One could well argue that if there is any human essence, it is precisely our capacity to imagine that we have one. - David Graeber

The moment we begin to map the history of money across the last five thousand years of Eurasian history, startling patterns begin to emerge.

In our society, there seems a general rule that, the more obviously one's work benefits other people, the less one is likely to be paid for it.

How do we create only games that we actually feel like playing, because we can opt out at any time? In the economic field, at least, the answer is obvious. All of the gratuitous sadism of workplace politics depends on one’s inability to say “I quit” and feel no economic consequences.