I made a new painting: Thinking Boy. No ai, all human.

I went on a small trip — visited Portugal, Spain, Greece, Turkey, and Egypt. It was my first time in Egypt (and in Africa in general), so of course, I had to visit several historical places — temples around Luxor, and, of course, the Great Pyramids of Giza, the Sphinx, and so on. I’ve been reading and watching things about all of this for many years. The Pyramids of Giza are a truly breathtaking sight on so many levels — historical, architectural, and even just on a simple, ordinary “standing there and looking at them” level.

The whole trip was very interesting, and I took in a lot. And as you might guess, the obvious questions immediately come up: how was all this built? Who built it? When? Can we just trust the mainstream historical explanation, or is there something more complicated going on? That’s exactly why I wanted to see it all with my own eyes — to really feel the scale by being there in person.

I don’t have a neat, tidy explanation for how all of it could have been built, but I do have doubts about the official stories. I’ll write more about that later.

"If liberals will not protect the borders, then fascists will", This is attributed as a quote from Erich Fromm. But, as often happens, he never said this specifically—it's paraphrased, or you could even say memeified. But of course Erich Fromm expressed this idea many times.

For example, I have saved in my quotes folder from his book "Escape from Freedom":

"If the economic, social and political conditions on which the whole process of human individuation depends, do not offer a basis for the realization of individuality in the sense of genuine expression of human emotional and intellectual potentialities, while at the same time people have lost those ties which gave them security, this lag makes freedom an unbearable burden."

Essentially, if leaders in a free society want to avoid losing liberal values, they need to protect them from barbarians, otherwise illiberal methods of fighting the threat of barbarism will seem like the lesser evil.

But really, of course, this isn't just about border protection. It seems to me that one of the biggest phenomena of our time is that people have almost forgotten how to do the simplest and most obvious things in a whole bunch of situations. And because of this, everything has become much more complicated. But we'll either learn to do it some completely different way, but still simply. Or it will all collapse, but then there will be another great filter.

Malcolm Gladwell – Talking to Strangers

What We Should Know About the People We Don’t Know — Why we way too often misread them, trust liars, doubt the honest, and how come misunderstanding strangers ts so daunting.

This book explores why it's so hard for us, as humans, to judge unfamiliar people — to tell whether they’re telling the truth or hiding something, kind or dangerous, and to understand the situations we find ourselves in with them.

It’s full of great examples and real stories.

The book is available on Amazon, but I listened to it as audio — narrated by the author himself. What makes the audiobook special is that when he quotes witnesses or people involved, most of them speak in their own voices. So if you can, go for the original audiobook — it’s the best version.

I try to alternate between three kinds of books: fiction, popular science, and self-development. This one falls into the last category.

This fall, Apple is rolling out new versions of their operating systems — and they’re finally adding quantum-resistant encryption and digital signatures to CryptoKit.

With the release of OS 26, Apple is taking a real step forward in keeping our data safe. CryptoKit (that’s the built-in toolkit for everyone building apps on Apple platforms) will now support the latest encryption and signature methods designed to protect our data even from the quantum computers of the future.

So what’s actually new?

1. Quantum-Resistant Key Exchange: CryptoKit is introducing a cutting-edge method called the Module-Lattice Key Encapsulation Mechanism (ML-KEM), officially approved under the FIPS 203 standard (think of this as the gold standard for security in the US). In simple terms, this means apps will be able to securely exchange secret keys without worrying that even tomorrow’s super-powered computers could crack them.

2. Quantum-Resistant Digital Signatures: Now, for verifying documents, files, messages, and software updates, CryptoKit supports the Module-Lattice Digital Signature Algorithm (ML-DSA), which is part of the upcoming FIPS 204 standard. This ensures your data is really coming from who you expect — and hasn’t been tampered with — even if quantum attacks become a reality.

Why is this such a big deal?

Today’s most popular encryption and signature methods are very reliable — but only until quantum computers arrive on the scene. In the future, those machines could break through the protections we use now. Right now, all sorts of shady actors, from everyday scammers to state-backed hacker groups, are hoarding encrypted data off the internet, hoping they’ll be able to crack it once quantum tech goes mainstream. That’s why the world is already moving towards post-quantum cryptography — these are new technologies built to withstand both classical and quantum attacks.

With these updates, Apple — and any developers who want to — can build even more secure apps and services. And for the rest of us, it means we can be a little more confident that our data, messages, and digital lives are protected — now, and in the future when quantum computers become a thing. Will that actually happen any time soon? Nobody knows for sure. But it’s always better to be prepared — and that’s why I’m genuinely excited about this news.

Modern life has spawned a dizzying array of professions. We more or less understand why society needs them, yet the people filling these roles rarely pursue just the stated goal. They sign up for their own reasons: money, status, convenience, a short commute, parental pressure, or sheer teenage randomness when “it sounded cool” at seventeen.

That’s why most aren’t especially good at what they do. The core job feels like a burden to be endured. But even genuine enthusiasm when it's there isn’t enough to make someone truly competent. So they provide the performamce of competence, especially easy when everyone around them, including the hiring managers, is faking it too.

Even in the private sector, that is driven to market forces, where skills supposedly trump diplomas, it’s messy. Tech firms grill programmers and designers with numerous rounds of tests and interviews, yet half the hires turn out merely skilled at getting hired, not at the work itself. Add corporate politics, weak managers, and turf wars, and you get the Peter Principle in action: everyone rises to their level of incompetence.

Competence, aspiration, and delivered public benefit are three different things. They sometimes overlap, usually don’t. As a kid I noticed that some teachers are quite likable teachers yet barely knew their subject, doctors might be beloved by patients who happily prescribed homeopathy. Success metrics often diverge from real benefit — especially in long‑term, national nation-wide scope.

The loudest example is government and politics. But most other officials, and plenty of private‑sector stars in prestigeous well-paid professions, also landed there without a calling. Not to smear everyone: there are some judges, investigators, inspectors, school admins, hospital directors who belong exactly where they are. They’re just rare. These jobs are hard; few pursue them for joy, yet society still needs them, so supply appears and positions are staffed.

Sometimes you get a merely “average” worker; sometimes you get a menace like a bully prosecutor or sadistic cop. Implications can be dire, as one thing is disappointing a client; another is ruining lives.

Worse yet, when some chase the work for "enjoyment" of it, and gaining a wielding power over strangers. No one likes being a pawn in a game orchestrated by a sociopath. Luckily most aren’t villains, just ordinary people doing their jobs better than whoever might replace them.

Feeling “I am doing better than my colleagues” is a trap too: if most coworkers seem bad, odds are the system itself is broken and you might not be much better. Not everyone can be an artist or philosopher or macro‑economist. Or can we?

If AI and robots push mediocre performers out of routine roles, maybe those who stay will finally fit their seats, and society will benefit. The displaced could pursue something interesting without going broke. That sounds appealing, almost utopian, but for now, we live with current realities and manage the fallout.

Even without new tech, gradually reworking our social contract and shared understanding could help. Yet technology will come, forcing many to seek new roles — and offering a chance to find an enjoyable work where they’re actually useful and compitent.

We often throw around the phrase "Western values." It's a bit of a mess, really, because "the West" supposedly means Western Europe and North America, yet these values are embraced by countries that are technically not Western at all—Australia, New Zealand, and even South Korea, Japan, and Singapore. But if you actually think about what these Western values are and where they come from, you'll see they genuinely did grow out of Europe. And they're not some vague abstraction about humanism and civil rights. There are three specific foundations of Western values:

1. Greek Analytical Thinking

   At its core: formal logic, including the laws of identity and non-contradiction, the rational pursuit of truth through debate, and systematic analysis of reality. This tradition gave us the idea that truth can be discovered through reason rather than just authority or tradition, and that arguments should follow consistent logical rules.

2. Roman Law

   Built on written laws and procedures, the concept of legal personhood, property rights, contracts, and courts. The Romans created the revolutionary idea that law should be systematic, publicly known, and apply equally to similar cases—not just the arbitrary will of rulers.

3. Christian Values

   A broad term, sure, but in this context it means that each person stands before God, making every human life valuable and individual, with each person possessing conscience and moral choice. This introduced a universal dignity that transcended social status—a radical idea in the ancient world.

Beyond these three, you could pile on plenty more—Enlightenment ideas, modern equality movements, and so on. But the foundation remains these three pillars I've described above.

This explains why Eastern Europe and Russia share similar values but with an Eastern tint. Think of it like Lobachevsky's geometry: remove one of Euclid's postulates and the whole geometry looks similar but works differently. It might seem like a minor change, but under certain conditions, that's the geometry that actually works.

Other civilizations built on entirely different foundations. Russia emphasizes collective spiritual unity over individual conscience, strong central authority over distributed law, and mystical truth over analytical reasoning. China prioritizes social harmony through proper relationships—the individual finds meaning through their place in the hierarchy, not through abstract rights. Japan focuses on group consensus and avoiding conflict, where truth is less important than maintaining wa (harmony). India sees individual life as just one moment in an eternal cycle of karma and rebirth, making current inequalities part of cosmic justice rather than legal problems to solve.

Since it's July 4th, I wanted to get everyone on the same page about this. Because Western values aren't just geography or political rhetoric — they're a cultural-historical complex rooted in thought, law, and morality that influences absolutely everything in society and forms the basis of all its strengths and weaknesses simultaneously.