Austin Vernon
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15 September
10 July
28 March
22 February
12 February
From one piece Speed Can Reindustrialize America 15 beliefs, in the piece's order there
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korrents.com
Tariffs on imported components and machinery hurt the American manufacturers they are supposed to help.Their words
These end manufacturers (new and old) are vulnerable to tariffs on their inputs and they are the buyers that the "speed strategy" is relevant for.
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Their words
The robot arm base case saves some hourly labor at the expense of adding more skilled labor, and can easily be negative if it needs reprogramming more than a few times per year.
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Their words
The modern world is so bountiful that mass production is no longer the limiting factor.
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korrents.com
Most regulatory delay is dead calendar time that could be cut without changing a single safety test.Their words
There is a massive scope to reduce calendar time without even altering testing protocols.
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korrents.com
For small strategic materials markets like rare earths the right policy is a stockpile, not domestic production.Their words
Stockpiles provide insurance while conserving our valuable labor.
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korrents.com
The real cost of the CHIPS Act is the technical talent it ties up, not its fifty-billion-dollar price tag.Their words
The CHIPS Act might still be a positive, but the cost is almost certainly many times the $50 billion price tag.
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Their words
Industrial policy almost inevitably consumes more skilled labor and reduces what we can produce.
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Their words
Zero tariffs are the best way to help them.
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Their words
Second, technologies and market structure are contextual, where the US can't simply emulate China's manufacturing.
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Their words
It has a surplus of STEM graduates that are often underemployed, while "Hukou" residency restrictions complicate hiring hourly labor in coastal factories.
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korrents.com
An industrial robot does not replace labour, it shifts labour from hourly workers to scarce skilled ones.Their words
The key is that robot arms are not labor-replacing, but labor-shifting.
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Their words
Ultra-short lead times are one of the most important features for buyers.
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Their words
Long lead times and soft costs, fueled by the world-leading US wages for "white collar" work, are the root cause of poor performance in low-volume production because there are few units to spread the soft costs over.
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korrents.com
Reviving American manufacturing needs a better business model rather than a planned economy.Their words
Reviving manufacturing doesn't require a planned economy, just a better business model.
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Their words
The US excels at high-volume manufacturing, but not low-volume manufacturing.
26 October 2025
5 October 2025
18 August 2025
16 July 2025
5 July 2025
23 April 2025
6 March 2025
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Their words
Making ultra cheap products requires different rules and strategy.
20 January 2025
23 December 2024
10 November 2024
From one piece Human Driving Increases Transportation Cost 10x 3 beliefs, in the piece's order there
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korrents.com
What stands between us and cheap lightweight vehicles is that they are illegal, not that they are hard to build.Their words
Cheap, lightweight people movers are currently illegal in many situations, so regulation is a barrier.
Human Driving Increases Transportation Cost 10xaustinvernon.site
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Their words
It should be possible to decrease the weight of a car by 10x without sacrificing speed or internal volume.
Human Driving Increases Transportation Cost 10xaustinvernon.site
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Their words
Humans being awful drivers leads to a massive increase in vehicle costs and weight, makes cars more dangerous to people outside of them, and imposes significant costs on infrastructure like roads.
Human Driving Increases Transportation Cost 10xaustinvernon.site
12 September 2024
18 April 2024
From one piece How to Make Off Grid Data Centers Affordable 9 beliefs, in the piece's order there
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Their words
Efforts to improve efficiency and remove vestigial features pay off handsomely.
How to Make Off Grid Data Centers Affordableaustinvernon.site
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Their words
Some efforts, like nuclear-powered data centers, are reminiscent of Toyota's hydrogen push.
How to Make Off Grid Data Centers Affordableaustinvernon.site
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Their words
The 100-megawatt facility might have ten 10-megawatt blocks served directly by a 1500V DC feeder line without connections to other blocks that would require extra switches and routing.
How to Make Off Grid Data Centers Affordableaustinvernon.site
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Their words
The cooling systems in most data centers are energy hogs and contribute no direct value.
How to Make Off Grid Data Centers Affordableaustinvernon.site
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Their words
Deleting the UPSs could knock off ~$750/kW after considering equipment, installation, and square footage reduction.
How to Make Off Grid Data Centers Affordableaustinvernon.site
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Their words
Installed generators cost ~$800/kW, and the data center capital cost, including servers, is ~$40,000/kW, so adding 1% more makeup compute capacity is money ahead of purchasing generators.
How to Make Off Grid Data Centers Affordableaustinvernon.site
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Their words
The optimal scenario is typically when the generators supply 1% of yearly electricity (shown below).
How to Make Off Grid Data Centers Affordableaustinvernon.site
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korrents.com
A data centre powered by solar and batteries alone needs an array so oversized that the design is not worth building.Their words
The solar array sizes under these assumptions are prohibitively large.
How to Make Off Grid Data Centers Affordableaustinvernon.site
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korrents.com
Air cooling has run out of headroom for AI racks, so liquid cooling is now a requirement rather than an upgrade.Their words
AI servers bring new challenges because many require liquid cooling.
How to Make Off Grid Data Centers Affordableaustinvernon.site
3 January 2024
From one piece Revitalizing US Navy Shipbuilding 4 beliefs, in the piece's order there
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Their words
Nothing kills labor productivity like sections that don't fit together.
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Their words
Specialized suppliers need multiple shipyards in one location to steady their business.
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korrents.com
A modern shipyard can match a whole wartime industrial mobilisation with a fraction of the workers.Their words
South Korea's yearly production often matches the total tonnage the US produced in WWII - with one-fifth of the workers!
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Their words
Labor costs are not an excuse!
14 December 2023
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