Episode Archive
"In 2019, if you had asked me 'Will things change?', I might have thought that certain things would change but there is an Overton window of what's possible. Post 2020, so much has changed and I think the Overton window has just been blown wide open. Now is the time to be talking about these big ideas because now w...
"I think they view Dubai like a project. It's very much like a project where you're quite literally building from the ground up and you are learning from history, you're learning from the existing world, you're learning from other nations, other cities. You're seeing the things that they do well, the things they don...
"Autonomy is a tool to achieve something. We should never speak of autonomy just for autonomy's sake. The objective is always to create an environment that attracts businesses, that attracts investment and that attracts people. That is what we're talking about . "
"Autonomous cities will develop naturally if they're given the legal framework to do so. At the moment, most special economic zones have policies that apply to businesses and they're targeted at creating space that is focused on a particular sector. I think if you allow that to be extended to residential components...
"I'm still a fan of certain rules and regulations, but they should allow enough space for businesses to innovate and consumers to choose, and they should also not prescribe what solution will be good for consumers. Regulators should not pick the winners and losers. Consumers should do that, because that's what cons...
"Last year our largest growth was in the Middle East. Our business has grown three times in the Middle East. And it's not just us. All the big architecture firms are now working a lot here. Because as I said, it's easier to build a city here than one small building somewhere in the European Union. "
"Honestly, I'm actually not a big fan of traveling, which seems crazy when I have the lifestyle that I do. I just really hate taxes. I hate bureaucracy. I want to own my own destiny. That's why I live the way I do. "
"People are exiting society to build their own bubbles where they grow their own food, are self-sufficient, and have also learned how to consciously design human relationships. Many of the most successful of these projects refer to themselves as 'research centers for peace' because they're exploring alternative gov...
"When I went to El Salvador, I went to try and find the catch. What's really happening there? What is this Bukele dictator actually doing there? I went in there to to ask tough questions about Bukele. It took me about a week to change my mind, to realise that's not really the story. That people love him. They hone...
"Freedom is not going to come for free. You can't ask anyone. You can't go and ask a police officer to give you more freedom because he's going to follow the law. That's his job. "
"Overall, political risk, be it national, local, or geopolitical international risk, has been on the rise over the last 15 years. It has become critical and the time is ripe to consider it in detail and to consider your options. "
"This is the project of my life. I want to live and I want to die in that place, in a free place because as libertarians, we need a physical place to live. I mean, things like Network States are fine, but in the end we are people living in a three dimensional world. We need to have our feet on some soil and I want...
"As far as the Cypherpunks go, I wanted the viewers to really understand WHY there is Bitcoin out there. You know, why? Why Bitcoin? And so it was really important for me to explain that a bunch of people were afraid that freedom could be jeopardised and so they built things.. and Bitcoin became the tool to fight f...
"If you have an idea, bring it up. Let's put it on the table. Let's discuss it. And yeah, we can potentially make it happen. Maybe it works because we are still a relatively small community. Probably as we grow, it's going to change a little bit. But for now, it works quite well. Everybody's quite welcoming to diff...
"I remain disappointed, flummoxed, angry and aggravated that free market libertarianism has not made more headway because it seems to me to provide many, if not most of the answers to the barriers to human flourishing and removal of human suffering. "
"Previously, whenever people gathered with friends for dinner or lunch, the first question that would usually come up was 'Will you leave Hong Kong?'. In the last two or three years, that question has changed to 'When are you going to leave Hong Kong? "'.
"It's beneficial if you can speak to leaders and politicians around the world and educate them about Bitcoin. Not about them essentially adopting it, but to let them know that there's a bottom-up movement happening all around the world and that really, they can't do anything to stop it. So they might as well embrace...
"There is this famous quote that you can never change things by fighting the existing reality and that you have to start something new. I think that's pretty much valid. It might be much easier to start a new country than it is to fix an existing one. "
"People are completely persuaded by monopoly governance. They're brainwashed with it. It's coming for us. It's coming for free people. It's coming fast, it's coming hard and it's not hiding its agenda. So this is where I want to argue with all my colleagues. We don't want one Próspera here. We don't want a dozen Pr...
"If you have these ecologies of freedom, you can make amazing cities and that is one of the best things you can do. I think you'll be hard pressed to do it somewhere else these days. Even existing, amazing cities are being ruined by bad policy and not being allowed to mature or being allowed to mature enough.. There...
"W e have to go back to doing more with neighbours, with family with friends. That's one way of replacing big government. Yes, you can replace it with a Free Private City and a service model, but you can also replace it with actual communities, and the actual community is, I think more attainable. Particularly for l...
