Nilesh Kavthekar

tech & policy for a more equitable, dynamic society. currently @HarrisPolicy. recovering PM @Uber. tweets currently in beta

[Nilesh Kavthekar @Niles_h]

New post on the recent court win by @JusticeATR in blocking the merger between @penguinrandom & @simonschuster.

@HalSinger called it a "sea change" since it was the first merger antitrust to focus on harm to labor (authors) rather than consumers.

More: https://t.co/pefbLpBdyA

[Derek Thompson @DKThomp]

Good decarb news from world's advanced economies:

- Carbon emissions have fallen to 1973 levels
- For first time ever, electricity generation from renewables + nuclear reached 50%
- Total coal demand is now down at *1903 levels*

https://t.co/aww41lgeAG

[Admiral Vic @victorhunt_]

For the last 2 years I’ve been a knight errant, exploring ideas while collaborating with incredible people in communities like @southpkcommons and @recursecenter. We shipped hundreds of ideas as small as a landing page to as big as supporting thousands of users. What I learned most in this time is what I knew all along – I love helping businesses succeed. Specifically, I love helping unblock talent from the barriers to scaling their dream.

This is what I did at my last company where we helped grow contracting businesses from inception to 8-figure revenue machines. This is what I enjoyed growing up – helping people like my grandmother a nurse turned-home care operator with things as simple as filing paperwork.

[Joe Weisenthal @TheStalwart]

Absolutely legendary quote here in this SEC complaint.

https://t.co/tvqFwGCju0 HT: @lopezlinette

[Justin Wolfers @JustinWolfers]

Lemme explain. (Seriously.)

[Julia Pollak @juliaonjobs]

Labor productivity declined 2.1%, and unit labor costs rose 4.2% in Q1, according to revised data out today.

In mid-2022, when productivity started rising from a level above its pre-pandemic trend, I hoped that the pandemic investment boom had caused a step-function increase.

[Nilesh Kavthekar @Niles_h]

@Jasperinboston @JosephPolitano Certainly low-traffic articles would be tough to optimize pricing for.

But imagine the number of micro pricing experiments Twitter could run for a typical WaPo/NYT article with 50k impressions on Twitter.

(Or even the training set Twitter would build over time…)

[Nilesh Kavthekar @Niles_h]

@forestgregg Honest question, what's the issue?

[Joey Politano 🏳️‍🌈 @JosephPolitano]

mfw niche data journalism does not have a viable long-term business model

[Ben Casselman @bencasselman]

So much for "nobody wants to work anymore": 80.7% of prime-age (25-54) Americans were working in March, the highest rate since May 2001.

[Derek Thompson @DKThomp]

I don’t consider “exposed to automation” the same as “at risk of replacement”

Jobs are bundles of tasks. Some tasks in that bundle can be partially automated while others become more important.

[Matt Darling 🌐🏗️ @besttrousers]

Fun fact - states do not have a consistent way of determining how benefits are rounded to the nearest dollar.

Some always do highest, some always lowest, some use the nearest full dollar amount.

[Arvind Narayanan @random_walker]

Many viral threads by growth hackers / influencers claimed to explain the Twitter algorithm. All of them were BS. Read this instead from actual experts @IgorBrigadir and @vboykis: https://t.co/Boh94L9NLp
Most important part: how the different actions you can take are weighed.

[Nilesh Kavthekar @Niles_h]

@darakerr I find it kind of hilarious that in display ads to attract new drivers in NYC, Uber is touting how rate increases have been keeping pace with inflation.

Guess that had nothing to do with the minimum pay standard NYC passed back in 2019

cc @veenadubal @hayswitt @JParrott10007

[Steve Stewart-Williams @SteveStuWill]

Psychologists have posited hundreds of cognitive biases over the years. A new paper argues that they all boil down to one of a handful of fundamental beliefs coupled with confirmation bias. https://t.co/bDDmNftq7M

[James Medlock @jdcmedlock]

I'll bet anyone $1 million dollars that the US does not enter hyperinflation

[Nilesh Kavthekar @Niles_h]

@Noahpinion Any ideas of why we see the big jumps in the 2010s?

[Derek Thompson @DKThomp]

New paper: "Negativity drives online news consumption"

Blended study of 105,000 headlines and 370 million impressions concludes "each additional negative word [in a headline] increased the click-through rate by 2.3%"