matthewthinks

[matthewthinks]

Absences echo louder than silence. This is a tribute to the ones who’ve walked beside us, and the ones who’ve taken a different path. Cherish the moments. Carry them forward.

[matthewthinks]

To Bury or To Become: Reflecting on Matthew 25

“To those who have, more will be given. To those who do not, even what they have will be taken away.”— Matthew 25:29 The Divine Trust: Stewardship, Responsibility, and the Nature of Gifts In both Orthodox and more recent traditions, Matthew 25 is not a call one can simply ignore. A banner of excellence to faithful stewardship. The parable of the talents is not merely about money, it is…

[matthewthinks]

“I’m a crazy civil libertarian, but I’ve never really understood the good faith presumption that the courts grant to government. There’s ample evidence that government officials act in their own self interest — particularly elected officials. But it’s an especially dangerous idea now, with an administration whose default posture is to lie. What the “regularity” doctrine means in practice is that we start every challenge to a Trump administration policy — deporting people to foreign torture sites, civil war zones, and places where they’re likely to be murdered; deporting people for First Amendment-protected speech; shutting down government programs for petty, vindictive reasons; I could go on — with a presumption that the administration isn’t lying to the courts, and that its stated actions for these policies are its actual reasons for doing them. The abundant evidence to the contrary doesn’t seem to matter.”

— Radley Balko

[matthewthinks]

The Market Is Fiat-Forced

A Capitalist’s Lament for a Generation Lost

The Illusion of Capitalism

Misnamed. Misunderstood. Manipulated.

Capitalism didn’t save the airlines, the banks, or the carmakers. That was socialism. They were playing with worries and words. But all dressed up in pinstripes, whispering “market stability” while the rest of us would be who footed the bill. We blame greed, when fear is often way worse.

Like a magician shouting "security" and “freedom” while swapping our wallet. Even once we noticed we return and the illusion continues. A system built to reward production and punish waste now runs on printing presses and political proximity. Each party undoes the "progress" of the predecessor. Both sides spending labors that are not theirs, nor were they even yet worked.

What we call capitalism today is an impostor. Interventionism in a free-market mask.

Millennials blame capitalism for the consequences of selective socialism. We were told to innovate while the scoreboard keeps changing mid-game. Compliance to culture outpays competence too often.

Creativity bows to conformity.

Where Capitalism Ends and Cronyism Begins

The Subsidy Syndicate

From EV tax credits to Big Ag bailouts, the hand of the state moves constantly and quietly.

Innovation isn’t rewarded, it’s requisitioned. Industries thrive not because they deliver value, but because they flatter the right narrative that cycle.

Unit economics once revealed truth.

Now they’re buried beneath a Keynesian fog that rewards scale over sense.

Today, "Profit" no longer means you built something people wanted. Maybe you just knew how to pitch the right regulator. Or ripped off retail.

The Bailout Generation

We came of age watching the corrupt be rescued. They still are.

2008: Banks leveraged recklessly and got bonus checks. 2020: Helicopter money rained while politicians picked winners behind closed doors. Always: Asset bubbles ballooned on QE, enriching the well-connected.

When failure strikes a small business, it dies.

When it strikes a conglomerate, it’s “too big to fail.” Or it just IPOs preferably before anyone knows. The wealthiest names in tech, energy, and transport are often lionized as capitalist savants.

In truth, they are the state’s most cherished investments. Propped up by policy, protected by subsidy at our children’s expense. They are praised as pioneers while operating within a safety net woven by future taxpayers.

So, we grew up watching the unfit survive. Not because they adapted, but because they were bailed out!

Success or Failure now a feature of timing and positioning, not the results or quality of idea. So survival has always favored the already favored. But our rules began bending for the powerful long before they broke for us. There was a progression, while the population slept in safety. And we all bare the burden of fault.

“The worst evils which mankind has ever had to endure were inflicted by bad governments.”

Executive Spectacle vs. Entrepreneurial Soul

The Cult of Optics

Capital no longer seeks the builder. It seeks the performer. Valuations ride stories, not spreadsheets. Founders chase viral impression over integrity. The spreadsheet has became a stage. The forecast, a fable.

In chasing artificial omniscience, we’ve traded foresight for techno-nihilistic moonshots. AI promises liberation, but scale devours its soul.

Growth is kind of new gospel. Humanity kneels before algorithms that no longer answer to it.

When power eclipses purpose, even intelligence becomes idiotic.

The Boardroom as Beneficiary

Here we are, while producers burn out below, the board members collect stock like trophies.

Layoffs become bonuses. Each silent builder who departs is written off as an unfortunate casualty.

The closer you are to beginning of creation, the less you’re valued.

Capitalism is supposed to honor the builder. Now it seems to glorify the briefer.

Those fluent in the game of numbers and narratives, not the warrior-monks or pioneers who once shaped the frontier.

“Capitalism is not simply mass production, but mass production to satisfy the needs of the masses.”

Rewarding the Mediocre: The Cultural Consequence

This isn’t just economic distortion, it’s moral decay.

Merit becomes mimicry. Success travels through slogans, not substance.

Creators are taxed. Risk-takers sidelined. Builders replaced. Taxed. Sidelined. Replaced.

We built systems where mediocrity thrives, so long as it echoes the right script. The algorithm rewards the echo, not true excellence.

A generation of producers has been left watching spectators count the spoils.

Capitalism Remembered: My Personal Compass

I believe in capitalism.

Not in today’s Fed-fueled, state-steered safety net, but in the dangerous, dignifying engine of free exchange. Where value is a vehicle for survival, safety, sustainability.

Today we have a government-controlled perverted version that we’ve inherited, but it is not the true spirit of capitalism. That is a system built on voluntary exchange that gives people dignity and opportunity. Not forcing outcomes and reinventing measurements.

Capitalism doesn’t need reinvention. It needs to be remembered.

It rewards service. It punishes waste. It allows bad ideas to fail, sometimes painfully. Without consequence, how else do we deter bad actors or bad businesses?

It is allocated not by identity or ideology, but by utility.

Brutal? Sometimes.

Fair? Far more than anything else we’ve ever tried.

What we’ve built now is neither fair nor sustainable.

“Government is the only institution that can take a valuable commodity like paper and make it worthless by applying ink.”

Today Risk is socialized while the rewards are privatized.

Value is subsidized and meaning, well, it’s mostly staged.

The Soul That the System Forgot

This is deeper than economics. It’s spiritual.

Freedom used to mean opportunity. Merit used to lead to advancement. Capitalism used to be fair.

Now we are surveilled, coerced, and inflated. Freedom exists in name only. Every lever is locked.

He who builds infinite models forgets the finite soul.

The dream of the New World was never about wealth or riches. From the beginning, it was about liberty, dignity, and consequence. Because only in risk can true meaning be forged and tested by time.

But the soul of the capitalist no longer finds sanctuary here.

America’s market is fiat-forced. Her rhetoric rings hollow. Her rewards feel rigged.

I am a millennial. I am not anti-market. I am not anti-enterprise. But I am done pretending this is capitalism.

Source: The Market Is Fiat-Forced

[matthewthinks]

We didn’t reject capitalism. We just never got to see it. What we inherited was a rigged game dressed in free-market language. It’s time to stop pretending this is capitalism and start remembering what it was meant to be.

[matthewthinks]

Human Equity: The Polymath Premium

For a few years, I have trusted a young man. He screams into the void on X, formerly known as Twitter. The Komrade Kommander is quite a character. His thoughts are some of the rawest, most profound things I’ve read on social media. As well as laughed hysterically at his quick wit. I adore him, even though we have never met. I think this is common for millennials. To connect across space and time. Through him, I’ve found and subscribed to the work of incredible minds like Dr. Julie Gurner. Just to name a favorite. There’s a value in these connections; how to give it a proper valuation is hard to say. Every relationship has a cost. Ask your friend with a truck if you don’t know what I mean. If I were to place a value on these connections, I would not be capable of them. I could not afford the ones I have already had. Even at the rate our society goes into debt, there’s not enough money to justify human capital. All of this to get my bias out there before continuing.

I am more of an early adopter of AI. I understand how it will cause great disruption. It will bring pain to humans made obsolete by its automation. Keep in mind there were strikes at farm equipment, machinery, even the earliest projectors. They were all going to 'take our jobs.' But we still have farmers, machinists, engineers, and teachers. You can't replace human equity. There's no substitute for our spirit. There is no need to fear the future, even though there are oligarchs and autocrats. We do need to be aware of our current situation.

Human Equity is the new premium in a world of AI.

Adaptive Authenticity: The New Capital

There’s no doubt the world is rapidly terraforming into something different. Automation, AI, and a borderless digital ethos propel this change. The individual struggles to navigate a fourth industrial revolution. There is opportunity awaiting us. We are entering an era where human authenticity becomes both a strategy and currency. This currency has yet to be counted.

My mentor always reminds me of a reality. The answer to 9/10 questions is money. It even applies to 999/1000 questions.

This is because in a fickle and fiat system, money is essentially worthless. Not hard, tested, and proven. Compound our devaluation with capital assets which eventually depreciate or are dismissed by market disruption.

If you’re the innovator capturing the market, this is good.

But if you’re sauntering your way to retirement, you may not reach it.

There is, of course, one answer that is more powerful, more important, more meaningful. But that, in part, is due to its rarity in the purest of forms. If money was scarce and as hard as love, the world would be better off. -A concerned Capitalist.

This is to say, if AI can replace you, it will. Doesn’t matter if we refrain from using, regulate, and resist adopting, or carefully respect the powerful thing that it is. We will employ it and embrace its existence. That debate was over before it started. For each of us, it may be time to get curious instead of staying so comfortable.

I was reminded of this during a podcast recently about AI. A topic which was close to home to the owner and host. Just weeks before, I was asking our IT which tasks AI can handle from my many responsibilities. I was curious about what it could do for me and others. The host of this podcast works as a copywriter and brand strategist. So, you can see how AI isn’t as exciting for her. But I think she’s already on track to keep thriving. As she hit the nail on the head when she mentioned adaptability. That’s the secret sauce of sustainably, no matter what industry you are in. I’ve found those who keep finding ways to make progress. They consistently bring value. These are the ones who survive the storms.

Another hard truth is we aren’t paid for our time, even if that’s what it costs us. It’s not the experience, with its diminishing returns, thanks again to time. No, we are paid for the value we bring to the marketplace. But Lindsay mentioned something that stuck out. "If we are known by name and have brand loyalty, we are unstoppable."

I have always had general awareness concerning the importance of ‘name’ as the ancients understood it. Name was who you were. Your attributes, your family, and even the actions of the past. Reputation is sacred; that’s why integrity is so important for the individual and the organization. Honesty and proximity are mutually inclusive to true integrity. It’s behaviorally found in that human element. One formed through thousands of years of our tribe that trust is built on. Here is our ticket to safety.

The Authentic Advantage: Valuing the Versatile

The modern era’s experience is largely fabricated. We each have an algorithmic feed that filters the information we consume. Additionally, we must sift through synthetic personas and connections. You can easily find brand management posts and articles from nearly a decade ago advocating for authenticity in professional settings. Some I’ve recently rediscovered discuss how authenticity directly leads to higher ratings, making it a powerful marketing strategy. When authenticity transcends tribalism, it encompasses values and core beliefs. It then becomes a willingness to pay more, which is highly valuable.

The next generation will need to be more life literate than my millennial generation. We did a good job keeping the childhood curiosity that connects us all. Those who come after will need to be cross-domain fluent. People who are versed in pivoting as only a polymath can.

The rise of those able to connect the dots that are seemingly unrelated has already begun. This world has been busy while we slept. We struggle to understand all the interconnected systems and communities. A global issue. There’s a great need for those who can holistically diagnose and solve problems before the scaffolding crashes down around us.

The new systems will no longer wait around for us to board. In this landscape of automation, curated identities, and echo chambers, only the polymath’s unique voice offers clarity and credibility.

There’s a premium on human equity but only for the adaptable, authentic individual. It is not knowing everything. But rather a willingness to learn anything that matters most.

Source: Human Equity: The Polymath Premium

[matthewthinks]

This one’s close to my heart. It’s about connection, change, and the power of being real in a world that’s rapidly shifting. Hope it hits different.

[matthewthinks]

Fifty years ago, Warth v. Seldin quietly redrew the map of opportunity in America. It wasn’t just about zoning. It was about who gets to belong. Liberty fenced. Justice deferred. Read why I believe it’s time to tear down walls of many kinds.

[matthewthinks]

Engines of Meaning

The Mind on Strike: A Letter to the Age of Comfort

We were not made for comfort. We were made to move. Not just to survive, but to build. To shape. To bear the weight of meaning.

Yet here we are. Surrounded by abundance, drowning in convenience, and starving for purpose. We scroll. We consume. We mimic. We call it leisure, but it’s often just escape. We call it rest, but it’s often just resignation.

The modern world has given us everything; except a reason to keep going.

And so, the mind begins to withdraw. Not in protest, but in quiet erosion. The kind that doesn’t make headlines. The kind that happens when the soul forgets what it was made for.

The Forgotten Purpose of Work

Work was never just about survival. It was about shaping the world in our image. It was about capturing chaos and forging order. It was about meaning.

But meaning requires effort. It demands sacrifice. It asks us to choose what matters; and to bear the cost of that choice.

We used to understand this. We built cathedrals that took generations. We farmed with our hands, wrote with our blood, and raised children with the weight of legacy in our bones.

Now we chase efficiency. We improve for ease. We trade the long arc of creation for the short hit of consumption.

And we wonder why we feel hollow.

The Prime Movers

Ayn Rand called them Prime Movers. The mind that makes the world go. The inventors, the builders, the artists, the thinkers. Not because they were told to. Not because they were rewarded. But because they could not do otherwise.

They were not driven by duty. They were driven by vision. They saw what could be; and they moved toward it.

But what happens when the world no longer honors them? When the builder is told to apologize for building, the thinker to conform, the creator to comply?

They stop. They go silent. They walk away.

And the world begins to crumble; not in fire, but in forgetfulness.

The Age of Comfort

We live in the most leisurely age in human history. We can summon food, entertainment, and affirmation with just a tap. We have more access to knowledge than any other generation before us; yet far less wisdom to show for it.

We are not overworked. We are under-purposed. We are not too busy. We are too distracted. We are not too tired. We are too untested.

Comfort has become our cage. And the mind, once forged in fire, now rusts in stillness.

Ironically, it is comfort that becomes the prison. The soft walls, the curated feeds, the endless ease; they do not free us. They numb us.

True liberation is not found in escape, but in confrontation. Facing the harsh, blindly bright reality; the one that demands something from us; is where freedom begins.

The Mind on Strike

This is not a call to romanticize suffering. It is a call to remember that meaning is forged in motion. That the mind, like the muscle, must be used or is lost.

When the Prime Movers go on strike, it is not always dramatic. Sometimes it looks like quiet quitting. Sometimes it looks like endless scrolling. Sometimes it looks like a brilliant mind choosing silence over struggle.

But the result is the same: the engine stalls.

And without the engine, civilization does not collapse; it decays.

A Caution for the Reader

You are not here to be comfortable. You are here to create. To build. To move.

You are not a consumer of meaning. You are its source.

So work. Not because you must. But because you can.

Because the world still needs builders. Because the storm still needs shaping. Because the mind, when fully alive, is the greatest force the world has ever known.

And because comfort, left unchecked, will kill you slower than chaos ever could.

And will...

The storm will come. Let it find you standing.

Source: Engines of Meaning

[matthewthinks]

Engines of Meaning

The Mind on Strike: A Letter to the Age of Comfort

We were not made for comfort. We were made to move. Not just to survive, but to build. To shape. To bear the weight of meaning.

Yet here we are. Surrounded by abundance, drowning in convenience, and starving for purpose. We scroll. We consume. We mimic. We call it leisure, but it’s often just escape. We call it rest, but it’s often just resignation.

The modern world has given us everything; except a reason to keep going.

And so, the mind begins to withdraw. Not in protest, but in quiet erosion. The kind that doesn’t make headlines. The kind that happens when the soul forgets what it was made for.

The Forgotten Purpose of Work

Work was never just about survival. It was about shaping the world in our image. It was about capturing chaos and forging order. It was about meaning.

But meaning requires effort. It demands sacrifice. It asks us to choose what matters; and to bear the cost of that choice.

We used to understand this. We built cathedrals that took generations. We farmed with our hands, wrote with our blood, and raised children with the weight of legacy in our bones.

Now we chase efficiency. We improve for ease. We trade the long arc of creation for the short hit of consumption.

And we wonder why we feel hollow.

The Prime Movers

Ayn Rand called them Prime Movers. The mind that makes the world go. The inventors, the builders, the artists, the thinkers. Not because they were told to. Not because they were rewarded. But because they could not do otherwise.

They were not driven by duty. They were driven by vision. They saw what could be; and they moved toward it.

But what happens when the world no longer honors them? When the builder is told to apologize for building, the thinker to conform, the creator to comply?

They stop. They go silent. They walk away.

And the world begins to crumble; not in fire, but in forgetfulness.

The Age of Comfort

We live in the most leisurely age in human history. We can summon food, entertainment, and affirmation with just a tap. We have more access to knowledge than any other generation before us; yet far less wisdom to show for it.

We are not overworked. We are under-purposed. We are not too busy. We are too distracted. We are not too tired. We are too untested.

Comfort has become our cage. And the mind, once forged in fire, now rusts in stillness.

Ironically, it is comfort that becomes the prison. The soft walls, the curated feeds, the endless ease; they do not free us. They numb us.

True liberation is not found in escape, but in confrontation. Facing the harsh, blindly bright reality; the one that demands something from us; is where freedom begins.

The Mind on Strike

This is not a call to romanticize suffering. It is a call to remember that meaning is forged in motion. That the mind, like the muscle, must be used or is lost.

When the Prime Movers go on strike, it is not always dramatic. Sometimes it looks like quiet quitting. Sometimes it looks like endless scrolling. Sometimes it looks like a brilliant mind choosing silence over struggle.

But the result is the same: the engine stalls.

And without the engine, civilization does not collapse; it decays.

A Caution for the Reader

You are not here to be comfortable. You are here to create. To build. To move.

You are not a consumer of meaning. You are its source.

So work. Not because you must. But because you can.

Because the world still needs builders. Because the storm still needs shaping. Because the mind, when fully alive, is the greatest force the world has ever known.

And because comfort, left unchecked, will kill you slower than chaos ever could.

And will...

The storm will come. Let it find you standing.

Source: Engines of Meaning

[matthewthinks]

This is something close to the soul. Dedicated to the builders, the thinkers, the ones who still stand.

[matthewthinks]

Within the Machine: Accountability, Innovation, and the Future of Manufacturing

I work in an industry that was once a symbol of human innovation. From replacing farm animals to traveling the stars. Those who thought it up and those who crafted said concept into creation. In this industry, flight wasn’t just physics. It was a poetic try to push the limits of what we can achieve.

Today, the system feels tangled in its own rules. It is as if it has forgotten what created it in the first place: the builder, the thinker, the doer.

Regulation, once a last resort, has become the first instinct. It no longer protects us from chaos but rather it traps the very hands that create. Those who take the risks aren’t the ones writing the rules. And those who write the rules rarely feel the cost of their decisions.

From the economic perspective I share with many others, this is the natural result of central planning. When systems grow too centralized, they lose the ability to measure the real cost of interference. They distort signals, misprice risk, and reward compliance over competence. The market becomes a stage. Some might even say it's a circus. Success is no longer measured by outcomes alone, but by how well you check the right boxes and shape perception.

And yet, I don’t rage against the machine.

None of us control the system. I can only control my response to it. So I choose to stay principled, even when the system is not. I choose to build, even when the scaffolding groans. I choose to speak—not to condemn, but to clarify.

Because the real tragedy isn’t just inefficiency. It’s the quiet exit of good people; the craftsmen, engineers, and thinkers. An exodus of the greatness that would have been. Those who grow tired of swimming upstream. Systems don’t collapse all at once. They erode in silence, as those who care most quietly walk away.

As Atlas shrugs, I will think and write about how we can change; starting with accountability.

⚖️ Accountability Over Regulation

What we need isn’t less structure; it’s better incentives. Not necessarily fewer rules, but certainly more efficient and clearer accountability.

Imagine a system where:

• Risk is shared fairly, not pushed downward

• Restitution—through insurance or performance bonds—replaces some of the red tape

• Poor performance has real consequences, and excellence is rewarded naturally

This is how free markets are supposed to work. But in regulated industries, the stakes are so high that governments and large contractors often over-correct. Instead of trusting the system to self-regulate, they bury it in rules and redundancy.

Which brings us to takeaway number two.

🚢 Ships Too Big to Steer

Some organizations have grown so large, they can no longer respond to the world around them. Like ships too big to steer, they drift—slow to react, slow to change—colliding with risks hidden just below the surface. At 50,000 feet, it’s hard to see the cracks forming on the ground.

These “primes” often:

• Absorb risk from smaller suppliers, but pass down the burden of compliance

• Become bogged down in bureaucracy, losing the agility that once made them great

• Let accountability fade, allowing inefficiencies to spread quietly through the system

As Clayton Christensen wrote in The Innovator’s Dilemma, even the most successful companies can fall when they fail to adapt. History shows us this again and again—whether in business or in empires.

So what are we to do with this knowledge?

🧭 What a Better System would Look Like

We don’t need to tear it all down. That only hastens the same end as wasteful bureaucratic erosion. Destruction—by fire or by rot—ends in the same void.

We need a plan. A strategy. And overdue action.

We need discernment: To know what to preserve, what to prune, and what to plant. To build smarter is not to reject the past, but to refine it. To honor the foundation while reshaping the frame.

To become the craftsman, not the arsonist. The reformer, not the revolutionary. To see the cracks—not to curse them, but to reinforce them with better stone.

This is not resistance. It is resilience. And from it, a future worth inheriting.

A better system includes:

• Risk-based regulation: Focus oversight where the danger is real, not everywhere at once

• Performance-based contracts: Reward results, not just paperwork

• Decentralized accountability: Let responsibility live closer to the work. When those who make decisions also bear the consequences—good or bad—the system becomes more responsive, more honest, and more resilient.

• Lean primes: Incentivize large contractors to act more like integrators, less like bureaucracies

🛠 Why I Stay

Until such a system exists, I choose to remain—sharp, principled, and willing. Not because the system deserves it, but because the work I love does.

Because manufacturing matters, we make the improbable possible. Because there is a great need for building and there always will be. Because truth, even when buried under bureaucracy, still deserves a willing voice.

Because even in a system that forgets its makers, the maker must not forget why they build.

Source: Within the Machine: Accountability, Innovation, and the Future of Manufacturing