💥💥💥 BIG news: the latest issue of worksinprogress.co is out today! This is our first issue since we joined !
It's amazing, and we have articles on advances in polyester, geothermal energy, innovation prizes & more.
Thread on the issue, with fun charts. 1/n
Conversation
Our lead article this issue by is on the incredible story of London's lost ringways. worksinprogress.co/issue/londons-
You may not know that London had plans in the mid 20th century to construct 3 monstrous motorways through great neighbourhoods of the city.
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Fortunately, the plans to bulldoze through London with ringways fell apart – after they stirred up massive backlash from the public.
But they have lessons for us today.
Huge ambitious projects are often necessary. How do we make them succeed?
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Then, a tremendous piece by on how polyester became awesome again. worksinprogress.co/issue/how-poly
Polyester production has just grown and grown.
This is the fascinating story of what it took to make clothes to keep you warm in the cold & cool in the heat.
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Love finding great titles for articles.
Here's "Why innovation prizes fail" by .
Anton explains why everyone's wrong about the history of the original 18th century prize to calculate longitude at sea. How do we design prizes that work?
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Then, our own with a critique of the theory that good ideas are getting harder to find.
We won't reach peak ideas, just like we didn't reach peak oil.
Stagnation isn't inevitable – it's a choice we make by creating bad incentives for innovation. worksinprogress.co/issue/good-ide
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Next, on the future of heat. worksinprogress.co/issue/local-wa
The total leakage from gas pipes is so extensive that natural gas might damage the climate more than coal per energy unit delivered.
This undercuts our ability to achieve carbon reduction targets.
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After listening to her great appearance on the Volts podcast, we asked her to write about an innovative system to use geothermal heat pipes.
Here's how we can fix the problem of leaky pipes and keep our homes heated. worksinprogress.co/issue/local-wa
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Finally, the great prolific blogger ! Everything Will writes is a fascinating read.
But this one is special – on the social function of duels, and how they actually restrain violence from escalating further.
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Each new issue of Works in Progress is no longer just a set of articles, but a whole package of writing, illustrations, charts and our fun newsletter.
This time, Calum Heath illustrates the cover of London's ringways. His instagram: instagram.com/calumheath_/?h
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And Krystell Bringas illustrates for Virginia Postrel's piece on polyester. More of her work: krystellbringas.co.uk
Replying to
And Joe Ronan designs a set of slick charts for all our articles. More of his work: joejamesronan.com
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We have a fun newsletter to keep you updated with new issues of Works in Progress, and it includes bonus facts and links we recommend!
Subscribe here:
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