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JA Westenberg
@Daojoan
- 36.3K Followers
- 1.6K Following
- 9.9K Posts
I write about tech + humans + philosophy
We built an entire civilisation around the idea that more information would make us wiser.
We have more information than any humans who ever lived.
We are not wiser.
My hottest of hot takes: the only people who should run companies that make things are people who deeply give a fuck about those things. Only people who love games and love playing games should run companies that make games. Doesn’t matter if it’s cheeseburgers or software.
Sydney is the only city on Earth where you can pay $9 for a flat white, $11 for a beer, and $1.8 million for a studio apartment, and still have people write op-eds asking why young people won’t have kids.
If one client is 50% of your income, you’re an outsourced department.
At 70%, you’re an employee with no benefits.
Call it what it is.
Every “AI will replace developers” take is written by a man who has never actually tried to get Cursor to center a div.
Tech founder lifecycle:
Year 1-3: We’re disrupting a broken industry
Year 4-6: We are the industry
Year 7-9: Senate subpoena
Year 1-3: We’re disrupting a broken industry
Year 4-6: We are the industry
Year 7-9: Senate subpoena
We’ve gone from "this is too ghoulish to exist" in 2003 to "this is the new wisdom-of-crowds infrastructure" in 2026. And it's a symptom of how we, all of us, are coming apart.
Prediction markets are, I think, the clearest single sign that our civilisation has entered a late and decadent stage.
Why prediction markets are a sure sign that our civilisation is in decay
Prediction markets are the clearest single sign our civilisation has entered a late and decadent stage. The reason isn't that they're new or sinister. It's that the case for them is defensible, the technology works, the outputs are useful, but the long-term effect is corrosive anyway.
A healthy civilisation draws a line around the sacred and refuses to price what's inside it. The line moves, but the line exists.
A civilisation in decay erases that line.
Why prediction markets are a sure sign that our civilisation is in decay
Prediction markets are the clearest single sign our civilisation has entered a late and decadent stage. The reason isn't that they're new or sinister. It's that the case for them is defensible, the technology works, the outputs are useful, but the long-term effect is corrosive anyway.
The problem with YouTube is the compulsive professionalisation. Every new creator feels the pull toward a Mr. Beast video - the thumbnail, the hook, the cuts, the attention graph. They comply or they don't upload. A platform built for anyone became a platform for one kind of video and ~only one.
