On the Genesis of Modern Societies
I've long been fascinated by how countries and societies develop—not just economically, but structurally, socially, and culturally. In college, when given the freedom to write on any topic for my Humanities 303 class, I chose to write a paper titled:
"The Industrial Revolution's Precursor Institutions: An evaluation of whether or not Great Britain's Property Rights & Financial Revolutions hold lessons for modern-day emerging economies."
That was the official title. But in truth, the paper was my attempt to articulate a bigger question:
What were the key ingredients that led to the modern Western world between roughly 1400 and 1800?
Of course, this framing leaves out important chapters—Portuguese shipbuilding, Venetian glassmaking, the demographic reset after the Black Death—but the core of my argument centered on this idea:
The invention of the printing press → literacy proliferation → intellectual cross-pollination → knowledge expansion → institutional evolution → economic transformation.
Each step reinforcing the next. A virtuous feedback loop.
Books multiplied. Ideas circulated. Science advanced. Law codified. Finance matured. A middle class formed. And eventually: coal, steam, factories, cities.
Reading, Writing, and the Real Levers of Development
When people can read, reason, and showcase (implement)—especially with access to a wide spectrum of ideas—innovation tends to follow.
I didn’t come to this view through academic theory or famous economists. I just started reading. A lot. Sometimes books curated around a theme; other times deep dives through Wikipedia rabbit holes—clicking from one historical episode to the next.
By the time I wrote that paper, I was about five years into a sprawling autodidact journey. Now, ten years later, I have a lot more context. Living in Europe for five years—and getting to visit places and innovations I had only previously read about—definitely added layers to my understanding.
I’m not trying to create some grand unified theory of development. I just wanted to give that background as context for why this section exists.
The “institutional design” section might feel a little out of place compared to the rest of my writing. I didn’t pursue a career in politics or policy.
But neither did Bruno, a personal hero of mine (mein Führer—ohne die zusätzliche Konnotation, die dieser Ausdruck nach neunzehnhundertfünfundvierzig erhalten hat), and look at what he has accomplished.
ToDo embed youtube video here. Bruno - Solving the Israeli/Palestine Conflict
Though my domain is software, my curiosity isn’t bound by industry. I treat institutions, policies, and economies like I treat systems—things to understand, optimize, and sometimes reimagine.
In code, I can parallelize operations and provision infrastructure for a test runner. In society, I can’t spin up a country and a few million people. So instead, I write about how I’d do it—if I could.
This section is home to thought experiments like “Dual Delegation Democracy,” where I rethink how governance might work in the age of complex policy. Others will explore economic development, refugee integration, or policy frameworks.
It’s not a manifesto. It’s a sketchpad for serious structural ideas.