Greatest passage in Thucydides––the Corinthians warning the Spartans about the strength of Athens:

"The Athenians are addicted to innovation, and their designs are characterized by swiftness alike in conception and execution; you have a genius for keeping what you have got, accompanied by a total want of invention, and when forced to act you never go far enough. Again, they are adventurous beyond their power, and daring beyond their judgment, and in danger they are sanguine; your wont is to attempt less than is justified by your power, to mistrust even what is sanctioned by your judgment, and to fancy that from danger there is no release.

This man:

> Survived a Sioux massacre as a child
> On his own since age 12
> Tracked Apaches as a teen
> Fought in Rhodesia
> Staked claims in the Klondike gold rush
> Assassinated an African chieftain, securing victory for Cecil Rhodes
> Was recruited to the Rough Riders by Teddy Roosevelt
> Was one of the only survivors of the "Rhodesian Alamo"
> Became entangled in a family feud in Arizona
> Helped Baden-Powell establish the Boy Scouts
> Struck oil in California, making him and his sons rich
> Was decorated by the King of England

His name was Frederick Russell Burnham. He's my second cousin, three times removed.

More below. Burhnam was born near New Ulm, MN in 1861. A year later the Sioux raided the area, killing hundreds of settlers. Burnham's father was in Mankato buying ammunition at the time. His mother knew she couldn't outrun the Indians with a baby and hid Burnham in a basket of corn husks.

When she returned, she passed the bodies of neighboring families but found Burnham unharmed, sleeping in the basket.

Mining tech has been stagnant for 50 years, the workforce is aging out, and demand is rising.

Those rocket catches, conflict missiles, and ai robots all need the same thing for development: critical minerals.

Here are some the problems and startups in play:
🧵 In broad strokes, mining has a few major blockers:

1) People. Labor is a huge share of cost and it's getting worse––about half the workforce will retire in the next ten years. Right now, moms don't send Johnny to the mines.

What made Napoleon exponentially better than his opponents?

A few observations:

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https://twitter.com/cremieuxrecueil/status/1878080528584266009

Speed was the defining factor of Napoleon's early campaigns.

He was just faster than most people thought possible at the time, arriving days ahead of when an army could be reasonably expected.

Ernst Junger had one of the most charmed, tragic, and serendipitous lives of the 20th century:

- Born 1895, Germany
- Joins the French Foreign Legion at age 17
- 1914 WWI begins, Junger joins the German army as a private
- Is wounded 14 times––almost every man in his original regiment dies during the course of the war.
- In a near-fatal attempt, he saves his own brother's life on the Western front
- Heavily decorated, war hero
- Publishes his diaries from the war, becomes famous author
- Courted by Nazis to take a seat in parliament. Junger declines: “I’d rather write one good poem than represent 60,000 idiots.”
- Investigated by the Gestapo for writings critical of Hitler's Germany. Hitler says, effectively, "Leave Junger alone, he's a war hero."
- During WWII, Junger pens his essay The Peace. In it, he lays out a vision for a reconciled, christian Europe.
- The Peace inspires Rommel and the Stauffenberg bomb plot conspirators to make an assassination attempt on Hitler, they fail.
- Junger's 18 y/o son makes anti-Hitler comments to his navy cadet comrades which are discovered by the SS. Junger's son is deliberately sent on a high-casualty mission in Italy, killed in action.
- Afterward the war, Junger continues to publish fiction and philosophy.
- Junger meets Albert Hofmann, inventor of LSD. Tries LSD, loves it.
- Junger's younger son, Alexander, commits suicide.
- Junger lives to be 102. Spends his time with his wife, reading, and collecting beetles.
- Gives an interview on video in 1997 (to some guys who just knocked on his door) a few months before his death.

Watching him as an old man in '97, you realize how many future grandfathers––including all of his close friends––died ~82 years before, in the mud trenches of Ypres and the Somme.

Some snippets from the '97 interview below👇 This interview with Ernst Junger was filmed in 1997––when I was four. I love it because it’s the visit that you wish you could have had with Junger––102 but still sharp, in his home, telling stories.

Full length interview below––well worth watching.

You probably think the mustache on the left is creepy and the one on the right is suave.

There's a story behind that.

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Let's start in middle.

1915––poison gas hits the trenches of Ypres for the first time.

The British army changes their grooming standard to clean-shaven for a better gas mask seal.

No more staches.