“Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.”—Pablo Picasso

A provocative statement, especially coming from a genius who understood the profound difference between answers and questions. Answers are finite; they close doors. Questions, however, open worlds. They dismantle assumptions. They are the seeds of every paradigm shift.

For most of human history, the very questions we could ask were constrained by our economic reality:

The Information Society

Picasso's wisdom resonates deeply as we stand at the precipice of a new, fourth stage: the Information Society. In this era, the most dangerous trap isn't a lack of answers; it's the overwhelming abundance of them.

Algorithms optimise for the majority. Social media amplifies consensus. News cycles reinforce popular narratives. Everything seems designed to give us answers – what to think, what to buy, what's trending. This creates an insidious illusion of collective wisdom, a feeling that "the majority carries the vote" and therefore knows best.

But if you pay attention, "it’s pretty clear that people are coming up with new [awful, horrible, useless, comically stupid, and embarrassingly] bad ideas all the time." The majority, by definition, gives answers to yesterday's questions.

Why Traditional Work is Dead and You Need to Become a Sovereign Creator NOW

We are witnessing the twilight of the industrial-era nation-state, and with it, the erosion of every safety net you were taught to rely on. This is not theoretical. It's happening right now. You can see it everywhere around you. It is impacting your ability to prosper and truly live on your own terms.

We're not just experiencing economic disruption. We're witnessing the violent birth of a new form of human organization.

The old world is ending. The question isn't whether these changes will happen—they're already here. The question is whether you'll be among the sovereigns who thrive in this new reality, or among the masses who become economically extinct.

The Proxy Trap

Before I show you how to escape the collapsing system, you need to understand how it captured you in the first place.

Everything you were taught to chase—money, diplomas, votes, approval—are proxies. Symbols that once pointed to real things but now exist only to extract value from you.

Money became paper backed by promises. Diplomas became expensive wallpaper divorced from actual skill. Votes became popularity contests detached from real power. Jobs became elaborate forms of adult daycare. (Read my essay on The Proxy Problem to get the full picture.)

The proxy economy will collapse—not because people are smart, but because it can't sustain itself. You can only sell inflated illusions for so long before reality comes to collect.

When the map becomes more important than the territory, people start crashing into trees. Hard.

Problem #1: The Waning Power of the State & Your Shrinking Pie

For decades, we relied on the nation-state for stability, infrastructure, and collective security. But in the Information Age, wealth has become increasingly mobile and untaxable.

It's like cows kept around a fenced field to eat grass, and now the cows can fly.

The "winged cows" of capital—digital assets, intellectual property, global services—can simply fly over borders. This leaves governments desperate to maintain their grip on a dwindling tax base.

While governments thrash around trying to tax the old economy, you can build sovereign businesses in the digital realm. You can serve customers globally, accept payments in crypto, and structure your business across multiple jurisdictions.

The old rules don't apply to you anymore—if you refuse to play by them.

Problem #2: Employment Genocide

Traditional employment isn't just becoming obsolete—it's being systematically murdered by three forces: AI automation, global competition, and the impossibility of creating real value inside bureaucratic structures.

The middle class is being hollowed out. Cognitive work is becoming commoditized. Only the top 1% of performers in any field can command premium prices in the traditional economy.

Problem #3: The New Luddites & The Consensus Trap

The term Luddites originally refers to a social movement that emerged in early 19th-century England around 1811-1816. The Luddites were primarily skilled textile workers who protested against the mechanical weaving machines and other industrial innovations that threatened their jobs and traditional ways of life. They often expressed their resistance through protests, machine-breaking, and riots.

Today, the term Luddites is used more broadly to describe individuals or groups who are skeptical of or oppose technological change or innovation, especially when they believe such changes threaten their jobs, cultures, or social stability. The word often carries a connotation of resistance to progress or technological advances.

The industrial age created Luddites who resisted new technology. Today, a new kind of "New Luddite" emerges: those who cling to outdated models of work, wealth, and community, failing to adapt to the realities of the Information Age.

The 9-to-5 cage: Traditional employment, while offering perceived safety, ties you to a fixed location, fixed hours, and fixed income. Your time is literally owned by someone else. But worse—it makes you acutely vulnerable to economic downturns, automation, and corporate whims.

Following consensus to oblivion: The majority, optimised for yesterday's answers, continues to consume, follow trends, build on rented platforms. This path leads not to innovation or sovereignty, but to obsolescence and increased vulnerability.

They are sleepwalking into a future where their "vote" means less and less.

If you keep doing what everyone else is doing, you're heading for a cliff. The crowd is always wrong at exactly the moment when being wrong becomes fatal.

You win if you're right first, to be first, you can't wait for consensus.

Ask people in Rome at the time the Roman empire fell "when did the Roman empire fall?" And they'll tell you a much later date than the Historians would.

If you wait for the news, you're either wrong or late

Problem #4: Violent Inequality

The Information Age creates winner-take-all dynamics that make historical inequality look quaint. The top 0.1% will control 90% of the wealth because information products scale infinitely with near-zero marginal costs.

Everyone else becomes economically irrelevant.

This isn't a bug—it's a feature you can exploit.

Instead of fighting the power law, you become the power law. In every niche, the top creators capture disproportionate value. The key is picking your battlefield and becoming the undisputed champion of your micro-niche.

Problem #5: Fiat Currency Apocalypse & Democratic Delusion

Government currencies are being debased into worthlessness through money printing and debt accumulation. The dollar, euro, and other fiat currencies are in a race to the bottom.

Simultaneously, democracy—designed for the Industrial Age where citizens in a geographical area shared common interests—becomes increasingly dysfunctional. You have more in common with your online tribe than your physical neighbours.

Democracy would be transformed from a representative democracy (where you elect a politician to represent you, hire a lawyer to defend you, and so on.) to a decentralised democracy (where you can represent and defend yourself).

Your purchasing power is being silently stolen while your political voice is being systematically diluted. You're being impoverished and disenfranchised simultaneously.

The creator advantage: You can price your products in stable value units and earn in appreciating assets. Your products, content and audience are inflation-proof stores of value that actually appreciate over time.

More importantly, you can build your own micro-democracy around your values. Your audience votes with their attention and wallets. You're not subject to the tyranny of the majority—you serve your specific tribe with laser precision.

Problem #6: The Infrastructure Vulnerability Crisis

Our civilization depends on incredibly complex, fragile systems that can be disrupted by cyberattacks, supply chain failures, or social unrest. As these systems become more interconnected, single points of failure can cascade into civilizational collapse.

Your advantage: Your business exists in the cloud, not physical infrastructure. While traditional businesses worry about supply chains, real estate, and physical security, your entire operation can be backed up and restored anywhere with an internet connection.

The Solution is to Start Your Own Country – Building Your Digital Empire

What is a Country?

"a nation with its own government, occupying a particular territory." - Oxford Dictionary

A nation is traditionally defined as a territory with recognised sovereignity, a government and a population.

There are 4 key pillars that make a country: Territory, Sovereignity, Population and Government.

It's not about physical borders or military might. In the Information Age, "starting your own country" means building and scaling your own digital empire. It's about consciously designing a self-owned, self-governing ecosystem for your creative work, your intellectual property, and your community. It's about establishing your personal sovereignty in a world increasingly hostile to independent thought and action.

Here's how to do it, inspired by reading Balaji's principles in The Network State, and made practical for creators:

Why You Should Start Your Own Country (Even If You Never Call It That)

Here's what's really happening: You're not building a traditional country with borders and passports. You're building something more powerful—a sovereign economic and social entity that transcends geography.

Think of it this way: Every successful creator is already running a micro-nation. You have:

The difference between you and a traditional country? Your "citizens" choose to be there. They can leave anytime. This makes you accountable in ways governments never are.

Traditional countries are failing their citizens:

Your sovereign creator "country" is different:

This is governance by consent, not coercion. It's what democracy was supposed to be but never achieved.

When you build a thriving creator business, you're not just building a revenue stream. You're building:

Economic sovereignty: Your income doesn't depend on a single employer, government, or economic system. You serve people directly.

Social sovereignty: Your community shares your values. You're not forced to associate with people who fundamentally disagree with your vision of the good life.

Intellectual sovereignty: You can speak your mind without fear of being fired, canceled, or imprisoned. Your audience chose you because of your ideas, not in spite of them.

Geographic sovereignty: You can live wherever you want while serving your community globally. Your "country" exists in cyberspace and follows you wherever you go.

This isn't just about making money. It's about creating the life you actually want to live, surrounded by people who share your vision, serving a mission that matters to you.

How to Start Your Own Country

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There are at least six ways to start a new country.

What we're going to be building is not necessarily a network state, but you can scale it into one if you like.

A Network State in One image:

Hold on, you know what that looks like?:

Country Building in 3 Mins:

Phase 1: Define Your Ethos:

Before you build anything, you need a core purpose, a shared ideal that will attract your citizens.

What is the single, overarching idea or value your "country" (your digital empire) stands for? What problem are you uniquely solving? What future are you trying to build? Is it financial freedom for artists? Sustainable living through digital skills? Radical transparency in business? This becomes your guiding principle.

Write it down. This will inform everything you create and attract the right people.

Don't overthink it, you will refine it along the way. I wouldn't tell you there is no way getting it wrong, in fact, you're most likely going to get it wrong and that's okay. There're only 2 kinds of ideas, ideas that are wrong and ideas that are incomplete.

There are infinite bad ideas, but they're essential. Your best work emerges from a mountain of failures.

Notice how you leverage features, snippets, and elements from ideas that didn’t work to create what does.

Phase 2: Build Your Digital Capital

This is where you begin to accrue the "capital" of your new country: attention, trust, and your own intellectual property.

Your audience isn't just followers; they are your potential citizens. Your email list is your first census. Your social channels are merely advertising for your sovereign territory. Focus on attracting individuals who resonate with your Ethos.

Prioritize building an email list above all else. It's the ultimate place where you have more control on how you connect with your community. Use Substack or Beehiiv for this. They have a free tier you can start with.

Use valuable lead magnets (like the way I have my AI Strategic Manager Prompt or Fundamental Principles Reading List) and these essays (yes, these are also lead magnets), to grow it.

Phase 3: Scale Your Digital Territory

Once you have a burgeoning community and proven value, it's time to consolidate and scale, moving from scattered outposts to a unified empire.

Declare Your Digital Independence

It is this minority – the visionaries, the risk-takers, the independent thinkers – that truly carries the vote for the future. Are you asking the questions that will define it?

For too long, the internet promised freedom but delivered a new form of serfdom. It's time to reverse that. It's time to build your own digital empire and achieve true sovereignty.

If you're ready to lay the foundation of your digital nation – to define your philosophy, attract your first 100 loyal citizens, and create your initial exports – my free newsletter is for you.

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Consider Subscribing here, or hitting subscribe on Hackernoon so I can add you.

Cheers,

Praise