About The Author... and His Flaws

About Erik

I am an MIT graduate with a bachelor’s and master’s in Political Science. I spent 4 years doing operations consulting for Fortune 500 manufacturing companies in all sorts of industries, and am now the Executive Officer of a startup in Boston (as of 2014).

My education in economics and philosophy, specifically, come from the school for hard-knocks—that is, I have done much reading, discussion, research, and writing, but not under the auspices of any specific university. My views have been hardened and refined through hundreds of hours of debates with brilliant colleagues of various levels of education and interest in the topics of economics and philosophy, and I hope that this has helped me to clarify my message.

While I loved consulting and in particular my firm, I left in order to take a very deliberate path towards what I discovered was my life’s purpose: furthering the prosperity of mankind and reviving its waning spirit. I am writing books on topics somewhat tangentially related to Capitalism, Prosperity, and the Spirit of Man (they will be announced on this blog), but will save the compilation of thoughts on this blog into my magnum opus for some time later in my life when my voice is clearer and my ideas are less prone to error.

In the future, I may choose to take formal training in university or a think tank, but more likely, I will start my own think tank of like-minded (but fiercely disagreeing, I hope) individuals who have greater experience, skills, and raw talent than I do.

It is a very, very long shot, but I hope to be to capitalism what Keyenes was to interventionism and Marx was to communism: the man with the voice to reach out to the public and enrapture them, to bring an understanding of capitalism to our discussions and debates, where it will stand on its own merit. I will not be the forerunner of the frontier of new ideas, but I hope to be the voice that capitalism needs.

My Disclaimer

I am young, I am biased, and I am often wrong.

I promise my readers that I shall do my damnedest to research thoroughly my claims—including the evidence that points to the opposite conclusions of my own. I shall do my damnedest to use this blog as an exercise to seek truth as much as it is an exercise to change the minds of others.

But I am fallible, and am prone to logical fallacies and biases in evidence gathering. We humans are particularly prone to these in matters about which we are morally passionate about the outcome (like politics) rather than passionate about simply knowing whatever the truth may be (like physics).

Recognizing this, I must give myself the leeway to change my mind, to amend what I’ve said, to admit I was wrong in an earlier post and press forward. I am proud of my capacity to recognize that I am wrong, admit it, change my views to new evidence, and press forward that way. But my writing about capitalism will be a constant morphing and discovering, and will never be perfect. I hope that I can achieve something close enough to the truth to inspire others to believe in the vision I have, even if in the future they will go on to do great things that I even advocated against.

I must also reserve the right to not be pinned down by the connotations of the word “capitalism.” Like “socialism,” one can assume a series of policies under its umbrella that could be mutually contradictory or unthinkingly dogmatic. It is very loaded. Don’t assume too much about exactly what I think until you’ve read me say it. I believe passionately in environmental regulation, support publicly-funded (though not state-operated) education, and have mixed feelings about welfare and wealth redistribution. You might say “but that’s not capitalism!” and I say, “fine, I shall come up with a better name for it in due time.” Be patient with me.

If you’re willing to do all of that and be open-minded to hear me out beyond the tagline of the blog post, then come with me. Leave comments and feedback. Tell me I’m wrong. Help me refine my message. I want to learn from you as much as I hope you’ll learn from me.