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Derek Thompson Profile picture
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23 Oct, 5 tweets, 2 min read
Between the 1970s and 1990s, the share of sequels in Hollywood didn't change.

Since 1999, it's basically been more sequels, remakes, and adaptations every year.

WHAT HAPPENED IN 1999?
1. Probably the smartest version of the "in the long run, everything is downstream of technology" argument

2. The rise of prestige TV

The 1990s happened to be when cable TV neared its financial apex, drew in big-time showrunners whose hits had a flywheel effect that, over time, sucked original stories to the smaller screen

3. The Anita Elberse Blockbuster theory

As marketing costs for films grew, it pushed studios toward safer projects with more built-in "pre-awareness." Late 90s was an inflection point in studios choosing Fewer-Bigger-Familiar over More-Small-Original

4. The Phantom Menace Theory!

I have some fondness for the idea that the Phantom Menace had a kind of Roger Bannister Effect on Hollywood, showing that you can break land-speed records for shitty familiarity and audiences will still show up in droves.

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More from @DKThomp

Derek Thompson Profile picture
15 Oct
I wrote about the great acceleration of the Great Resignation—and why it matters.

theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…

Crises leave unpredictable marks on history. We may look back at the pandemic as a long-term, fundamental shift in Americans’ attitudes toward work.
Americans have a weird relationship with "quitting."

It sounds like something for losers and loafers. But it's an expression of optimism.

The mid-20th century—which we imagine as some golden age of company men with 40-year careers—had more quitting!

Great Resignation is one of several Great R-words shaping the economy.

- Great Reset = ppl reducing the role of work in their life

- Great Reshuffling = more migration + business creation

- Great Rudeness = customers behaving like little shits, motivating leisure-sector quits
Read 5 tweets
Derek Thompson Profile picture
9 Oct
Fascinating article on why the working class might not be as enthusiastic about universal benefits as elite policy ppl hope.

nytimes.com/2021/09/14/opi…

It's one article, based on one report, but it's churning some thoughts I just wanna submit for for public scrutiny.
When I wrote my workism essay, I defined it as a *disproportionately elite* notion that work ought to be the centerpiece of our identity, and life.

theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…

Recently there's been a movement to fight workism with, eg, UBI, 4-day workweeks, anti-burnout policies
What if it's the ideology of the anti-workists that's the actually elite ideology?

What if the working class + MC immigrants are way more workist than we (or, I) assumed? And their resistance to universal programs stems from a deep belief that policy SHOULD revolve around work?
Read 5 tweets
Derek Thompson Profile picture
1 Oct
This sounds like “TamiFlu for COVID, but it actually works.”

It would be an absolute game-changer.
Some analysis and caveats from @PeterHotez
So many replies like this. Ugh.

Look, millions of ppl aren't going to get vaxx'd, period, no matter how many articles and pods and tweets we all do about it.

They're gonna get COVID. And I don't want them to die. That's why it would be a game changer!

Read 5 tweets
Derek Thompson Profile picture
30 Sep
There is a fandom faction within both parties that says a lot about their forking paths

Republicans idolize conspiratorial, institution-smashing outsiders, while many Democrats make bobbleheads from bureaucratic heroes, or within-the-system saviors

theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
My point isn't that these distinct tastes for political heroes are equivalent, or equally rational.

But there is a difference here that clearly exists, which says something important, I think, about education polarization, trust in institutions, and baseline paranoia re: elites.
I don't think everything is downstream of education polarization, but the GOP Outsider Savior vs. Democratic Insider Hero dynamic definitely is.

If, at a gut level, you just trust advanced-degree leaders of traditional institutions, you're gonna fish in that pond for heroes.
Read 4 tweets
Derek Thompson Profile picture
22 Sep
What's the best argument you've read against the Biden vaccine quasi-mandate?

I'm strongly supportive of the vaccine (obv), lightly supportive of the WH's employer mandate/testing policy, and have now read several unpersuasive-to-me cases against the policy.
States have for decades required immunizations for public education (etc), but suddenly it's The Beginning of Tyranny for the state to make our employment by big firms contingent on vaccination?

That's not v persuasive to me.

"Vaccine mandates will trigger a damaging backlash" is possible, but we don't know for sure. It's a guess.

But we have polling data that clearly identifies a group ppl who say they will get vaccinated if it's required.

Read 6 tweets
Derek Thompson Profile picture
21 Sep
I wrote about a huge new study on remote work—60,000 employees at Microsoft—and what it tells us about the future of knowledge work, productivity, and a trillion-dollar question: What are offices good for, exactly?

theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
The study—from Berkeley and Microsoft—found that in the pandemic employees talked less to ppl outside their formal teams, while ties within teams ("clustering coefficient") deepened.

nature.com/articles/s4156…

The silos got deeper; the walls got higher.
Cross-group communication at Microsoft seems to have plunged. But it's harder to say that overall productivity at Microsoft has puked.

In its latest earnings report, net income increased by 47%. Since March 2020, the firm has added almost $1 trillion in market cap.
Read 8 tweets

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