Creator Trung Phan highlights Lee Kuan Yew's argument framing air conditioning as a highly critical historical invention

Here my notes on LKY's memoir...with an emphasis on how he spent ~10% of the country's GDP in 1981 to build Changi Airport.

Says one of the country's "best investments" for recruiting talent and tourist. Now, frequently ranked among world's best airport:https://www.readtrung.com/p/lee-kuan-yew-and-the-making-of-changi

I grew up in Massachusetts. Summers are humid, brutal with many mosquitos. Open the windows, you get bit. We had no AC, my best friend did. It was the ultimate luxury - this was the 1970s. I still remember getting hit in the face by the wall of cool whenever I walked into his house. I vowed that I would do whatever it took to get central AC. When we bought our first condo over 25 years ago, it obv had AC. I told myself then "I made it" and everything after was just gravy. Low expectations is key to happiness.

You do all realize that Europe is more northern then US and the tropics? And that in large parts of Europe it is mostly cold for the major part of the year requiring heating. And that this situation is fairly new and perhaps best handled by heat exchangers due to the strain ACs have on the grid. Or we will have to send all the elderly and at risk northward during hot seasons. Besides that a solution is needed that doesn't accelerate climate change, because that would be just bad planning. And for many a comfortable temperature is maybe 24-26, not 18, even indoors.

@TrungTPhan

More Europeans are dying from heat-related causes tied to a lack of air conditioning than Americans die from guns. Europe: ~63,000 heat excess deaths in summer 2024. US: ~44,500 gun deaths for the whole year. Lee Kuan Yew understood this decades ago. Widespread AC saves lives in hot weather, Europe is learning it the hard way.

@davidlee I spent a few summers in Boston and Monteal…July-August was no joke!!

“Wall of cool” great description.

@TrungTPhan Yet EVERY office facility in the United States is 76 degrees F because “Tina is cold”

@TrungTPhan *laughs in 34C Paris apartment*

@TrungTPhan Americans causing trouble in The UK

@TrungTPhan Frederick McKinley Jones was an American inventor, entrepreneur, engineer, winner of the National Medal of Technology, and an inductee of the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

He innovated mobile refrigeration technology

@TrungTPhan Air conditioning has allowed places like Singapore, Dubai or Panama to exist

Without it, they would still be backwaters

@TrungTPhan Europeans denying the need for AC has been one of the most fascinating of the recent X discussions.

Really fun to watch 😂

@TrungTPhan Not many are aware that air conditioning was invented by three Jewish men. Their names are on every air conditioner made.

Norm, Hi, and Max.

My mother always said the big decline of neighborly companionship was due to AC. When she grew up without AC, everybody would have drinks and socialize and be outside trying to get fresh air whereas modern days everyone hides in their AC houses - AC did take some human socialization downward. An interesting perspective

@TrungTPhan There is a correlation between AC availability and IQ. I don’t think anyone can sit down and focus in hot and humid weather

@TrungTPhan The Air Conditioner was invented by a White American, Willis Haviland Carrier.

To dive deep into this topic, check out this fascinating, obscure book: https://www.google.com/books/edition/Air_conditioning_America/WvquIwSaTGIC?hl=en

Essentially, HVAC enabled the motion picture industry (theatres), textile factories in humid environments, air travel, modern office environments, enclosed shopping malls…a much more impactful innovation than the Internet.

@TrungTPhan Was 95 degrees all summer when I was bailing hay and putting on shingles and building retaining walls. How'd we do that?

The charts are from this FT piece by jburnmurdoch (Jul 2025):

**Britain and Europe need to get serious about air conditioning**

https://www.ft.com/content/50f69324-8dc8-4ef1-b471-d78e260adae0

It cites Baniassadi et al. 2024, Goodman et al. 2018 & Seppanen et al. 2006. The graphic shows exactly those curves on sleep, productivity & learning loss above ~23°C indoor.

@TrungTPhan One of the most important lessons in life is recognizing when somebody, who you despise otherwise, is correct.