Zero-sum game
Feb 10, 2026
Everything in the world already belongs to someone. Land, resources, markets: it’s all divided up. That’s how it was a thousand years ago, and that’s how it is now.
But back then that meant one thing: if you want more, take it from your neighbor.
The Romans built an empire not because they were evil. There was simply no other way to grow. No technology, no productivity growth, so wealth could only be redistributed. By the sword.
Historians call this the Malthusian trap. Population grows, resources are finite, periodically a war or an epidemic happens, population falls, the cycle starts over. Thousands of years of the same thing.
And then something changed.
In 18th-century England people started building machines. Looms, steam engines, railways. For the first time, labor productivity began to grow faster than population.
That was the moment a different path appeared: not dividing what exists, but creating something new.
Your great-grandfather and his great-grandfather lived roughly the same way. And you live radically differently. Not because you’re smarter, but because there are several technological revolutions between you. Each one added new pieces to the shared pie.
We’re used to thinking of the world as an arena of competition. My win is your loss. But that’s not a law of nature. It’s a consequence of stagnation. When nothing new appears, all that’s left is to divide the old.
The problem is that our brain evolved precisely in that kind of world. Tribe vs tribe. Us vs them. Resources are finite, the stranger is dangerous. Those instincts haven’t gone anywhere.
Look at the rhetoric of recent years. Trade wars. Protectionism. Sanctions. “They’re stealing our jobs.” That’s the language of scarcity. The language of dividing up. When growth slows, we automatically fall back on old patterns.
But it’s a temporary lapse.
AI, fusion, space, biotech: the next wave of technology is already here. Every breakthrough creates new pieces of the pie. Every jump in productivity makes conflicts less attractive: it’s easier to create than to take.
Humanity always returns to growth. Sometimes through crises, sometimes through wars, but it returns. The alternative, endless dividing up, is too exhausting.
Originally posted in Russian on my telegram. This is a translation.