If You Stare At Someone Long Enough,

The United States Of America Was A Pirate Nation For The First One Hundred Years Of Its Existence, Ripping Off The Patents And Trademarks Of The Imperial European Powers It Had Liberated Itself From By Blood. By Keeping Their Gdp At Home, The U.s. Revolutionaries Were Able To Bootstrap Their Nation Into An Industrial Powerhouse. Now, It Seems, Their Descendants Are Bent On Ensuring That No Other Country Can Pull The Same Trick Off.

It May Be Hard To Monetize Fame, But It Is Impossible To Monetize Obscurity.

Open Platforms And Experimental Amateurs Eventually Beat Out The Spendy, Slick Pros. Relying On Incumbents To Produce Your Revolutions Is Not A Good Strategy. They're Apt To Take All The Stuff That Makes Their Products Great And Try To Use Technology To Charge You Extra For It, Or Prohibit It Altogether.

The Opposite Of Esprit D'escalier Is The Way That Life's Embarrassments Come Back To Haunt Us Even After They're Long Past. I Could Remember Every Stupid Thing I'd Ever Said Or Done, Recall Them With Picture-perfect Clarity. Any Time I Was Feeling Low, I'd Naturally Start To Remember Other Times I Felt That Way, A Hit Parade Of Humiliations Coming One After Another To My Mind.

It's The Stupid Questions That Have Some Of The Most Surprising And Interesting Answers. Most People Never Think To Ask The Stupid Questions.