Random Thoughts: Jevons paradox is an economic theory stating that as technology makes the use of a resource more efficient, total consumption of that resource increases rather than decreases. This happens because higher efficiency lowers the effective cost, which drives up overall demand. 19th century economist William Jevons (I bet his friends called him Billy) observed that James Watt’s (perhaps aka Jimmy Watt) improved steam engine made coal usage far more efficient, which actually caused British industries to buy and burn more coal overalI. I told you that story to tell you this one.

As AI makes workers more efficient in their everyday work, there will be a net increase in demand for human employees. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I have never in my 300.0 years of working ever sat in a quarterly planning meeting and thought to myself, “man I wish we had more stuff that we could be working on.” And to anyone who disagrees with me, I’m rubber and you’re glue. Whatever you say bounces off me and sticks to you.

Filed under: I did not see this coming.

Real-world data from Waymo shows that over 220 million miles driven, Waymo vehicles–in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Phoenix, Austin and Atlanta–have 94% fewer serious injuries, 82% fewer air bag deployments, and 93% fewer pedestrian injuries. The evidence has not been independently verified, but it is unusually transparent, large‑scale evidence.

So who would be against autonomous vehicles (AVs) besides gear heads like me?

Trial lawyers. 😂

Lobbies representing troll, I mean trial lawyers are lobbying for the right to sue automakers et al. It turns out trial lawyers earn a huge amount litigating ordinary auto accidents. Go figure.

Tell me if you’ve heard this story before:

“AI is going to disrupt/replace…”

I was just reading about the D’Ieteren Group. Never heard of them? I bet you’ve written on one of their notebooks. They own Moleskine – among other things. I told you that story to tell you this one.

In 1805, 14 year old orphan Jean-Joseph D’Ieteren took over a small workshop in Brussels making wheels for horse carriages. The company he would found would become one of the most celebrated horse carriage makers throughout Europe. But this carriage didn’t get wiped out by the automobile, two World Wars, or the Great Depression. In fact, it walked away from its core business four times. 221 years later, the D’Ieteren Group operates in more than 40 countries, employs over 32,000 people, and generates annual revenues exceeding $8.2 billion.

Whenever a stranger asks me “what do you do?” I’m never quite sure how to respond…unless I’ve been drinking and then the answer is usually “I own a urinal cake company” or “I sell tank insurance to the military”. 😂

What was I saying? Oh yeah, there’s a lesson in the story of the D’Ieteren Group, but I’ll be damned if I know what it is. 🤷🏻‍♂️ IBM used to make calculators, Nokia started as a paper mill, American Express was an express mail order company, and Netflix used to rent physical DVDs via mail order. Water’s wet, the sky is blue, and…OH I remember what I was going to say.

“Never confuse where you live with where you work. And never confuse who you are with what you do.” -Me