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dark forest

(30 articles)

A Homie's Guide to Lunarpunk

About lunarpunk, hugs, and a culture anyone can join.

lunarpunkcypherpunktamers of entropydark forestnostr

Open vs closed

Transparency is often deemed as ultimate goal. It is expected by voters from their governments, by employees from their employers, sometimes even from the customers. In software, building in the open is considered a fast way to innovation, delivering better product and higher security - "given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow".

lunarpunkdark foresttransparencyopaquesolarpunkopen sourcefossproprietary

Doing good

Imagine investing a fortune in a dream, knowing it will never pay a dime. That's what a friend did. His reason? "Because it needs to exist."

lunarpunkdark forestaltruismincentivesfree market

Competition

Competition, in its rawest form, is unyielding. It spans across love, attention, and business. In the marketplace, it manifests as the simple truth that superior products and services triumph over time. This is the essence of healthy competition: to excel, offer better services, finely tuned to a specific market.

lunarpunkdark forestcompetitionentrepreneurshipcooperation

The connector (HR in the dark forest)

Corporations boast "human resources departments," tasked with sourcing and retaining talent for diverse roles. Within these departments, you'll find headhunters, happiness managers, and various specialists. Do we need them in the dark forest?

lunarpunkdark foresthrconnectorhuman resources

Cleaning our minds

Chongqing, ever heard of it? Likely not, yet it's a sprawling urban jungle, teeming with over ten million souls. The city's mayor? A distant figure, irrelevant in the grand scheme.

lunarpunkdark forestmind cleansingcreativity

Forget the Pyramids, Embrace the Forest

Complicated organizational structures are familiar, a maze inside of pyramids, where inefficiencies can easily hide. They offer the allure of concentrated focus on specific problems and the safety of pooled capital to mitigate your risk by drowning it in a sea of other people's money.

lunarpunkdark forestpyramidhorizontalnode firstpeer to peerorganizations

Influencers and marketing in the dark forest

Mocking influencers is easy, yet they've carved a niche, connecting their audience with entrepreneurs, curating content that resonates.

lunarpunkdark forestpseudonymityanonymitydark forestmarketinginfluencers

The new flavour of the internet

I once got a perfume crafted from the flora of a renowned trail, unique and enchanting. This scent reminds me of an essence of the new internet's dark forest, an amalgam of cypherpunk resolve and crypto-anarchist dreams, yet it's more.

lunarpunkdark forestinternetircnostrsignalencryptioncypherpunkcryptoanarchy

Why we can't have nice and cheap things

In the intricate dance of existence, the parasite emerges as a master of survival, drawing sustenance from its host, yet ensuring the host's survival for continual energy supply. This dynamic, while seemingly symbiotic, remains fundamentally skewed.

lunarpunkdark forestparasitestatismanarchy

3D printing

Need a new cup? A grinder? A new wheel for your kid's toy car? If you are living outside of dark forest, these items would start their journey in China, through shipping container boats, customs and retailers, handed over by a delivery company.

lunarpunkdark forest3D printing

Access to global talent

In the realm of entrepreneurship, the constraints extend beyond regulations, taxes, and fiat money. A crucial element is market access, specifically the ability to tap into a global talent pool. Picture dwelling in a nation of ten million - your talent options multiply a hundredfold when you reach beyond your borders.

lunarpunkdark forestmarketsfreedomentrepreneurship

Digital presence

In the dark forest, collaboration has evolved, transcending the confines of physical walls and geographical boundaries. Gone are the days when proximity dictated productivity, when meetings in stuffy rooms set the rhythm of work. Now, we are untouched by the constraints of time and space.

lunarpunkdark forestentrepreneurshipvirtualdigital

Hollow firm

A hollow firm has no offices, no employees. It owns a domain name, customer and producer relationships and its own reputation. The goal of the hollow firm is to adapt to markets.

lunarpunkdark forestentrepreneurshipminimalismantifragile

Too small to fail

During the tumult of 2008-2009, giants stumbled, teetered on the brink, their sheer size demanding salvation from the state. Yet, in this crisis, the green spotlight of profit and loss statements turns not to the colossal but to the compact.

lunarpunkdark forestentrepreneurshipminimalismantifragile

Fear as a tool of political marketing

Like a shadowy figure of society, politicians craft tales of terror – a “far-right” politician, climate change, immigrants, capitalists, terrorists – weaving nightmares to ensnare the minds of voters.

lunarpunkdark forestfearpolitics

Entrepreneur(ial)s...

Being entrepreneurial is a rare skill these days. It can be learned and trained.

lunarpunkdark forestentrepreneurentrepreneurial

True art

You can rarely experience true art, one that is interesting, beautiful and is not a manifestation of some woke trauma. Artists, especially in Europe tackle "social issues", mainly because that's where public institutions money are poured to.

lunarpunkdark forestart

Outside of dark forest, blend in. In the dark forest, stand out.

In mainstream society, blending in is a good strategy. If you look like a normie, you don't threaten anyone's position in a hierarchy.

lunarpunkdark forestblending instanding out

On pretending and authenticity...

Totalitarian communist countries led people into pretending. Lying all the way, bottom up, just to paint a nice picture with fake numbers.

lunarpunkdark forestauthenticity

Energy conscious

Let's be conscious about energy. After we move away from centralized finance, energy is the next lever of control of the central planners.

lunarpunkdark forestenergyelectricity

Darkness

In the darkness, we can be invisible. Darkness provides anonymity, we can selectively reveal something about ourselves, but shining just enough light on ourselves.

lunarpunkdark forestdarkness

On proxy merchants...

In this highly globalized and specialized economy, with long supply chains and advanced technologies, striving for self-sufficiency is not possible - it would put us years behind in the economic development of highly advanced products...

lunarpunkdark forestproxy merchantsustainabilityself-sufficiency

Distractions of politics

Another day, another political drama. A new regulation has passed, new tax is introduced, this politician yelled at that politician, the bad guy is winning, another war has started...

lunarpunkdark forestlibertypolitics

Heterogeneity

Imagine traveling to another continent 500 years ago… or even a hundred years ago, what you experienced traveling from Europe to Indonesia, from North America to Africa, or from Australia to South America was a completely different cultural experience than what you were used to. People acted differently, thought differently. There were different, almost alien customs.

lunarpunkdark foresttravelcustoms

Togetherness

Entering a forest, most people don't dare to mentally comprehend the dark part of the forest. Its inhabitants are always friendly, exchange ideas and trade, but not every visitor is allowed inside the dark part of the forest.

lunarpunkdark foresttogethernesscommunitydarknessdark

Connect and mesh

To communicate, we need to connect. Mouth to ear, face to face, but also over longer distances.

lunarpunkdark forestmesh networkingreticulumlorap2p

Something’s in the air.

Speaking to common self-employed folk, the kindergarten owner/guide, the plumber, the wall painter… they can feel it. If you talk to them, they realize something is not right. They have their hand on the pulse of the economy. They get it.

lunarpunkdark forest

The scent of regulatory capture

There is a particular annoying scent that you can't forget, it is a scent of regulatory capture. You can of course smell it out if politicians and bureaucrats, but when you recognize it, you can smell it also from "business people".

lunarpunkdark forest

What is the dark forest?

The dark forest is an idea, it's a place to be, it's a societal structure, a way to look at the world.

lunarpunkdark forest