Derek Thompson

Derek Thompson

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March 2026

Is the Smartphone Theory of Everything Wrong? A Comprehensive Investigation
Many people believe that the nexus of smartphones, Internet, and social media is to blame for every modern catastrophe. Here's 5,000 words on who's…
 • Derek Thompson
What Is Anthropic Thinking?
An interview with Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark on the specter of AI-fueled mass unemployment, the future of agents, and how to raise children in an…
 • Derek Thompson
We Haven’t Seen the Worst of What Gambling and Prediction Markets Will Do to America
I don’t think people have thought hard enough about how bad this could get.
 • Derek Thompson
‘Yes, AI Is a Bubble. There Is No Question.’
The evidence that artificial intelligence is a big fat bubble has, confusingly, gotten much stronger and much weaker at the exact same time.
 • Derek Thompson
The Most Important Chart in AI Is Also the Most Misunderstood
When a metric becomes a meme, it gains in popularity what it loses in precision.
 • Derek Thompson
Why Can't People Agree on a Shared Set of Facts?
Nir Eyal on the power of belief, the atheist's case for prayer, and the origins of self-confidence
 • Derek Thompson
This War's Economic Crisis Could Get Much Worse—For the U.S. and the Whole World
This isn't just about the price of oil. It's about everything oil becomes—fertilizer, AI chips, plastic—and the cost of snapping the achilles heel of…
 • Derek Thompson
The Economic Crisis of the Iran War Could Get Very Bad, Very Fast
If Donald Trump doesn't end the war by April, "oil prices could get into Scary Land," one expert told me.
 • Derek Thompson
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