How API-based SaaS is redefining software: by Markus Suomi. “Many of us, as consumers, are spending more and more of our money on digital products and services rather than physical products. In addition, many of our physical activities and products now also have digital components. These trends are likely to increase over time. For example, our cars stand idle most of the time and are underutilized, which has led to software that enables efficiencies like carsharing services and other ways of increasing the utilization rate of physical products like cars. These products and components will become more efficient through digital services, and digital services will be built on APIs.”
Building Products at Stripe: by Ken Norton. “Go deep, move fast, and build multi-decade abstractions.”
Pierre Lemieux: “The public-choice school of economics, developed since the mid-20th century, assumes that an individual who moves from the private sector to the public sector, whether as a government bureaucrat or a politician, remains the same mostly self-interested individual. He does not metamorphose into an altruist angel. This view of “politics without romance” (to quote James Buchanan) led to new and fruitful explanations of government actions. We should expect that a president (or another top ruler) will, if not effectively constrained by institutions (constitution, laws, and other sets of established rules), redefine his own self-interest as the “public interest.” Even if he wanted to do good for all citizens, he would typically be unable to do so because not all of them have the same preferences about what is good for them; so he better promote the public interest that is good for him.”
