Lawrence Phipps

Communicator, product & brand strategist, catalyst for value creation, trendspotter, entrepreneur kickstarter, engaged in commerce, tech & culture

[Lawrence Phipps @centriciti]

Must see incredible #AugmentedReality futurism concept from @keiichiban
https://t.co/DhuveIajiB

[Anish Moonka @anishmoonka]

There's a clay tablet with the founding charter of a 12-partner company on it. Twelve merchants pooled 33 pounds of gold to start the firm. The contract has the partner names, the starting capital, the profit split, and the penalty for cashing out early.

The tablet is nearly 4,000 years old. It was found at a site called Kanesh, in central Turkey. Archaeologists have dug up 23,500 of these clay records there, most of them business documents: receipts, loan contracts, shipping orders, lawsuits. The houses they were stored in eventually burned. The fire baked the clay solid and preserved every record.

The merchants came from Assur, in modern-day Iraq. They loaded donkeys with tin and cloth and walked them 1,000 kilometers across mountain passes to Kanesh, roughly the distance from New York to Atlanta. Each donkey carried about 180 pounds and the trip took two to three months. They came home with silver and gold.

The company ran for twelve years under a merchant named Amur Ishtar. A third of the profits went back to the investors. Pull your share out early and the firm gave you four kilos of silver per kilo of gold, half the normal rate. Locked-up money was meant to stay locked up.

That one company was just a tiny piece. The tablets show a complete economy with partners suing each other in commercial court, husbands writing home about prices, and wives writing back complaining the husband had been gone too long. A woman named Ahatum quietly lent silver to four different men over nine years. People bought up other people's loan documents and used them as collateral for new loans, the same thing Wall Street does today with mortgage-backed securities. One merchant got caught smuggling tin in his underwear to dodge a 10% import tax.

In 2019, four economists from Harvard, Sciences Po, Chicago, and Virginia ran the tablet numbers through a gravity model, the math economists use today to predict how much two countries will trade based on size and distance. The Bronze Age numbers matched modern trade numbers almost exactly. Trade fell off with distance at nearly the same rate it does between countries today. The paper ran in the Quarterly Journal of Economics.

There was no economic theory yet. The idea didn't even have a name. The word "capitalism" wouldn't be coined for another 3,800 years, and Adam Smith was 3,700 years away from writing a sentence about markets. Just a guy named Pushu-ken writing a clay tablet to his business partner about a shipment of cloth, and a woman in Assur recording who owed her how much silver. Capitalism was already there, doing its full job, almost four thousand years before anyone wrote down a theory of how it worked.

[Lawrence Phipps @centriciti]

@murichanbeer @KellogCreek I’ve been to Japan twice. I have only eaten bonito as nigiri. I will look for this on my next visit.

[Lawrence Phipps @centriciti]

@murichanbeer @KellogCreek That looks delicious. Can you recommend a specific izakaya to try it?

[Lawrence Phipps @centriciti]

Our attachment to the Imperial system of measurement is inextricably related to how we divide up parcels of land in the United States (similar to how nautical miles are derived from degrees of longitude). A square mile = 640 acres, a number easily divisible by two. A quarter of a square mile is 1/2 mile x 1/2 mile and = 160 acres. One-sixteenth of a square mile = 40 acres. This not a more sensible system, but this is the standard for large parcels of land, mostly rural properties, and the reason we will not switch to metric anytime soon.

And for comparison, a hectare, which is more easily understood as 100m x 100m, is equivalent to approximately 2.47 acres.

Ask me about nautical miles next.

[Lawrence Phipps @centriciti]

@daizo160 Maximum craftsmanship. A true work of art.

[Lawrence Phipps @centriciti]

Americans favor made-in-Japan musical instruments as much as made-in-America. Especially guitars, pianos and keyboards from Yamaha and Kawaii. Also quality electronics from Roland and BOSS. Japanese wind instruments are also respected. Electric koto has not caught on here yet, but give us time.

[Lawrence Phipps @centriciti]

@brando_esl @s_torian_ I discovered Toki in Louisville Kentucky of all places, the heartland of bourbon.

[Lawrence Phipps @centriciti]

Love the trending dialogue around Japanese X. I admire the Japanese for their wonderful obsessions, whether in their own culture or imitating others. They like our whisky, so they make theirs just as good. Same for jazz music. And techno. Captured the essence of rockabilly, and bluegrass is next. They mastered viennoiserie. That Eiffel Tower is nice, we’ll make one just like it. Now they’re on to craft beer. Still working on cheese. And so it goes.

The flip side of that is the Japanese don't seem to harbor any boundaries on cultural appropriation. They invented cosplay and love to dress up as Edo period geisha and samurai. They appear to have no issues with Westerners doing the same. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery after all. It seems they recognize that free exchange of ideas and culture is in everyone’s interest. Sure, there might be exceptions, but the overall vibe is so refreshing.

I’m so pleased we are friends with the Japanese. And nothing makes me happier than to see my feed filled with tweets from Japan.

[Lawrence Phipps @centriciti]

@cremieuxrecueil I remember when flying United was always a dehumanizing experience, and even Frontier delivered better service. But times have changed, and United now delivers consistently good customer service. Thankful since I do not have much alternative flying from DEN.

[Lawrence Phipps @centriciti]

In today’s dip into generationology, a wisenheimer brainiac illustrates how you should never let those zillenialcore brats generation gap you.

[National Gallery of Art @ngadc]

I am Harry, a Harvard educated curator ready to slay the house down boots. Today is the day I yoink control from the social girlies and Ali the mother of all rizzlers. They will not stop my aura. Siri add painting emoji here thanks

[Lawrence Phipps @centriciti]

Full Unitree segment here: https://t.co/IYWhMOCO8j

[Jerry Liu @jerryjliu0]

Happy Chinese / lunar new year! 🧧

Growing up in the US, I used to watch the CNY gala 春节晚会 with my parents on tape delay broadcast from CCTV1

Now having spent most of my working career in AI, it's come full circle and this is one of the most insane things I've seen

[Lawrence Phipps @centriciti]

The state of humanoid robots in 2026 boggles the mind. Not AI-generated video and it was broadcast live.

[Tristan @Tristan0x]

This aired tonight to 1 billion people in China. A year ago these robots could barely wave a handkerchief, now they can do backflips and kung fu with nunchucks. Physical intelligence is the next frontier.

[Lawrence Phipps @centriciti]

@BeckyLTuch Do you know Birdy? https://t.co/UTVHW3CKsI

Bigger than a fiefdom @Perez_Writes definitely smaller than an empire.

[Lawrence Phipps @centriciti]

@patsonvideo @pitsenberger What a cool vacation idea! Can you point to any trip resources? Maps, photos, guide, etc?

[Lawrence Phipps @centriciti]

The perfect response to watching Ring spend $8 Million to destroy its brand in 30 seconds.

[Wyze @WyzeCam]

Checkout the uncut version of our favorite Superbowl commercial

[Lawrence Phipps @centriciti]

@BowTiedBroke Wow, cool to see Husqvarna step up to the opportunity. I am in the market for a chainsaw, could tilt my choice their way. And coincidentally will be in the Volunteer State in a week!

[Lawrence Phipps @centriciti]

@Liv_Boeree Hot! And @marshallamps would be doing themselves a favor to license that from you for their series of "most interesting people in the world who jam on their gear" campaign.

[Lawrence Phipps @centriciti]

@arithmoquine Who remembers its predecessor?