• 6 Posts
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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 15th, 2023

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  • By the way, I don’t want to discourage anyone from studying International Affairs (or International Relations or International Political Economy or whatever it is at your school). I’m very happy I did. Reading primary sources and writing papers is a good thing. And we have loads of transcripts of actual world leaders making decisions. At my college, we read both the declassified U.S. cabinet and Soviet side’s actual transcripts during the Cuban missile crisis and I wrote papers about avoiding war.

    I don’t regret studying it. Sometimes, something happens and I can predict it because I’ve read those primary sources. It’s a valuable skill. Peace is the goal.






  • I’d like to think it’s because they’re taking a stand but they have to be even more sick of seeing weird American incels talk about US elections than we are in the U.S. Not to mention vote scolds who assume the entire internet is American.

    “I don’t care about the election.”

    “Vote! It’s important!”

    “Motherfucker, I live in Antwerp! Shut up! Just shut up!”




  • I love it but even in high school, I knew I didn’t want kids. People told me seeing my friends have kids would cause me to change my mind but it only reinforced my preference. Having kids is a huge amount of work and commitment (not to mention the expense). I love to travel and I’ve been able to go to places and do things you can’t (or just wouldn’t want to) do with kids. I also like that I was able to take risks with my career. It’s much easier to start a business or join an early stage company or whatever if you don’t need the stability kids need.

    So, for me, it’s amazing. I feel for people who want kids but never had them, though. I know a few and they’re happy — freedom is a nice consolation prize — but it wasn’t their dream.


  • Renminbi would already be a reserve currency if they didn’t have currency controls. The reason the dollar and (to a lesser extent) euro, Swiss franc, etc. serve that role is because no one really has to worry about withdrawing their funds and converting them. China can obviously get there but that sort of trust takes time and probably other reforms in China.

    For the record, I’m not talking about politics or who is good or bad here. I’m just talking about the basic reality of business transactions. Being one of the currencies accepted in global contracts requires a lot of trust.