Things I Learned - August 2025

+ reflections on the UK + other news

Hello from San Francisco. Here is this month’s slightly belated Things I Learned. Plus some observations on the UK.

Things I Learned

1. American college sports generate more revenue than the English Premier League and the NBA combined. (source)

2. Kim Jong Un weighs 310 pounds. (source)

3. The phrase “first-rate” was originally a naval term: a “first-rate” ship was any ship with more than 100 guns.¹ (source)

4. Google searches for the word “vegan” peaked in 2020 and have been in decline since. (source)

5. In the US, 1% of the workforce is laid off every month, nearly 10 times the rate in Germany. (source)

6. Amtrak will let you attach your own private car to one of their trains, and they charge you per a mile. (source, h/t)

7. No European had eaten a tomato until the 16th century. (source)

8. On both Instagram and Facebook, significantly more time is spent watching third party videos than consuming content from friends. (source)

9. The famous Wall Street “Charging Bull” was neither commissioned nor approved; it was simply dropped there one day. (source)

10. Nowhere in the Bible is premarital sex explicitly condemned. (source)

11. In the US, there are more billionaires over the age of 100 than under the age of 30. (source)

12. From 1808 to 1815, Rio de Janeiro served as the capital of the Kingdom of Portugal, making it the the only city outside of Europe to have been a European capital. (source, h/t)

13. 79% of grades at Harvard are in the A range (up from 33% in 1985). (source)

14. Medically-assisted dying now accounts for about one in 20 deaths in Canada, more than Alzheimer’s and diabetes combined. (source)

15. The name Alfred means “elf counsel”. (source)

16. The “at-home” day was a social custom in Victorian England where women of gentle status would receive visitors on a specific day of the week. (source)

17. Some trees have genders, including holly, persimmon and ginkgo. (source)

18. Over the past 5 years, the stock of Build-a-Bear Workshop — a company that went public in 2004 — has outperformed every single stock in the S&P500, including Nvidia, Palantir, and Tesla. (source)

Graphs This Month

• jokes on you since in three months I’ll be 31

• NYC is the only city to have recovered from COVID-induced remote work shift

• Derek Thompson explains why:

  

• homeownership and serial killings aren’t the only things in decline

  

Some of the Articles I Wrote This Month

• Economist Disagree About Everything. Don’t They?

• Ivy League Universities are on a Debt Binge

• The McWages Index: Which Countries Earn the Most Big Macs?

• Do Consultants Make Good CEOs?

  ft. lots of cool (since I made them) graphs:

Some Observations on the UK/London

Saturday marked the end of my 6 months living in the UK (as I explain in the next section). To that end I figured I would share some minor observations I had from my time there. Take with obvious grains of salt.

• There is lots of nationalistic branding on groceries/produce (British milk, British eggs, British cheese, etc.). I feel like the US has a reputation for national chauvinism but we don’t really do that type of branding on our groceries?

• There is a big appliance deficit. Some obvious (air conditioning is more or less nonexistent); some less so: dryers for clothes are rare, dishwashers/laundry units take longer and are lower quality, etc. However, kettles boil much faster in the UK (apparently this is because they draw more power than US ones).

• Bank holidays — similar to Federal holidays in the US — are unnamed; they are simply referred “bank holidays.” This is bizarre! In the US we have too many people we want to honor with federal holidays, leading to contentious votes; you would think the UK would have found some people to honor!

• Trash cans in the street are much rarer in the UK than in the US; sometimes I would have to walk 3+ blocks to find one. Someone told me this was due to bomb concerns but I’m skeptical this is the whole reason. Anyway, I didn’t find the streets to have all that much more trash so I guess it’s not that big a deal?

• The tube/subway in London is very well functioning (lack of air conditioning notwithstanding); it was far more frequent, cleaner, and suffered fewer delays than any US subway system I’ve been on. And the behavior of riders (ranging from noise levels, to food consumption, to general etiquette) was better as well.

• Four observations on money and payment systems: (1) Everything is much better integrated with apple pay and cards than in the US. I did not need to take out cash in 6 months. (2) the majority of people still use debit, not credit cards (3) as many people know, the British don’t use anything like Venmo; they use direct bank transfers that requires you to enter a sort code and account number (the more surprising thing is that they all swear this is more convenient than Venmo, which it definitely is not) (4) Tipping at restaurants is more-or-less non-existent, which is great, but there are some strange surcharges (e.g. you pay extra to eat in vs. take out).

• I didn’t quite realize how big of a thing “pub culture” is in the UK. I had assumed it was just what they call happy hour. But every day in summer the pubs in London are absolutely packed; beers are by far the modal drink (compared to wine/cocktails in the US); and the ‘price of a pint’ is an extremely salient issue in the UK. Another thing I found interesting: almost every pub in London is located on a corner (which is not at all true in the US). I wonder if this is some artifact of zoning policy.

• Things I saw less of in the UK than in the US: (1) Pepsi (2) people running shirtless (3) people taking Ubers (4) dogs in parks (5) (free) wifi in cafes (6) vanity license plates (7) customizable / “design-your-own”-bowl/salad/wrap lunch places.

• I am amazed at how many places are either closed or close early on sundays, not because I hadn’t seen it before, but because I assumed this would be the first victim of globalization.

• The industrial organization of grocery stores in London is very interesting: there are a couple very large supermarkets spread out, but for most groceries people go to very small versions of the larger chains (sainsbury local, tesco express, etc) that seem to be where most people get their groceries. Compare this to NYC where the only comparably-small-sized stores are unaffiliated bodegas.

Finally..

On Friday I completed my 6-month fellowship at The Economist (and officially moved to NYC). I am exceedingly grateful to all my colleagues at the publication for their support and patience throughout my time there. I ended up writing ~17 articles on various topics. Next month, I’ll try write my reflections on what it is like to write for the magazine (similar to those by my predecessor, Arjun Ramani). I of course would have loved to stay for longer, but I’m starting a new job in New York next week.

For now, if you or anyone you know might be interested in financial or economic journalism, you can apply to be my replacement. Job posting is here, applications due October 15, no journalistic background required. I can’t recommend it enough, and I’m more than happy to chat further with anyone if they have questions.

Last day of work

Anyway, I hope everyone has a happy September! Since I still count September as part of the “summer”, this month I’ll be working on knocking as many items as possible off this summer bucket list (so far I’ve done 22/50).

1. I learned this during a very pleasant visit to the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, London. It turns out there are a quite a few naval etymologies: for example, the “bitter end” is part of an anchor cable; “posh” (port out / starboard home) were the best parts of the cabin on the voyage to/from India since they were shaded, etc.