BetterLateThan

>> finding (and keeping) a profitable niche is hard

...which is why evolution will have to regain control.

Governments are antinatural in their obsession with increasing the number of citizens - not healthy, prodctive, citizens, but SSNs.

Initially, living was for the fittest, not for everyone.

As someone extremely average, I will be among the first to go extinct. And I see no problem with this, as my disappearance will free up space and resources for those who are better.

This will be getting worse unless people disconnect themselves from the system that allows things like this to happen.

By "disconnect" I mean secessio plebis - either physical with a move out of $this_jurisdiction, or economic, when a person minimizes their participation in the economy of $this_jurisdiction.

By continuing to use money of $this_central_bank for selling and buying goods and services in $this_jurisdiction, a person sends the following message to the legislators and enforcers:

"No matter what I say, here's my money. Let it be the token of my willingness to take more abuse. If I did not like how things work, I wouldn't be supporting your pyramid."

PS The main reward of government employess is neither money, nor vacation, nor pension, nor social perks, but immunity. It's getting away with holes in babies that makes the job attractive precisely to the people who like to make holes in others.

The problem with the West is that you guys _believe_ the law to be the same for those at the top and at the bottom of the pyramid.

Russians, on the contrary, _know_ that equality belongs on the same bookshelf with unicorns. That the government does not work the way the government tells kids it works.

Let me be blunt: To be a seriously profitable business in 2014 you must sleep with the government.

Those who disagree retire early. Ask PrivacyHarbor.com or that other more famous email provider who had to quit.

Let me be blunter: The public's Kardashian-Oprah-Fox-Oscar-elections megatrip must not be disturbed by the reports of how things actually work. There is simply no need for us to know, because today we can't legally act on this knowledge.

If history teaches us anything, you will agree with me very soon - but in retrospect[1]. The lines are being drawn as we speak.

As for Dropbox proper, they are wisely killing 2 birds with 1 Rice — demonstrating obedience to the ruling class and sending a clear signal to potential customers: "Choose us if you want to stay in business. We are on the right side.".

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1 - I am fully aware that you have no idea what I am talking about. It comes from experience, which you are only about to gain.

1. Uninstalled. 2. In 2014, every business faces the choice to either quit businessing or collaborate with the government. This choice will soon trickle to individuals, if Rome, Germany and the USSR are any reference.

Matthew 19:17 - "Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God".

Mr Stoyte broke the silence. 'How long do you figure it would take before a person went like that?' he said in a slow, hesitating voice. 'I mean, it wouldn't happen at once ... there'd be a long time while a person ... well, you know; while he wouldn't change any. And once you get over the first shock - well, they look like they were having a pretty good time. I mean in their own way, of course. Don't you think so, Obispo?' he insisted.

- Aldous Huxley, After Many a Summer Dies the Swan.

...But I am sure this news makes banks, bureaucracies and big pharma mega-ecstatic.

>> the myth you are an individual completely separate from the world outside

Aren't you?

You were born alone, you will die alone, nobody can live your life for you, nobody can share the responsibility for your decisions.

You are alone. Everyone else is a script. The only thing that matters is whether your actions make you happy without a hangover. Why would you worry about anyone else's judgments?

(Sick people, who are made happy by abusing neighbors, will always exist, but they are, luckily, not numerous.)

>> subvert the free market by manufacturers

Whatever people (in this case, manufacturers) do IS free market. Regulation is subversion.

Sounds like Canada more than it doesn't.

Doesn't measuring BitCoin in dollars kinda beat the purpose of BitCoin?

You don't sound like a Russian. You don't think like a Russian. You don't know like a Russian.

Russians don't smile because any person who smiles to a stranger either wants to sell something or is insane. Smiles are for friends, real friends - whopping 2 or 3 of them.

"And if anything goes wrong you can be... No sense of community..."

This part betrayed you. You don't know anything about Russia or Russians. If an African college student attacked a bunch of skinheads, entire subway station would rush to rescue the skinheads.

>> so strong that governments will become incapable...

Sounds like you expect governments to be ashamed of what they do once the plans become public.

It's not about shame. It's about the power to persist until the goal is reached.

The plebes have neither the goals nor the persistence - this is what makes them plebes, and they will stay this way with or without Wikileaks.

As long as there is quasifood in the supermarkets and quasientertainment on the TV, the masses will not give a damn about what or how the government is doing. Human nature has not changed for thousands of years.

Here's a simple manual for running a country that has been working like a charm ever since the emperor Septimius Severus: "Enrich the soldiers and damn the rest".

Google has been using regular people like you and me as scouts for years.

We all have certain patterns and interests and the order of priorities - and Google know them all. They are the sysadmin of the Internet.

If we save a link, share a link or return to a page more than X times in $period, G. knows we think it's valuable. Multiply by the number of Google users who share $this_interest.

Conversely, any freshly created Twitter account associated with a freshly created Gmail account registered from an Indian IP has little authority in any field.

Any abnormal activity is an eyesore to Google algorithms and jumps out right away.

If your site sucks, you can't make Google think it doesn't. Fancy crap won't make your boring content look attractive. SEO today is customer satisfaction, disruption, uniqueness.

It doesn't matter any more what you say about your site - it's what actions of other people, real people, not your shills, say about your site.

This is, very roughly, how it works.

Source: SEO work since 2003, including a year as Google page quality rater.

> Well, the taxes/theft thing isn't quite appropriate.

True. Taxes are armed robbery with a threat of kidnapping and confinement. They have nothing to do with theft.