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Power and Precision: Newton, Shen Kuo, and Eric Schmidt as Masters of Truth and Influence. What content creators and thinkers can learn from how to position oneself in a network.
In the modern West, especially in tech and science circles, the word “politics” often carries a sneer. It’s seen as a distraction from real work, a swamp of compromise, manipulation, and careerism. Engineers speak proudly of being “apolitical.” Scientists often claim neutrality, as if objectivity requires moral detachment. But this is a false purity. Politics isn’t the opposite of truth – it’s the process by which truth becomes collective, institutionalized, and actionable. Politics, at its core, is the art of balancing competing interests to create stability, alignment, and legitimacy. It’s how a society negotiates scarcity, values, and risk. To avoid politics is not to remain pure – it is to cede power to those willing to wield it. Newton understood this. So did Shen Kuo. So does Eric Schmidt. The more ambitious the vision – whether it’s unifying physical laws, managing climate systems, or governing artificial intelligence – the more essential politics becomes.
Part of the reason “politics” has become a dirty word is that we confuse it with bad politics: factionalism, hypocrisy, scandal, and inertia. But that’s like blaming “science” because some scientists publish fraudulent studies, or blaming “technology” because some apps addict children. The presence of failure doesn’t discredit the category – it reveals the…