When I was younger I very much cared about how successful I was compared to everyone else and I was miserable. At some point I stopped caring and have been much happier ever since
Jeff, what a phenomenal piece of writing!!!! Wow is this required reading for humanity right now. May this be read far & wide!!!! Thank you for such a cogent take on reality today.
No, we need to stop the redistribution of wealth from young to old, renters to homeowners, labor to capital. The game is rigged by the government, not market forces. Maybe I'm too contrarian to accept this unicorn argument and why I'm a shelp.
On a recent visit to Washington, a very senior member of the Senate told me that in the early 1950s roughly a third of the US population was engaged in agriculture. The number now? 2%. This might have something to do with the power distribution that Jeff describes. We have become detached from sources of fundamental value. And the production of the most important things - like food - has limited, and concentrated, economic value.
On a more positive note, the unicorn illustrations are fantastic! AI generated?
Great point. The industrial economy began generating asymmetries over a century ago, and the information economy has only amplified them. Financialization adds another layer, reinforcing the disconnect between economic value and tangible goods, as you noted.
The images were created using Grok! That's the AI tool within X.
I think you are very right about all this. As someone who enjoys a frugal middle class lifestyle and doesn't chase after wealth, the difference between the top 1% and 0.1% doesn't matter to me in the least. But I absolutely agree with you that in the modern age, our biggest problem is not creating wealth. Our biggest problem is ensuring that our wealth is broadly distributed. I too have been unicorn pilled into supporting labor unions despite their obvious pitfalls. Teddy Roosevelt BEST PRESIDENT EVAH!!!!!!!!!!!
…in general i prefer powders to pills…but if yr gonna put a unicorn in it!…i think back to earlier this year when jeff bezos daydreamed out loud about us all living in space boxes…in this future scenario is bezos going to join us plebes in his boxes?… or does he keep earth or make a space yacht to rule from?…growing up our richest neighbor didn’t let us walk on their grass…is asymmetry the cause or the symptom of economic othering?…are asymmetric systems made to sustain or topple?…i am thinking the more they rule the more chaos reigns…but i probably read too many comic books…great article and observations…
My unicorn pill was Taylor Swift, I don't think any other musician ever has been so popular. And then I look at my country of origin, Hungary, and I see 22 years old singer, Azahriah, filling the largest stadium four times in a row. No one ever could do this at such a young age.
There is something out there that magnifies big success into gigantic success.
As asymmetries increase exponentially, preventing a coalition of the defeated will require more and more authoritarian methods. Perhaps feudalism is the natural state of humanity after all?
Unfortunately pathway dependency is trending there. For all the talk of agency, few people actually have any meaningful levels of it. If anything, populism is the most likely mechanism for delaying these trends.
Yeah populism can be seen as an approach to pushing back to the Age of Asymmetry. The problem is populism gotten so dumb and destructive. Ultimately, it's not the solution. At this point, some centrist Democrats and center-right elites have better answers than populist rightists, though there are too few of these.
At the same time the lesser of two evils usually comes down to individual calculations. Can't blame anyone when their own math leads them in a direction.
I guess the people really frozen out are populist centrists. Center-right elites would basically bring back Bush era stuff, while centrist Dems still seem willing to rubber stamp most of wokeness in exchange for more technocratic and pro-elite economic policies.
Thank you Jeff, this is really a thoughtful piece of writing and a compelling argument for the widespread use of hallucinogens:)
haha, thanks Riley
When I was younger I very much cared about how successful I was compared to everyone else and I was miserable. At some point I stopped caring and have been much happier ever since
Jeff, what a phenomenal piece of writing!!!! Wow is this required reading for humanity right now. May this be read far & wide!!!! Thank you for such a cogent take on reality today.
Thanks so much Melissa. I'm glad you liked it.
I LOVED it!!!
No, we need to stop the redistribution of wealth from young to old, renters to homeowners, labor to capital. The game is rigged by the government, not market forces. Maybe I'm too contrarian to accept this unicorn argument and why I'm a shelp.
The unicorn argument is about seeing the world through the perspective of asymmetry. What you do with that politically is up to you.
On a recent visit to Washington, a very senior member of the Senate told me that in the early 1950s roughly a third of the US population was engaged in agriculture. The number now? 2%. This might have something to do with the power distribution that Jeff describes. We have become detached from sources of fundamental value. And the production of the most important things - like food - has limited, and concentrated, economic value.
On a more positive note, the unicorn illustrations are fantastic! AI generated?
Great point. The industrial economy began generating asymmetries over a century ago, and the information economy has only amplified them. Financialization adds another layer, reinforcing the disconnect between economic value and tangible goods, as you noted.
The images were created using Grok! That's the AI tool within X.
I think you are very right about all this. As someone who enjoys a frugal middle class lifestyle and doesn't chase after wealth, the difference between the top 1% and 0.1% doesn't matter to me in the least. But I absolutely agree with you that in the modern age, our biggest problem is not creating wealth. Our biggest problem is ensuring that our wealth is broadly distributed. I too have been unicorn pilled into supporting labor unions despite their obvious pitfalls. Teddy Roosevelt BEST PRESIDENT EVAH!!!!!!!!!!!
So unicorn-pilled as to support labor unions?! I am definitely not there yet :)
Teddy reluctantly supported them.
…in general i prefer powders to pills…but if yr gonna put a unicorn in it!…i think back to earlier this year when jeff bezos daydreamed out loud about us all living in space boxes…in this future scenario is bezos going to join us plebes in his boxes?… or does he keep earth or make a space yacht to rule from?…growing up our richest neighbor didn’t let us walk on their grass…is asymmetry the cause or the symptom of economic othering?…are asymmetric systems made to sustain or topple?…i am thinking the more they rule the more chaos reigns…but i probably read too many comic books…great article and observations…
Thank you, Fis. Those are powerful questions. This conversation will continue!
My unicorn pill was Taylor Swift, I don't think any other musician ever has been so popular. And then I look at my country of origin, Hungary, and I see 22 years old singer, Azahriah, filling the largest stadium four times in a row. No one ever could do this at such a young age.
There is something out there that magnifies big success into gigantic success.
As asymmetries increase exponentially, preventing a coalition of the defeated will require more and more authoritarian methods. Perhaps feudalism is the natural state of humanity after all?
You're right that these trends are driving us toward a form of digital feudalism. However, I don't think that's an ideal direction for our future.
Unfortunately pathway dependency is trending there. For all the talk of agency, few people actually have any meaningful levels of it. If anything, populism is the most likely mechanism for delaying these trends.
Yeah populism can be seen as an approach to pushing back to the Age of Asymmetry. The problem is populism gotten so dumb and destructive. Ultimately, it's not the solution. At this point, some centrist Democrats and center-right elites have better answers than populist rightists, though there are too few of these.
At the same time the lesser of two evils usually comes down to individual calculations. Can't blame anyone when their own math leads them in a direction.
I guess the people really frozen out are populist centrists. Center-right elites would basically bring back Bush era stuff, while centrist Dems still seem willing to rubber stamp most of wokeness in exchange for more technocratic and pro-elite economic policies.