Samo Burja
Sociologist and founder of Bismarck Analysis; writes on live players, institutional decay and why societies lose knowledge.
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What they believe
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Civilisational collapse can be fast: the Late Bronze Age shows a society coming apart over years rather than centuries.
Though we usually think of collapse as a slow process, it can in fact happen very quickly, as was the case with the Late Bronze Age collapse.
samoburja.comSaid 19 Aug 2020This on korrents
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Institutions die at succession, and it is two problems rather than one: handing over power, and handing over the skill to steer.
The succession problem has two components: power succession (handing off the reins of the institution, keeping it piloted) and skill succession (transferring the skill needed to pilot the institution well, keeping it a live player).
samoburja.comSaid 3 Aug 2018This on korrents
The bold line is korrents’ wording; the quote is theirs. These 2: what they wrote before what they said aloud, one per source, newest first.
Beliefs
Korrents What they believe 12 beliefs — each backed by an exact quote.
Each is a — compiled by korrents.com, not by them: the one-line wordings are korrents', the quotes are theirs.
Recent
Civilisational collapse can be fast: the Late Bronze Age shows a society coming apart over years rather than centuries.
Though we usually think of collapse as a slow process, it can in fact happen very quickly, as was the case with the Late Bronze Age collapse.
Why Civilizations Collapse Said 19 Aug 2020
Societies rarely recognise their own collapse while it is happening: Roman and Mayan thinkers left almost no reflection on theirs.
Despite being an excellent epistemic opportunity, civilizational collapse seldom inspires introspection among thinkers living through it. Mayan or Roman thinkers don’t seem to have reflected on their ongoing collapse.
Why Civilizations Collapse Said 19 Aug 2020
In a dysfunctional society the loss of working knowledge becomes routine, and attempts to reverse-engineer what was lost do not always succeed.
That knowledge never should have been lost in the first place, but in a dysfunctional society, such loss of knowledge becomes the rule.
Why Civilizations Collapse Said 19 Aug 2020
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We behave as though we already live in a scientifically planned society that cannot collapse on any timescale worth worrying about.
We act as if we are already living in a scientifically-planned society, immune to collapse on a time scale that any of us have to worry about.
Why Civilizations Collapse Said 19 Aug 2020
Institutions die at succession, and it is two problems rather than one: handing over power, and handing over the skill to steer.
The succession problem has two components: power succession (handing off the reins of the institution, keeping it piloted) and skill succession (transferring the skill needed to pilot the institution well, keeping it a live player).
The Succession Problem Said 3 Aug 2018
Silicon Valley celebrates disruption because it has given up on institutions ever solving their succession problem.
Silicon Valley enthuses over “disruption” because we have become so used to the succession problem remaining unsolved within discrete institutions such as companies.
The Succession Problem Said 3 Aug 2018
When a functioning organisation dies, capital that cannot be sold or transferred dies with it.
Functioning firms are repositories of many kinds of capital that cannot be liquidated, and when they die, it is destroyed.
The Succession Problem Said 3 Aug 2018
A functioning institution is a rare exception and never grows by itself: it was assembled by a founder with good judgement.
And just as a tornado cannot assemble a Boeing 747 by passing through a junkyard, functional institutions are not spontaneously generated. The machinery, if it functions, was assembled by someone with good judgment: the institution’s founder.
Functional Institutions are the Exception Said 9 Jul 2018
Repairing a dysfunctional institution is harder than building a functional one from scratch, because its internal forces resist change and the dysfunction is hard to diagnose in the first place.
It is much more difficult to make a dysfunctional institution functional than to create a functional institution from scratch; institutions will nearly always have internal forces that resist change, and diagnosing institutional dysfunction in the first place is challenging.
Functional Institutions are the Exception Said 9 Jul 2018
Institutional decay is the normal case: keeping an existing capability alive is difficult and growing a new one is rare.
Decay is in fact the rule: the maintenance of old institutional abilities is difficult, and the growth of new ones is rare.
Institutional Failure as Surprise Said 24 Apr 2018
You cannot tell a failing institution from a healthy one by looking: the parts visible from outside are the parts that least reflect its actual health.
Discerning whether an institution is near failure is a difficult epistemic problem. There are many outwardly visible pieces of institutions that do not reflect their actual health.
Institutional Failure as Surprise Said 24 Apr 2018
The easiest way for an institution to protect its reputation is to stop attempting anything that could visibly fail.
An easy way to avoid spoiling a reputation is by never failing, and an easy way to never visibly fail is to never undertake a task.
Institutional Failure as Surprise Said 24 Apr 2018
What is a korrent?
A korrent is a belief a person has stated in their own words: one sentence stating the claim, backed by a quote and a source, kept at korrents.com.
Under a name here, the quoted block is what they actually said. The korrent beneath it is the claim those words support, in korrents' wording — tap it to see the record, its source, and who else holds it.
Nobody here wrote their own korrents. They are compiled from public statements, and a person can change their mind, which is recorded too.
Recommends rcmnd
rcmnd What they recommend 8 things — each backed by an exact quote.
Compiled by rcmnd.app, not by them: the quotes are theirs, and each links to the post it was copied from.
Recent
Recommends Persecution and the Art of Writing
Leo Strauss’ work helps you learn improved text interpretation procedures by teaching you to read between the lines, representing a good upgrade on what you learned from Adler.
samoburja.com 14 May 2019
Recommends The Evolution of Civilizations
This book provides a good macro theory of civilization. Much of the pre-historical speculation can be skipped, but the overviews of historical civilizations provide an example of first-rate institutional analysis.
samoburja.com 14 May 2019
Recommends Great Founder Theory
A work in progress, but a decent introduction. This explains my current sociological paradigm.
samoburja.com 14 May 2019
their own
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Recommends On War
This book shows how an essentially philosophical approach can be brought far enough to be practically useful.
samoburja.com 14 May 2019
Recommends Politics
This marriage of empirical data and philosophy proves hard to beat.
samoburja.com 14 May 2019
Recommends History of the Peloponnesian War
The ultimate primary source. Thucydides fought as a general during the Peloponnesian war and was ultimately exiled from Athens due to political machination.
samoburja.com 14 May 2019
Recommends The Republic
A design for the creation of a new ideal society, the ultimate aim of sociological investigation. Plato’s work is a nice example of both the strengths and the limits of a theory-driven approach.
samoburja.com 14 May 2019
Recommends How to Read a Book
This book convinced me that while skimming was perhaps useful for mining information, it would never be a viable path to rigor. Adler advocates a disciplined and deep reading of challenging books.
samoburja.com 14 May 2019
Where they publish
Site samoburja.com His essays and talks. Has a feed.
Link verified 20 Sept 2026.
x.com @SamoBurja Their X account.
Recent
- Assuming ideological and political change the United Kingdom would be the world's most promising emerging market. 2 Nov 2026
- So what stage of decay of Western civilization are we? Should major powers start preemptively dismantling their nuclear weapons like South Africa did? 30 Oct 2026
- It made Edison’s first light bulbs, invented optical fiber and iPhone glass, and now mass-produces parts for AI chips and data centers. Corning shows how U.S. firms can advance science and buck deindustrialization to beat China. Read the new @bismarckanlys Brief (link below): 28 Oct 2026
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- I grew up watching the prequels, they're always going to be my favorite version of SW. 27 Oct 2026
- A good point. This is why to have a political mind, that is a mind capable of politics, you have to build out this ability intentionally. This is ultimately what also allows highly effective live players in politics. 24 Oct 2026
- Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang created the chips that enabled today's AI technology. He is neither an AI doomer, singularitarian, or China hawk. This live player's next goal is a transformation of the economy with robotics. Read the new @bismarckanlys Brief (link below): 21 Oct 2026
- The AI revolution is also a fossil fuel revolution. Demand for oil and gas will only increase. 21 Oct 2026
- As we scale AIs swarms, we will be greatly surprised to learn which social phenomena are specific human behaviors, and which are not. At least as much social science insight to be gained here as we gained from researching animal sociality. 20 Oct 2026
- An autistocracy, if you can keep it. 20 Oct 2026
- One day left! Get your tickets! 17 Oct 2026
Link verified 23 Sept 2026. Recent items update automatically from the channel.
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