The Blueprint Newsletter

Friday Finds 28

Pick one thing and spend the rest of your life getting deeper into it. Mastery is the best goal because the rich can't buy it, the impatient can't rush it, the privileged can't inherit it, and nobody can steal it. You can only earn it through hard work. Mastery is the ultimate status. – Derek Sivers

Photo by Matthew Henry

Pick one thing and spend the rest of your life getting deeper into it. Mastery is the best goal because the rich can't buy it, the impatient can't rush it, the privileged can't inherit it, and nobody can steal it. You can only earn it through hard work. Mastery is the ultimate status. – Derek Sivers

An interesting perspecive on the Russia-Ukraine war from John Mearsheimer, a top international relations professor.

Key Takeaways:

The war will likely last a ling time—years.
Ukraine already has an estimated 1 trillion dollars of damage.
Contrary to popular belief, the war was not a one-sided attack from “evil” Russians or “evil” Putin.
Russia and the US are both heavily invested into the war.
It could go nuclear. Russia could nuke Ukraine. That could start nuclear retaliation from the US.
The US’ goal is to knock Russia out of the world powers list with sanctions.
Biden has called the war a genocide. This makes it difficult to have negotiations in the future—how do you negotiate if you believe they’re genocidal?
If you corner Putin with sanctions (destroying their economy) or if Ukraine starts winning on the battle field, Russia may use nuclear weapons.
It will take years or decades to fix US-Russia relations.
The US and its allies are mainly responsible for the war.
International relations theories are correct roughly 75% of the time. They are used to simplify a very complex world.
When the war started, Putins goals were not necessarily to gain territory, but now he (likely) does want to take territory in Ukraine.
We need a neutral Ukraine for the war to end. Ukraine cannot join NATO and Russia cannot take territory. No nuclear weapons can be used.