Ah, human nature..............

 

It is doubtful if the oppressed ever fight for freedom. They fight for pride and power—power to oppress others. The oppressed want above all to imitate their oppressors; they want to retaliate.

-attributed to Eric Hoffer

Martin Gurri asks a great question.............

 

How could the principle of equality be squared with a hierarchy of expertise?

Gurri is always a fascinating read, and this Substack is no exception.  A wee excerpt here:

In the conflict between equality and elitism, those who already wielded power had the advantage—they could redefine equality down until the concept was virtually drained of meaning. The industrial age, which looked on society as a factory floor to be organized on the precepts of “scientific management,” worshiped at the altar of hierarchy. Mass production, mass consumption, mass media, and mass movements in politics allowed the elites to herd the newly educated, newly affluent millions into fenced enclosures where they could cause no trouble. Progressive government built an immense bureaucracy of regulators and overseers. The deplorables were rendered inaudible. The last century was a golden age of social control.

Fast-forward to the chaos of the present moment. The digital tsunami has obliterated those tidy industrial-age arrangements. The public has gained a voice like thunder—it drowns out the edicts of presidents and the precious phrases of the intellectuals. The deplorables run rampant around the globe, intent, somewhat paradoxically, on electing “authoritarian personalities” to positions of authority. The top-down system has bled out its legitimacy and is now flatlining. The elites and their supporters are gripped by panic and despair, with good reason. The constant lamentations about the end of democracy translate into the existential dread of a class that knows it has lost control.

Coyote's Law...........................

 

Don't give the government a power that you would not like your worst political enemy to wield

-Warren Meyer, from this post

If only there was a system.......................

 

.........that delivered all these things.  Oh, wait....

via

That is some theme.......................

 

A key theme of my work in the technology critic space is that a life without serious, sustained, intentional thought is impoverished. Thinking is how we make sense of ourselves and the world, and is how we imagine new horizons and create the key elements of our future. It’s at the heart of philosophy, theology, and human empathy; the ability that separates our species from all other animals.

-Cal Newport, from this post

Now tell us how you really feel...........

 

........................about the digital world:

The business logic of these platforms, the relationship they forge with their users (who are not customers, in the traditional sense), is essentially extractive, parasitic, vampiric. As a form of entrepreneurship, it more closely resembles… manufacturing highly addictive Tianeptine (“Gas Station Heroin”) for general sale, than it does the selling of cars or refrigerators.

-from Matthew B. Crawford's substack as he looks at the simultaneous rise of “surveillance capitalism” and of attention engineering. 

and reality always intrudes.................

 

Planners, architects of city design, and those they have led along with them in their beliefs are not consciously disdainful of the importance of knowing how things work.  On the contrary, they have gone to great pains to learn what the saints and sages of modern orthodox planning have said about how cities ought to work and what ought to be good for people and businesses in them.  They take this with such devotion that when contradictory reality intrudes, they must shrug reality aside.

-Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life Of Great American Cities

Yes, but..................to data centers

 

Movements are afoot to stop the spread of data centers.  We hesitate to give advice, but there are certainly better alternatives to the “just say no” approach.

First of all, can we all agree that unless your intent is to roll back the internetization of things, data centers are somewhat of a necessity.  Reasonable people might agree that it is bizarre that household appliances are now designed to be connected to the internet, but unless we are willing to forsake our smart phones and the convenience of on-line shopping, we need data centers.

While “data center” may sound vaguely mysterious, they are really nothing by large warehouses filled with electronic equipment, i.e. computer servers.   It is helpful to remember that when we talk about stuff being in “the cloud” all we are talking about is your information being stored on other people’s servers – located in data centers.   The more that we rely on (or become addicted to) our smart phones and computers, the greater the necessity for the infrastructure to handle that usage – I. e. data centers.   The advent and growing sophistication and usage of AI has led to the explosive growth of that infrastructure.

Is that really such a bad thing?  The major objections to data centers seem to be their enormous demand on the electrical grids and municipal water supplies, and thus causing rates for us normal folk to spike.  Let us remember that our world evolves, and the data center industry is evolving rapidly.  Already they have figured out how to recycle the water they use, dramatically reducing their impact on municipal systems.  A whole new industry is developing to convert natural gas to electricity on a local level.  One thing Ohio has a lot of is excess natural gas.  Smart people have figured out the conversion of this excess gas into electric power on a site specific basis.  In other words, it is now possible for data centers to satisfy their power requirements without impacting the overall electrical grid.

Another significant objection to data centers could be best described as “opportunity costs”.    Data centers take up a lot of land generally zoned for industrial uses.  Industrial uses are important to communities because of the jobs they create, and the payroll taxes those jobs generate support municipalities.  While data centers create significant construction jobs, once up and running they are notorious for having very few employees.   This is a problem.  The City of Pataskala recently said no to a data center.   While we did not attend the public hearings, it is likely that this “opportunity cost” loss weighed heavily on Council’s decision.

The final negative to data centers seems to be that they are not always the best neighbors.

There are some benefits to the community from having a data center.  The biggest one being property taxes.  Here locally Microsoft has started construction of two data centers, both being located within the Lakewood School District.   Strategically trying to build local goodwill, Microsoft has declined the available property tax abatement.  That decision means that Lakewood Local School District will collect an estimated three million dollars per year in property taxes once the construction is completed.   That is a nice benefit.   We should also remember that Microsoft has pledged over thirty million dollars (combined) to Heath and Hebron for municipal infrastructure  improvements.  Another nice benefit.

So, back to the alternatives to “just say no”.   Why wouldn’t a municipality amend their zoning ordinance to make data centers permitted as “Conditional Uses”.   Let’s imagine some of those conditions:

1.      Set a maximum amount of kilowatts the facility could draw from the power grid on any given day.  Force the data center developer to create the required electricity without impacting the grid.

2.     Set a maximum amount of water the facility could draw from the public water system on any given day.  Force the data center developer to create a sophisticated recycling system for coolants.

3.     Disallow the facility from receiving any property tax abatements or other governmental incentives.  Force the data center owner to pay appropriate market rate property taxes.

4.     Most municipalities already have “impact fees” established for development.  Specify that new data centers shall pay significant “impact fees” to enhance local infrastructure.

5.     Establishment of significant separation distance from residentially zoned land along with mandated buffering from same.

6.     Establish an “average payroll tax per acre” that the municipality might expect from an industrial user.  Make approval of the data center subject to the data center operator committing to annual payments to the municipality that would mirror the anticipated payroll tax generated by the “average payroll tax per acre” metric.

 

It is clear, based on the way, way, way above market price data centers are willing to pay for land, that the data center business is very profitable.   Good for them.   Rather than “just say no,” wouldn’t it be a better decision to say “yes, but….”, and figure out ways in which the municipality, and its citizens, could share in the financial bounty?

One thing we should remember:   in their beginning, cell towers were unpopular with many people who had to look at them.  As cellular phones became ubiquitous, cell towers became so important that the government decreed that cell towers were like public utility lines and denied local zoning codes the ability to regulate them out of existence.   Like cell towers, data centers are taking on national importance.   If local governments get too heavy handed in saying “no” to data centers, it should not surprise us to see the federal government classify them similarly to cell towers, and deny local government the ability to say no.  Before we get that far, how about we ponder the possibilities of “ Yes, but…”.

this was first published in the September 2026 Shai-Hess Report

a baseline.................

 

Best practices guarantee average performance. They are literally the prescriptions of others that limit variation and get you to a baseline of performance. Following them virtually ensures that you will be working harder and harder just to "keep up." To be the best, you have to do things that no one can prescribe.

-Shane Parrish, from here

What could possibly go wrong..........?

 

Amazon is on a mission to shrink two-day delivery down to the amount of time it takes to carry a pizza to a customer. Its drones, which are capable of transporting packages weighing up to 5 pounds and can fly as far as 7.5 miles from their home bases, are playing an increasingly important role in the ultrafast delivery push, and currently operate in 11 metropolitan areas including Dallas, Houston and the suburbs around Phoenix.

-from this Daily Upside newsletter

All outcomes.....................

 

But just know that economic outcomes do not play out in a vacuum. There are trade-offs to consider.

-Ben Carlson, from here

tricksters.......................

 

       via

Protopia...............

 

Utopia is also impossible because it is friction which propels progress. Without the pressure of new problems, there is little reason for advancement. Some people think of utopia not as a destination but as an ideal, but even that is misleading because utopia ignores the inherent tradeoffs in every benefit. We don’t get better without also earning some new problems. Problem-free is a stagnant death zone, and nothing we should aim for.

-Kevin Kelly, from here

thanks Chris

anti-fragile.............

 

The Harvard Grant Study followed subjects for 80 years and found that participants who chose comfort over challenge aged faster, died sooner, and reported less life satisfaction.

We are anti-fragile systems.  We require stress to maintain basic functions.  Remove all challenge and we literally decompose.

-Stan Taylor

Be careful what you wish for...........

We nationalized risk, socialized failure, taxed boldness, and administered everything else. Result: a magnificent country that builds nothing anymore, that manages its decay with a funereal elegance, and where the most gifted young person dreams of only one thing—leaving.

Freedom doesn't die assassinated. It dies anesthetized, to applause.

-as culled from here

On being careful about...................

 

..................................what you wish for.

Please.........................

 

America may have a sick political system and an economy that does not work well for many, but it is distinctly different, and in many ways better than its prime competitors. Our legacy, and our future, lies in large part in preserving that system without falling into the trap of centralized autocracy.

-Joel Kotkin, from this edition

focus on creation.......................

 

     Debates over wealth differentials and inequality are important for every society as we seek to reduce poverty and guarantee opportunity for all citizens.  Yet capitalism is much like what Winston Churchill said of democracy: "It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time."  Capitalism does produce wealth inequalities but has also proven to be the most successful system at wealth creation and opportunity in history.  The focus should not be on wealth concentration alone but economic and social barriers to wealth creation.

-Jonathan Turley, Rage and The Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution

Asking important questions..........

 

How Much Has the U.S. Government Borrowed to Pay Back What It Owes Itself?

-deficits matter if you plan on living past 2033

About denying danger..................

 

Given our ability to deny dangers - to stare at a lion and declare "That is not a lion" - the only moment when many matters are crystal clear are when they are being analyzed from inside of the lion's stomach.

-Michael Wade