It's a really good analysis. Even moreso through the postmortem lens of where we are today (relative to where we were when Paul Graham originally published his

It's a really good analysis. Even moreso through the postmortem lens of where we are today (relative to where we were when Paul Graham originally published his essay ~2004). As you noted, the section about "Wealth and Power" seemed to have been tacked on almost as an afterthought. So it isn't until the end of your piece that you get to this point: Graham concludes: “The same recipe that makes individuals rich makes countries powerful. Let the nerds keep their lunch money, and you rule the world.” Sadly, the bottom line is that unless you are among a tiny handful of the elite, a laissez-faire economic system would enslave you, not liberate you. The only people who will enjoy the fruits of a truly free society are those with the power to keep you in line. Given more freedom, those in power will first cut off the access to power, to prevent anyone from challenging them. They will immediately go for the jugular. There is no compromise with power and no means to share it. Thus, the power elite will readily command vast armies of people and resources to ensure that you stay down. This will be their first priority. Their second priority will be to extract labor from you in the manner that serves them best. In a perfectly libertarian society, the bullies would not only take your lunch money, they would murder your family, burn your house, and leave you for dead by the side of the road. If you were to re-write / edit your piece today, my recommendation would be to start off with this as your premise. We have sooooooo much evidence today from many, many people who followed this path recommended by Graham thirteen years ago. Sure, maybe a few of the nerds got to keep their lunch money. However: catapulting a reserve of lunch money into the kind of wealth that matters (the kind of wealth that buys power) just doesn't happen for your average nerd. There's one more layer needed on the recipe. Graham rightly points out that wealth is not a zero-sum game. Power, on the other hand, is most definitely a zero-sum proposition, and those who have it will stop at nothing to retain it and quash any perceptible threat. Power is a black hole—it consumes everything and yet remains a perpetual void. We see instances of this even with the meager controls in place in our society today. Loosen or remove those controls and power, unchecked, will accumulate until nothing remains. Anyone or anything in its path will be destroyed. It's hard not to think about the political implications of how this relates to just about everything these days.