scientician's comments

> If it's illegal to, say, hack into your competitors servers and steal all their intellectual property, you don't get to mail a server to somewhere with weak IP laws, and then do all the theft.

Wait, why not?

Not yet! My long-term plan is to travel around and staff at as many freedom schools as I can, and then bring that model back home to Toronto.

I'm in the process of winding up my commitments now so I can commit all my resources to the journey.

Were you able to include Sudbury data in your research?

I definitely did not intend to make any argument supporting the standard alternative. My argument is that the standard model is harmful, and gifted programs are only slightly less harmful.

As someone who has been through many forms of 'gifted' and 'enriched' and 'special' education, these articles always sadden me. Does anyone truly believe that optimizing children for their economic output really leads to a good life for their country?

Here's a radical idea: let them have childhoods!

I strongly support letting kids be free to develop and think for themselves. If a 'gifted' child can succeed despite being imprisoned in a school for many years, imagine how much they could grow and contribute if they were free?

For anyone with children, or who cares about the future of western democracy, please look into https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudbury_school

It was a research campus, no?

I don't think it's fearmongering to point out facts! Self-styled supreme dictators and concentration camps seem highly correlated!

Do you disagree?

True names can be dangerous things, impossible to unspeak.

..... Why would you think I was being sarcastic? I agree with you ...

Hear hear! If you're not against racism, and you support racist policies, you're a racist!

I took two years off to recover from the burnout.

Our market was/is (I need a better word than corrupt) such that business couldn't continue without his relationship massaging. I tried to talk to the gatekeepers, but they wouldn't even acknowledge me. I suspect he instructed them, I'll never know.

He tried to hire minimum wage contractors to replace me, and he found out the business couldn't work without actual expertise. This surprised him and pissed off the clients he was trying to keep - he promised the best and delivered incompetence.

We have not spoken since.

---

As for me... I'm not founding any more for-profit companies any time soon. Instead, I have found 'my place' at [Sudbury Model Schools](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudbury_school) and plan to make my life about advancing human rights for students. Our countries need leadership, and our industrial schooling model is not capable of producing it. For our liberal democracies, this is an existential threat.

A note on Sudbury Schools: the ideas that seem so natural to them in that environment are actually radical and difficult to grasp for most people who went through traditional schooling. It is not fast or easy to understand, it takes while to 'click'. If you take the time to understand what they're doing, you'll be rewarded.

To that end, I would recommend one of the original founders' latest book, a retrospective of the decades the schools have been in operation: [A Place to Grow](http://bookstore.sudburyvalley.org/product/place-grow) (If you click to 'Sample Chapter', you'll be able to read a significant fraction of the book for free.)

:)

Many replies are confused:

SNITCHING means going to the authorities to out one of your comrades, especially in return for some 'deal' you're offered. That makes you scum.

WHISTLEBLOWING means going to the public to out criminals for their secret crimes and lies, especially public servants and those in power. That makes you a hero.

I have a story:

My cofounder was more Salesy than me, so he did most of the relationship management with our clients and gatekeepers. To grease these relationships, he was always ... I tried typing a few euphemisms for "LYING" there. Overpromising, for sure.

This worked really well because it was SALES LYING, and I was in the back working my ass off the make those sales lies come true. I delivered, no one was the wiser. I'm proud of the work I did. Things were going well, people were impressed, we were gaining customers, and new lines of business.

Then he decided that if he could lie to others, he could lie to me. Lie after lie after lie until I didn't even know if the company numbers were true. They weren't, as our wiser readers probably already guessed.

I made the mistake of accepting this behaviour in the name of success. HUGE mistake.

Eventually I was forced to confront him when his lies created serious safety issues for our clients. He blew up and became extremely angry, and our relationship ended that day.

^_^ If something is patented, it will become illegal to use. Hopefully /all/ proprietary patterns become patented, and then perhaps only good patterns will be left :P

That video is really disturbing. Delivered with a smile! "Yup, all these thousands will surely be slaughtered!" I'm not a vegetarian, but...

I would love to simulate the Cosmographic Comparator! Anyone into it?

I volunteer myself and some of my servers to run software to support Wikipedia, Sci-Hub, The Pirate Bay etc if I can do it and have some safeties in place: - Everything encrypted all the time, I have none of the keys - ... I guess I'd just want to be reassured I'm legally and practically safe.

Are there any projects like this already?

In another thread someone mentioned PopcorntimeXSci-hub which sounds about right with maybe some Tor sprinkled in, and I have seen http://sciencefair-app.com/ (Encouraging but very early).

Would you run encrypted hosting for Wikipedia|Sci-Hub|PirateBay?

Cried proud human tears today.

Even if the droneship didn't work out...

Can I offer my computer to Sci-Hub to store and retransmit encrypted content for them? If I could run software that would assist Sci-Hub, I would.

Is anyone else doing something similar?

Sci-Hub is important - it's one of the most important resources we have today. How can we support Sci-Hub?