One flag. Above all others. Zindabad America.🇺🇸

America does its thing.

The Doctor's Lounge: Mr. Tom Wolf nitter.net/i/broadcasts/1yKAPwQON…

In America, the hard right hates Indians for their skin color and Hindus for their religion. The hard left hates Indians for their success and Hindus for their religion. The vast middle, still the majority of America, does not hate skin color, actually appreciates success and respects Hinduism (via Yoga, meditation) but it is shrinking and politically lost. The rise of extreme politics and the shrinking of the middle, are directly caused by the extreme bubbles that have played out in the financial and economic sphere over decades. Extreme increase in wealth inequality is another consequence of those bubbles and a direct cause of the extreme politics. This was understood and predicted by many deep thinkers who have warned about this exact development for decades. But once an economy gets bubble addicted, it is very hard to wean off. Bubbles even get celebrated as "capitalism" and "wealth creation". Society gets drunk on bubbles. i have known this at least since the days of the Global Financial Crisis of 2008-9 because I was reading those thinkers. As a result of that understanding, I made a bet in our California office back in 2016 that Trump would win and my American colleagues almost uniformly disagreed with me (California itself voted over 61% for Hillary Clinton). The next American election could very well see a hard left swing where a committed socialist wins. I hope I am wrong and the sensible middle prevails and we end the bubble era peacefully.

This is becoming my favorite troll account.

Every functioning institution is merit-based, not participation-based.

"More is lost with indecision than with wrong decision." Man this is so good....

Start up 101: find a meaningful problem to solve with an actual pain point you can describe in less than one second.

BREAKING: Anthropic’s new wet lab produces its first discovery, with nearly 1,000 Claude agents autonomously uncovering a novel enzyme system after 21 hours of work.

RT @dhume: Bigoted attacks on Indian-Americans by a section of MAGA signal a deeper problem for the GOP. The multiracial coalition that pow…

This is a good thing. beckerspayer.com/payer/aca/c…

Bill Kristol wants us to get out of the Middle East, guys.

“Underinsured” instead of “overcharged.” Socialist neologisms know no end and deserve to be mocked. P.S. I’ve humbly suggested this progressive reporter have a conversation w us on @DRsLoungePod on this and other matters; because dialogue is good. And I promise to be nice. @anish_koka @DrDiGiorgio

The Death of Striving: Vivek’s "Mediocrity" Rant Hit Too Close to Home for Modern America When Vivek Ramaswamy caught massive heat on Christmas Eve 2024 for saying American youth culture "venerates mediocrity over excellence", he hit a nerve. People called him elitist, but if you look at how this country actually operated before WW2 vs every decade since, he wasn't wrong.  The upper classes will always be fine. The wealthy, the elite, and the exceptionally driven have the resources and network to succeed regardless of what’s "cool." The people who actually get destroyed by a culture that treats striving as lame are the middle class and the bottom tiers. When a culture decides that putting in effort, dressing well, and trying hard in school makes you a "try-hard" or a "nerd," it strips working-class kids of their sharpest vehicle for upward mobility. That wasn't how America worked until after WW2, and it’s no coincidence that people now complain about the lack upward mobility in America after decades of this ethos taking root. The decade-by-decade shift away from that pre-war baseline reveals how apathy became a status symbol: 1950s - The Birth of "Cool": Post-war prosperity creates the concept of the "teenager." For the first time, youth culture separates from adult expectations. Rock & roll and the "rebel" archetype take over. Caring about grades gets you labeled a square. 1960s - The Moralization of Dropping Out: Counterculture takes the 50s rebel and gives it an ideology as justification. "Turn on, tune in, drop out." Striving within traditional institutions (school, corporate jobs, civic life) is reframed as becoming a "cog in the system" or "selling out." 1970s - The Cynical Pivot: Economic stagflation and Watergate turn 60s idealism into bitter detachment. Punk rock codifies anti-polish and anti-effort. Presenting yourself sharply or working hard within established channels is seen as a fool's errand. 1980s - Jocks vs. Nerds: Pop culture institutionalizes high school social hierarchies. Caring about academics makes you an outcast (Revenge of the Nerds); effortless charisma and athletic prowess make you the hero. 1990s–2000s - Peak Slacker Ethos: Grunge, skate culture, and pop-punk turn detached apathy into the top social flex. Trying hard at anything gets you hit with the ultimate mid-2000s insult: "try-hard." Pre-WWII America viewed effort as moral character while post-WWII America turned apathy into a status symbol. It fits Rob Henderson’s concept of a luxury belief perfectly - a status symbol for a post-WWII windfall nation that could afford to act lazy, but a toxic posture for everyone else. Emerging from WWII as the world’s lone industrial superpower gave America unprecedented, nouveau-riche wealth, creating safety nets where the elite could play the detached slacker and still land on their feet. However when working-class kids adopt that same apathy, it strips them of the discipline, sharp presentation, and relentless striving they actually need to build a life If you are born into wealth, you can afford to play the "I don't care" slacker game and still land on your feet. But for everyone else, trading away the ethos of discipline, sharp presentation, and relentless striving leaves them without a ladder. I know this because I fell into it. Surfing grew straight out of that 1960s counterculture movement, an ethos built around stepping outside the machine, and I swallowed it whole. In my teens I didn't strive for much beyond the next wave and smoking enough weed to sink a ship. Looking back, I’m not overly impressed with where that attitude left me by my 20s. Vivek Ramaswamy caught heat because his delivery made people uncomfortable, but he was pointing out a post-modern cultural trap.

A must-read for every young man. (Pressfield also wrote Legend of Bagger Vance.)

Dating nowadays sounds brutal. Counterpoint: met my future wife and got married in Nashville.

Listened to Bill Gurley's talk at the latest @theallinpod summit "Searching for Feynman"(worth a listen). In it, he decries systemic institutional failure, lack of curiosity, and the dangers of groupthink. I then caught his talk from a few years back titled "2,851 Miles." It has quite a few connotations for healthcare. Gurley argues that regulatory capture lets established companies shape government rules to protect themselves, limiting competition and innovation at the public’s expense. He cites telecommunications, Epic’s electronic health records business, and COVID testing as examples where he believes lobbying and industry ties helped incumbents suppress competitors or sustain higher prices. His central warning is that Silicon Valley—including AI—risks losing its innovative edge as leading companies embrace Washington and seek regulations that entrench their dominance. Healthcare innovation doesn't die from bad ideas; it dies from good regulation and even better groupthink. This happened with telecom in the late 90s. It happened with EHRs in the 2000s and is about to happen with healthcare AI. The regulatory moat is the ultimate defensive strategy for health systems. By imposing hyper-bureaucratic security and interoperability requirements, incumbents successfully tax startups out of existence. Vinod Khosla and CureAI's marketing push clearly shows SV has learned the ropes when it comes to the process. These tools could have a tremendous impact on healthcare. They also represent a significant market opportunity for every interested stakeholder. The bureaucratic barriers are real. The real question becomes: is the compliance moat a siege weapon, a rampart or a cemetery? @DrDiGiorgio @SebastianCaliri @DrBruggeman @SamirUnni @AIHealthUncut @bgurley piped.video/watch?v=F9cO3-ML…