Peter's Blog

The unique dangers of artificial intelligence are often used to argue that development should be taken out of the hands of profit-driven private actors. The government is presented as a force for good that can develop AI responsibly for the common good. While this line of reasoning can soothe the minds of well-meaning citizens, it […]

The role of the market as a creator and processor of information is central to Austrian economics. Prices should reflect the collective evaluation of everyone in the market as they utilize their own constrained resources. While the Austrian theory holds the market to be an important creator of information, it does provides a compelling answer […]

Nearly all read distributive forms of government try to find some way to give moral justification for their poor economic choices. They assume that it will be easier for people to accept wealth redistribution if they can somehow prove that the wealthy are morally inferior. While like any group of people the wealthy have their […]

The divide between philosophy and action has continually widened for centuries. Particularly in the 20th century, when people began to believe that education for most people was applied skills training, and only the most theoretically inclined were encouraged to study ideas. Even for those who chose to study philosophy, their education was intended to prepare […]

Going from zero to one is creating something that is fundamentally new. While creating another software-as-a-service company could be extremely lucrative, it is something fundamentally different from going zero to one, as it is more like going from 28,332 to 28,333. Business ideas that already exist can be optimized and maximized by clever people but […]

In popular culture, entrepreneurs are often praised and speculators are to be shamed. They are seen as fundamentally different classes of individuals. An entrepreneur is described as someone who creates something and actually cares about their mission. A speculator seen as someone who shifts around between different industries for only the goal of financial reward. […]

The Chinese government anti-spy agency has recently been warning the youth to avoid lying flat. In a time of more limited economic mobility than the past, and with the same Chinese intense work culture in full effect, young people have started doing what they call lying flat. This is where they find ways to avoid […]

A recent, and extremely controversial, Palantir essay advocates for a deep enmeshment of the state with artificial intelligence for the purpose of national security. Karl et. al make the case that those who are unwilling or unable to integrate artificial intelligence into their nation’s security infrastructure will become overtaken by those who do. Businesses and […]

I doubt that I’m the only one who feels that something different is happening in the entrepreneurial world. While the emergence of our current world-defining tech companies in the 80s and 90s looked very different from the origin of the industrial giants of the 20th century, they still shared some recurring themes at their advent. […]

Although learning things the hard way is often seen as a benchmark of failure, it often might be the only way to learn. Particularly in situations of first time discovery, repeated failure is all but necessary to produce a meaningful new outcome. Learning things the hard way should only be seen as failure when one […]