The Boyd Institute | Substack

Housing

The NIMBY Buyout Plan (Essay Contest Winner)

How turning land-use vetoes into tradable rights can solve the housing crisis.

Dec 23, 2025 • Nathan Smith

Contact Tracing for Crime — Unlocking the Frozen City

The second-place essay in our contest, authored by The Calipers

Dec 20, 2025 • The Calipers

Housing as a Capital Markets Problem

The third-place essay in our contest, authored by Mike Fellman

Dec 17, 2025 • Mike Fellman

8 More Housing "Ground Truths"

On financialization, cap rates, market frictions, whether there's a crisis, supply constraints, YIMBYism, spatial misallocations, and human capital…

Dec 12, 2025 • William Miller

Weekly Roundup #13

Housing | Office-to residential, gentrification, California Forever, & more

Dec 6, 2025 • The Boyd Institute and William Miller

Autonomy

After Action Report: Drones & Autonomy

Reviewing our summer sprint — and why autonomy is the path to renewal and competitiveness.

Aug 26, 2025 • Jeff Giesea and The Boyd Institute

American Solvency Requires Autonomy

We can either accept inevitable austerity or grow our way out of this mess

Aug 21, 2025 • Peter Banks and The Boyd Institute

Who’s Building America’s Autonomous Edge?

50 startups reshaping how America moves, defends, and builds — and why backing them is critical to U.S. competitiveness

Aug 5, 2025 • Peter Banks and The Boyd Institute

America Must Win the World of Atoms, Not Just Bits

The path to winning in AI includes autonomous systems.

Aug 1, 2025 • Peter Banks and The Boyd Institute

50 Autonomous Systems That Will Transform the World

Real-world examples across land, air, sea, and space

Jul 21, 2025 • The Boyd Institute

Africa

Five projects to unlock the Congo Corridor

and advance commercial diplomacy in Central Africa

Jun 2, 2025 • Jeff Giesea and The Boyd Institute

Proposing: The Congo River Corridor

Lobito was just the beginning. The Congo Corridor is next.

May 12, 2025 • The Boyd Institute and Jeff Giesea

Securing Red Sea commerce from Houthi threats

Rapid response recommendations based on our Space on maritime issues

Dec 23, 2023 • The Boyd Institute, Michael Guimarin, and Jeff Giesea

Thiel Fellows, for Africa

Africa’s youthquake is a generational opportunity for diplomacy and technology innovation

Dec 18, 2023 • The Boyd Institute and Jeff Giesea

China-Taiwan

Why not a NATO for the Indo-Pacific?

How AUKUS can catalyze a broader security architecture

Apr 4, 2024 • The Boyd Institute and Jeff Giesea

The world should be more paranoid about a Taiwan invasion threat

An assessment of the Taiwan invasion threat and blind spots in existing scenarios

Mar 15, 2024 • Jeff Giesea and The Boyd Institute

A reading list to quickly get up to speed on China's threat to Taiwan

10 resources and 2 requests for more info

Mar 11, 2024 • Jeff Giesea and The Boyd Institute

Space

Why I am petitioning the UK government to invest in heavy lift space launch

The UK government should approach SpaceX about setting up a UK launch site to support Starship/Superheavy launches from our territory, argues Peter…

Jan 15, 2024 • The Boyd Institute and Peter Hague

AUKUS's ‘Public Space Awareness’ opportunity

Imagine “Google Earth for space" powered by AUKUS’s new DARC initiative. Making space awareness public would be a powerful step toward scalable space…

Dec 11, 2023 • Jeff Giesea and The Boyd Institute

Up and out! The spark needed to accelerate space exploration

Our inward-focused global decision-making system is breaking down. Let's fix it by expanding outward into space using a novel approach.

Dec 4, 2023 • John Robb and The Boyd Institute

Why hasn’t anyone heard of Artemis?

NASA’s Artemis space program needs a marketing boost. Here's how to do it.

Nov 20, 2023 • Jeff Giesea and The Boyd Institute

Tech Governance

AI is Democracy's Best Hope

The path to democratic renewal runs through intelligent systems

Feb 16 • The Boyd Institute and Jeff Giesea

Proposing: The American Autonomy Initiative

A national strategy to lead in autonomy across land, sea, air, and space

Jul 9, 2025 • The Boyd Institute, John Robb, and Jeff Giesea

Imagining an Office of Strategic Technology (OST)

A concept overview for an “OSS for tech” to accelerate strategic technology for America and AUKUS

Jan 8, 2024 • The Boyd Institute and Jeff Giesea

Thiel Fellows, for Africa

Africa’s youthquake is a generational opportunity for diplomacy and technology innovation

Dec 18, 2023 • The Boyd Institute and Jeff Giesea

The Technorealist alternative

Safetyism and Techno-optimism aren’t the only options for dealing with AI risks. Technorealism is the framework needed to guide us through these issues.

Nov 27, 2023 • Jeff Giesea and The Boyd Institute

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