Links: The CCP controls a major media source, 3D printing, healthcare innovation, and more!

* Astral Codex Ten (so it’s not the stupidity you may expect from the title): “How Should We Think About Race And ‘Lived Experience’?” The problem is that if we reward real goods, like jobs or tenure or money, based on race or “race,” we incentivize a lot of obsession over that topic, over boundary policing, and so on. As long as there’s money and jobs at stake, we’re going to get bitter fights, as well as silly behavior, on these topics. * “Why the political clock is ticking for TikTok.” Good. Letting the CCP control and direct a major media channel is unwise. * “Wharton statistician looks at Hamas’ casualty data and concludes they are likely falsifying to maintain a rolling mean & linear growth — and they don’t know how to avoid making anomalies obvious to Western analysts.” Article here. * “Why Facebook doesn’t use Git.” Lessons in path dependence. * “DEI killed the CHIPS Act.” Interesting and plausible, though I can’t verify whether it’s true. Still, the DEI requirements are an example of the problems with everything-bagel liberalism. I bet China has extensive DEI requirements in its government and companies, and that’s why they’re able to build so fast. * “BYD to slash EV prices even more with new platform as it looks to crush ICE car sales.” American, European, and Japanese carmakers aren’t ready, though they’ve had a decade of warning. Even in the U.S., electric cars are now as cheap as gas-powered ones (WaPo, $; archive link). Buying a new gas-powered car today is crazy, because within a few years no one will want gas-powered cars. * “Katie Herzog’s Plan B: In a new book, Katherine Brodsky explains how members of the ‘silenced majority’ find new audiences after enduring episodes of public mobbing.” * YIMBYism and the need to lower the cost of housing transcends ideological lines. Good. As it should. Sadly, however, Arizona governor Katie Hobbs vetoes housing freedom legislation. Democrats against freedom, low costs, and the middle class. * Why clinical trials are so expensive. * “I Make Great Hot Sauce. State Regulations Ensure You’ll Never Taste It.” We should have more ferment in the space between home cooks and outright restaurants. * “The artisans who are still making clothes in American factories.” I looked at Rancourt & Co.’s shoes, and, while they look impressive, I prefer that the body color of the shoe match the sole color. White soles get dirty too fast for my taste. * Smarter ways to boost drug innovation. * Paul Graham’s “The best essay.”