Homebrew Manifesto

London, UK - April 2024

Manifesto

I was thinking about education and Western culture a lot lately, and I think they are inextricably linked with each other. I stole the structure from the agile manifesto and wrote something like this:

We are uncovering better ways of developing education and healthier culture by doing it and helping others do it.

Through this work we have come to value:

• Power over vulnerability
• Freedom over equality
• Truth over correctness
• Science over religion
• Producing over consuming
• Transparency over trust
• Reasoning over feeling
• Innovation over tradition
• Action over contemplation
• Cooperation over competition
• Rebellion over obedience
• Independence over conformity
• Order over anarchy
• West over east

That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.

We also believe the following statements to be true:

• Education should be Declarative not Imperative
• Graduation = limitation
• Equal chances = unequal outcomes
• Survival of the fittest = Failure of the fattest
• Morality = wishful thinking
• Stagnation = Death
• Civilizations are extremely rare and fragile
• A System that Serves the Few Breeds Revolution for the Many
• Freedom of speech is non-negotiable
• All degrees are fake
• Everyone was oppressed at some point

Explanation

Manifestos are cool for transmitting core ideas quickly and concisely, but without deep explanation, they could be easily misinterpreted, so here is some deeper explanation:

Values

Power over vulnerability

While understanding your own emotions and talking about them is great, focusing too much on this aspect can paralyze you and make taking action impossible. Sometimes the old good phrase "just be a man" isn't that toxic and works well.

Freedom over equality

True progress arises from the pursuit of individual potential, not from artificial attempts to enforce sameness. Freedom allows individuals to leverage their unique talents and ambitions, leading to greater innovation and prosperity for all.

Truth over correctness

Adherence to established norms, even if outdated or demonstrably false, stifles progress. The pursuit of truth, even when uncomfortable, is essential for growth and understanding.

Science over religion

Relying on evidence-based reasoning and the scientific method offers the most reliable path to understanding the world and solving its problems. Moving beyond faith-based dogma empowers us to make informed decisions and shape a better future.

Producing over consuming

A society that prioritizes consumption over creation becomes stagnant and dependent. Fostering a culture of production – of ideas, innovation, and value – is key to a thriving and sustainable future.

Transparency over trust

Blind trust can be easily abused. We trusted the Academia, and we shouldn't do that again. Transparency fosters accountability and allows informed decisions based on verifiable information, leading to more just and equitable systems. Especially at the internet age, providing evidences, documenting processes and open sourcing as much as can be open sourced is a key to reestablishing trust for science. All academic papers produced by Homebrew students will be available for everyone on the internet 100% for free.

Reasoning over feeling

While emotions are an essential part of the human experience, they are subjective and unreliable guides for decision-making. Feelings can be fleeting, influenced by biases, and often cloud judgment. Prioritizing reason and logic ensures that our choices are based on sound evidence and objective analysis, leading to more effective problem-solving and better outcomes. Furthermore, feelings do not constitute proof or evidence. Theories and arguments based solely on "how somebody feels" lack validity and intellectual rigor. A robust understanding of the world requires objective observation, critical analysis, and logical reasoning, not subjective emotional responses. Embracing reason as the primary guide for decision-making allows us to move beyond personal biases and emotional responses, leading to a more objective and just society.

Innovation over tradition

While embracing innovation and adapting to change are crucial for progress in a rapidly evolving world, it is vital to ensure that innovation serves a clear purpose and demonstrably improves upon existing systems. Innovation for the sake of novelty, without a focus on tangible benefits, can lead to wasted resources and unnecessary disruption. The true measure of progress lies in delivering more value for less, constantly striving to improve efficiency, effectiveness, and user experience. Therefore, innovation must be driven by a deep understanding of user needs and a commitment to solving real problems. Doing things that don't scale and talking to users are essential for ensuring that innovation aligns with actual requirements and delivers tangible benefits. This approach ensures that progress is not merely a pursuit of the new, but a deliberate and value-driven journey towards a better future.

Action over contemplation

Ideas alone do not change the world. Taking action, even in the face of uncertainty, is necessary to translate thought into progress. Execution is everything. Musk and Jobs (end me 🤣) seem to agree on this one.

Cooperation over competition

Capitalists are typically associated with a love for competition and a hate for cooperation, but that's stupid. This is something we can learn from our gentler, more leftist comrades. While healthy competition can drive individual achievement, cooperation is essential for tackling complex challenges and achieving collective goals that benefit everyone. As Paul Graham wrote in The hardest lessons for Startups to Learn, startups are much more likely to die from bad execution than from competition. Also, citing PG again, "there is always room." Thinking that capitalism is a zero-sum game, where one's gain necessitates another's loss, is a fallacy. The economic pie is not static; it is constantly growing, which benefits everyone. By working together, we can create a more wealthy and prosperous future for all, unlocking possibilities that competition alone could never achieve. I was always sharing all my notes, guides, or work with whoever asked at uni, even though I knew they would never do the same for me and even after they didn't help me when I needed it. They simply weren't a threat to me because I was working 20 times harder and longer. Tesla opened all their patents and still wins over everyone. I admire that. One of the biggest "big ball moves" ever made. We all should focus on excellent execution, not on throwing spanners in each other's works.

Rebellion over obedience

Controversial point here, but let me explain. Rebellion just for the sake of rebellion is a waste of time, so don't break anything that works well or if you don't have a better alternative. If you think you have a better alternative, first design it, build it, and test it. Then make sure it works 10x better than the thing you want to destroy. Don't be a kamikaze; be an Oppenheimer, build an alternative so powerful that fighting against you becomes pointless. If you have it, just pull the trigger and watch them evaporate. (P.S.: Of course, I don't mean any violence; it's a sophisticated way of saying "if you don't like some shit, build s better shit.")

Independence over conformity

As Milgram suggested, too much respect for authority was what made concentration camps possible. The legacy education system was designed to reward obedience and punish independence and critical thinking. Homebrew will be the opposite. That said, it's worth noting that questioning everything, all the time, at all costs just for the sake of questioning is absolutely pointless and very counterproductive. But still, too much skepticism is much better than too little. If you have a question or a doubt, always say it, regardless of looking dumb. Very often, if you have a question in your mind and don't understand something, many more people are in the same position, but everyone is too afraid to look stupid to ask. By looking stupid, you become smarter; by looking smart, you stay stupid.

Order over anarchy

With all my love for revolutions, changes, and the romantic vision of dramatically changing the world, we must remember that anarchy is horrible and almost always much worse than even a terrible order. When people can do what they want without any consequences, it always happens to be killing, raping, and torturing each other. We are all very nice until there is a punishment for not being very nice. It's easy to call yourself a revolutionary while sitting in a warm room at university halls. We, the hackers, love criticizing the government, saying it has too much power and it's the biggest evil in the world, but it's worth remembering that events like the Rwandan genocide, the Lebanese Civil War, or the Breakup of Yugoslavia were all examples of how reality looks without a working government. Cities were razed to the ground, full of corpses of women and children who died being tortured and raped by people "fighting for the good cause." While not perfect, the order provided by the government is much better than anarchy. On the other hand, there were some examples of government collapses and revolutions that ended up very well, like the Revolutions of 1989 or the American Revolution, but the difference here is that society moved from one order to a better order, not to anarchy. We all grew up listening to songs like Fuk Da Police and the ACAB mentality is cool and appealing for rebels who want to "fuck the system," but the truth is that without a working police force, many of us would be dead long ago. I'm not saying there shouldn't be change; there should be, but it should be evolutionary rather than revolutionary.

West over East

Being from Poland gave me a pretty unique perspective on deeply understanding both mentalities: Western and Eastern. The generation of my parents was born in Poland under the communist regime, and in their mid-20s, Poland became a capitalistic country, so I've heard hundreds of stories about how life looked like under communism. It's true that everyone is equal in communism, equally poor. My father once told me a story about his experience when, from communist Poland, he went to work over the summer in capitalistic Finland. He described it as "going to a completely different, much better world from a utopian dream," and he couldn't imagine that people could live on that level. Clean streets with no holes in the road, toilets with running water at gas stations, people with brand new clothes with cool haircuts and clean shoes seemed so much happier and even better than dirty, poor, and always angry Poles. I think that this feeling of being a worse kind of human being because we were poor, dirty, and fusty is very universal for Polish people, even in generations born decades after communism fell in Poland. We always admired the West and wanted to be a part of it. We loved the West so much that kids in the '80s were trading brand new shoes (which under communism were very hard to get anyway) for an empty Coca-Cola can because it was a symbol of Western freedom. Today, 35 years after the fall of communism, thanks to the hard work of millions of people, Poland is a very different country than it used to be. Today our streets are clean, cities are safe, and people with brand new clothes, cool haircuts, and clean shoes seem much happier. Why? We chose the West over the East. But this rule also works the other way. Once a glorious city that produced the world's best technologies and had been the epicenter of progress and innovation now looks like a third-world country's slums, full of homeless on its streets who steal, kill, and take drugs, causing destruction and chaos. Why is that happening? Because San Francisco chose East over West. Jesse Jackson successfully pushed The Rainbow Agenda, and his famous "Hey hey, ho ho, Western culture's got to go" worked. Stanford dropped Western Civ, and the whole Western world followed it and abolished Western values. I think we should go back to them; that's why as soon as I am able to afford it, I will personally organize and pay for the production of the best Western Civ 2.0 course ever made, and it will be the only mandatory course for all Homebrew students.

PS: just want to add that I don't have nothing against Easter world, much love to you guys, seriously 😘. I just think that West should be more Western then Easter

PS_2: I'm discussing the Western versus Eastern mentality strictly within a European context here. Being from a country in the middle of Europe, I have experienced and understand both mentalities well. These are my conclusions about them. I don't know enough to discuss other continents' mentalities and values in depth. The second continent I know the most about is probably Asia (apart from the US, which I count as part of the Western sphere). From what I've heard on TikTok, YouTube, and from conversations with my Asian friends, many aspects of their cultures are admirable and worth adopting. The Chinese (and Asian in general) work ethic, evident in education and work (and pretty much in anything they start doing), is legendary and truly admirable. Japanese craftsmanship, attention to detail, and astonishing designs are mind-blowing. The Indian strong attachment to family and community is heart-melting and definitely something that we, especially now, Westerners should learn from. Korean Jeong could make cold-hearted Londoners (and Westerners in general) who rarely talk with each other much happier, potentially helping to solve the [loneliness epidemic](https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/nov/16/who-declares-loneliness-a-global-public-health-concern. And, of course, last but definitely not least, we could heavily benefit from adopting Asian food culture and habits because here we are not even 1% as proficient as Asians are. Their food simply tastes much better, looks much better, and doesn't make you a fat person on a mobility scooter. So, with all my love and deep respect for the American burger and fries, maybe we should consider opting for kimchi and rice instead. Much love to all my (globally, not locally) . Much love 😘 to all my (globally, not locally) Eastern friends.

PS*3: I might seem like I'm dissing my Russian and Eastern European friends a bit here, and it's true, but only partially, so let me clarify. We are all extremely similar Slavic nations, with very similar languages and cultures. Yes, we have fought and killed each other at some point in history, but which European nations haven't? Our borders have been much larger, much smaller, or even non-existent at various times throughout our rich history. I have spoken to countless friends from Eastern Europe, and I have nothing but love and respect for them. Watching Ukrainians, Belarusians, or Russians in Poland, often arriving with nothing and working extremely hard to build a life here while paying taxes and causing no problems, is the perfect example of how immigration should be, and I'm really happy that you have chosen to be a part of Polish society and help us build this country. After countless (alcohol-fueled) late-night conversations, I'm pretty confident that we have a consensus here: we all want to be part of the Western world and Western civilization. (And indeed, we are integral to it—where would the West be today without the contributions of Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Kafka, Curie, Tesla, Tchaikovsky, Kundera, Žižek, Mendeleev, Pavlov, or even this fucking Marx, to name just a few?) Some of us were fortunate enough to be positioned closer to the West (like Poland, Slovakia, or the Czech Republic) and joined the EU and NATO, becoming free capitalist countries, adopting democracy and freedom of speech. People in these countries are much happier and wealthier than their brothers and sisters in countries that weren't as fortunate (like Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, and even Russia) and are still under the cruel Tzar tyranny, dreaming about Western freedom. So I just want to be crystal clear here, I have nothing but love and respect for my Eastern European friends. I'm simply saying that after the fall of the Berlin Wall, people were going to the West, not the East, and today we have pushed the Berlin Wall much further to the east, and again the western part is doing much better again; maybe we should push it even further to the east or ideally make it collapse once and for all. By saying West over East, I simply mean freedom over tyranny.

Truths

Education should be Declarative, not Imperative

Pretty self-explanatory, it should work like "hi, I want to learn x," and the system should provide you the optimal path to learn x tailored to your current knowledge and skill level, favorite style of learning, in a tone you like, using examples that you will understand, like, and enjoy. A one-size-fits-all approach is like having one universal iPhone with the same features, apps, and wallpaper without the ability to change anything for all users in the world, fucking pointless.

Graduation = Limitation

A model of the world where you could learn all necessary things for domain x, get a certification that now you know everything to be called an x expert is fucking absurd in today's time, but on these principles, the education system was built and still functions today. At Homebrew, all certifications and degrees must be dynamic, so if the curriculum is updated and things change, students will have to relearn or pass a test for the updated CV, or something like "CS 2024" would be an option, I don't know. But the main point is that education isn't a 3-4 year old thing anymore; it's a thing that you must be doing throughout your whole life.

Equal Chances = Unequal Outcomes

People are born with different skills and abilities. James Damore did a pretty good job explaining it in the famous Google echo chamber memo, for which Google fired him.

Survival of the Fittest = Failure of the Fattest

Evolution is the single most powerful force in the universe, and everything obeys it, from viruses to humans. Its rules are simple: the fittest survive and outcompete the fattest. If we mess with this law, everyone suffers. For example, if we treat all employees equally and pay low achievers exactly the same as high achievers, there is no incentive to work hard and care, so no one works hard anymore. The best people leave, and the company goes bankrupt. While empathy is important, too much of it turns cities into slums.

Morality = wishful thinking

I don't know if morality, ethics, and soul exist, but we should assume that they don't and that all people are extremely evil and egotistic by design. Just a simple paraphrase of Nietzsche. Betting on people's morality is an extremely stupid bet. After countless examples of human cruelty, we still naively think that people are moral; they are not. We are all dangerous killing machines, the most cruel of all animals, that have a rich history of creating hells on earth. The only reason why we can live in a peaceful and civil society is that we designed it in a way where being good is a much more profitable choice than being bad. Let's not change that. Social contract design must be based on the presumption that people are greedy, evil, and make decisions based on self-interest, not on morality. Even though it's not true for all, it's true for some, and that's why social contract design must be constructed with that in mind. At the same time, of course, we should work on improving people's morality and behave in a moral and right way ourselves, even at times when it's not the most profitable thing to do, but assuming that everyone will do it is wishful thinking.

Stagnation = Death

If you don't move forward, you move backward, and you will be eaten. Continuous progress is essential for survival, and growth is the base of democracy, which Sam Altman figured out more than a decade ago.

Civilizations are extremely rare and fragile

The fact that we have never seen any aliens or even signs of them living anywhere at any time is frightening and suggests that life is extremely rare in the universe. We don't want to mess this up and start evolution from bacteria all over again just because some guy has a small dick and pushed the red button. We must think, discuss, and prevent existential threats.

A System that Serves the Few Breeds Revolution for the Many

Even though my cold heart is purely capitalistic and I condemn redistribution, I think it's inevitable at some point in the future. Big inequalities lead to revolutions, which I think we've established we are not the biggest fans of. So, I think some kind of UBI might be a good option in the future when AI and robots rise. Many people fear that we won't have a purpose without having a job, but in history, there were some periods where we produced so much prosperity and wealth (often through slavery) that some societies had a small group of people who didn't have to work for survival. These periods included ancient Greece and Athens, the Renaissance, and the 1960s in the US. During these times, societies generated enough wealth that a small group of people didn't need to work for survival. In ancient Greece, this led to the birth of Western philosophy and the development of democratic principles, with contributions from Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. The Renaissance sparked a surge in artistic and scientific innovation, evidenced by the works of Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. In the 1960s America, a cultural and technological revolution occurred, marking the founding of influential companies like HP, Intel, and Fairchild Semiconductor. This era also saw the creation of Silicon Valley, a phenomenon possible because American society had created so much wealth that it could afford to invest in risky and novel projects on a scale no other country was able before. In all these periods, those fortunate enough not to be forced to work for survival engaged in philosophy, arts, or undertook significant creative endeavors.

Freedom of Speech is Non-Negotiable

Open and free expression of ideas is the cornerstone of a healthy democracy and a catalyst for progress. This point is especially important as the AI revolution approaches and LLMs will detect everything that is not allowed to be said, finding the author in milliseconds. If we lose this freedom once, we most likely lose it forever.

All degrees are fake

With academia broken beyond comprehension, we can't take their certifications seriously anymore. We did it based on trust in their authority, but they lost it. How should you do it? Very simply, if you are an employer or HR manager in any company, make everything you can to change the recruitment process and do not take into account formal education from the legacy system. Simply ban putting legacy education on candidates CVs and automatically reject those who do that. If you can't do that, then at least ask them not to mention which university they attended, just the degree with no brand. Why? Because prestigious universities, most often, don't teach anything; they rely on their reputation and prestige. People aren't going to Harvard to listen to their amazing lectures; all of them are available on YouTube for free. They go there only to say, "Oh, I went to Harvard," and that's what really costs $330k. So the best thing we can do is simply say, "Yeah, cool, we don't care. Degrees prove nothing; show us your projects." I agree that we must find a way to distinguish people with exceptional abilities from those who don't have them, but I don't think that the current algorithm of doing that works optimally, and I'm absolutely sure that it can be drastically improved and optimized, and that it will have a very positive impact on society.

Everyone was oppressed at some point

Today's obsession about who was oppressed and how much doesn't make any sense and it's purely victim mentality. We all come from slave ancestry, and it was an absolutely common and universal practice across the whole world from the beginning of civilization. Even though it was terrible, it's finished, and I don't think coming back to that all the time is a healthy thing to do. As Douglas Murray argues in his book "The War on the West," the word slave comes from "Slav," short for Slavic, because Vikings captured Slavs who were then sold as slaves to various empires. Slave trade wasn't by any means a thing the Western world created, started, or participated in more than any other civilization, but it was the one that put an end to this cruel practice. The Roman Empire, spanning its vast history, enslaved an estimated 50 million people, around 4x more than the US and Western world, which took around 12.5 million slaves from Africa. While the transatlantic slave trade was a horrible and shameful chapter in human history, it's crucial to understand that it wasn't a Western phenomenon. When Martin Luther King said his famous "I have a dream", it was a dream "that one day on the red hills of Georgia, sons of former slaves and sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood". It was a dream that we all "will one day live in a nation where we will not be judged by the color of our skin but by the content of our character". He said that "With this faith, we will be able to work together, pray together, struggle together, go to jail together, and stand up for freedom together". I think that the most optimal path forward is unification, leaving the past behind and building a better future together hand in hand, not constantly fighting over the past and demanding reparations. When I was in primary school, I found out that my best friend at the time was half German and his grandfather fought in WW2. My grandfather also fought in WW2, on the opposite side. So, even though not very probable, it's entirely possible that our grandfathers met and potentially could have killed or tortured each other and probably wouldn't be happy that their descendants are sitting in the same class together and even are the best friends. But so what? Would it be better for anyone if we hated each other and fought or even harmed each other? Did I or my friend (9 years old at the time) have anything to do with the horrors of WW2? Did any of us have any responsibility for the actions of our ancestors? At 9, I figured that the correct answer is no, and we should leave the painful past behind us, and build a better future together, and I think it's time that the West should do the same. Let freedom ring from the internet.