Leading the Revival of Individualism & Self Reliance
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What Is Blockchain?

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In the past few months we’ve written many articles about bitcoin and its underlying technology, “blockchain”. To help our readers fully understand the backbone of cryptocurrency, below is a great explanation of blockchain technology by Steven Buchko at CoinCentral.com

What is blockchain?

Simply put, a blockchain is just a list of digital records (blocks) that are chained together using cryptography.

The financial industry today contains all types of middlemen – payments processors, banks, and credit card companies are just a few. These intermediaries help to establish trust between buyers and sellers and ensure the accuracy of data in the transactions. However, adding additional people and steps to the process oftentimes leads to cost increases and reductions in speed.

Enter blockchain. This technology eliminates the need for middlemen by providing a decentralized, trustless ledger system with little exposure to fraud. Bitcoin is the most famous example.

Although you primarily hear about the financial sector’s use of blockchain, the technology expands far beyond just simple transactions. Blockchain companies are disrupting tons of industries from data storage and supply chain to gambling and the Internet of Things.

How does blockchain work?

Nodes

A blockchain is run by a large network of computers, called nodes. These computers validate and record transaction data on the network by solving complex mathematical algorithms.

Every node has a complete history of transactions, so if one were to try and maliciously change a record, the entire network would know and reject the change.

Transaction example

Bob wants to send Sally $5, so he submits his transaction to the blockchain. Every node in the network then receives his transaction request.

Each node checks for two things with the transaction data:

  1. That Bob is who he says he is
  2. That Bob has the $5 to send to Sally

First, the nodes check Bob’s identity using the private key that he provides. A private key is an ownership tool that identifies a source of funds.

Next, the nodes make sure Bob isn’t trying to spend money that he doesn’t have. Because the nodes all have a copy of the ledger of transactions, they can easily check whether or not Bob has the $5 that he’s trying to send.

If at least 51% of the nodes agree that Bob’s identity is truthful and he has enough money to send, then the transaction will go through. The nodes will also update the ledger on the network with the new transaction.

With each new transaction added to the chain, the previous transactions become harder and harder to manipulate.

This immutability is supported by hash pointers. A hash pointer is a cryptographic hash that refers to the previous data block in the chain. They allow you to confirm that no one has tampered with earlier transaction blocks.

A transaction becomes like a fly trapped in amber. You would need to remove each additional block (layer of amber) from the chain to access and manipulate the previous transaction data (the fly).

The benefits of blockchain

Faster

Cutting out the middleman shortens the process of transactions and data transfer. Validations are inherently built into a blockchain system, so there’s no need for lengthy approvals or complicated record checks.

Cheaper

As mentioned earlier, the more people and entities involved in a process, the more costly it becomes. The cost of running a blockchain network is far less than an intermediary doing the same job.

More accurate

Data on the blockchain is immutable and validated by mathematical computations. It’s nearly impossible to have any human error and/or fraud.

Blockchain TL;DR – Final Thoughts

A blockchain is a distributed ledger system that uses cryptography to link together bits of data. It removes the need for middlemen in transactions which leads to faster processes, reduced costs, and greater data accuracy.

Uncertainty, Chaos, And Skin In The Game: Attributes Of A Meaningful Life.

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Economists use the term uncertainty in reference to future conditions that are unknown and unknowable. The economic system consists of trillions of interactions between individuals, and, in each one, both buyers and sellers are making a creative choice. Shall I buy this or that? At what price? Shall I sell this or that? At what price? If I modify my offer slightly, will there be a different result? I felt good about this possible purchase yesterday, but now I am not so sure. Should I check out this new competitor first? I didn’t expect it to rain, so maybe now I should buy an umbrella instead of lunch. I didn’t expect electric cars. I didn’t expect artificial intelligence.

Bearing The Weight Of Uncertainty.

Those same economists say that the people who bear the weight of this future uncertainty the most in the economy are the entrepreneurs. They bear it eagerly on behalf of the rest of us. Entrepreneurs have a special relationship with the future. They make a deal with the future. It is their domain. They imagine a future that is better than today, and they believe that they can bring it about. They sacrifice in order to do so, because while they are assembling and deploying their resources, they are not earning current rewards. Rather, they are hoping for future rewards – and those future rewards are uncertain. They may bet wrong. Some competitor may be imagining the same future and doing a better job of investing and implementing.

For the consumer, the uncertainty of the future is a positive sum. They are going to be offered something new and better. For the entrepreneur, it could be positive or negative.

The Psychic Rewards Of Sacrifice.

Importantly, however, the entrepreneur’s incentive for bearing uncertainty is not only financial. There is considerable psychic reward on offer. Different entrepreneurial personalities may experience the psychic reward in different ways – the exhilaration of taking on the unknown, the joy of self-reliant action, the fulfillment of pursuing one’s own intuition, the sense of achievement in assembling resources in a new and unique way.

In his book 12 Rules For Life: An Antidote To Chaos, Dr. Jordan B. Peterson spends a lot of time talking about entrepreneurial sacrifice: the proposition “that something better might be attained in the future by giving up something of value in the present”. In other words, sacrifice now to gain later. The difference between successful people and unsuccessful people is the successful sacrifice. The courage to undertake this sacrifice gives you more security and strength than any short-sighted concentration on your own safety. It’s living properly, it’s discovering meaning. Meaning, for Dr. Peterson, is the antidote for chaos and suffering.

Honesty And Authenticity.

Another take on the importance of entrepreneurial uncertainty comes from Nassim Nicholas Taleb in his book, Skin In The Game. Taking responsibility, including moral and ethical responsibility as well as financial responsibility, for the downside risk of one’s entrepreneurial efforts (Taleb would call these “trades”) is what holds society together. It is transparency and honesty and authenticity. It is the honorable life, the only one worth living.

Beware Of Those Who Don’t Have Skin In The Game.

According to Taleb, those who don’t have skin in the game include:

Bureaucrats: Bureaucracy is a construction by which a person is conveniently separated from the consequences of his or her actions.

Governments: government interference in general tends to remove skin in the game.

Academics: in academia, there is no difference between academia and the real world; in the real world, there is.

Administrators: Administrators, everywhere on the planet, in all businesses and pursuits, and at all times in history, have been the plague.

Take Action. Do Something Heroic.

The people with skin in the game are doers. They act. They take risks. And they are prepared to accept the consequences if they take the wrong risk, or the risk does not work out. Taleb includes entrepreneurs in this group: Entrepreneurs are heroes in our society. They fail for the rest of us.

For economists, the market is a process of learning and discovery in the context of uncertainty. For Dr Peterson, entrepreneurial sacrifice is courage and meaning. For Nassim Nicholas Taleb, skin in the game is authenticity and an honorable life.

In all cases, the entrepreneurial life is the one that reaps the greatest rewards, both psychic and (potentially) financial.

 

 

What The Free Market Can Do For Prescription Drugs

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There is almost nothing Amazon can’t do. From delivering nearly any item you can think of in two days to single-handedly reducing the price of certain Whole Foods’ products, Amazon has been a huge force for market innovation. And if not for the federal government’s interference, Amazon might have even been a leader in the drone delivery industry by now.

But according to recent gossip circulating around the business world, the online retail giant may soon be venturing into uncharted territory by entering the pharmaceutical business.

While these rumors are purely speculative for the time being, Amazon’s potential entry into the world of prescription drug care could be huge for consumers looking for alternatives to our country’s outdated, insufficient health care system. It would also be the realization of one doctor’s dream.

Prime for Prescriptions?

For several years, Dr. Josh Umbehr has been sending emails to Amazon CEO, Jeff Bezos every other week. An admitted “fanboy,” of Bezos and his successful business endeavors, Umbehr believes Amazon has the potential to completely change the way consumers purchase prescription drugs.

In one of his biweekly emails, Umbehr wrote:

Amazon could work with small pharmacies across the country to provide a huge value to Prime customers, on a regular basis (with) short delivery times, not to mention the effect it would have on competition that overcharges immensely.

While these emails have become routine over the last few years, Umbehr hasn’t necessarily been holding his breath waiting for a reply. However, there was a small inkling of hope when he recently received a response from an employee of Amazon who implored him to submit a business proposal to the company.

After submitting his proposal he was told that if his idea was accepted, he would most likely not hear back from the company. Fully expecting to have to continue writing his biweekly emails, Umbehr was shocked when he received a detailed email in January, explaining that his proposal had been forwarded to Amazon’s business development team for further consideration.

By the time May had rolled around, it was reported that Amazon was actively looking for a general manager to place in charge of the company’s potential pharmaceutical branch. While it is still uncertain what Amazon’s plans may actually entail when it come to breaking into this multibillion dollar industry, something is definitely brewing.  And if Bezos has any doubts that this type of model could be successful, he need only ask Umbehr for advice.

A Different Approach

Dr. Umbehr has been leading the charge towards free market health care alternatives in the United States. Based in Wichita, Kansas, Dr. Umbehr, along with Dr. Doug Nunamaker, runs a direct-pay primary care health practice that does not accept insurance premiums.

By opting not to work with third-party insurance companies, Atlas MD has been able to dramatically cut medical costs for its patients. Instead of accepting an insurance copay like most physicians offices, patients pay a monthly flat fee for a membership subscription. These membership costs vary by age. For children, Atlas MD charges $10 a month. For adults, services range from $50-$75 a month. Senior citizens are charged the most at $100 a month.

For health care consumers who have purchased memberships, this allows them access to all the services provided at the Atlas MD office without having to worry about whether or not their insurance policies cover a procedure.

In addition to making the care and payment process easier to manage, Atlas MD also stresses the importance in using tech to communicate information to their patients. On its website, clients have access to numerous amounts of health information on their computer or mobile devices, allowing them to have more control over their personal health.

This revolutionary health care model hasn’t gone unnoticed either. Atlas MD has made headlines over the last several years not only because their concierge care model is so unique, but also because it works.

What Is Bezos up To?

In addition to looking for personnel to head up this potential pharmaceutical project, Amazon has also recently hired several professionals from the health care sector to offer feedback and advice for any future medical related projects.

Since this is all currently speculation, guessing is all anyone can really do when it comes to predicting Amazon’s next move. But according to some in the medical field, it would be in Amazon’s best interest to cater any future health-related endeavors to consumers willing to pay out of pocket for care. These are the same types of health care consumers who are attracted to Atlas MD.

Others weighing in on the issue have wondered if Amazon’s recent acquisition of Whole Foods provides some evidence to support the company’s intentions of getting in on the pharmaceutical game. Stephen Buck, who co-founded “GOODRX,” a company that provides consumers with coupons for costly prescriptions, said, “The acquisition of Whole Foods makes entry into pharmacy much easier for Amazon. Amazon could use this retail footprint for consumers to pick up prescriptions.” While Buck thinks that the 450 physical Whole Food locations provide an easy access point for health care consumers to pick up prescriptions, others are thinking bigger.

“Whole Foods creates an entry point to drug delivery,” analyst Morgan Stanley recently wrote. But whether the company chooses to have a pick up site or offer Prime delivery on certain prescriptions, or perhaps both, one thing is known for sure: Amazon is already selling prescriptions on its Japanese site. So Amazon moving into the health care world is not entirely out of the realm of possibility.

Additionally, and again this could merely be a coincidence, Gabrielle Sulzberger, Whole Foods chairwoman, is also on the board of Teva Pharmaceuticals, a huge drug maker in Israel.

It should shock no one that the most problematic obstacles standing in Amazon’s way are health insurers and government regulations. As physicians like Umbehr already understand, third-party health insurers often make the situation worse as it stifles the organic pricing process associated with demand for a certain product. It will be hard to compete for prices within a system that is already vastly distorted by third party insurance companies.

Likewise, the government has many restrictions in place for medications that require special requirements. In the instance of certain stimulants and opiates, delivery would not be an option as these require in-person pickups where the patient must provide government identification. But since Amazon hasn’t released any substantial information regarding its plans, there is really no telling what route they may take, if they take any at all.

Others who have chimed in on this new venture have insisted that there is no money to be made from the pharmacy business. Both CVS and Walgreens, two of the most well-known pharmacies in the country, have been experiencing falling stock prices this year. And many in the field have said that this would be a risky move since there is not a whole lot of money to be made in the world of generic prescription drugs.

But one thing the public is no stranger to is Amazon’s willingness to take experimental risks in the world of online retail. So while there may be much working against its favor, there is still hope, especially from Umbehr that Amazon will take on the beast that is the pharmaceutical company.

And while we wait to see if and how Amazon plans to execute an online pharmacy, it is hard to imagine any apparatus that is less effective than the current government controlled system.

Entrepreneurs Succeed By Helping Others. For Politicians, It’s The Opposite.

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We live and operate in the service economy. For example, services account for 80% of US GDP according to the World Bank (and this is 2015 data, so probably the number has increased since then). And services account for 80% of US private sector employment according to official statistics.

Actually, we should think more expansively about services. According to the framework called service-dominant logic, all production is valued by consumers as a service. Goods derive their value through use – the service they provide. All economies are service economies, and all jobs are service jobs.

Knowledge For The Benefit Of Others.

The definition of service, according to the discipline called Service Science, and its intellectual father, Dr. James C. Spohrer, is the application of knowledge for the benefit of others. The science part of Service Science is, today, highly focused on adding artificial intelligence capabilities to service-delivering entities in order to apply knowledge to perform a service task as well as or better than a person.

In other words, all the entrepreneurs throughout the country and the economy and the world are doing their best to do better in helping other people. In his book The Inevitable, Kevin Kelly says that he knows the business plans of the next 10,000 start-ups: “Take X, and add A.I.” – making service better by adding online intelligence.

But it’s not just A.I. entrepreneurs. Your tax accountant, your hairdresser, your dry cleaner, your delivery service, and your attorney are all thinking hard every day about how to serve you better. If they don’t, someone else will.

Service Providers Want You To Enjoy A Great Experience.

The output of a service is an experience. You get a completion, such as a tax return or a clean shirt, of course. But what you actually receive is a feeling that your life is better as a result. You feel relieved at filing your taxes on time and that they are accurate; you feel well groomed; you feel well-defended in your law suit.

In order to produce this result, service providers must be highly empathetic. They must know your emotional preferences and cater to them. It’s a big challenge, because your experience – the one on which you judge your service provider – is subjective, idiosyncratic, often inconsistent from day to day, and always emotionally charged. One day you are stood in line at Starbucks happily checking your Facebook messages without a care. The next day, at the same time in the same length of line with the same barista, you are screaming inside because you are late for an early meeting at the office. How can a service provider cope with this emotional inconsistency?

The Morality Of Service.

The answer is that they want to help you. As Adam Smith said in The Theory Of Moral Sentiments:

How selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortune of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it except the pleasure of seeing it.

That same morality that Adam Smith identified in empathy now manifests itself in the entrepreneurial service economy. Everyone is competing to help you. Today we have 5 star ratings and comment streams and social media and reference checks to make good service a national obsession. Every service provider is trying to be different and better, which means a better experience for you. They try to be uniquely valuable to you via personalization – serving you as a unique individual with unique needs. They strive for your loyalty, by always listening and always responding to your changing needs.

If they can combine personal and technological service, and if you like the combination, then that’s the new experience you can expect. Turbo Tax for example is software that will complete your tax return for you, and also offers Turbo Tax Live and Turbo Tax Expert Services if you want that extra emotional reassurance of a human expert to answer your individual question. Over time, we’ll trust the software more and have less need for the human expert, but for now the combination suits us better.

The Opposite Case.

Politicians claim to be in “public service”. But the opposite is the case. Their entire political system consists of someone losing in order for someone else to win. Someone must be defeated. Therefore they recruit their own voters, with the specific objective of defeating the interests of the opposition’s voters. They lie and cheat in order to continue defeating their opposition, i.e. other human beings.

In the world of service, every human can be served the way they prefer, and they’re free to change service providers if they feel that bargain is not being kept. In the world of politics, not so much.

 

 

Road to Individualism: Charting Our Own Career Course

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Today, more so than at any other point in history, individuals have the ability to pursue their own unique dreams while still earning a living. In earlier times, going to school and finding a profitable career often meant being miserable. But happiness was hardly the ultimate aim of a steady paycheck. This was the sacrifice of adulthood: you did what you needed to do to make money regardless of how your quality of life suffered.

For a majority of people, this did not mean pursuing their passions. It meant pursuing what was sure the make the most money. But young Americans, accustomed to the technological advances and the wondrous internet, have found a way to combine their dreams with a paycheck by using unconventional means.

Etsy

One of the greatest aspects of young people making money from their passions is the degree of specialization that has been given to the world as a result. Looking for a knitted beard warmer, or perhaps a custom-made mermaid costume for your next cosplay event? Look no further than Etsy.

Etsy is an online marketplace that exists especially for one of a kind and handmade items. While prices may be higher on Etsy than in traditional venues, consumers are more than willing to pay more for better quality items that no one else has.

In the era of “Do it Yourself” weddings, many have looked to Etsy to provide specialty, craft-made decorations. Sure, many of these consumers could make these items themselves. But therein lies the beauty of Etsy: It is the division of labor at its finest.

You may not have the time to spend your days painting reclaimed wood, but someone else provides this service for you. Allowing you to focus on whatever area of expertise you choose.

But what is truly amazing about Etsy is that it is allowing artists to make a steady income from their creations. This was much harder to do before the days of the internet. But now young people do not have to settle for career choices that make them unhappy just to pay the bills.

Patreon

If your creations are more abstract than the physical items sold on Etsy and other online markets, than you may find better luck on site like Patreon.

Before the progressive era, when state funding was the answer to all of life’s problems, the arts were privately funded by wealthy patrons. This is how many artists were able to pursue their passions without living in extreme poverty.

Patreon has brought that same principle into the modern world. Now, independent journalist, writers, vloggers, and other artists are able to produce work while accepting funds from patrons who have a vested interest in the work. This has helped many make lucrative careers while pursuing what they love to do.

This has been huge for the indie media scene. With Facebook’s algorithms constantly changing and established outlets often reaping the benefits, it has been hard for many independent journalists to stay afloat. But Patreon has created an outlet for them to do so.

With so many people dissatisfied with the direction mainstream journalism is heading, many have chosen to vote with their dollars, giving donations only to outlets that they believe are doing a good job at reporting the news.  Through small donations, starting at as little as a dollar, interested patrons can support whatever cause they like. Personally, I make a habit of supporting independent journalists. And the fact that I am able to do this without being exorbitantly wealthy myself is the true beauty of Patreon. With each microdonation I give, I am supporting artists and writers I believe in.And while small donations do not seem like much, several small donations can add up quickly.

There are even some Patreon users who have made over 60 thousand dollars a month in donations. While this may be a rare happening, it shows what is possible when artists crowdsource their salaries. This has allowed young people to pursue their passions without having to risk being penniless. It also gives them instant market feedback. If people like what you are producing, you will get more patrons. If they do not like what you are doing, you will feel it in your wallet and will know to adjust accordingly.

Patreon and Etsy, as well as other options that will be discussed later, have helped contribute to the changing mindset occurring all over the world. Younger people do not want to do what is profitable simply because we can make money. We want to do what we love without sacrificing a paycheck.

The advances that have made this lifestyle possible are allowing more and more people to chart their own course in life, rather than follow what has traditionally been expected. And this is, in itself, leading to a world filled with more individualism.

Trump’s Tariffs: A Practical Attempt To Alleviate A Pestilence Of Politics.

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There is a lot of ideological purity being bandied about recently in favor of “free trade”. It is spouted in righteous indignation on the subject of the Trump Administration’s recently announced intent to impose import tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. All of a sudden, the left-wing professoriate has discovered the virtues of free market economics. Or at least, they find an opportunity in virtue-signaling their opposition to Trump.

A Fine Theory.

Free trade is a theory. Historically, it was advanced by classical economists like David Ricardo and Adam Smith, who pointed out that schemes of tariffs and taxation and statutory import and export limitation were always aimed at furthering government aims and not at the betterment of the people who wanted to trade with their counterparts in foreign countries. In the never-ending battle between the entrepreneurs aiming to improve the quality of life of all economic citizens, and the government aiming to control the population and make sure no-one succeeded more than the government was prepared to allow, free trade became a loser.

Non-existent In Practice.

Today, there is no free trade. Zero. There is not a single trade that is not governed by legislation, bureaucratic rule making, taxes, tariffs or subsidies or political adjustments of some kind. No boat can sale, no plane can fly, no truck can deliver without political permission. Giant global bureaucracies like WTO, and regional ones like TPP and Nafta and the EU make sure that not a single transaction can be made without a specific permission within their rule making.

All of this political bureaucracy imposes costs of money and time delays. Entrepreneurs who want to import and export must research tariff and tax tables, employ their own compliance staff, file forms, undergo inspections, and submit reports about their activities, in addition to incorporating the actual taxes and tariffs into their costs, often acting as collectors for the government.

A Bureaucratic Tangle.

Why so much bureaucracy and cost? Not because of economics. From Ricardo and Smith, we know the economic benefits of free trade. The systemic strangulation of free exchange between countries is entirely driven by politicians. Politicians desire only two things: control over the free, imaginative and entrepreneurial activities of people, and a revenue stream that they can confiscate from the productive activities of others.

The result is a distorted and sclerotic tangle of unfree economic exchange, an unfathomable explosion of rules and regulations, a hampered global economy of constrained buyers and over-regulated sellers. The bureaucrats are happy because there are manifold opportunities for their enemies, the productive economic actors, to make mistakes, yielding unending opportunities for fines, penalties, “clarifications” (a bureaucratic favorite) and more rules.

A Small Bomb.

Along comes Trump and rolls a bomb into this building. A bomb is a vehicle for disruption. This particular bomb is a small one with limited explosive capacity. It could blow open a door, with the opportunity for some evil to exit or some good to enter. If a wall collapses, it opens up the chance of new and perhaps more open construction. If a beam falls, there might be the opportunity to eliminate entire stories of the twisted edifice.

Thinking Ahead.

Moreover, it is likely that Trump is better at systems thinking than the politicians and bureaucrats, for whom short termism is the dominant style. After he rolls in this bomb, will the EU or Canada or China retaliate? If so, that further exposes the façade of international co-operation and clearly underlines the bias of the system towards antagonism and confrontation. Such retaliation will open new pathways for Trump to renegotiate, expanding his options. What if the result is to start a meaningful discussion about how China illegally confiscates American companies’ intellectual property? Or about how Germany illegally favors BMW automobiles and Miele household appliances in its system of state-supported industries?

Tear Down This Trade Agreement.

Free trade is a perfectly viable theory, and it is nice to read about it in historical economics texts. We can all benefit from understanding the concept, because it helps us see how the politicians have permanently destroyed one of the purest mechanisms for collaborative human betterment. But don’t let’s tolerate screeching hypocritical distress over the use of a small explosive device to collapse the edifice of managed trade. It deserves to collapse.

Music, Specialization, and the Beauty of Emergent Order

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I had the fortunate pleasure of growing up surrounded by supremely talented musicians. Raised in a community where music was highly valued, I was exposed to a wide variety of instruments and genres. But what was most exciting about this in hindsight, was the lessons music taught me about spontaneous order.

Jam Sessions

While my family was inherently musical, I learned the most about music from my friends.  During my formative years, I had a front row seat to many “jam” sessions as they were called, where spontaneous order was all around me.  Without planning or structure, I would watch my friends make incredible music. The drummer would be keeping the rhythm while the two guitarists wailed on their instruments. The bass player keeping harmony while the singer made up lyrics on the spot. Each session lacked order and structure, and it was absolutely fabulous.

It always fascinated me that five individuals come together without a plan, and still manage to make incredibly sounding music. The answer for this, I would later discover, came from the economic principle of specialization.

The Division of Labor

Specialization makes the world go round. It is what allows me to be a writer, while someone else is a farmer, and another is a lawyer. Imagine a world without specialization.

Before 19th-century liberalism made the concepts of the division of labor and specialization commonplace, many people were self-sufficient. But this meant doing almost everything for themselves. From planting and harvesting crops to making clothing and constructing homes, individual households were stuck having to do almost everything for themselves. This, of course, leaves little room for much of anything else like hobbies or self-improvement.

But by specializing in a very specific skill, while others did the same, the division of labor was organically created and spontaneous order able to provide consumers with more than they could have dreamed. And we each rely on this system heavily.

As Mises writes in Liberalism:

In order to provide the family of an English worker with all it consumes and desires, every nation of the five continents cooperates. Tea for the breakfast table is provided by Japan or Ceylon, coffee by Brazil or Java, sugar by the West Indies, meat by Australia or Argentina, cotton from America or Egypt, hides for leather from India or Russia, and so on.

And while this system has given us a robust market, it is also seen in other facets of life, such as music, for example.

Specialization and Spontaneous Order

Each musician in a band has specialized in one unique set of skills. The talented drummer has learned to keep perfect time, which in many ways, keeps the rest of the band on track. The guitarists set the tone and the melody of the band, creating those catchy riffs that make us all want to replay a song in our heads over and over again. Meanwhile, the bass provides the harmony while the singer gives the music a relatable story.

Each is doing their own thing, yet they are each pulled together by an unseen force, weaving the music together. And as a result, amazing music is able to occur.

But even when the music sounds balanced and united, no one has given up their specialized task. The drummer is still in his own world doing his own thing, while one guitarist seems to be trying to outperform the other in a “power stance” duel. But this individuality only seems to add to the chaotic yet harmonious music being made.

Anyone who has ever seen a jazz band play will understand this instantly. Each player seems to be marching to the beat of his or her own drummer, and yet the music sounds amazing and united in a common theme. It is almost as if a magical force is keeping everything in perfect order without any one person needed to assume the power to do such.

And the magical force holding the music together is the same that allows the market to flourish when it is untouched by regulation. It is emergent order at its finest.

If each musician was being regulated by an authority telling them how fast they can play or which style they can play in, music would be boring. It’s that simple. Every single performance would be similar to watching a high school band performance where each artist is only subpar at their instrument and terrified of originality.

Likewise, a market where things were uniform and unoriginal would be boring. But when spontaneity is encouraged and individuals are left to their own devices, an amazing form of order emerges.

Road to Individualism: Millennial Parents Are Saying Yes to School Choice

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Millennials are no longer the youngest kids in town. As the currently unnamed “Generation Z” takes center stage as the new up and coming generation, millennials are now settling down and having families of their own. And this is having a significant impact on education.

As discussed previously, choice and personal control over education choices are both essential to individualism. And if recent polls are any indication of where millennials stand on this issue, then the future of individualism is looking bright and decentralized.

Millennial Parents

Recent polls suggest that millennial parents aren’t making the same educational choices that their parents made for them. And this is a good thing. Our parents were largely educated by traditional means, which led many to sentence their own children to the fate of traditional public schools.

But as public education kept perpetually failing to properly educate kids, more options became available, which is great since millennials love options.

Millennials grew up surrounded by abundant choice. Whether choosing from several hundred cable television stations or choosing from a variety of music available at the click of a button, we have never wanted for options. The same is true of our parenting styles. Millennials like going against the norm when it comes to parenting.

A recent report released by EdChoice found that young Americans tend to have a highly favorable opinion towards school choice. In fact, when asked specifically about charter and private schools, the millennials polled expressed a positive view as opposed to the percentage who reported having negatives opinions towards these alternatives to public education.

Additionally, when compared to other generations, Millennials were three times as likely to give positive feedback towards the overall institution of charter and private schools. For those young Americans who currently have school-aged children attending a charter or private school, the positive responses were even greater.

Homeschool Revolution

But what is perhaps most fascinating about the millennial approach to education, is the favorability for homeschooling. Scoring a few points above other generations, many millennials support this as a viable option for their children.

And it is no wonder. In previous generations, homeschoolers were viewed almost as societal outcasts, having a social disadvantaged over traditionally educated children. But time has dispelled these rumors.

Homeschooled children are not only better at taking tests than the children forced to take them throughout their educational careers, they are also more socialized. Many of the children struggling to speak to their own counterparts were off-putting to many, eager to critique homeschool students. But when those students were put in a room with older children or adults, they were able to socialize at levels far beyond children their own ages. What was once seen as being weird and a disadvantage is now being recognized as a strength.

And the social aspects do not even account for the educational advantage of homeschooling. As the Common Core Curriculum began nationalizing education more so than at any other time in the past, many parents were concerned with the one-size-fits-all approach to education. As millennials are fans of many market options, this didn’t bode well for many of them. Since many charter schools and private schools agreed to use the Common Core Curriculum out of convenience, this left few options to escape this system. This led many parents towards homeschooling and unschooling since they were in full control of their children’s education.

As the Millennial generation continues to age, these approval ratings are expected to continue their upward trend. While the public education system has done much to disappoint many Americans over the years, it is no wonder that the generation accustomed to choice in every aspect of their lives, favors more educational opportunities for their own children.

Imagine The Future, Take Action To Reach it, And Measure Results.

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The entrepreneurial approach to life expands beyond the business world. Entrepreneurs are empathetic engineers of the future – aiming at a better future for all. In business, they try to improve people’s lives by providing a new service that’s better than anything that’s gone before. People feel happier and more satisfied, and the entrepreneur makes a financial and psychic profit.

The same can apply to everything in life if you take the entrepreneurial approach. Here are four examples of the entrepreneurial approach to life.

  • Adam Neumann was raised in a Kibbutz in Israel where he experienced community and inter-dependence. He recognized that many young US professionals were working in isolation on the web, yearning for a place to be with like-minded people, yet have privacy. He founded WeWork: matching local people (through AI algorithms), who work independently or are telecommuting for companies, to reasonably priced shared work-spaces. WeWork purchases and reconfigures offices with amenities, office equipment, and ambience for online virtual work, but also provides a community for individuals who want to meet and have personal contact with those of common interests. WeWork demonstrates how to create communities of spontaneous order with drop-in flexibility that serves both individual business and personal needs. Today, WeWork is valued at $16 billion and has 60,000 participants in cities throughout the US.
  • John Yang, a former financial advisor, never married or had children. Now 68 years old, he wants to teach children in a safe, structured environment where he can have the flexibility to plug- in and have autonomy. John enrolled as a substitute teacher in the San Francisco School District. He checks the District Platform the evening before class to see which schools, grades, classrooms, and subject areas need substitute teachers. John can choose to bid on a class, and shows up the next day, ready for work.
  • Eve Blossom was appalled at global sex trafficking and wanted to do something about it. Twenty years ago she decided to provide women who were trafficked an opportunity to start a new, self-sustaining life through sales of their crafts and artwork. She founded and directs a B Corporation, Weve, hosted on a global platform. She sources from women in cities and villages anywhere, and places orders for retailers such as Target.
  • Malcolm Franks had a career as an interior designer. At age 67, living in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida he was seeking work that would connect him with children in his religious community, give him autonomy, and freedom for a flexible daily schedule that suits his lifestyle. He drives 15 children to religious school in a van each day and returns them home in the afternoon. He also house-sits for several people who live in Florida during six months of the year, taking care of their pets, pools, and household. He uploads photos and videos to the owners of their homes so he can verify his work.

These individuals are all entrepreneurs, operating with different goals and using different means. There is a common theme in these examples.

Start From Values.

Who am I? What do I believe? What are my values? These are the questions entrepreneurs ask of themselves before they embark on any kind of project. Who do I want to help? How can I understand their need?

Imagine The Future.

The entrepreneurial style is not necessarily to be a genius inventor or a technology wizard. Instead, the entrepreneur imagines. Entrepreneurs can imagine a future state, that is better for them, and better for the people they want to help. If you can imagine like this, you can be an entrepreneur.

Take Action.

Having imagined the future, the entrepreneur takes action to bring it about. He or she is confident that they can succeed. They may not know the pathway, nor have they charted every step along the way. But they have a goal and they explore the means to reach the goal, trying different initiatives, abandoning some as ineffective, and doubling down on others that are promising. Action is one of the defining traits of entrepreneurial life.

Measure Results.

Having a noble or elevated goal is not enough. The challenge is to choose the right means to achieve the goal, and objective measurement is only way to tell if you’ve made the right choices. There’s no shirking from results in entrepreneurship.

The examples cited here are taken from the forthcoming book, The Interconnected Individual, by Hunter Hastings and Jeff Saperstein, Business Expert Press, 2018.

Miniaturized Factories Plus Unique Recipes Can Insulate You From All Competition.

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Have you thought about miniaturization as a technology trend that can enable you to create a unique capability for yourself in the coming services revolution? Many people are worried that jobs are going to be lost to technology and robots, but, in fact, you can make sure that technology insulates you from disruption.

From the days of large corporations, big factories, and mass-produced branded products and services, we are now headed towards a miniaturized, customized, co-developed future. Factories, farms and energy flows are miniaturizing. For example, Farmshelf is a smart indoor farm the size of a refrigerator that makes growing fresh food in a home, garage or restaurant easy. Custom LED lighting and advanced nutrient systems mean that the unit grows plants 2-3x faster and with 90% less water than traditional agriculture. Restaurants can get the freshest product, the best ingredients, and also massively decrease waste by using only use what they need. If you are a restaurant owner, you can tailor the indoor farm to your own recipes, for a truly unique offering.

Similarly, 3D printing (intelligently utilizing recipes and designs in the cloud available to interconnected individuals with miniaturized hardware) brings manufacturing to the home. We recently wrote about Amos Dudley who 3D printed custom orthodontic retainers for himself, instead of paying the astronomically high prices required by the healthcare system.

Solar panel installations and storage batteries turn houses into energy generation plants, promising a future in which we can control our own energy sources and usage. Open artificial intelligence will give the apps on our smartphones new capabilities (e.g., voice interfaces, conversation interfaces, episodic memories, etc.) and transform them into low-cost digital workers as Moore’s Law continues.

This trend is the miniaturization of the expertise economy of nations, and all of these examples are better building blocks for a new individual economy. Individuals empowered by eventually hundreds of low cost intelligent digital knowledge processors, and supported by miniature factories and farms and energy flows, will utilize these “better building blocks” to generate their individualized economic, social, and recreational futures.

Pursuing uniqueness.

Miniaturization is one more example of individual access to great empowerment and self-efficacy in the new technology era. But the opportunity comes with responsibilities. The ultimate responsibility is to pursue knowledge and uniqueness.

The path to your individual uniqueness, insulating you from competition because the service you offer can not be reproduced or replaced, is through knowledge. Here’s what Kartik Gada says in his book ATOM: The Accelerating TechnOmic Medium. It’s Time To Upgrade The Economy.

Have you done enough aggregate Internet searching and forum commenting to capture all the low-hanging fruits available to you for your personal advancement and risk management? If you answer that question in the affirmative, I am here to tell you that you have not come even close to realizing what is possible. Even heavily committed people barely access 10% of the information that could greatly improve their careers, finances, health, and relationships, and I don’t think there is anyone in the world, no matter how successful, who has implemented more than 50% of what is available to them.

Economic specialization has been with us since the days of Adam Smith’s pin factory. Today, it is more finely articulated than ever before. In the service economy, our individual task is to serve others by applying knowledge. When an intelligent knowledge-connected app can do that, the human must stay one step ahead in the only way that humans can: individual uniqueness.

We must become acutely conscious of our capabilities, our values and our desires. To do what we love, what we know, and what we are good at doing requires very rigorous and sophisticated self-examination. Then we must integrate ourselves with the global interconnected world, working with other like-minded people and machines and teams and organizations to realize our maximum individual potential. We must utilize the potential of accessible knowledge, intelligent digital assistants and miniaturization to augment ourselves, and to be as smart as interconnectivity enables us to be. We must be super-efficient, not wasting an iota of energy on anything that detracts from our personal mission of self-realization.

If we accept this responsibility and act upon it, the future is bright for the interconnected individual.

 

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