How China Works
Probably not how you think.
Recommended
John Carter z Marsu – Praotec všetkých vesmírnych hrdinov
Pred Hanom Solom. Pred poručíkom Starbuckom, kapitánom Kirkom a Flashom Gordonom. Ešte pred Buckom Rogersom tu bol John Carter z Marsu – vojvodca Barsoomu, šermiar, ktorému sa nikto nevyrovná, a úplne prvý gangster medzi medzigalaktickými dobrodruhmi a nakopávačmi mimozemských rití.… Read More »John Carter z Marsu – Praotec všetkých vesmírnych hrdinov
Collections: Pre-Modern Armies for Worldbuilders, Part IIb: Officials, Contractors and Professionals
Bureaucracy makes sure stuff people don’t want to do happens. “Now you can see that each of these systems relies – at least for the peasants – on compulsion. The peasants do not get anything for their service – they… Read More »Collections: Pre-Modern Armies for Worldbuilders, Part IIb: Officials, Contractors and Professionals
Collections: Pre-Modern Armies for Worldbuilders, Part IIa: Mobilization without Administration
There was no local police in the past. “MMORPGs and fantasy worlds alike love their ‘local village guards,’ but these societies cannot afford many full-time soldiers and the ones they can afford tend to be guarding things like castles and… Read More »Collections: Pre-Modern Armies for Worldbuilders, Part IIa: Mobilization without Administration
Collections: Pre-Modern Armies for Worldbuilders, Part I: Why They Fight
People are hard to coerce by force alone. “why do these fellows feel like they must or ought to serve. A lot of historical fiction or fantasy settings fail to address this particular question or else answer it with a… Read More »Collections: Pre-Modern Armies for Worldbuilders, Part I: Why They Fight
Phones Are Bad
Not the old kind. The smart one. “There’s also an impulse to do a sort of “Good Tsar, bad boyars” maneuver, where people say “it’s not the phones, it’s social media”. But this is an argument over whether guns kill… Read More »Phones Are Bad
Book review: “Power and Progress”
Even famous scientist can argue badly. “The idea that the Haber-Bosch process has “brought nothing like shared prosperity” is an absolutely wild claim. Nitrogen fertilizers are so important to human existence that by the most common estimates, about half of… Read More »Book review: “Power and Progress”
Modern Football Is Dying
Is it? And why?
Why does middle-class life keep getting expensive?
And is it really?