Random Principles 1

In this series I’ll post brief statements that capture some principles I’ve uncovered through my own experiences. As my thinking evolves, I’ll revisit and refine these ideas. Nothing is set in stone, and everything is subject to change.

Part 1 V1 - Nov 2025

• Monopolies are harmful, whether they involve governments, companies, or other entities.
• The AI bubble will eventually burst, but AI will continue to have an impact. We have experienced bubbles in trains, the dot‑com era, and other sectors; our economy is a succession of bubbles.
• Religion operates on such long time scales that the human mind struggles to comprehend them. Changes in religion occur over centuries to millennia.
• Greed is the root cause of many economic problems today.
• Some phenomena are symptoms of systemic design; they cannot be remedied without reforming the system itself.
• All humans share the same kernel (Noyau), even though our cultures may be separated by oceans.
• The scale of the universe is mind‑boggling, and the probability that there is no other life elsewhere is extremely low.
• Human milestones, such as mastering fire, inventing guns, and the Industrial Revolution, seem so momentous that they feel as if an alien force were involved, making pure randomness hard to justify; perhaps they resulted from compounded effects.
• People often hear without truly listening, and talk without really speaking; this is true most of the time.
• Consistency is difficult, perhaps accounting for 90 % of the results in any endeavor that leads to greatness.
• People fall into one of three categories: those who benefit from a system, those who benefit and seek modest improvements, and those who oppose the system and demand change. This holds true at every level: economies, companies, cultures, families, and so on.
• Life is unfair; it is up to you to claim your share and make it as fair as possible.
• Studying Mathematics and Physics brings a joy that is hard to describe unless you discover and experience it yourself.
• Finding your purpose in life feels like a journey rather than a specific destination. Many people search for a single “one thing,” but it is rare to discover.
• Recalling memories through associated sounds—music or any recorded audio—is as effective as visual imagery.
• Large language models fascinate people by turning randomness into meaningful order. This is not the first time humanity has impressed itself by imposing order on chaos.
• Speed is irrelevant for long‑term goals; what matters is sustaining effort without burning out.
• The incremental increase in happiness from additional money is negligible.
• Most people fail to grasp how complex our societal system has become; at the individual level we are merely pawns on an endless board. We have some freedom to move as we wish, yet an external player can alter our direction at any moment.
• Life is more than the technology and screens you are using to read this.
• AI, like past transformative technologies (the dot‑com boom, railroads, the internal‑combustion engine, etc.), will be overestimated in its immediate impact but will persist and create lasting value. Success will come from targeted applications rather than the singular chase of artificial general intelligence. At the time of writing, we do not yet understand what “intelligence” truly means—it is certainly not just language ability or data volume. It likely involves the human capacity to derive abstract rules from observations (similar to the mathematical formulation of physical laws), but this remains a hypothesis that requires far more research.
• Most people are lonelier than you think.
• Finding someone to share life and experiences with is invaluable.
• Communication, especially for technical people, is extremely valuable. An average engineer with strong communication skills will outperform an exceptional engineer with mediocre communication abilities.

Cheers 🦃