Nullius in Verba #57
Serendipity, Data Centres and Agency
Disruption of service is hugely regretted. But we are back on scheduled programming. Here are 6 articles to make up for my absence:
1) The Quiet Case for New Zealand Data Centers
A lucid, numbers-first argument that New Zealand is a sleeper pick for AI-era compute: cool climate, abundant renewables, political stability, seismic-aware engineering, and watery moats (literal and figurative) against geopolitical risk. It also asks the real question most hype pieces skip: given capex scarcity, where does absolute reliability per megawatt actually pencil out? A tidy primer on how geography becomes destiny when your product is electrons and uptime.
2) What If AI Supercharged Global Growth?
The Economist lays out a scenario tree for AI driven growth: where gains show up first (software, services), where they stall (health, education), and how diffusion, regulation, and energy supply become the real gates. The piece is unusually clear about second-order effects - on wages, competition policy, and the ever-present Baumol ceiling - and gives us a checklist for tracking reality vs. rhetoric over the next 24 months. Worth reading now and revisiting in a year. (Link)
3) Finding ICP the Hard (and Only) Way
Vanta, Clay, and Retool each tell the unglamorous story of how they narrowed from “anyone who might buy” to a cold, specific Ideal Customer Profile and only then did growth compound. The takeaways are tactical: ruthless exclusion criteria, salesperson-led discovery feeding product, and pricing that encodes your guess about value creation. If you’re early-stage and feel “spread thin,” this is the antidote. I found it immensely useful. (Link)
4) Agency Is a Muscle
Henrik Karlsson’s essay on agency has been a personal favorite of mine that I keep going back to again and again. I find the framing quite empowering. I hope you do too.
5) India’s Scramble for AI Independence
Behind the slogans, a sober look at India’s push to control compute, models, and supply chains: who’s building what, where the bottlenecks live (talent, fabs, energy), and the trade-offs between sovereignty and speed. The reporting shines when it follows the money (public incentives vs. private capital) and sketches what a distinctly Indian AI stack might look like if it succeeds. (Link)
6) Serendipity by Design in the Faroe Islands
Tourism, but make it game design: the Faroes nudge visitors away from Instagram chokepoints with timed “Passepartout” bookings, scarcity, and gentle friction, turning travel back into discovery. It’s a small case study in how policy plus UX can shift behavior at scale - useful well beyond tourism, from public services to city planning. Also: it’s just a lovely read. (Link)
Happy reading!