Originally written February 24th, 2018, lightly revised and expanded for clarity.
There are over 7.5 billion people on Earth now, roughly 325 million of them in the US alone. As entities grow larger, it becomes harder for them to move and react, and it takes them longer to do so. The pace of modern day life, especially the technological aspects, vastly outstrips the ability of human beings to react and change with it.
We can’t keep up. The resulting mental, emotional, and cultural disconnects are mammoth, and grow with each passing day.
I believe the landscape we’re in right now to be fundamentally different than any in recent history. The old rules no longer apply, and the problem is that almost no one seems to see it but the people who want to capitalize on it to cause chaos and hurt others. Most people really have no clue what is happening, and as difficult as it is to believe, there is a wide swath of this country who still have no idea that there’s anything they need to pay attention to, and haven’t taken any action to protect themselves.
I bring you 10 fundamental concepts that have brought shape and definition to my life. Some of them are relatively new, others are the product of ~20 years of honing and refinement. You will likely recognize much of the underlying theory, but I tend to apply it in somewhat unconventional ways because I see things at a slightly different angle than most other people seem to. If you’ve ever wondered about the way I approach life or the way I think, this is your window into how my mind works.
1. There is no such thing as a free lunch.
2. Unless acted on by an outside force, objects in motion tend to stay that way. Unless acted on by an outside force, objects/people moving in a certain direction or behaving a certain way tend to continue to do so. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
3. It is impossible to completely harden a site against those wishing to do harm. That site could be a website, a school, a home, anywhere.
4. This is, in part, because risk is a continuum and not a binary. There is no such thing as a lack of exposure to risk, there are only greater and lesser degrees of risk.
5. The moment you take action, you simultaneously become exposed. You cannot have one without the other. If you can do something, others can too. Anything you can do to someone else can be done to you.
6. Any door open wide enough to let you in is wide enough to let someone else in. Locks that will open for your key will also open for a locksmith. Systems that allow you in after entering your password will also allow in anyone else who has that password, can obtain that password, or can manipulate the system into believing they have it. Systems that allow quick and easy sharing of good and valuable information also allow for quick and easy sharing of disinformation.
7. There is no advantage without a corresponding disadvantage. The more capability a system, object, or being has, the more support it requires, and the more complicated it becomes. Every time you add a capability, you also add a failure point. The more things you own, the more things you have to dust. The more features you add, the more features you have to support. The more doors you have, the more you have to guard.
8. Things do not happen, or appear, without prelude, even if you didn’t see or don’t understand the prelude. There is no action without purpose. Everything you read, everything you see, everything you hear- it’s there because someone is hoping to elicit a reaction from you. It could be a friend hoping to make your day better. It could be a friend needing to talk and hoping to talk to someone who understands. It could be a foreign country hoping to destabilize your country with a successful disinformation campaign. Every time you react, you show a facet of yourself. Those facets can then by used against you, whether it’s by advertisers, foreign countries, or anyone else who wants to do you harm.
9. Humans are complicated, a mess of variables. Your mood, how long it has been since you’ve eaten, how long it has been since you’ve slept, everything about you is a variable or data point, all of which can and do change from moment to moment. Humans can achieve nearly anything. The freedom and variability that allows us to do that is the same freedom and variability that makes us impossible to fully risk-mitigate, to fully predict, and to fully protect against.
10. There is no system, technological or otherwise, that will 100% accurately predict, prevent, or respond to people who want to do harm. Humans are too unpredictable, and too fallible.