Politics
The American Taliban
This article disects what the Republican Party of America actually is - a fundamentalist party that has more in common with the Taliban than Christianity.
James
Senior Director of Product Management, 15+ years in AI (before it was cool), 2 startups founded and 8+ years in corporate America. Writes Read Uncut: free, independent, longform analysis on AI, tech, and politics. Sourced, argued, named. Never vibed.
Politics
The Leverage Is Gone
America has long had a grip on Europe especially since the Ukraine war, but that grip is becoming weaker by the day and in large it's down to Ukraine.
social
The State Changed Clients But Not Its Size
With states having larger budgets than ever why does everything feel like it is falling apart? This article examines what has shifted and why.
AI
The AI Bet Corporate America Actually Made (It Wasn't Productivity)
AI gave corporate America a way to gut headcount and get applauded for it. An NBER study found only 2% of execs attributed cuts to actual AI, but 60% cut in anticipation of efficiencies that haven't arrived. The bet was never productivity. It was permanent wage compression with better PR.
tech
OpenAI has the governance structure of a unicorn - it does not exist
OpenAI built its brand on responsible governance. The internal record says otherwise. A web of 400 portfolio companies, a venture fund Sam owned without the board's knowledge, and a pattern of deals that keep landing in his favor.
Politics
America is going to be isolated for a long time
Allies waited out Trump's first term because 2016 could be priced as an accident. 2024, with the full record on the table, was a choice. Denmark named the U.S. a security concern for the first time ever, Canada put American weapons last on its procurement list. These signals don't unwind.
social
Women Get Hit Twice in Tech Layoffs
Women are 25% of the tech workforce but took 45-47% of layoffs. Now AI-usage scores are becoming a retention criterion, and a Harvard meta-analysis of 143,000 people found women have 22% lower odds of using generative AI, not from lack of interest but lack of encouragement. Same group, twice.
tech
AI and the Productivity Fallacy
Klarna replaced 700 agents with a chatbot, became the poster child for AI productivity, then quietly hired humans back after quality collapsed and the CEO admitted they'd "gone too far." The pattern is repeating across the industry while the actual productivity data remains vanishingly thin.
tech
The Survivor's Paradox: How Layoffs Turn Companies Into Yes-Machines
After layoffs, every remaining employee runs the same calculation: agree with the exec, ship what they want, never push back. Meta's own staff flagged nobody used Horizon Worlds before the first cuts landed, and the company burned another $75 billion on metaverse losses before calling it.
tech
AI Is Not Original, And It Can't Be
Generative AI predicts the most statistically likely output from its training data, which means everything it creates pulls toward the middle of what already exists. If the technology had existed in the age of the horse and cart, it would have given you a better cart, never a car.
Politics
The Democrats Need A Leader, Not A Press Release
The Democrats are falling into the Starmer trap, defining themselves against Trump with no vision of their own. Starmer hit -57 net favorability within 18 months of a 165-seat majority. Meanwhile Mamdani won New York on one word, and Talarico raised $27M with zero corporate PAC money.
Politics
The Social Contract Is Broken in America
Corporate profits hit $4 trillion. S&P500 companies returned $1.57 trillion to shareholders. They did this while cutting a quarter million tech jobs and raising prices. This article explores how both corporate America and government broke the social contract and what could come next.