If you thought the military spending is high. “Google, $185 billion. Microsoft, $114 billion. Meta, $135 billion. Combined: $650 billion. [Not including OpenAI, Anthropic and SpaceX/XAI.] That is like buying the US Navy every year. “ https://asymco.com/2026/03/10/the-most-brilliant-move-in-corporate-history/
Institutions and rules matter. “By binding the Crown to honor commitments that Parliament had sanctioned, England created what modern economists would recognize as a credible commitment mechanism. The sovereign could no longer expropriate creditors through inflation, default, or arbitrary taxation… Read More »Financial Power And Imperial Rule
Is this different than the previous maker phases? “This matters because the scenius phase is where the internal transformation actually happens. When you spend two years making useless Arduino projects, you develop instincts about electronics, materials, and design that you… Read More »Vibe Coding and the Maker Movement
Using capitalism as Marxist argument. Fun and interesting read. “This is why its solutions never solve. A solved problem is a eliminated budget line. A managed problem is a permanent revenue stream.” https://tantaman.com/2026-01-27-what-would-marx-say-today
Not everything needs to be monetized. “The entire machinery of online discourse around building and creating has been so thoroughly captured by entrepreneurial “logic” that we’ve lost the language to describe what it feels like to simply make a thing… Read More »The Noble Path
Invest in what you understand.
Early retirement was always the default. “Even during the commercial efflorescence of the late Republic and Principate, no one argued that accumulation was virtuous in itself. The rich man who kept working when he could afford otium was pitiable or… Read More »Burnout is a Modern Invention
We need institutions to live. “Every day, we trust countless strangers – people who share no blood with us, whom we will never meet again, and who could easily betray that trust without anyone watching. We step into traffic assuming… Read More »Institutions are how we scale up cooperation among millions
Our values influence the questions we ask. “Studies show that women in traditional religious communities with dense communal structures report high satisfaction — often higher than women in the “liberated” middle. A standard social scientist, formed by the assumption that… Read More »The Data Doesn’t Speak
It is about values. “The danger isn’t that modern people are optimizing toward the wrong end — pursuing status when they should pursue family, or wealth when they should pursue meaning. The danger is that optimization has become a mode… Read More »The Optimization Trap: Why the Birth Rate Can’t Be Fixed