The Ungoverned

Thoughts on man and his universe
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  • David Veksler

The Huawei ban and the end of the American empire May 22, 2019

Trump's ban of Huawei is much more serious than you think. American technology and intellectual property played a key role in the development of China as the world's leading electronics manufacturer. Chinese businesses import $557.9 billion of goods from the U.S. The collaboration of American innovation and Chinese skilled labor are responsible for the smartphone revolution. Trump's ban of Huawei as an executive "emergency order" in the name of "national security" threatens the current world order. China needs American innovation to power its manufacturing basis in the short term. If they are forced to, however, they will develop their own...

By David Veksler Vote4 0

How I found the ONE trick to lose belly fat overnight May 10, 2019

About three years ago, I decided to reach an ambitious financial goal, that would put me in the top 5% of my peers. I engaged in a deep dive of personal finance, which led me to reject the conventional wisdom about career, savings, and investing. I developed new principles, achieved financial success, and moved my retirement date forward by several decades. Two months ago, I became aware that though I was only slightly overweight, as I got older, my weight was having a detrimental effect on my health in many ways. I decided to engage in a similar process to...

By David Veksler Vote3 0

How cultural Marxism ruined PC builds Feb 17, 2019

How cultural Marxism ruins everything: Perhaps the most popular and well-produced technology commentary site on the Internet is The Verge. The Verge recently published a how-to guide for building a $2000 gaming computer. The guide was full of wrong and cringe-worthy information and was widely ridiculed by YouTube commentators. The Verge responded by calling its critics "toxic" and "racially motivated" and filed DMCA copyright infringement claims against YouTube commentators who used the video to explain why the information was wrong. The Verge first deleted all negative comments, then disabled all comments and votes on the video, then ultimately acknowledge that...

By David Veksler Vote1 0

The Fatal Conceit Feb 14, 2019

Imagine that planet Earth had a sister planet, like our Earth, but without any people. Imagine that you could magically transport humans and all their possessions to this planet, one at a time.How many people would you need to transport to create a standard of living equal to our Earth? Without a period of rebuilding knowledge and capital, I believe that the answer would be quite close to seven billion.Virtually all of humankind is integrated into a global web of civilization. The physical and mental bonds linking every human being together are just as essential to our survival as our technical...

By David Veksler Vote1 0

Welcome to the experience economy, where ownership is a hobby Feb 10, 2019

I love the awesome stuff you can get these days. I was born in Soviet Ukraine and grew up before the internet, before cell phones, before the smart-everything, connected-everything, disposable-everything era. Don't even get me started about groceries. My second favorite thing about the United States is Costco and their cheap five-pound strawberry crates, giant cheese wedges, and more. Ownership Is a Drag But as much I love stuff, I hate owning things. Ownership is a drag. As soon as I acquire anything, it begins to decay, get outdated, and lose its relevance to me. Every single possession is a...

By David Veksler Vote2 0

How egalitarianism ruined education Feb 6, 2019

Children should not be forced to memorize anything that does not serve a practical purpose. Education beyond basic social function should be "just in time" not "just in case." What is "practical?" That depends on the context of the child's abilities and socio-economic status, but it can be objectively answered. Plumbers don't need Shakespeare. A plumber is welcome to read Hamlet, but forcing him to spend 16 years in useless classroom rituals wastes both money and the most productive years of his life. The egalitarian myth is: if all children are given a proper education, they can all have an...

By David Veksler Vote3 0

Why Hollywood villains have become politically correct Feb 6, 2019

Why even Hollywood villains have become politically correct: According to the "nothing about us without us" principle of intersectionality, it is verboten to present racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, xenophobia, classism, etc without being a member of the victim group. As a result, creators not allowed to have their *villains* have such traits unless the writer/producer themselves are in the victim group. For example, the left forced Chinese-American writer Amélie Wen Zhao to withdraw her debut fantasy novel containing slavery because, even though Chinese immigrants experienced racism, they were not actually enslaved. The only evil which remains a fair target...

By David Veksler Vote2 0

Third-wave feminism is an assault on women’s rights Feb 6, 2019

If today's feminists stood for anything at all, they ought to support a woman's basic right to own her body. Yet today's "woke" feminists stand for precisely the opposite: In the West, the feminist movement won basic rights for women to enter into contracts, vote, and change the legal status of women from "property" to "human being." Faced with the victory of their original aims, modern "third-wave" feminists decided to redefine feminism by combining it with intersectionality. Intersectionality is the idea that society is dominated by "layers of oppression" such as racism, classism, ableism, ageism and many more. Equality before...

By David Veksler Vote1 0

Three Key Differences Between Traditional and Crypto Markets Jan 15, 2019

What is the real market value of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin? The numbers used to explain the performance of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are less meaningful than most assume. Cryptocurrencies are not exactly like stocks, and cryptocurrency exchanges do not work like traditional securities markets. As a result, many crypto-asset investment strategies based on conventional definitions of market share, capitalization, volatility, and trading volume are deeply flawed. Misleading numbers mean that cryptocurrency valuation and adoption is poorly understood, which creates a false perception by the media and investors about cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.  One implication of this analysis is that Bitcoin has...

By David Veksler Vote1 0

Will Bitcoin burn the planet to ashes? Not so fast. Dec 8, 2018

Environmentalists have recently become concerned about the impact Bitcoin mining has on global warming. Headlines such as "Bitcoin Will Burn the Planet Down. The Question: How Fast?" and "Bitcoin Mining Alone Could Raise Global Temperatures Above Critical Limit By 2033" suggest that Bitcoin is an unfolding environmental disaster. However, those panicking about crypto make three fundamental errors. First, they do not understand how Bitcoin works, second, they do not understand what mass adoption would look like, and third, they do not understand the problem Bitcoin is intended to solve. Regardless of your opinion on the danger of global warming, Bitcoin...

By David Veksler Vote7 0

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