What I think about when I think about writing
Why writing is not thinking
Our Long Walk
South Africa's economic past, present and future
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Latest posts
AI and academic publication
Three new working papers make predictions about how AI will affect the price of submissions, the review system, and the size of research teams...
But I like doing this
What Adam Smith and two new NBER papers say about work that is too enjoyable to stop
The economy under your skin
What ancient DNA can reveal about economic history – and us
Ozempic externalities
What weight loss drugs might mean for a country where obesity is common and body size carries its own history
Two point one
A hundred and sixty years of counting South Africans – and the line is levelling off.
How (South) Africans use AI
The latest evidence from Google, Microsoft, Anthropic and OpenAI
The new gold rush
The last mining boom built universities. What will the AI boom leave behind?
Two lessons for a four per cent country
My talk at Standard Bank tonight
Morality was forged in the marketplace
What happens to right and wrong when AI no longer needs us to trade with each other?
Cut and dried
The Economic History Society turns 100. As the machines take over the craft, judgement becomes scarce