The 9 Questions I’m Obsessed With Right Now: AI, Politics, Movies, Drugs, and Western Civilization

Derek Thompson · 7 Aug 2026

Derek Thompson did not write this page.

Every claim below was made in this piece, quoted word for word and numbered in the order the piece makes them, so you can read it there rather than take our word for it. The sentence above each quote is our reading of the claim, not their wording. Each quote was checked against a stored copy of the page at build time; where the two differ, the quote is the fact.

Our reading
Anthropic or OpenAI's revenue could equal or exceed the combined revenue of Elon Musk's public companies within the next one to two years.

Their wordsit's not out of the question that Anthropic or OpenAI-which barely had any revenue before 2023-could equal or surpass the revenue of all of Musk's public companies some time in the next 12 to 24 months.
Our reading
An era of original, director-driven blockbusters raises the bar for box-office success compared to franchise filmmaking.

Their wordsThe long-term risk for Hollywood is that an age of original blockbusters raises the bar for success.
Our reading
Modern people are both more selfish and more guilt-stricken than people in the past.

Their wordsCombined with Nietzsche's observation, I think you could argue that moderns are both more selfish and more guilt-stricken than our ancestors.

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The other pieces are the ones whose claims are worded most like this one's. That measures language, not agreement: they may argue the opposite.