There is a misconception that "divine right" of kings was a long standing tradition. It's a product of state centralization in 16-17th century Europe.

The hereditary rule of kings had to be justified somehow so a legal fiction of divine right was established. As to how many people actually believed in it we can't really know, however there was pushback almost immediately, for example Republicans in English Civil War, Dutch Republic, various Italian and German states... Meaning to say It wasn't a universal concept even during the peak of its popularity.

Earlier Medieval states often operated as elective monarchies, especially those of Germanic origins. Holy Roman Empire held on to the elective monarchy from 962 to 1804. In contrast France, despite common origins, slowly moved to the "divine right" concept, and pretty much pioneered early modern absolute monarchy.

There is much more to be said for states in the rest of the world. Although monarchies, Japan and China had completely different justifications as to why the king is a legitimate king (and fall very much in the divine right category). Then were are various Native American nations with government systems which seem unusual from today's perspective.

All this is to say that while some type of monarchy was the most common system before the Industrial Revolution, it wasn't universally accepted. And even when it was it wasn't necessarily of the divine right kind.

Maybe we just met a second speaker of the infamous bird/dolphin language

Just reminded me of an argument trying to explain that arithmetic with floating point numbers is not always correct to a coworker who was a mathematician just starting in software dev.

In a mathematicians mind the fact that an arithmetic operation can produce inaccurate result is just incomprehensible

Cold calling. And other proactive forms of sales when they seek you out and actively keep trying to convince you that you need their product.

Bonus points if the sales person is unable to actually explain the product and keeps talking about "we don't sell products we sell solutions"

Ok, now you have to explain for those of us who are not birdologists

Is water cooling for PC gaming still a thing? It's been 10+ years since I followed any trends.

Please consider adding one more tier between 1€ and 5€: maybe 2 or 3.

1€ just seems too low and while 5 (well 6.05 with tax) is not too much on it's own, it all adds up with other Patreons for those of us trying to keep the monthly bill down

You know what happens when an entire nation is exposed to luxurious lifestyles of an extremely wealthy minority?

Revolution. Revolution happens.

Chinese politicians know this fact too well, that's why they're trying to make rich people hide their wealth.
I mean actually fixing the problem is out of the question, that would be communism.

The biggest issue would be microchips which require some really precise machinery to manufacture.

1930s - complete reverse engineering
By then they had both an understanding of semiconductors and computational theory. Using semi-conductive materials to compute wasn't yet a thing, but there wouldn't be much surprise at the concept. Some kind of reproduction is likely, probably not a 5nm manufacturing process like modern chip factories, but they could make it.

1890s - eventual understanding, but not able to manufacture
Measuring devices were sensitive enough by then to measure tiny electrical fluctuations. They would be able to tell the device functions due to processing of electrical signals, even capture those signals. Biggest missing piece is mathematical theory - they wouldn't immediately understand how those electrical signals produce images and results. Reproduction - no. Maybe the would get an idea what's needed - refining silicon and introducing other stuff into it, but no way they could do it with equipment of the day.

1830s - electricity goes into a tiny box and does calculations, wow!
This is the age of the first great electrical discoveries. They would be in awe what is possible, and understand on a high level how it's supposed to work. Absolutely no way to make it themselves.

1730s - magic, burn the witch!

Makes sense to reflect on life and understand one has made mistakes. We shouldn't judge people based on prejudice, if he says it was painful for him - it was.

But then the typical billionaire narcissism triggers. Please pity me but only me. I don't see him saying we need to fix the system so no one else suffers the same.

8 hours of nominal work does equal about 3-4 hours of actual focused work. This is completely normal don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

Humans need to eat, go to toilet, socialize with their coworkers, relax the brain, move if constantly in the same position.

Btw, meetings are work. If you spend a lot of time in meetings that does count as actual work.