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Why do nations fail? I skimmed through this book. It states well that the arrival of "creative destruction," the emergence of "critical periods," and the influence of some "random factors" can lead "inclusive political and economic systems" toward a "virtuous cycle." However, the book does not suggest that any method is immediately effective. When discussing how to "empower," it mentions that "the most honest answer is that there is no secret formula." Because history is full of contingencies. As Yi Zhongtian mentioned in his history of China, "In fact, due to the opening of the Silk Road, the Han and Tang dynasties were already advancing toward a second path, establishing a civilization that was also global. Therefore, the disconnection with the Western Regions after the An Lushan Rebellion is indeed unfortunate. Fortunately, when the East is not bright, the West is; the Maritime Silk Road offers us new possibilities. If we could become a maritime empire, still multicultural, what would that future look like?" This platform would like to propose countermeasures, but individuals and groups are fundamentally not on the same level. We can only do our part and leave the rest to fate. "Fate" is elusive and unchangeable, so I do not concern myself with it. What I care about is "human affairs." Therefore, in the face of the rise and fall of groups, the first step is what can we do? This platform consistently adheres to objectivism; individual power is about how to empower and how to possess power. If we say that the power defined by laws, morals, and various norms is "nominal," then individual power is a more "substantial" concept. It does not care about so-called "freedom rights" in human rights, nor about "legal rights" under democratic systems, and it is even indifferent to "state violence" under dictatorship... What it cares about is merely the changes and comparisons of actual forces in all things. — Individual power In "Why Nations Fail," three key factors for empowerment are mentioned: a certain degree of centralization; a small amount of political pluralism; civil society institutions; and media. None of these are personal countermeasures. The only thing we can do is to make our voices heard to a certain extent in the age of social media. In fact, enhancing individual strength is natural yet can happen in an instant. In reality, enhancing individual power is not a difficult task. Strengthening the body is the most primitive method of enhancement; being knowledgeable can allow us to leverage external forces to achieve great distances; forming groups can enable us to gain powers beyond individual reach. As for life as power, it is merely a backdoor that allows us to realize that anything is possible, though we may not be that life. For example, individuals develop from embryos, to differentiated fetuses, to soon-to-be-born fetuses, to crawling infants, to speaking infants, to school-going children, to mating adolescents, to fully mature adults, and finally to aging seniors... Individual power varies at each stage. Growth is inherently a method of enhancing individual power. Individual power means that every action and every thought we have changes this world, even if such changes may seem insignificant to others. But individual power is so captivating; as long as you are changing, individual power is also changing. But remember, personal initiative is limited; what we can do is what we are currently doing. The rest is left to the heavens.