Denmark has been reaping lots of delayed accolades from its relatively strict immigration policy lately. The Swedes and the Germans in particular are now eager to take inspiration from The Danish Model, given their predicaments. The very same countries that until recently condemned the lack of open-arms/open-border policies they would champion as Moral Superpowers.  But even in Denmark, thirty years after the public opposition to mass immigration started getting real political representation, the consequences of culturally-incompatible descendants from MENAPT continue to stress the high-trust societal model. Here are just three major cases that's been covered in the Danish media in 2025 alone: Danish public schools are increasingly struggling with violence and threats against students and teachers, primarily from descendants of MENAPT immigrants. In schools with 30% or more immigrants, violence is twice as prevalent. This is causing a flight to private schools from parents who can afford it (including some Syrians!). Some teachers are quitting the profession as a result, saying "the Quran run the class room". Danish women are increasingly feeling unsafe in the nightlife. The mayor of the country's third largest city, Odense, says he knows why: "It's groups of young men with an immigrant background that's causing it. We might as well be honest about that." But unfortunately, the only suggestion he had to deal with the problem was that "when [the women] meet these groups... they should take a big detour around them". A soccer club from the infamous ghetto area of Vollsmose got national attention because every other team in their league refused to play them. Due to the team's long history of violent assaults and death threats against opposing teams and referees. Bizarrely leading to the situation were the team got to the top of its division because they'd "win" every forfeited match. Problems of this sort have existed in Denmark for well over thirty years. So in a way, none of this should be surprising. But it actually is. Because it shows that long-term assimilation just isn't happening at a scale to tackle these problems. In fact, data shows the opposite: Descendants of MENAPT immigrants are more likely to be violent and troublesome than their parents. That's an explosive point because it blows up the thesis that time will solve these problems. Showing instead that it actually just makes it worse. And then what? This is particularly pertinent in the analysis of Sweden. After the "far right" party of the Swedish Democrats got into government, the new immigrant arrivals have plummeted. But unfortunately, the net share of immigrants is still increasing, in part because of family reunifications, and thus the problems continue. Meaning even if European countries "close the borders", they're still condemned to deal with the damning effects of maladjusted MENAPT immigrant descendants for decades to come. If the intervention stops there. There are no easy answers here. Obviously, if you're in a hole, you should stop digging. And Sweden has done just that. But just because you aren't compounding the problem doesn't mean you've found a way out. Denmark proves to be both a positive example of minimizing the digging while also a cautionary tale that the hole is still there.

When the iPhone first appeared in 2007, Microsoft was sitting pretty with their mobile strategy. They'd been early to the market with Windows CE, they were fast-following the iPod with their Zune. They also had the dominant operating system, the dominant office package, and control of the enterprise. The future on mobile must have looked so bright! But of course now, we know it wasn't. Steve Ballmer infamously dismissed the iPhone with a chuckle, as he believed all of Microsoft's past glory would guarantee them mobile victory. He wasn't worried at all. He clearly should have been! After reliving that Ballmer moment, it's uncanny to watch this CNBC interview from one year ago with Johny Srouji and John Ternus from Apple on their AI strategy. Ternus even repeats the chuckle!! Exuding the same delusional confidence that lost Ballmer's Microsoft any serious part in the mobile game.  But somehow, Apple's problems with AI seem even more dire. Because there's apparently no one steering the ship. Apple has been promising customers a bag of vaporware since last fall, and they're nowhere close to being able to deliver on the shiny concept demos. The ones that were going to make Apple Intelligence worthy of its name, and not just terrible image generation that is years behind the state of the art. Nobody at Apple seems able or courageous enough to face the music: Apple Intelligence sucks. Siri sucks. None of the vaporware is anywhere close to happening. Yet as late as last week, you have Cook promoting the new MacBook Air with "Apple Intelligence". Yikes. This is partly down to the org chart. John Giannandrea is Apple's VP of ML/AI, and he reports directly to Tim Cook. He's been in the seat since 2018. But Cook evidently does not have the product savvy to be able to tell bullshit from benefit, so he keeps giving Giannandrea more rope. Now the fella has hung Apple's reputation on vaporware, promised all iPhone 16 customers something magical that just won't happen, and even spec-bumped all their devices with more RAM for nothing but diminished margins. Ouch. This is what regression to the mean looks like. This is what fiefdom management looks like. This is what having a company run by a logistics guy looks like. Apple needs a leadership reboot, stat. That asterisk is a stain.

Bean counters have a bad rep for a reason. And it’s not because paying attention to the numbers is inherently unreasonable. It’s because weighing everything exclusively by its quantifiable properties is an impoverished way to view business (and the world!). Nobody presents this caricature better than the MBA types who think you can manage a business entirely in the abstract realm of "products," "markets," "resources," and "deliverables." To hell with that. The death of all that makes for a breakout product or service happens when the generic lingo of management theory takes over. This is why founder-led operations often keep an edge. Because when there’s someone at the top who actually gives a damn about cars, watches, bags, software, or whatever the hell the company makes, it shows up in a million value judgments that can’t be quantified neatly on a spreadsheet. Now, I love a beautiful spreadsheet that shows expanding margins, healthy profits, and customer growth as much as any business owner. But much of the time, those figures are derivatives of doing all the stuff that you can’t compute and that won’t quantify. But this isn’t just about running a better business by betting on unquantifiable elements that you can’t prove but still believe matter. It’s also about the fact that doing so is simply more fun! It’s more congruent. It’s vibe management. And no business owner should ever apologize for having fun, following their instincts, or trusting that the numbers will eventually show that doing the right thing, the beautiful thing, the poetic thing is going to pay off somehow. In this life or the next. Of course, you’ve got to get the basics right. Make more than you spend. Don’t get out over your skis. But once there’s a bit of margin, you owe it to yourself to lean on that cushion and lead the business primarily on the basis of good vibes and a long vision.

I developed seasonal allergies relatively late in life. From my late twenties onward, I spent many miserable days in the throes of sneezing, headache, and runny eyes. I tried everything the doctors recommended for relief. About a million different types of medicine, several bouts of allergy vaccinations, and endless testing. But never once did an allergy doctor ask the basic question: What kind of air are you breathing? Turns out that's everything when you're allergic to pollen, grass, and dust mites! The air. That's what's carrying all this particulate matter, so if your idea of proper ventilation is merely to open a window, you're inviting in your nasal assailants. No wonder my symptoms kept escalating. For me, the answer was simply to stop breathing air full of everything I'm allergic to while working, sleeping, and generally just being inside. And the way to do that was to clean the air of all those allergens with air purifiers running HEPA-grade filters. That's it. That was the answer! After learning this, I outfitted everywhere we live with these machines of purifying wonder: One in the home office, one in the living area, one in the bedroom. All monitored for efficiency using Awair air sensors. Aiming to have the PM2.5 measure read a fat zero whenever possible. In America, I've used the Alen BreatheSmart series. They're great. And in Europe, I've used the Philips ones. Also good. It's been over a decade like this now. It's exceptionally rare that I have one of those bad allergy days now. It can still happen, of course — if I spend an entire day outside, breathing in allergens in vast quantities. But as with almost everything, the dose makes the poison. The difference between breathing in some allergens, some of the time, is entirely different from breathing all of it, all of the time. I think about this often when I see a doctor for something. Here was this entire profession of allergy specialists, and I saw at least a handful of them while I was trying to find a medical solution. None of them even thought about dealing with the environment. The cause of the allergy. Their entire field of view was restricted to dealing with mitigation rather than prevention. Not every problem, medical or otherwise, has a simple solution. But many problems do, and you have to be careful not to be so smart that you can't see it.

Maybe one day AI will answer every customer question flawlessly, but we're nowhere near that reality right now. I can't tell you how often I've been stuck in some god-forsaken AI loop or phone tree WHEN ALL I WANT IS A HUMAN. So I end up either just yelling "operator", "operator", "operator" (the modern-day mayday!) or smashing zero over and over. It's a unworthy interaction for any premium service.   Don't get me wrong. I'm pretty excited about AI. I've seen it do some incredible things. And of course it's just going to keep getting better. But in our excitement about the technical promise, I think we're forgetting that humans need more than correct answers. Customer service at its best also offers understanding and reassurance. It offers a human connection. Especially as AI eats the low-end, commodity-style customer support. The sort that was always done poorly, by disinterested people, rapidly churning through a perceived dead-end job, inside companies that only ever saw support as a cost center. Yeah, nobody is going to cry a tear for losing that. But you know that isn't all there is to customer service. Hopefully you've had a chance to experience what it feels like when a cheerful, engaged human is interested in helping you figure out what's wrong or how to do something right. Because they know exactly what they're talking about. Because they've helped thousands of others through exactly the same situation. That stuff is gold. Partly because it feels bespoke. A customer service agent who's good at their job knows how to tailor the interaction not just to your problem, but to your temperament. Because they've seen all the shapes. They can spot an angry-but-actually-just-frustrated fit a thousand miles away. They can tell a timid-but-curious type too. And then deliver exactly what either needs in that moment. That's luxury. That's our thesis for Basecamp, anyway. That by treating customer service as a career, we'll end up with the kind of agents that embody this luxury, and our customers will feel the difference.