Covid-19: alternate origin stories
Pre-Wuhan Covid-19 in Italy, bioweapons research in Russia and China, and curious coincidences. There’s a lot of credible information that casts doubt on the official story of Covid-19’s origins. Starting with a big... READ MORE
Penisocratic method #2
Exciting year ahead for human space exploration For reasons beyond my understanding, there are people who aren’t closely watching how we’re progressing to the stars. Of course, it’s only the most important thing... READ MORE
Penisocratic Method #1
Today, let me introduce you to a new post format. Here’s the thing: the click-through “tile” design of the website encourages long-form writing. This was a deliberate decision to keep the quality of... READ MORE
Why Scotland is Pakistan
I have a huge discovery to share with you: Scotland is Pakistan. Consider: A mountaineous hinterland full of angry bearded men wearing women’s clothing, who seem to be suspiciously close to their livestock.... READ MORE
The Asian powderkeg
Right now, Asia is a powderkeg with several simultaneously lit fuses. There are at least four conflicts in Asia from which neither side can afford to back down, as the stakes are too... READ MORE
The vibranium shield of willful ignorance
Nobody is more imaginative than a person who doesn’t want to concede an obvious point. As the internet brought 24/7 global debates, it also brought rapid innovation in the field of being a... READ MORE
La dolce vita
How sweet something tastes is clearly a matter of acclimation. When you cut sugar from your diet, your sense of sweetness gets “downregulated” in a few weeks. Afterwards, sweet things often taste too... READ MORE
Technology and magic
People are wrong in many curious ways. A new one I noticed is assuming that a goal is silly, because people in the past tried to achieve it in silly ways. The thinking,... READ MORE
Latest Posts
“Buying local” is the shortest known term for economic illiteracy
“Buying local” is the shortest known term for economic illiteracy. There are things that are sensible to make locally. Like bottled water. Nobody can tell the difference between Evian and decent tap water blindfolded, just like nobody can hear any difference … Continued
The EU’s highway to hell
My friend has a problem that’s uniquely European – only through incredible effort can he avoid being given money by several government agencies. As he is currently quitting his job and preparing for impending fatherhood, the amount of cash various … Continued
Startups and Cultural Optimism
I make a lot of fun of the startup culture. And to be sure, there is a lot to make fun of. However, I have a secret to share. I am actually enthusiastic that this is what young people today … Continued
I hope pubs are the normal places to start great businesses
They certainly are the normal places to get, develop and share great ideas. A handful of friends and I have launched a startup. I will share more info here when the time is right, so check back often or, better yet, … Continued
Apple watch this
On watches The CEO Of TAG Heuer said that he’s “pleased about the Apple Watch“, because “Apple will get young people used to wearing a watch and later maybe they will want to buy themselves a real watch.“ Aside from … Continued
How to win at business (and life)
All the significant success stories that I am aware of – including firsthand – have one thing in common. If you look at Apple, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Tesla… They did nothing radically new. Apple didn’t invent the mp3 player, the … Continued
The perfect wedding
I went to a friend’s wedding this weekend and was genuinely moved by how beautiful these things can be – when you don’t try too hard to make them beautiful. The happy couple ditched every cliché, and even though a … Continued
It’s time to get outraged by internet outrage
The internet likes to get angry at things. In the sheltered existence of the western middle classes, few things offer the adrenaline rush and community spirit of righteous indignation. The feeling is so addictive that if righteous indignation cannot be … Continued
The politics of hysteria
A report by a non-profit made rounds of the media in my little country a while ago claiming that three quarters of children have experience with drugs. If your first instinct was “that doesn’t seem right”, congratulations, your common sense … Continued
Austerity and stimulus
I wrote another one of these economics articles, because nobody reads them which gives me freedom. Everything from pub chats through expert debate to government policy in western countries has been split roughly into two camps for the last several … Continued
“Society these days” is actually mostly fine
If you use Facebook, you’ve seen your fair share of “Society these days” memes, where people complain about alleged societal and moral decline (in reality, usually their own injured narcissism, but we’ll get to that in a moment). All share two … Continued
Paleo pseudoscience and food cults
If you’ve ever been on the internet, you ran into the so-called “paleo” diet – an approach to nutrition based on the notion that the healthiest possible lifestyle was practiced by people who died at twenty.
We have a newsletter
You guys, Something amazing just happened. In a time of constant competition for attention when sign-up forms force themselves on people on every website on the planet, one of you guys actually asked for a signup form for a newsletter. … Continued
The folly of experts
An “expert” is: A person who is wrong slightly less often than non-experts, which is still most of the time. A person whom the speaker wants the listener to trust. Ultimately, when applied to soft disciplines such as economics (especially … Continued
“Alternative”, AKA not investment
In “alternative investment”, like in “alternative medicine”, the word “alternative” really means “not”.
What if you just don’t enjoy exercise?
Disclaimer: The following is a hypothesis based on solid observational evidence. It is, nonetheless, not rigorously tested by, for instance, analysis of blood samples post-exercise. I encourage ambitious scientists and doctors to do exactly that and report back with results, and … Continued
Practical discipline
Following up on the first part which was mainly theoretical, let’s have a look now at a handful of tips to help you build good habits in practice: Baby steps Your brain resists abrupt changes. If you motivate yourself to a titanic … Continued
How to do anything well
There is one principle of good writing that’s 1) rarely said, yet underlying all common advice and 2) shockingly applicable to everything else. Look at this horse painting. Really look at it: It’s a traditional genre, with thousands of results on … Continued
There is no such thing as The Computer Code
Today, The Wisdomination proudly presents a guest writer – a friend of almost three decades, an accomplished nuclear physicist and, most recently, a programmer of industrial robots. All his experience with coding left him convinced there is no such thing. … Continued
Investment and speculation are different things
In this series, we’ll look at the difference between investment and speculation, and investment and spending. Even if you’re not that much into finance, it’s wise to know the basics, not just to make sense of the world and feel … Continued