Rebuilding is easy: Rethinking is hard

Three months ago, wildfires tore through Los Angeles. Entire neighborhoods were reduced to ash. The process of rebuilding has just begun. It made me think about how we rebuild — and what lessons we carry forward.

On a recent trip to London, I spoke with the historian Dr. Simon Thurley about the Great Fire of 1666. What he said stuck with me: “London was liberated overnight.” In the aftermath of catastrophe, leaders faced a choice — restore the old or reimagine the future.

That choice sparked a transformation — wider streets, new infrastructure, even the birth of the steam engine. I explore the thin line between rebuilding and reinventing — and what it means for investors — in my latest Big Think column. Read it here.

Key quote: “Rather than simply rebuilding what had been lost, London’s leaders saw a rare chance to step back and take the long view — to imagine a city built not just for the present, but for generations to come. “They saw an opportunity for a longer-term vision,” [Thurley] told me. “One that could truly transform London.” I realized there was a lesson in this — not just for city planners or policymakers, but for anyone who wants to build something that lasts. Catastrophe, as painful as it is, forces a choice: rebuild exactly as before or embrace the chance to create something stronger, more resilient, and prepared for the future.”

The psychology of investing in turbulent markets

We are living at a once-in-a-century inflection point — a rare moment where the old world is breaking down and a new one is emerging.

In his sweeping new essay published in Freethink, What Is the Great Progression: 2025 to 2050, futurist Peter Leyden argues that we now have a historic opportunity to harness AI, clean energy, and synthetic biology to fundamentally reinvent our systems — and build a better, more sustainable world.

This isn’t techno-optimism for its own sake; Leyden draws on decades of experience in Silicon Valley to show how these technologies, after years of slow buildup, are hitting their tipping points all at once. The next 25 years, he says, could rival the post-WWII era in shaping the modern world.

Key quote: “Look forward through a technological lens, and watch the astonishing breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, the latest and probably greatest general-purpose technology that humans have ever developed. In the two years since generative AI burst onto the scene, we have begun to more fully understand how fundamentally the world could change in the age of intelligent machines that has now arrived.”

A few more links I enjoyed:

It’s Time for Apple to End Its Culture of Secrecy – via Alex Kantrowitz / Big Technology

Key quote: “‍But times have changed, and Apple must too. The company’s been unable to keep its product pipeline under wraps, with major recent launches including the Vision Pro and Apple Intelligence documented in painstaking detail by reporters before the curtain’s rise, particularly by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. And, for the modest payoff of revealing already-known surprises, Apple’s paid a significant price, one that’s now manifested in a full-blown crisis.”

How to enhance humans – via The Economist

Key quote: “It would be easy to recoil from a project that is filled with cranks and has uncomfortable echoes of the eugenics movement of the early 20th century. But it would be a mistake to dismiss all forms of human enhancement. The idea that medicine should seek to augment the body, not just restore it to health when it goes wrong, has plenty of merit. The key to maximizing the benefits and minimizing the risks will be to drive out the quacks and bring this rapidly growing project into the scientific mainstream.”

Beautiful vs. Practical Advice – via Morgan Housel

Key quote: “I watch financial markets every day because I think they’re a window into culture and behavior. They’re so fascinating, so beautiful, like art. But my personal finances are simple and boring. They will win no awards. But they’re practical for me and my family. They provide what I need them to do. Isn’t there beauty in that?”

Let’s Build the World Wise Web – via Tom Morgan

Key quote: “In order to be resilient, I believe these networks need to be capped below Dunbar’s number of 150 people. This is approximately the maximum community size where everyone can know everyone else. Beyond that limit, other members are reduced down to labels, with the usual problematic consequences. Networks are defined by the strength of the loving connections between members. Because healing is intimate and some “woo” topics are still taboo, these communities should be private and ideally filled with intelligent, grounded peers. Many spiritual communities lack critical thinking faculties or lived experience at the higher levels of influence, so they can lapse into conspiracy thinking.”

From the archives:

Inventing on Principle – Bret Victor (2012)

Key quote: “This talk is actually about a way of living your life that most people don’t talk about. As you approach your career, you’ll hear a lot about following your passion, or doing something you love. I’m going to talk about something kind of different. I’m going to talk about following a principle — finding a guiding principle for your work, something you believe is important and necessary and right, and using that to guide what you do.”