# Reading List - 05/10/2026

- URL: https://bryancowan.com/reading-list-05-10-2026/
- Published: May 10, 2026
- Series: Reading list
- Tags: behavioralEconomics, opinion, regulation, predictionMarkets, sportsBetting, generativeAi, aiAgents, uxDesign, agenticWorkflows, productDesign, softwareArchitecture, softwareEngineering, criticalThinking, professionalDevelopment, skillDevelopment

This week: why vice markets can't be free markets, how software is changing to support agent-to-agent interactions, and why using AI to skip the thinking is a trade you'll regret.

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### 1. [The Economics of Vice](https://www.commonplace.org/p/the-economics-of-vice)
Brad Littlejohn  
Published: 04/16/2026

**The Economics of Vice**  
Sports gambling has grown twenty-five times since legalization, and gambling addiction has tracked right alongside it. Vice markets invert the normal demand curve: more consumption creates more desire, not less. The internet stripped away the two forces that had historically kept these behaviors in check: shame and friction. Prediction markets run on the same mechanics, whatever the branding, and there's a real difference between tolerating a vice and building a scrolling ticker for it on CNN.

_Filed Under:_ #behavioralEconomics #opinion #regulation #predictionMarkets #sportsBetting

### 2. [Designing for Agents](https://x.com/teddy_riker/status/2047312986696454584/?rw_tt_thread=True)
@teddy_riker  
Published: 04/23/2026

**Designing for Agents**  
For twenty years, software interaction ran one model: User → Interface → Database. Agents are adding a new layer: User → User's Agent → Software's Agent → Database. Salesforce's "Headless 360" is an early bet on this, exposing their entire platform as APIs and MCP tools so agents can operate the system without ever opening a browser.

Product teams that ship an MCP and move on will stall. The ones that win will design for agent callers with the same care they once applied to human users: proactive specs, feedback loops, and a clear sense of where each side's context begins and ends.

_Filed Under:_ #generativeAi #aiAgents #uxDesign #agenticWorkflows #productDesign #softwareArchitecture

### 3. [A.I. Should Elevate Your Thinking, Not Replace It](https://www.koshyjohn.com/blog/ai-should-elevate-your-thinking-not-replace-it/)
Koshy John  
Published: 04/19/2026

**A.I. Should Elevate Your Thinking, Not Replace It**  
AI is splitting people into two groups: those who use it to remove drudgery and operate at a higher level, and those who use it to avoid thinking altogether. The second path looks like productivity for a while, until it isn't.

It's a software engineering piece, but it goes for anyone. If you're using AI to do the work you don't want to do, that's leverage. If you're using it to skip the reasoning, you're not putting in the reps that build judgment, and judgment is the thing AI can't replace.

_Filed Under:_ #opinion #generativeAi #softwareEngineering #criticalThinking #professionalDevelopment #skillDevelopment