Resilientree

I am an adult male who has friends that are adult males.

Anxiety and depression are both on the rise, cognitive skills are declining, and political polarization is more extreme than ever. And all of that is very, very profitable if your job is media or social media influencing. The tools of hypnosis and persuasion -- mostly a lot of button-pushing on the Emotional Control Panel -- are being used to supercharge headlines and social media posts. Put two and two together and you get: society is being mass-hypnotized for monetization purposes. I wrote "Demonetize Your Mind!" for you, and for your kids. To see the persuasion techniques. To notice the hypnotic attempts. To expose the gears of the machine, take them apart, and laugh at the end result. (Warning: the last person who read this book deleted his social media account.) Buy it here: lulu.com/shop/dr-hypnosis/de…

A huge congratulations is in order for @DataRepublican and @JoshuaLisec. Their new book Unelected has debuted in the top 10 on the New York Times Bestseller List!

i had 12 Claude agents running in parallel for 6 hours and i managed to reverse engineer @supabase i'm making it available here so that you can save your tokens - 100% free & open-source: github.com/supabase/supabase

🇵🇱 Okay my final Poland video because we're leaving soon! It was really fun and we had a great time I liked Warsaw most to be honest, a very modern city, a bit like East Asia in terms of modernity, with rapid delivery services and apps, everything just works great and fast I'm not saying it's perfect btw, there's moments where you still realize it's Eastern Europe (or as they'd like to call it Central Europe) but then the difference is they generally solve problems fast and pragmatically Many shops you go will actually have a long line at the checkout, annoying, but usually there's a second checkout but it's closed That's because Poland too has a big labor shortage, one of the lowest fertility rates in Europe, so they too kinda have to import people, but they choose to import them from Ukraine and Belarus (and some South Asians actually too) But wait, so that checkout line is closed yes? I'm so used to Portugal where there is zero incentive to then open another checkout counter but in Poland usually within a few minutes they notice it's busy and open another counter. I know, basic stuff but hard to come by these days. They're fast and pragmatic Ordering flowers for my gf was easy, the flower shop has an IG (but I don't) so I msg them over Whatsapp, they immediately respond, give me some options, I say what I want, address, payment link with Stripe (!) and done delivered at my hotel by a nice guy. All soooo smooth. Fast response, friendly people. Things just work here! Poland has done a great job keeping bad immigrants out while bring good immigrants in. The Ukrainians and Belarussians are neighbors and their cultures overlap strongly with Poland. So they fit in easily. Same cultures, same religions, same routines etc. for the most part A young Polish Uber driver I talked to said to him Krakow (his city) looks just like Lviv in Ukraine, so it's easy for Ukranians in Poland to integrate There's a lot of police presence in places, and military vehicles also (probably cause of the Ukraine war), the security at the Warsaw Airport is not done by some 5 layer outsourced company with staff that hates you, but by friendly people from the Polish Border Guard (Straż Graniczna) wearing military uniforms Warsaw has lots of skyscrapers now, and actually the tallest in Europe now at 310 meters is the Varso Tower, crazy! Poland is a booming economy and growing fast. When you're growing of course it's easy to make things go well. I'd say it's important for Poland to look ahead carefully and don't make the same mistakes that Western Europe did when everything was going well and we were very rich We became complacent, stagnant, added regulatory burdens, became overly obsessed with climate change and the environment, and imported the lowest quality tier of people from cultures that hate our guys and are diametrically opposed to Western culture That last part is especially interesting considering Poland's history, where 6 million (!) or 20% of the country was ruthlessly murdered in World War II I think that gives them the power to not have to be politically correct about immigration like Germany, because Poland after all was the victim, while Germany then was the purpetreyor. Which is why Germany does have to be so politically correct about it, due to extreme historical guilt You walk on the streets of Poland in the day and at night and you see the difference what sane policy does to daily life We're all dealing with the echoes of history So my message to my Polish friends: don't make the same mistakes Western Europe did and you will soon be the richest, safest, most modern country in Europe and hopefully then have the power to be the new leader of Europe And maybe you can then save Europe as a whole!! Niech żyje Polska! 🇵🇱

If you look at the informatics/memetics, we are in the middle of the Great Decentralization. We are simply not evolved enough for a truly global society -- which means that the pulling back from things like the EU are as inevitable as any thing subject to the laws of physics. empathy.guru/2026/02/07/the-…

📚 I've read more Machiavelli and its scholarship/ analysis then any person I know who's not paid to dwell in Machiavelli rabbit holes. I highly recommend this book for someone to get the intrigues and complexities of the Prince

It's looking like they're not going to post the video for $1000. Why might that be? I asked them to take a simple video of their operation showing 1) them making the sweaters 2) the machine that makes them and where its from 3) the boxes that hold the cotton they use the make the sweaters And I offered to pay them $1000 Why wouldn't you show that? @JoshuaSteinman @DenverRayburn @fw_automation You have a factory. You say it's profitable. You seem to have sold a bunch! Why wouldn't you just take a simple video? Some reasons why: 1. It's not an American made machine. Making knit sweaters with machines like that is old technology and it's not US. It's German, Japanese, or Chinese today. Same technology to make socks by the way, nothing new. 2. If the cotton is American (as they imply with their patriotic cotton-picker with an american flag on it), it probably wasn't made into cotton yarn in the USA 3. They're not in operation despite their claim being "Software orchestrated apparel production and fulfillment. Domestic, reliable, built for speed and scale." And why aren't they in operation despite it being "profitable" to make a 100% cotton 2XL knit sweater in high rent, high electricity cost, high labor Los Angeles? Because it's not profitable. To make a sweater like this is extremely expensive in Los Angeles: 1. Get the materials 2. Pay expensive exposed brick wall rent 3. Pay for electricity 4. Amortize the costs of the machines 5. Pay for people to manage and watch the machines 6. Sew the tags on 7. Finish the sweaters 8. Do quality control 9. Package them 10. Ship them out It's a lot of work as anyone who has actually done it knows. They say they have 8 employees on their $6.5 million dollar seed round. Founder formerly worked for Lazard. He's hiring a chief of staff. To pay these people is not cheap. Hard to make money with a $16 sweater on old technology in a high cost location with lots of employees. When you raise $6.5 million with an actual "manifesto" for "Automated Apparel Manufacturing in America" you're kind of in a bind when your process is old technology and not that automated. So maybe that's why they can't share the video. These guys were rapid fire with the replies until I asked them to show a video for $1000. Since, they've gone quiet. I don't know though. Just post the video guys! Collect the $1000. I have nothing more to say about this until I get the video. People have and will attack me for being a "sinophile", for "making cheap plastic toys", for being against American "reindustrialization". It's pathetic. The facts are I have 4 US employees, I buy American made products all the time, I've done manufacturing in the United States myself, and I've done a lot of construction in the US too. I create jobs, help the economy, an educate the next generation. I do this with a team, who I'm proud to work with. I hope they're still proud to work with me despite my tendency to get baited into the occasional Twitter fight... When the current White House administration came in, I even tried to join it. I reached out to 3 different connected people and provided my resume. They weren't interested. So, go ahead, attack me. The truth is American industrial policy is bad. It's a mix of incompetence and, possibly, corruption. And the startups serving it, many of them are vaporware. Not software, not real hardware, but vaporware, stuff that is fake. Show us the video! I have nothing more to say here. Thank you.

I am automatically giving preference to "Zoomers" on this offer, so if you're in that GenZ cohort and struggling, or you're a parent of a struggling "Zoomer" and want to pass this on to them, send me a DM.

It’s like sports stadiums replacing thousands of bleacher seats to accommodate dozens in luxury suites. And then this creeps into everything else. If the return on capital is massive for these luxury fixtures, everything else has to take a cost saving cut in order to have a similar level of return on investment. So then people get crammed into tighter spaces, service is worse, food ingredients get worse, etc…

A few controversial things I believe: 1) A grown man with a family has no business getting on a ladder to put up Christmas lights. 2) a larger vehicle is safer than a smaller vehicle. Put your family in an SUV. Period. Crash ratings are a scam. 3) Pitbulls are a public nuisance. 4) politics is a total waste of time. Putting energy towards it is inversely correlated to happiness. 5) earning money is hard. $100k a year is a lot of money. Twitter acts like it’s easy but it isn’t. 6) sports betting is a disaster for society. Quietly destroying a lot of men’s lives. 7) waiting till 35 to think about kids is a huge mistake. These folks are all going to regret not having more, earlier. 8) SEC and Big10 schools are the new Ivy League. Wealthy families want to send their kids there, not Harvard or Stanford. 9) religion is making a comeback. And the people who get serious about it end up with better lives. 10) marrying a doctor or a lawyer is high status, but low enjoyment. These folks live stressful lives with very little flexibility. 11) vaping and weed are better for your body than alcohol, but worse for your career and life. They remove ambition and energy and make you less social. 12) giving our kids 75 vaccines is going to go down in history as a net-negative on society. 13) technology won’t actually advance a lot from here. Our physical worlds will largely be the same 20 years from now. 14) driverless cars are 20 years away. Waymo won’t make it out of the major cities with 25 mile an hour speed limits. 15) Virtual reality won’t become a thing. Nobody has any use for it. 16) 99% of people have no use for AI and it has reached 90% of its potential utility. Massive waste of electricity on the whole. 17) Web3 is a joke. Crypto is worthless. Bitcoin is a fad and is 100% speculative. Massive waste of electricity. Solves a problem that doesn’t exist. 18) electric vehicles will not become mainstream. They do more harm to the environment than good. Creating them and disposing of them is an environmental catastrophe. 19) Starlink is a miracle and ads 10x more value to society than the previous 5 things on this list combined. Elon needs a Nobel prize. 20) the fed has done a great job over the last 3 years with rates. 21) nuclear power is the only way forward. Solar and wind are not sustainable and are a total waste of money. Oil and gas is the only viable solution today and America should invest heavily in more production. 22) Silicon Valley influencers and Tech titans are out of touch with the true needs of Americans. They could benefit by spending some time in a Walmart. Most people are trying to figure out how to put food on the table. They don’t need another app for their meta glasses. What’s something you believe that isn’t a common belief? Which one am I wrong about?

Last year I thought Threads was an existential risk to X. When Meta puts its full weight behind something -- by injecting the app into Instagram, it’s DEFCON 5: You have to squeeze out every last drop of growth from all available surfaces to save the app. However, I started to realize that the opposite was happening: It was strengthening X. If you look at any announcement by Zuck, you will see the most rude & toxic comments on the internet. But when he makes those same announcements on X, people are thrilled about how he’s pushing humanity forward. X is a place where people are excited about the future, so it’s no surprise he and his top lieutenants are using it more than their own app. Threads — and Bluesky — have effectively quarantined some of the worst people on the internet. And so I had an epiphany: those apps are X’s anti-abuse systems.

Does this actually matter or is quantum still just a really fast factoring machine?

Happy to have you as a supporting subscriber -- maybe someone you know would benefit from a free subscription?

<This post will change someone’s life.> There's no such thing as wealth inside The Matrix. Not even the richest people have real freedom and contentment. I had this epiphany after reaching the top of the corporate ladder and observing that most of my peers were miserable, with poor health, broken families, and no interests outside of work. At one point, my boss—a CEO worth over $100 million—confided in me: “I’m not happy and I don’t know what to do about it.” Meanwhile, through rock climbing I observed lots of people who were relatively poor, but had vibrant lives, full of adventure, connection, and meaning. These people escaped The Matrix. My friend Tom is one example: Tom has never made more than $75k/year, but lives a richer life than 99% of Americans: > Does gig work he enjoys, on a schedule he controls > Lives on $40k, invests the rest > No debt and a nice nest egg > Climbs, restores classic cars, goes to 50+ concerts a year > Travels 3 months a year > Shares a nice rental home with his fiancée @p_millerd is another example (check out his book, The Pathless Path). The lives Tom and Paul have built aren’t possible in The Matrix, where people organize their entire lives around their job, then spend all their money on stuff they don’t really want to impress people they don’t really care about. Most people don’t even know they’re in The Matrix... or that there’s an alternate universe out there of people who’ve chosen to opt out of society’s stupid games. It’s time to take the red pill: Step one is to search your soul and decide what kind of life you really want (not what society tells you to want). I call it The Ideal End State (see the comments below for more details). I’ve gone through this exercise with over a hundred people, from billionaire business tycoons to broke college students. It turns out that most of us want the same basic things: > Control of our time > Challenging, meaningful work done on our terms > A lasting marriage and thriving family > A strong, fit body > A bulletproof inner circle of friends > An inspiring place to live That life doesn’t require fabulous riches, but… It does require courage. You have to be willing to go against the grain of society. People will call you crazy. But when you make the leap, you’ll find that you’re not alone. And you’ll realize that you're not the crazy one. It's those who are still inside The Matrix.

Turns out the future does have flying cars