krugman | 'Deep red states like Alabama and West Virginia have life expectancy comparable to, say, Kazakhstan.' paulkrugman.substack.com/p/maga-will-...
Clive Thompson turned me onto this hilarious tool: 'a little Kagi translator that takes a normal English sentence and translates it into the clotted weaselspeak one finds in the average LinkedIn post'. www.workfutures.io/i/196460310/...
Lynsey Chutel | 'At least 95 percent of Europe had above-average annual temperatures in 2025.' In May, more than half of Europe was in drought. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/29/w...
Annie Karni | 'All four Black Republicans in the House are leaving Congress next year: Three are seeking statewide office, and one is retiring because redistricting in his state effectively boxed him out of his seat.' It's the White People's Party. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/25/u...
Shane Goldmacher | 'It takes 218 seats to win a majority, meaning Republicans would need to sweep every single race rated a tossup or better to hold the House majority.' GOP headed for extinction? www.nytimes.com/2026/04/28/u...
Short Takes #26: Beyond The Point Of Decisive Advantage Michael Kofman | Grift, Plain and Simple | Tech Layoffs Go Viral | The Fall of HR www.workfutures.io/p/short-take...
Matt Ford | 'The goal of Trumpism, it could be said, is to create losers of us all.' newrepublic.com/article/2090...
Jacqueline Gu | 'Never has so much of the market been concentrated in so few companies. The top 10 make up almost 40 percent of the S&P 500.' www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
French | 'the worst case scenario is spreading chaos that we’re at the front end of something that looks like August 1914: One thing leads to another, which leads to another. A kind of cascade, and this is something I just wish people would have more cognizance of.' www.nytimes.com/2026/03/07/o...
Looks like Newsom and Shapiro are also going to lose the left wing of the Dems.
Eve Lu | 'Researchers found that walkable city design—not personal motivation—was the key factor behind people taking 1,100 more steps per day.' www.scientificamerican.com/article/movi...
Appelbaum | We, as society, need to be grappling with those risks, figuring out frameworks for how we think about A.I. displacing jobs, like the government. One way of thinking about the role of government, economically, is that it gets to regulate the pace of change. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/24/o...
Chasity Martinez handily wins the Louisiana 60th House District by a 62-38 margin. GOP has flipped no special elections since Trump took office in 2025.