Institutions & the Soviet Legacy
What Soviet institutions teach us about designing systems that work.
The Soviet Century
Comprehensive overview of Soviet system and its legacy
Read →Magnetic Mountain
Case study of Soviet industrial city and its systems
Read →Mathematical Education in the Soviet Union
Detailed look at Soviet math education approach
Read →How We Think
Educational philosophy and learning theory
Read →Designing Data-Intensive Applications
Systems thinking in modern technology
Read →Fooled by Randomness
Risk, skepticism, and downside focus
Read →Seeing Like a State
How institutions see and shape reality
Read →Good Strategy Bad Strategy
What makes institutions effective
Read →Soviet Specialized Schools (Fizmat Schools)
Specialized mathematics and physics schools that produced exceptional STEM talent
Read →Mass Literacy Campaigns (1920s-1930s)
Rapid expansion of education to achieve near-universal literacy
Read →Second-Generation Translation
How second-generation immigrants translated inherited competence into leadership
Read →Soviet-Trained Engineers in Modern Tech
Many Soviet-trained engineers excel in backend and infrastructure roles
Read →Risk Management and Downside Obsession
Soviet-trained individuals often excel in quantitative finance and risk management
Read →School Choice and Competence Density
Families optimizing for rigor and peer competence, not branding
Read →Institutions That Activate vs. Obscure Competence
Analyze whether institutions reward mastery or performance
Read →Institutional Design Principles
Principles for designing institutions that activate competence
Read →Detecting Institutional Misalignment
Signs that institutions reward signaling over competence
Read →