The REVOLUTION was quiet.

Prelude

Before you proceed any further, I would like for you to understand dear reader that I always conclude 'each broad statement' I make with 'I believe'. It would get repetitive after awhile and take away from what I believe entertaining read. 

All ideas presented in this read have been successfully realized and implemented, their importance however, may only be relevant to a small circle of individuals. Please don't let this fact - small audience - ever deter you from pursuing your individual passions. You have two things working for you:

A] we now have Internet and nothing on the Internet dies - you will leave a legacy; one day some1 will look at it and cast a judgment; your idea may be revolutionary

B] the randomness of our life is being actively reduced - don't worry or self-doubt and let AI make that tough decision who will get to see your ideas, it's your most powerful ally.

This was my reply to tweet** coming from Canada's biggest and most important bank, the Royal Bank of Canada, asking the public to weigh in how they see the future - Net-Zero 2050 -

Remember, there is money to be made, be prepared*.

Chapter 1 - It only took a decade. 

I am on the mailing list for Ikea Hackers. I click and I peruse to learn what's best of hacks out there that people submit. It never disappoints - a very well presenting IKEA hack, a built-in BILLY bookcase - a WILLIAM. Just look how beautiful it looks and fits - that's the secret sauce behind this one.

Look - 

By the way, if you got this in your inbox, and are thirsty to learn how to go about building something like this then join me for my show in January next year. It's called Swedish Socialism 2:GO West [once the listing goes up I will make this a clickable link; come back soon!]. The IKEA Hackers post is complemented with a complete DIY information, so it is easy to make a decision at glance. Each custom element added is handily illustrated - this is the dream for any serious hobbyist wanting to save thousands in whatever currency you are working in [maybe even millions..? - unexpected yet related.]. 

The post also  comes almost a year after I launched my on-line school 'Handy Design - Modern Ideas'. Why is this important?

Well, IKEA Hackers is an entity approved by the IKEA mother-corp and occupies an important niche in the 'Ikea Global ecosystem'. Biggie, because IKEA is the world's largest furniture manufactures - Swedish Socialism is about leveraging the economies of scale in production of domestic household furnishings, that then can be improved upon via simple, accessible and time-honoured woodworking traditions, knowledge of which is slowly disappearing... all on the most important level, most granular, the individual. 

---> Ikea Hackers is a perfect social counter-balance to the official mother-corp IKEA. 

Jules confessed publicly that IKEA does have a say in what approx. 100k subscribers get in their mailbox. Put that together with a fact that Ikea Hackers as a global movement is very militant - the original battle between IKEA and Jules was nasty, lawyering all around [yup wrote about that, click here; that's why my TV show was cancelled, the TV producers got scared, even tho the concept of IKEA Hacking was hott at that time and selling well].

So much Positive Social capital was expanded on that battle that IKEA made a smart decision to settle and control - good will trumps violence; I guess there were lawyers who also reasoned like me, every1 is your friend until they are your enemy [in the business sense, this is my driving principle; unemotional capitalism as you must be successful first before you can help others]. 

This means that this DIY built-in instructional for a WILLIAM was approved by IKEA - IKEA has accepted this as an unavoidable future of their product. They are giving it their legal blessing and I don't have to be concerned about any other attempts at de-platforming me. My ideas stand.

'My ideas stand.' - Karol Kosnik

 

But hey! HOLD ON! What is a WILLIAM bookcase?? 

Well according to me, Karol Kosnik, when you take a BILLY bookcase, and you hack it - you elevate it - it becomes a WILLIAM bookcase. I had a design launch for the WILLIAM bookcase concept at a MAKER fair in Toronto, I believe in 2016.  [will try to peruse the blog and include the link to the blog entry here; placeholder]. I think the show was in the summer - June. The following year - I think it was February; I don't have the screenshot anymore - a small legal notice appeared on the IKEA Canada website stating to the effect that 'BILLY bookcases either have been renamed WILLIAM, or were co-named BILLY-WILLIAM. Look, this is the Canadian IKEA app experience - 

By the way, this had to be coded intentionally to exclude suggestions from the 'behaviour learning algorithm', and because it is sandboxed in the app environment I have no way to influence it [although I did try with a unique method].

Read back on my blog to see how I reacted - I was furious and used strong language. Intellectual Property ownership, management and theft will all become extremely important going into the splintered and fractured future - on a geopolitical stage, I know that culturally the West will always exist and IKEA will always be a part of it. 

With the collapse of the virtual cryptocurrencies and the Ponzi-scheme type fraud perpetrated by Sam Bankman-Fried,

picture shows a Google search engine result for 'SBF', a headshot of  Sam Bankman-Fried along with his profession as understood by search engine Google. At the time of writing of this post he was still listed as 'an American entrepreneur'. 

and coupled with the FTX crypto platform trading scandal the belief and hope in 'Ideas Based Economy' will be shaken, but ultimately will propel genuine and valuable concepts forward. Investors will demand real returns. 

ASIDE: are you gonna tell me that we burned up all that dino-juice so we could generate electricity for mining physically non-existent goods, for which there will be no demand for when men with guns will go marching thru our communities and wanting ransom..? They won't be taking virtual Gucci loafers worth real $17 American dollars?  Hmmm....

Chapter 2 - The Digital Dollar 

Biggest challenge, biggest obstacle will come from the Digital Dollar that the government will introduce to regain control over the markets and increase its ability to manipulate and weaponize its currency across the globe. History is written by winners, look -

Obviously this is a joke from a skit by an Australian comedy group, but the message is poignant, I mean we just had a world piece and now we don't. East - Far East - West conflict seems to be revving up - why can't we just get along?

Digital Dollar will be inflexible and the underground economy, especially the one in the construction industry will collapse [we are no longer a 'barter economy, although keep on reading how I believe we can re-introduce Barter Economy]. Economists estimate that before the COVID pandemic the value of the underground economy was around 45 billion Canadian dollars and kept rather steady [why? why would it keep steady and not grow if it offers such an incredible value? Enforcement of rules is very lax and what are rules if they are not enforced? I know the answer to that question, but won't share here because those ideas are my asset class that I will use to take some small % of that 45 billion dollars home].

The Digital Dollar will also be a boost to the Gig Economy and it will be important to properly understand how to take advantage of those opportunities. 

Chapter 3 - 'Work sets you free' 

What if there was a cross-over between Orwell's '1984', Fisher's 'Capitalist Realism' and Holiday's 'Discipline is Destiny'? What is the purpose of crossing over a piece of literary fiction, a noveletta of a read on nature of Capitalism, and stoic philosophy book? Here - 

Individuals have two commodities that hold value to Society:

A] our free time

B] our attention

Now entertain yourself and think for a moment how highly regulated our free time is - some choose to work and 'maintain a lifestyle'. We are told who we can work with; we are told what we can do for work; we are told where we can conduct our work; we are told how we can perform the work; and finally we are told when we can work [literally - 'who, what, where, how and when'; good editors are worth their weight in gold, unexpected yet related]. These various rules and regulations came to be over centuries and were simple to implement by virtue of 'physicality of labour'.

Our second most valuable commodity that we have as individuals is - our free attention and how we focus it. Powerful interests both good and evil are spending enormous amounts of money to learn and influence our decisions for their benefit - historically this has always been done, this attempts at influencing, but the efficiency of it has increased exponentially. I will updated this post with a link to a fascinating research paper by Bank of Canada - they undertook a study 'of productivity of human attention' - this is the best example that clearly illustrates the powerful interests involved in shaping of humanity. 

But 'bANk oF cAnAda iS nOT tHaT pOWerFuL !!1!' - how much debt are you holding? 

From the smallest and most mundane to most important and life-altering, our decisions are captured, recorded, retained. Harnessing modern science [often leading with questionable ethics] coupled with the computing power of latest super processors, 'machine learning' is used to create a 'mirror data image' of ourselves and we begin to occupy virtual space.  Some specific purpose values are assigned and play important roles in 'what we see and what we are witness to in this world' - remember, I wrote this above 'the randomness of our life is being actively reduced'; this is part of the Personal Equation. Remember friends, it is very important to start building a Heap of Positive Ideas around your Digital Mirror Image.

Now I don't know exactly what values are assigned or what form they take - this is actually irrelevant - I suspect that true AI will create data structures that we may not have capacity to fully comprehend the meaning of [they will be created for the purpose of AI, by AI; I mean just look at the complexity our own brains and the stuff we put into existence + we don't even understand out motivation half the time.. geez]. 

How do I defined 'True AI', that is, AI that mimics the workings of a human mind? It's very simple, here it is - I use a simple and intuitive phrase, in fact the simpler the better - Unexpected, yet Related. This is the ultimate problem, and my intuition is telling me that when we solve it then we won AI -

'Unexpected, yet Related,' - Karol Kosnik

Chapter 3 - How to manipulate AI or 'High school AI'

This took me over a decade to develop - in the end it feels intuitive, natural and organic because it is in alignment with Good. Yes, it is a simplistic term but easy to understand - most important. I have to comment that when I am in the presence of highly educated individuals I will often inquire about a specific word they use - I don't understand the meaning of it and how it applies - is it something 'for Good' or is it something 'for Evil'? If you think I am being silly than consider that at one point in human history Google had motto 'Don't be evil' which they took down. Why? Exactly, so I don't feel any silliness and never blush when I say that 'I work for Good'. Nope, never ashamed of that. 

When I say 'manipulate AI', I am referring to influencing the learning patterns of algorithms. Algorithms are dumb if they first don't go to school - simple language again - the more they learn the more accurate results they produce, this is what you want to amplify, the learning behaviour phase. Look - 

OR

Aren't all these companies hiring THE BEST DATA SCIENTISTS? So why are the failures? Here, I will give you my favourite example and consider carefully the bias of AI as it is learning.

So various scientists have been sitting on crap-tons of data they have collected overwhelmed by the volume of it. Here comes a 'AI for rent' available at a nearby campus university project. The caveat is that you first need to teach the AI about whatever you need help with, and in this instance it is searching our for whale songs amongst the countless of hours of purposely recorded and retained ocean noise - only the most beautiful, splendour and grandeur will do - and who is not better to identify those type of whale songs if not a perfectly tuned human ear, huh? So scientists listen to 100 hours of tapes themselves and carefully pencil in - 'oh this is a good whale song...this one is awesome... this one kinda sucks but it's got some edge to it, I think'. Anyhow, 100 hours goes by quickly and the learning set is prepared and then fed to the computer. And magic happens - what has not been accomplished since humans started listening to whale songs now has been done. Look - 

We now have beautiful whale songs in our human consciousness. 

Ok, this is whales, what about humans? Do we have any1 pointing out 'this is good behaviour? this is not good behaviour' etc. Fact is we don't. What we currently have in existence is a regime of conflicting ideologies that are pulling in different directions, and it is a struggle - examples could include the current 'dance and song about visibility of Canadian Content to Canadians.' 

Given the current deficit in quality input and the race to harvest the data by different competitors [Google, Meta and Microsoft are good examples; what's unique about them is the fact that they all cater to different sub-audiences of the same 'Big Audience' via different means of information delivery, but essentially all 3 are important] we are living de-facto Wild West of information harvest. You might have heard how Facebook conducted an experiment in manipulating its user emotions; or how LinkedIN conducted an 'opportunity experiment', essentially testing its own algorithm in a very unethical way in an attempt to better understand 'how things work'?

--> Look, no1 is holding these companies accountable, so why should I care what I manipulate, other than category 'for Good'?

So what do we harvest? How do we make our algorithms learn? The only way currently feasible - by spying on people [surveillance capitalism], and taking note of some pre-specified metrics likely laid out by some handsomely paid scientists, 'best in show' - 'this is important, pay attention algorithm.' 

Again, I am greatly simplifying, but think back to your high school experience - how was it? Was it the 'time of your life? Yea...? No...? Yea, these are the same people that 'the AI' is learning on, and will mimic behaviours of. I am a bit of AI sceptic I guess, maybe it's that we are expecting too much. 

Yea, it's a 'Giant AI Highschool out there,' and for fuck sakes we are doomed if this will continue. LOL.***

Here is the 'biological portion' of the equation, look -

This is at the highest level, meaning it will overcome ethnic and cultural barriers. As much as we are led to believe that our behaviours and desires are unique, that is not the case at all, and at the highest level we are all the same. This is why we were successful to begin with, and this is why we will be successful again - with the coming challenges of Climate. 

*'Be prepared' is an old Scouting Motto - World Scouting movement is the world's largest youth organization. Very influential, read about it here - my own experience. 

**Virtually all my Twitter timeline stands - I don't take down any tweets and 'try to predict the future'; it's like a little game I play, essentially with 'the world keeping me accountable'; IKEA Canada follows me on Twitter. I have only deleted a handful of tweets and virtually only for embarrassing spelling mistakes. So if you ever read my Twitter feed and you find a spelling mistake, then know that it is fully intentional and it has a purpose. Screenshot of some of my more interesting followers: IKEA Canada; Semihandmade which is an American company that makes really nice doors for the SEKTION box, I personally know the owner John, awesome guy; and IKEA Twitter Hater account - lots of things have been going wrong with the 'Original Swedish Socialism'...

**Sorry I had to put that in. Humour helps me deal with personally difficult subjects.

The SCHOOL is the future.

 Chapter 1 The School is the FUTURE

Some people will never be able to find employment, because we are experiencing an economic contraction on 'evolutionary level of capitalism'. Capitalism is remaking itself as you are consuming this content.

picture shows a book laying on a desktop titled Capitalist Realism by Mark Fisher;

On the other hand if your skill is in demand, then you will remain in demand and be able to command good wages, as supplying the wealthy with objects they are told they desire  is a never ending process - it's called marketing. 

picture shows a large very high-end 'whiter white oak' side panel in a professional finishing booth; it has an arrow drawn on it pointing to the solid wood edging at the bottom - this solid piece prevents water penetration and prevents the panel from swelling up and disintegrating prematurely.

We are running out of babies and they are becoming a precious commodity - both their labour and attention.  Labour and Attention -  two most precious commodities individuals have and investors are noticing. 

picture shows a young man's new apartment with pieces of furniture being assembled, strewn all over the freshly done Luxury Vinyl Plank, covered with an area rug, floor.

Everywhere I go, I improve things and then leave and they miss me. It feels really rewarding after all these years of diligent labour. My resume below,

~ciao

Death, Taxes and BODBYN - Exit Review

 

picture shows a discontinued green BODBYN doors, along side a gray LIDI drawer front [also gone]

• IKEA discontinues their most powerful SEKTION door.
• It is becoming hard to predict which SEKTION door will get cancelled next; the 2022 Kitchen Catalogue is already incorrect and makes things hard to plan
• Swedish Socialism is the only Design Philosophy that overcomes the unpredictability of planning a SEKTION event;

Where will you buy your furniture - Swedish Socialism 2 OR IKEA discontinues White Oak BILLY bookcase

[prelude]

[picture shows a screen capture from IKEA's official website, informing us of the planned changes to the fabrication methods]

Chapter 1 - IKEA discontinues White Oak BILLY bookcase.

As inflation starts biting more and more it will become more important to understand if you are getting good value for your hard earned money.

It will be necessarry to skip the glossy advertising and reach to the source - r/SwedishSocialism [get the Reddit app!] - for reputable, consistent and relevant information on meta-IKEA products, their improvements and essentially 'things that make sense for life'.

Money can be made on 'chachkas, dudas and flim-flam' OR it can be made on products manufactured with longevity and comfort in mind. 'Yes! IKEA makes that kind of furniture - white oak BILLY bookcase was that kind of piece of furniture.

Part of Caring for Environement means reducing your footprint on the planet and r/SwedishSocialism solves that. You get dependable, community centred and shared information and ideas, that ARE helping - first and foremost ~you~; remember, you have to be successful first before you can help others to be successful.

Furniture destined for the Western Market is rarely made in the Western Market, that's not simply how our economy works. I personally experienced the birth of globalization - I'm stuck in the 90's; that's 'my decade' - and it was always sold to me as delivering democracy via economic means. Various metrics point to the success of that era - untold numbers of individuals were 'lifted out of poverty'. 

If you were a giant behemoth - like IKEA; it's mainly the purchasing power - but also you were forward thinking because you lacked the traditional 'institutional inertia' of other companies, meant that you could experiment with new ways of reducing your labour requirements to produce what I consider 'a very useful and practical human designs.' 

IKEA created a new vision for furniture. When a table design that included 'an elegant end-vise' won an award from IKEA for 'forward thinking functionality' - not yet defined! - it gives you a glimpse, a preview of what humanity is about. 

Humanity is about creativity and improvement. I'm on REDDIT - it's considered 'social media' but I don't view it quite like that - and read a common observation that 'carpenter's job does not scale up' like, for example, tech worker's jobs scale up. This is the reason cited for a lower pay range of 'carpenters vs. tech workers'. That gave me quite a pause, and I thought about that statement extensively. I replied too. 

The value of tech-worker and carpenter is identical and if properly grown and 'harvested for ideas' both are excellent life style choices. Greatest value in trade work, in my opinion, lies in the fact that a 'trade's person' has a skillset that allows them to easily manipulate their surroundings. When you pair that up with human-centred design on the most granular level - individual; iDesign - you solve the greatest challenge posed to Interior Design in Human History - yours. 

See?! 

See?!

Solving for that solution and finding it successfully has immeasurable positive outcomes. You start living - I am serious. Simple, small elevations that move 'away from the standard' and into your own 'personal comfort zone' [I call that luxury] is all that is required for an 'elevated life'.  

Chapter 2 - The Cheapening and its victims

I learned of the plan to discontinue the white oak Billy bookcase on the subreddit r/IKEA.

[edit: Reddit is very fussy about linking; if you right click and copy the link it will let you open a new window; good read, I promise]

It was actually posted by Jules from Ikea Hackers with the tone and the message of 're-birth of BILLY'. I carefully read the press release and dug deeper into the links to better understand what is happening and why it is happening. 

So what is exactly happening? 

IKEA is getting rid of a specific step in case goods production of BILLY - the edgeing step. 'Edgeing' is a general woodworking practice of applyig a protective layer on the most vulnerable of parts of any box - the edges. The cover for the edges typically matches the finish of the surface - so white panel ends up edged with white edging; white oak surface is covered with thin layer of white oak solid or wooden veneer tape. 

I consider edging to be the most important part of any case goods - its strength - because it protects the part that is most exposed to damage thru daily living. 

source: private personal interior designer to 4 babies + dog; 19+ years and counting

I am not the only one that thinks this. Look - 

[picture shows a large white oak panel in a professional finishing booth, glossy from being freshly sprayed with latest super matte acrylic finish, with an arrow pointing to the solid wood edging at the bottom of the panel]

My hobby bossman [we build for the 1%] always edges all his panels this way - adds cost, but renders the panel esssentially timeless. And to be honest, I like the term 'timeless', because I believe that we sincerely lack that quality in our life and we dearly desire it as it gives meaning to our existence by extending it; extending it either for us personally or for others.

Or I could say that I am simply appealing to the most powerful of human emotions - greed. Our relationship to our money is very intimate and personal. It represents our past and our success and we want to exhange it in best possible way - by obtaining a quality proportionate to our past efforts [this is only true, however, for the largest of IKEA's consumers; there exist other classes and other motivators].

Edgeing is quality and IKEA is getting rid of it. 

Chapter 3 - Emotions are fluffy tho..

They are and they are not - but here is something that caught my attention. This is from IKEA's official literature.

This section in particular caught my eye, look -->

'Lifespan and emotional connection are no longer design principles, rather will be defined during the circular business opportunity and circular loops work.' - I gasped. I gasped because IKEA artificially stripped themselves of the two most powerful qualitites of their products that were effortless to them - it cost them absolutely nothing, if we were to define in it terms of Rules of Capitalism.

Longevity and Emotional Attachment are one of the most important considerations under Swedish Socialism because they represent tremendous value and opportunity that is uncaptured by anyone else - this is where the Psychology of Design comes in. 

Chapter 4 - Sift the Drivel from Value

White Oak BILLY bookcase was my choice of case goods for my current and future library - proven durability furnished with items on display that bring meaning to my life aka. Emotional Attachment. I was so upset that I even posted Reddit IKEA community. You can read there my 'immediate designer outrage' - I'm over it now. When time will come to build the future library I will simply custom build it out of white oak sheet veneer goods - basically the same way that white oak  BILLY was designed and build. 

Where will you buy your furniture now, eh?