https://approximatemind.com/main/the-arbitrage-turn/ Recent content in The Arbitrage Turn on The Approximate Mind Hugo -- gohugo.io en-US © 2026 Tue, 26 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://approximatemind.com/main/the-arbitrage-turn/the-new-arbitrageurs/ Tue, 26 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://approximatemind.com/main/the-arbitrage-turn/the-new-arbitrageurs/ <p>Part 59 of this series followed a woman named Linda who prepared taxes for four hundred dollars a session, and a woman named Margaret who paid her. The argument was about what happens when AI dissolves the information gap Linda occupied. The toll booth falls. The arbitrage evaporates. Margaret saves money. Linda loses her livelihood. The value does not redistribute to anyone local. It flows upward to whoever built the tool that made Linda unnecessary.</p> https://approximatemind.com/main/the-arbitrage-turn/the-thread/ Tue, 26 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://approximatemind.com/main/the-arbitrage-turn/the-thread/ <h3 class="relative group">On the small thing the last essay noticed, and how far it turned out to run <div id="on-the-small-thing-the-last-essay-noticed-and-how-far-it-turned-out-to-run" class="anchor"></div> <span class="absolute top-0 w-6 transition-opacity opacity-0 -start-6 not-prose group-hover:opacity-100 select-none"> <a class="text-primary-300 dark:text-neutral-700 !no-underline" href="#on-the-small-thing-the-last-essay-noticed-and-how-far-it-turned-out-to-run" aria-label="Anchor">#</a> </span> </h3> <p>Cora books the cabin herself this year, on her phone, at the kitchen table, in about twenty minutes. For thirty years she called a woman named Deb who ran a travel agency above the hardware store, and Deb knew the lakes, knew which cabins had the good docks and which had the wasps in the eaves, and took a cut Cora never saw because it was folded into the price. Deb retired two winters ago. The agency is a vape shop now. And Cora, who has read every line of every receipt since she was a girl, a habit her husband used to tease her about right up until the year he wasn&rsquo;t there to tease her about anything, books the cabin herself and feels, for a moment, like she has gotten away with something.</p>