On this day 50 years ago, one of the momentous events in the 20th century took place. But unlike others frequently told in schools - fall of Berlin wall, Deng Xiaoping opening China, NASA moon landing, the pill, Hiroshima, the Great Depression, Bolshevik revolution, Ferdinand assassination, Wright brothers flight etc - what happened on 15th [...]
I've always been fascinated by the history of money. Not only as it's a key driver of human behaviour and geopolitics. But as major force that shapes the trajectory of human endeavor. Put simply, it's an integral part to understanding how the world works. "If you want to understand how the world works, follow the [...]
It was mid 2014. We were sipping cold beers on a rooftop bar on a humid Saigon evening. Let's call my friend Ryan. We were talking geopolitics. Or rather, he was raving on while I was just asking questions. Ryan: "Yeah, basically Russia called the West's bluff. They annexed Crimea to get access to another [...]
If you liked Nassim Taleb's books - Antifragile, Black Swan etc - then you'll love Mandelbrot's Misbehaviour of Markets. Benoit Mandelbrot is one of the greatest mathematicians of our time. Most renowned for his work on fractals (including the famous Mandelbrot set), he applies a complexity science lens to financial markets. As with most transdisciplinary [...]
TL;DR One cannot understand global oil geopolitics without grasping the Middle East. But understanding this region is rather difficult. "It's hot, sandy, and everyone hates each other." Despite the difficulty, one can still attempt to untangle the intricacies of the region by reviewing raw historical events and then drawing your own conclusions. Some observations from [...]
Oil geopolitics isn't a topic many would take natural interest in. Yet, I'm convinced it's one of the most effective routes to understanding how the the world works. Why? Geopolitics quickly becomes complex. The deeper you dive in, the more apparent its interconnectivity and transdisciplinarity becomes. It's easy to get stuck in the Valley of [...]
NSFW, sexually vivid, and touches on sensitive socio-political topics. You’ve been warned! If you haven't already, highly recommend reading part 1 first. TL;DR (part 2) Quickly dissolving social stigma around sex and love, including increasing openness to alternative sexual preferences, as well as technology-augmented masturbation and dating apps, lays the groundwork for the third sexual [...]
NSFW, sexually vivid, and touches on sensitive socio-political topics. You've been warned! TL;DR (part 1) If your partner has sex with an extremely realistic sex robot that's indistinguishable from a human, would you consider that cheating? The line is blurrier than you may think. The confluence of materials science, robotics, AI, and AR will likely [...]
See all these people below? You know what they all have in common? None of them exist. I don't mean they're dead. I mean, they've just never existed. All of these faces are AI-generated images from thispersondoesnotexist.com. (Refresh the page and a completely new face will be generated.) Let's take a closer look. (You can [...]
