weekly link roundup (May 26, 2026)

• In Development Magazine is hiring! If you are a self-starter, care about development, and enjoy shaping pieces, apply here.

• The last piece of our first issue is out: Akshay Narayanan on the lack of opioid treatment in India. This is the kind of piece I wanted to find when I started In Development Magazine - it covers an issue I’d never seen covered before, and outlines clear ways that the status quo could be improved.

• The Roots of Progress Blog Building Intensive is accepting applications until June 1. I highly recommend this; it improved my writing practice, I met awesome and thoughtful people, and I don’t think I would have started In Development Magazine if I hadn’t done it.

• Everyone has linked to and discussed this piece, but Nan Ransohoff writes about the coming wave of AI billionaires and their philanthropic intentions. It is possible that philanthropic organizations will have a lot more money in the near future (though I do think we should perhaps not count our chickens before they hatch).

• Adam Rochussen argues that biology is a blue-collar job¹ dependent on physical skills and should hire like it.

• Alexander Kustov argues in The Washington Post that we should expand the O-1 visa.

• Everything Todd Moss does is self-recommending, but Launchpad has a new interview with him about how to make change from outside of government.

• Chris Blattman has a list of books every development economist should read. Fine, I’ll finally get around to reading African Economies and the Politics of Permanent Crisis.

• What is it like to live in the Barbican? I have wanted to live there since I moved to London, but I think this article has finally cured me of that desire. That is simply Too Many Rules.

1. The title of the piece says that “science” is a blue-collar job; I would clarify that this is not true of all science. My hand-eye coordination came up exactly none while doing theoretical physics.