When something seems like a solution to a problem, look beyond.

In the summer of 2019 many protesters in Moscow were sued by the city transport authorities and a restaurant for making them work harder (!). This seemed like complete nonsense until I understood the wider problem. Most Russians hadn’t yet ditched the bug of believing that the Tsar or the Party will fix their problems. Thus they believed that the only person that can solve the problem is someone from the government. The government, of course, became tired of this: solving every problem is impossible.

So the government took advantage of the popularity of opposition leaders and the protesters following them. These people were fined high sums for minor misdemeanors. Most people in Russia haven’t crowdfunded anything, so by engaging in a nationwide discourse, the state created a situation in which people would impulsively help them, by crowdfunding. People learned about crowdfunding and later used it for personal matters. Russians became richer and Russia became better. This is especially noteworthy because Russia established a new crowdfunding law on January 1, 2020.

When something seems like a solution to a problem, look beyond.

This summer I stayed at a Milanese hotel for a night. I found some of its eco-policies to be admirable, while others to be ridiculous. One of the ridiculous ones was giving me a room on the ground floor. “We are afraid of wasting precious energy powering the elevator as this would harm the environment”, the hotel triumphantly declared on its posters. These are fancy words for “we want to save money”.

The hotel also did not think that sound pollution is more of a problem for me than using excess electricity. I might have come up with some fantastic idea if it weren’t for the dogs barking next door.

Problems are solved after misfortunes happen, therefore big change happens after big tragedies. This is sad, but that’s how the world rolls.

What a great lecture.

Today’s phones can be woken by tapping the screen. Future phones will be unlocked by tapping in a pattern similar to Morse code.

I’ve always loved tomato sauce, but I never liked tomato juice. In July I discovered this, which I later fell in love with:

It’s mostly tomato, but mixed with orange, carrot, and ginger. While I prefer freshly made juices, it’s a pretty good packaged one.

Why do Chinese copycats trying to pretend they have the real thing always fail so badly? Why do they make it so obvious that what they’re selling is fake despite pretending it’s genuine? To make sure their friends don’t get scammed?

I never had any special relationship with meat, although I ate it what I would call “fairly often”. So I stopped eating it for two weeks to then understand that I can live a full life without consuming it ever again.

Now I eat meat only as a last resort.