Latest posts
- Reading List 07/04/26Jul 04, 2026Brian Potter
Households without homeowners insurance, crackdowns on AI chip smuggling, Japan’s two electrical frequencies, Meta’s AI compute business, and more.
- The Fall and Rise of ScrewwormJul 03, 2026Brian Potter
Every spring, as sure as the seasons, and for generations unknown, screwworms began their annual march northward from their overwintering sanctuaries in Mexico and South Texas.
- Reading List 06/27/26Jun 27, 2026Brian Potter
Trump refuses to sign a housing bill, the high cost of US-made doors, slow trucking, why we stopped making new land, and more.
- US Subways Build Too Many Cross PassagesJun 25, 2026Brian Potter
I wrote the following piece for IFP’s Transit Abundance Playbook, a collection of 15 ideas to improve transit delivery in the US.
- Reading List 06/20/26Jun 20, 2026Brian Potter
A new housing bill, General Motors joining the grid-scale battery game, skepticism about data center delays, solid-state air conditioning, and more.
- Converting Coal Plants to Natural GasJun 19, 2026Brian Potter
For the better part of the last several hundred years, coal was the fuel of choice for generating power.
- Reading List 06/13/2026Jun 13, 2026Brian Potter
Homes being built on top of libraries, Patriot missile manufacturing, an effort to construct new US coal plants, a tunnel between the US and Russia, and more.
- Biological Evolution and Information AcquisitionJun 11, 2026Brian Potter
A few weeks ago we looked at a simulation of technological evolution by economist Brian Arthur, in which he was able to start with simple building blocks (such as a NAND gate) and evolve surprisingly complex circuits (such as a 12-way AND gate or a 4-bit adder) by randomly combining increasingly useful existing components.
- Reading List 06/06/26Jun 06, 2026Brian Potter
Chatbots replacing realtors, Chinese synthetic diamonds, Australian batteries, Meta’s data center tents, and more
- How Long Does It Take to Plan a Bridge?Jun 04, 2026Brian Potter
Many folks, including me, have observed that it seems to take much longer to build infrastructure in the US than it used to.
- Reading List 05/30/26May 30, 2026Brian Potter
A California chemical leak, weapons-grade plutonium for nuclear reactor startups, a startup that will clean your house to get robot training data, Blue Origin’s rocket explosion, and more.
- Where Are the Economies of Scale in Homebuilding?May 28, 2026Brian Potter
Over the last few months we’ve examined the extent of the construction industry’s productivity problem.
- Reading List 05/23/26May 23, 2026Brian Potter
Squatter removal services, Apple finding uses for defective chips, process heat use in California, the brewing Colorado River crisis, and more.
- The Rise of Build-to-Rent HousingMay 21, 2026Brian Potter
A major shift in the housing market in the last several years is the rapidly increasing popularity of “build-to-rent” homes — single-family homes that are built specifically for the purpose of being rented out.
- Reading List 05/16/26May 16, 2026Brian Potter
Tokyo’s cheap housing and expensive land, the House response to the Senate housing bill, an IED near an Alabama dam, Fervo’s IPO, and more.
- Reading List 05/09/2026May 09, 2026Brian Potter
Trapped buildings, in-home data centers, cardboard military drones, Brightline’s potential bankruptcy, and more.
- Reading List 05/02/2026May 02, 2026Brian Potter
Chilling effects in the build-to-rent sector, how fast could robot manufacturing scale up, PJM’s new interconnection queue, the backlash against battery storage, and more.
- How an Oil Refinery WorksApr 30, 2026Brian Potter
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 to do so for the foreseeable future.
- Reading List 04/25/26Apr 25, 2026Brian Potter
Transformer steel manufacturing, textile engineering, bringing power plants online quickly, infrasound, and more.