Mitch's Blog

My old friend Dr. Marc Gorelick, who is a respected elder statesman of pediatric medicine, writes about the skewed incentives in medical care that make a hair transplant more valuable than resuscitating a newborn infant.

According to the metrics used by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the American Medical Association, the hair transplant is 31-84% more valuable than resuscitating a newborn.

Marc mentions circumcision without making any jokes about it, which shows greater willpower than I’m capable of, and which explains why he is a respected elder statesman of pediatric medicine and I type for a living.

The Venture-Capital Populist. How David Sacks and the new tech right went full MAGA and captured Washington.

Meanwhile, Zohran Is Just Getting Things Done.

Lines, Ranked — McSweeney’s

Meta Has Entered Its Death Spiral — Maybe, but seems premature to call it.

RIP social media. What comes next is messy. “How do we create spaces that are both engaging and fun to use, but that don’t go down to that dark place because of all of these feedback effects?” By Jennifer Ouellette on Ars Technica.

Nathan Lane on Fresh Air: “Nathan Lane says Broadway actors sometimes joke that their job is to keep 1,600 audience members from coughing.” He’s appearing on Broadway as Willy Loman in “Death of a Salesman.”

Why are the Artemis II photos on Flickr? Anil Dash: “The beautiful thing about communities and platforms like Flickr is that they remind us that not everything on the internet has to be ephemeral, not everything on the web has to be hyper-commercial. Sometimes a bunch of decent people can do a good thing for the right reasons, and the result of that work can persevere for decades.”

I like Florida very much every time I visit, which surprises me, because the news makes it look like they’re setting up the Republic of Gilead. My one complaint is the flagrant air conditioning abuse. It’s 86 degrees out, heading to 92, and I’m sitting here getting frostbite in my fingers and toes.

This mini brownie was tasty, and its resemblance to the poop emoji made it even more delicious. #enshittification