Austin Wu
@austwu.bsky.social
(vague lyrics about history or economics) 🚰
https://linktr.ee/austwu
https://linktr.ee/austwu
Pinned
see also 'Gattaca' (1997)
à gauche une photo d'une affiche publicitaire d'une entreprise de séquençage, à droite une affiche d'un concours du bébé eugénique datant du début du siècle dernier
November 24, 2025 at 6:31 AM
see also 'Gattaca' (1997)
Reposted by Austin Wu
I always think of Tony Judt on this (though I'd hold the condescension and double down on the public university systems in the heartland)
November 23, 2025 at 5:27 PM
I always think of Tony Judt on this (though I'd hold the condescension and double down on the public university systems in the heartland)
Reposted by Austin Wu
Reposted by Austin Wu
For Freedom
Four Freedoms
Four Freedoms
November 24, 2025 at 12:21 AM
For Freedom
Four Freedoms
Four Freedoms
Reposted by Austin Wu
two theses on turkey:
1) the reputation of Thanksgiving Turkey is tarnished by the high % of inexperienced cooks cooking badly on that day and should be considered separate from Roast Turkey
2) turkey is the most popular cold cut meat in the US, so it is indeed very popular outside of the holidays
1) the reputation of Thanksgiving Turkey is tarnished by the high % of inexperienced cooks cooking badly on that day and should be considered separate from Roast Turkey
2) turkey is the most popular cold cut meat in the US, so it is indeed very popular outside of the holidays
November 23, 2025 at 8:11 PM
two theses on turkey:
1) the reputation of Thanksgiving Turkey is tarnished by the high % of inexperienced cooks cooking badly on that day and should be considered separate from Roast Turkey
2) turkey is the most popular cold cut meat in the US, so it is indeed very popular outside of the holidays
1) the reputation of Thanksgiving Turkey is tarnished by the high % of inexperienced cooks cooking badly on that day and should be considered separate from Roast Turkey
2) turkey is the most popular cold cut meat in the US, so it is indeed very popular outside of the holidays
Reposted by Austin Wu
I think we sometimes overthink what socialism would look like. The mechanisms of control developed for capitalist industry tuned to dials based on outcomes for public health, leisure time, and human flourishing would really cook.
Engagement KPIs have been responsible for infinite scroll UI traps, RecSys radicalization spirals, public shame brigades, and basically every modern ailment novel to the past decade. At some point, you have to recognize that the problem isn't any one technology, it's the metric.
The company essentially turned a dial that made ChatGPT more appealing and made people use it more, but sent some of them into delusional spirals.
OpenAI has since made the chatbot safer, but that comes with a tradeoff: less usage.
OpenAI has since made the chatbot safer, but that comes with a tradeoff: less usage.
November 23, 2025 at 11:58 PM
I think we sometimes overthink what socialism would look like. The mechanisms of control developed for capitalist industry tuned to dials based on outcomes for public health, leisure time, and human flourishing would really cook.
Reposted by Austin Wu
What’s depressing isn’t the higher levels of federal expenditures & DOGE’s failure—it’s that the feds replaced expenditures on foreign assistance, research & the environment with spending on ICE personnel & national guard deployments.
Meanwhile, the rich got tax cuts so the deficit worsened.
Meanwhile, the rich got tax cuts so the deficit worsened.
November 23, 2025 at 6:42 PM
What’s depressing isn’t the higher levels of federal expenditures & DOGE’s failure—it’s that the feds replaced expenditures on foreign assistance, research & the environment with spending on ICE personnel & national guard deployments.
Meanwhile, the rich got tax cuts so the deficit worsened.
Meanwhile, the rich got tax cuts so the deficit worsened.
Reposted by Austin Wu
I once knew a Federal bank examiner, and one time someone asked him why we had to KEEP inspecting banks over and over. He basically said every new batch of business school grads invents bank fraud from first principles.
AirBnB CEO calling it “vibe revenue” just 👨🍳 😘
The underlying cause of every bubble - debt masquerading as financial innovation - depends on not just short financial memory & speculative neophytism, but reinventing jargon of finance, like how each generation of kids has new ways to say same things.
The underlying cause of every bubble - debt masquerading as financial innovation - depends on not just short financial memory & speculative neophytism, but reinventing jargon of finance, like how each generation of kids has new ways to say same things.
November 22, 2025 at 6:02 PM
I once knew a Federal bank examiner, and one time someone asked him why we had to KEEP inspecting banks over and over. He basically said every new batch of business school grads invents bank fraud from first principles.
Reposted by Austin Wu
It turns out that childbirth is really fucking dangerous and that medical support is a good thing overall.
Influencers made millions pushing ‘wild’ births – now the Free Birth Society is linked to baby deaths around the world
Influencers made millions pushing ‘wild’ births – now the Free Birth Society is linked to baby deaths around the world
A year-long investigation reveals how mothers lost children after being radicalised by uplifting podcast tales of births without midwives or doctors
As Esau Lopez was asphyxiated for the first 17 minutes of his life on Earth, the atmosphere in the room remained serene, even ecstatic. Acoustic music crooned from a speaker in a modest two-bedroom apartment in a suburb of Pennsylvania. “You are a queen,” murmured one of three friends in the room.
Only Esau’s mother, Gabrielle Lopez, felt something was wrong. She was pushing hard, but her son would not be born. “Can you help [him] out?” she asked, as Esau crowned. “Baby is coming,” the friend replied. Four minutes later, Lopez asked again, “Can you grab [him]?” Another friend murmured, “Baby is safe.” Six minutes passed. Again, Lopez asked, “Can you grab [him]?” Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
November 22, 2025 at 11:51 PM
It turns out that childbirth is really fucking dangerous and that medical support is a good thing overall.
Reposted by Austin Wu
I'm alive right now because I gave birth with medical professionals who had ready access to lifesaving medication.
November 22, 2025 at 9:57 PM
I'm alive right now because I gave birth with medical professionals who had ready access to lifesaving medication.
Reposted by Austin Wu
Hell yeah I wanna do favorite Kate Beaton comics, it's so hard to choose but I think about "the Canadians heard us making fun of them and got all fucked up on hockey" often
November 22, 2025 at 9:13 PM
Hell yeah I wanna do favorite Kate Beaton comics, it's so hard to choose but I think about "the Canadians heard us making fun of them and got all fucked up on hockey" often
an everlasting classic www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id...
November 22, 2025 at 8:47 PM
an everlasting classic www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id...
Reposted by Austin Wu
Check out this 1923 transit plan commissioned by the Chicago City Council. We use to be insanely ambitious. A network like this would've supported Paris-level population densities.
It's never too late!
It's never too late!
November 21, 2025 at 11:53 PM
Check out this 1923 transit plan commissioned by the Chicago City Council. We use to be insanely ambitious. A network like this would've supported Paris-level population densities.
It's never too late!
It's never too late!
Reposted by Austin Wu
More and more people are talking about Rosa Luxembourg. we like to call her red Rosa, don’t we folks. she was treated very unfairly by the social DEMOCRAT Party. and freikorp. We don’t like freikorp. we like people who win wars. but they LOST. Never would have happened if Trump had been there
yeah I can’t find it now but someone in a post pointed out that it could get pretty funny since Trump usually spends 36ish hours agreeing with the last charismatic person he talked to.
November 21, 2025 at 2:57 PM
More and more people are talking about Rosa Luxembourg. we like to call her red Rosa, don’t we folks. she was treated very unfairly by the social DEMOCRAT Party. and freikorp. We don’t like freikorp. we like people who win wars. but they LOST. Never would have happened if Trump had been there
Reposted by Austin Wu
Every single time, what we learn is that there's like 10% of the population that can actually constructively learn things through independent self study and everybody else needs their ass in a school desk.
November 21, 2025 at 7:28 PM
Every single time, what we learn is that there's like 10% of the population that can actually constructively learn things through independent self study and everybody else needs their ass in a school desk.
Reposted by Austin Wu
Somebody in the audience pointed out something that I didn’t know, which is that Queensbridge Houses, the largest NYCHA project in the city (and thereby largest public housing complex in North America), is single-stair. platform-affordable-dwelling.bk.tudelft.nl/database/201...
November 20, 2025 at 2:30 PM
Somebody in the audience pointed out something that I didn’t know, which is that Queensbridge Houses, the largest NYCHA project in the city (and thereby largest public housing complex in North America), is single-stair. platform-affordable-dwelling.bk.tudelft.nl/database/201...
if this was russian revolutionary times mfs would be cancelling marshal zhukov because he started off in the imperial army before switching sides 😤
It is not bigoted to say that pinkwashing state violence is bad.
November 21, 2025 at 6:14 AM
if this was russian revolutionary times mfs would be cancelling marshal zhukov because he started off in the imperial army before switching sides 😤
Reposted by Austin Wu
me every time i get an email:
I didn’t ask for this lol
November 21, 2025 at 5:56 AM
me every time i get an email:
Reposted by Austin Wu
As I was saying. Bro-Tex, the 100yo family-owned business that makes cleaning wipes and helps fund murals on the sides of its building… a criminal warrant? Right.
So it’s quite notable that local elected officials were directly lied to repeatedly that this was not an ICE raid.
www.startribune.com/ice-says-rai...
www.startribune.com/ice-says-rai...
www.startribune.com
November 21, 2025 at 2:56 AM
As I was saying. Bro-Tex, the 100yo family-owned business that makes cleaning wipes and helps fund murals on the sides of its building… a criminal warrant? Right.
Reposted by Austin Wu
(Working on a take) parental involvement in schools is a kind of NIMBYism
November 21, 2025 at 5:13 AM
(Working on a take) parental involvement in schools is a kind of NIMBYism
Reposted by Austin Wu
Reposted by Austin Wu
i have, uh, been saying this
Another day where you have to wonder whether the Canadian and Mexican governments have prepared contingency plans to handle any regional fallout from serious civil disorder in the United States
November 21, 2025 at 1:00 AM
i have, uh, been saying this
Reposted by Austin Wu
For a fun GIS project I mapped the highest transit mode share census tract in every state to examine transit dependent neighborhoods across the country, particularly in less urban states. The national peak tract map is below with individual maps in this thread from highest to lowest.
November 20, 2025 at 8:51 PM
For a fun GIS project I mapped the highest transit mode share census tract in every state to examine transit dependent neighborhoods across the country, particularly in less urban states. The national peak tract map is below with individual maps in this thread from highest to lowest.