Many years ago, when I visited New York, I made sure to see one of its most iconic landmarks – the Empire State Building. Skyscrapers are now common across the world, yet I couldn’t help but think about how this one rose during the depths of the Great Depression, becoming a powerful symbol of hope for an entire nation.

Across history, countries have launched hallmark projects that embody their economic ambition. These projects are not always buildings or infrastructure. When Ukraine lost its only Antonov AN-225 Mriya – a marvel of engineering and a point of national pride – to a Russian attack, the president’s vow to build a new one after the war stirred hope and renewed faith in the nation’s technological abilities.

Every country that aspires to grow economically should undertake a project powered by national sweat equity. When people see themselves succeed at something complex, they begin to believe they can accomplish far more – and that belief can transform what a nation dares to attempt.

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Gresham’s Law, in plain language, says:

“Bad money pushes good money out of circulation.”
This means that if two types of money are both accepted as having the same value by law, but one is made of cheaper or lower-quality material, people will spend the cheaper one and keep (or hoard) the better-quality one.
I think this law applies to the corporate world as well:
“Bad people push good people out of your company.”
If you keep toxic people, there will be fewer good people in the company.
Why is that? Let me explain with an example:
If some people are allowed to steal and others are not, sooner or later those who don’t steal will start stealing – not the other way around!

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I want to tell you a parable that I think you will find interesting. It is about management. Imagine sheep on a farm in the mountain villages. Depending on the density and height of the grass, farmers tie their sheep differently. When there is little vegetation, the sheep is tied with a long rope so that it can cover greater distances in search of food. But if the grass is thick and tall, the rope is kept short to preserve the grass for other sheep.

Sheep tied on a long rope can wander all around the perimeter and gradually stop feeling the limits. Sometimes, succumbing to an external stimulus, they start running at high speed, forgetting they are tied. And at the moment when the rope tightens, they fall hard.

This parable is important because it reminds us that some people sometimes forget the boundaries of their power. If the rope is too long, they may lose their sense of proportion. But in the end, a painful fall awaits them.

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Recent Zuckerberg poaching of AI talent from competitors for insane amounts of money – and the fact that not everyone has agreed to move to Meta – made me think about people who believe they can buy everything with money. My insight doesn’t fully apply to Zuckerberg’s hiring spree, but I know many wealthy individuals in Russia who made their fortunes and could buy almost anything: politicians, justice, social norms, you name it. Many of them ended badly, often falling from the balconies of their expensive villas along the luxurious Mediterranean coast.
I think when people believe they can buy everything – or nearly everything – their judgment becomes flawed, and they start making reckless bets in their lives. Probably, the last thought in their mind while falling freely from a balcony is: “I avoided so many laws; why on earth can’t I bend this damn Newton’s second law?” At least for those who paid attention in school physics.
Even if capitalism puts many things up for sale, I’m glad that, even in the mecca of venture capitalism, there are still things Zuckerberg can’t buy with money.

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Do you know that feeling when a certain jingle seems forever attached to a famous song, and no matter how many new compositions its author writes, the echo of that first success can still be felt in each of them? I notice the same thing with politicians. If one became famous thanks to one “song” about coordination, and now, every time he is assigned something new, that coordination jingle inevitably shows up in his work. Who is your favorite politician and what is his top hit jingle which comes over and over in his repertoire?

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Cavemen had many concerns, with predators being one of their primary worries. This is why they often gathered together, aiming to accomplish tasks before nightfall. I believe these behaviors are connected to factors that help alleviate the worries and anxieties people experience today. The importance of relationships in combating anxiety likely originates from the need for early humans to rely on their community for protection, especially against predators lurking in the shadows. Similarly, the tendency for people to feel more anxious at night can also be traced back to those times when nighttime posed greater dangers.

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The way we think is determined by what we have seen. What we have seen is limited by what we paid attention to. Our attention was focused on what we were thinking about at that moment. A circular reference, like in Excel 🙂

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The more I think about the bodybuilder analogy, the more I realize how relevant it is to us. We all know that bodybuilders are extremely bad at street fights. They’re also bad at running, swimming, and other functional activities. Bodybuilding is about appearance – it’s like a beauty contest within the fitness world, similar to how Mr. Olympia is bodybuilding’s version of Miss Olympia/World.
This seems to reflect the bias in our public sector toward showing off results and reporting achievements, rather than focusing on more practical goals like outperforming competitors. In a global context, competing with other countries for markets is like a street fight – you have to be ready for real competition. And bodybuilders are very bad fighters, especially those with thin legs.

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Computers will beat us in processing the available data, we will beat computers in creating new data:) They will never discover new things, discovery is a byproduct of human evolution, we need to discover to increase our chances to survive!

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God gave us the sense of taste so that we could distinguish spoiled food from edible one. The devil uses this same taste to make us eat sweet and fatty things. What else serves as a virtue from God but as an instrument of evil for the devil?

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