Hello, World!

Hello, World!

And what a world. Amazing and scary in all its splendor. I’ve been here for a few decades already, but I’m still trying to figure it out.

I was lost as a teenager. I was trying to figure out the meaning of life. I just couldn’t accept that millions of years of evolution led to such a mind-blowingly useless existence. Whatever life’s purpose was, it couldn’t be waking up to the alarm clock, going to school, keeping my head down and marching towards the drudgery of adulthood. So I stopped doing any of that, and looked for real meaning.

I’ll spare you the epic tale, but suffice to say that even through my thick skull, I eventually realized that I was no closer to understanding the purpose of my existence, but I was fast on track to ruining my life and those around me.

So I declared defeat. I admitted I had no idea what I was supposed to do on Earth, and just looked to others to tell me. Most seemed to want to work, get good grades and make money, so I set out to do that.

I did well. I became a quantitative trader, joined the best trading firm and made money.

It killed me. The worst kind of death. The slow one, that creeps in, unnoticed, that takes your soul crumb by crumb and leaves only your facade standing.

After 10 years, it just became untenable. I was unable to shut down this inner voice that kept asking me what on Earth I was doing here. So I quit. I just left everything, my job, my home, my country. My friends and colleagues could not believe it. I had achieved what they were all fighting for, leading successful trading teams, at the top of the pay ladder. But it didn’t matter much to me, it was about survival.

I set out to explore the world. Inner and outer. And while I am awed by its magnificence, I’m also terrified. What the hell are we doing? We are the most clever, most numerous on earth we have ever been. We can reach other planets, delegate our labor to machines, and hold dominion over astoundingly advanced technologies. But we are using that to destroy our own planet, choose dictators as our leaders and enslave our own kind.

I have spent several years thinking about that problem. Every way I looked at it, I went back to the same principle: the solution lies in our socioeconomic system, the rules that govern us.

We urgently need to improve upon it, to get away from predatory capitalism and apathetic democracy. We need a paradigm that recognizes human psychology for what it is, rather than what we would want it to be, and unleashes the creativity of our species in a way that is beneficial for all. We need to align individual profits with the Common Good.

And so, that’s what I’ve set out to do with my life now. I will work towards a human system that benefits all. Towards Ethical Capitalism.