Author: Tae Sik

Echoes and Shadows of Human Connection

Category: Philosophy • Jul 6, 2025

The connections we form in early life, whether with family or friends, carry a profound weight, shaped by biology, culture, and the innocence of our youth. The ties that bind us to others, through blood, friendship, or shared experience, leave an imprint that is both deep and mysterious. From the moment we enter the world, […]

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Beyond Base Camp – The Puzzle of Purpose and Meaning

Category: Philosophy • Jul 6, 2025

The other day, I was chatting with some friends, middle-aged, like me, with kids and businesses to juggle. I asked them what keeps them up at night as they move forward in life. Was it their children? Their business? Their health? Their personal future, or maybe their wives? What’s the biggest worry on a daily […]

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Story of the Bitcoin Wallet

Category: General, Economics • Jun 12, 2025

This is my impressionistic explanation of how the Bitcoin Wallet works and how it fits within the larger Bitcoin ecosystem. There are 3 components to the Bitcoin core. The Bitcoin core is the software or programmatic implementation of the Bitcoin software system. 1. Bitcoin Mining 2. Bitcoin Node 3. Bitcoin Wallet Bitcoin miners compete for […]

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Aging Past You

Category: Philosophy • May 14, 2025

I'm sitting at a restaurant and notice a gentleman having lunch with his children.  He's disheveled, middle aged and the kids appear to be about 8yrs old.  If we were introduced, I wouldn't hesitate to address him as "sir", and use honorifics.  Then it dawns on me:  I could actually be older than him.  It's […]

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Simple Aquarium – Understanding Liquidity and Asset Inflation

Category: Economics • May 28, 2024

You observe an aquarium filled with an assortment of small trees. The trees on the right seem larger, healthier, and more robust compared to those on the left. In fact, the further you look to the left, the less healthy the vegetation appears. You notice a water spigot located in one corner of the aquarium […]

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Q&A, Mom, Dad and the Financial Manager, Fiscal Spending, The Treasury, The Federal Reserve

Category: Economics • May 28, 2024

Question: When it comes to the U.S. Treasury selling bonds, whether short-term or long-term, such as bills, do they have to coordinate at all with the Federal Reserve or are they acting completely independently and selling bonds only when and if the federal government needs money for their fiscal spending? Answer: The U.S. Treasury and […]

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Financial Instability, Sovereign Debt, Inflation, Fiscal Spending – Q&A Session

Category: Economics • May 22, 2024

Question: Excessive money printing and fiscal spending are often cited as causes of financial instability. However, if a government issues bonds and the central bank buys them (essentially monetizing the debt), wouldn't this just lead to inflation without necessarily creating other problems? Answer: Excessive money printing and fiscal spending can indeed lead to financial instability, […]

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Walled Garden Economics

Category: Economics • May 19, 2024

Our economy is a Walled Garden, with a lone security guard who has a gun, sets the rules, and issues vouchers that can be traded for fruits and vegetables. Security is the only entity in the Walled Garden with the power and authority to print and issue these vouchers. In the Walled Garden, agents produce […]

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Time Compression and Frame Rates

Category: Philosophy • May 17, 2024

The passage of time is a fascinating perception of reality. The way our mind interprets the "experience" of time is truly mysterious. Our perception of time's passage is not a constant, but a flexible construct shaped by our unconscious engagement. Your brain is a recording device. When experiencing novel stimuli, like those encountered during travel, […]

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The Value of Life Maps

Category: Philosophy • Feb 4, 2024

Ancient explorers bravely ventured into uncharted territories with rudimentary tools and an adventurous spirit. Some were fortunate to have primitive maps inherited from previous explorers, perhaps even an indigenous guide who knew the land by heart and sight. The expedition was fraught with danger and the unknown. As the journey progressed, charts were updated, redrawn, […]

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The Optics of Youth and Potential

Category: Philosophy • Jan 2, 2024

For a person of youth, what you see is their unlimited potential, their bright future and the boundless possibilities that life holds. There is an exaggerated estimation of their aptitudes. We tend to draw a straight line from their birth to youth, and extrapolate the same trajectory indefinitely into the future. The lens of youth […]

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Modern Zombie Economic System Can't Be Killed

Category: Economics • Dec 25, 2023

Is a major recession or an unspeakable depression akin to 1929 possible in our modern age? Central banks stand ready, modern banking systems with derivative assets locked and loaded, fiat currencies ready to print and the cost of money digitally available to be distributed to anyone and anywhere in seconds. Our modern economy is global, […]

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Seven Pillars of Life – Introduction

Category: Philosophy • Aug 4, 2023

The 7 Pillars of Life Seven Pillars represent the structural foundations of a substantive and meaningful human life. A careful reflection into these seven domains which support and substantiate a mindful human existence, in harmony with our nature and knowing self awareness. This is a meditation and exploration. These seven domains are foundational to a […]

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Money Creation, Fractional Reserve Banking & Central Banks

Category: Economics • Jun 29, 2023

Sovereign governments have the power to print their own currency. Governments authorize their Central Banks to manage their fiat currency. Central Banks have the authority to create money. Central Banks can create money that increase the money supply and money available for financial transactions. More money in the system is inflationary in nature. Inflation is […]

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Trading Marginal Value, Sovereignty, and Automatons

Category: Philosophy • Jun 23, 2023

Human beings have birthrights and entitlements, unlike any other living creature. In democratic and free market nations, we have private property rights, the right to vote, the right to life, the freedom of speech, the freedom of movement, the freedom to work and pursue happiness. We have freedoms and liberties given to us by "default". […]

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Evolving DNA, Life, Instinct and Ancient Voices

Category: Philosophy • Jun 7, 2022

Evolving DNA, Life, Instinct and Ancient Voices

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Energy, Atoms, Life & Batteries

Category: Philosophy • May 29, 2022

In the beginning was energy. Maybe it was matter, or something else. For simplicity, let's assume we started with energy. The universe experienced the Big Bang. Energy is converted into matter, or at least a lot of it was. Energy becomes matter. Energy is matter and matter is energy. E=MC2, So the science goes. The […]

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We Live in a Virtual World

Category: Philosophy • Dec 10, 2020

We live in a virtual world today. What we need physically are provided for by machines and a few humans. All basic human needs are fairly inexpensive and easy to acquire. We spend most of our day in front of computers, glued to our phones, talking to dots & colors on computer screens and phone […]

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Introduction to the Theory of Money Part 1

Category: Economics • Jul 27, 2020

Money and currency is our medium for the exchange of goods and services. In the US, we use dollars. It is printed and regulated by the US Government. It is divisible, scarce, durable, portable, difficult to counterfeit, universally accepted, and stable. The value of a nation’s currency is correlated to its scarcity and wide acceptability. […]

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Bureaucrats and Bureaucracies

Category: Philosophy • Jul 3, 2020

We associate a bureaucracy with words like stodgy, slow, formal, inefficient, procedural, wasteful, and expensive. Where do we find bureaucracies? Usually in large companies and organizations. In government offices on a local, city, county, state and federal level. There may be less obtrusive bureaucracies in smaller establishments. What do bureaucrats and bureaucracies do? They have […]

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The Paradox of Individualism

Category: Philosophy • Jun 28, 2020

Why Being Self-Interested is for the Collective Good. Through the collective interest of individuals. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts. The majority of our interactions lie with other people. Our relationship with associates, family and friends. It is rare to contend with wild animals or the forces of nature. We have […]

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Precept #3 – Life is a Mystery

Category: Philosophy • Jun 26, 2020

A most mysterious phenomenon of human nature is the self-awarness of one's own consciousness. To know that one is alive. Present. Locally aware. Finite in space and time. Embodied in a physical nature. It is a most mysterious thing. To be confined within, behind the eyes, between the ears, above a torso, and within the […]

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Precept #2 – Life is an Adventure

Category: Philosophy • Jun 24, 2020

You find yourself in a mysterious world. The sapiens around you are recent acquaintances. Your mission unknown. Your adventure lies ahead… Your tool is the physical capacity of your mind and body. Your mission, be the best version of yourself and complete your adventure. Imagine being dropped in a place unknown. You are given a […]

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Precept #1 – Learn to Lose

Category: Philosophy • Jun 23, 2020

We are taught to be winners. We are told that we can overcome anything. Set your mind to it, and you can do it. Losing feels tragic. The truth is that most of us are losers. We just don't want to acknowledge it. Life is hard. Life is, as they say, suffering. Losing is the […]

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Democracy With Guard Rails

Category: Philosophy • Jun 22, 2020

Democracy. The system and idea that individual citizens of a nation or state has a direct influence on the rules, laws and systems that govern their way of life. The idea that everyone may participate in casting their vote for a policy or politician. One person, one vote. The history of voting rights in America […]

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Standing on Shoulders

Category: Philosophy • Jun 19, 2020

We live in a modern civilization. Organized. Structured. Peaceful. Productive. There is very little want. We should all be so lucky to be alive in this epoch. Civilization wasn't built in a day. It's taken thousands, if not millions of years, for humanity to reach today's precipice. We can easily take this for granted. Feel […]

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Bureaucratic Overreach and Minimum Wage Laws

Category: Economics • Jun 18, 2020

A free society respects the individual. A free society allows for a frictionless exchange of products, services and labor. Laws are designed to be universal and add clarity and boundries in the interaction of sovereign individuals. Wages are paid to those who provide their time and services. Labor and time is paid in exchange for […]

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What Makes a Great Nation

Category: Philosophy • Jun 17, 2020

A nation is great, when its citizens are free to be their best.  A nation is great when it frees its people to think freely, move freely, speak freely, and live freely. The pillars of a great nation require restraint. The foundations of a great nation is trust. Trust amongst the citizenry, its leaders, communities, […]

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Old Rich People Run the World during the Covid19 Crisis

Category: General • Apr 5, 2020

Old Rich People Run the World during the Covid19 Crisis Nations are often pushed into international wars and conflict, in a struggle for geopolitical power, for the acquisition of prized resources and commodities, trade advantages, financial and political leverage. We send our young men to war, thousands die and we spend millions to acquire and […]

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A Chinese Conspiracy Theory

Category: General • Apr 4, 2020

A Chinese Conspiracy Theory It's mid 2019 and Hong Kong students are pushing back against China. They are demanding representation in government, their freedom and liberty. Hong Kong is a Chinese territory, but some people of Hong Kong have had enough. They are going to march, demand rights, liking to a democratic country. They demonstrate […]

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Covid19 – Split Down the Aisle

Category: General • Mar 22, 2020

We have smart people on both sides of the aisle.  Half the pundits say the shutting down of all commerce for 30 days is justified.  The other half say otherwise. I have heard people I respect say the Covid19 is not a normal flu virus and something to be taken very seriously. The other half […]

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Self Consciousness is the Highest Form of Evolution

Category: Philosophy • Dec 6, 2019

Self Consciousness is the Highest Form of Evolution We often think of IQ and intelligence to be the highest attribute of human beings. I would argue that it's the degree to which we are "self conscious". Self Consciousness, more than anything else sets us apart from every other living animal on the planet. What is […]

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