Vitalik replied, "Replying to things you once strongly believed in but changed your mind about when you learned more": Mathematics was once a major part of my identity. I actively participated in math competitions in high school, and shortly after entering the cryptocurrency space, I began writing a lot of code. I spent a considerable amount of time during the first five years of my cryptocurrency career trying to invent mathematically provable optimal governance mechanisms. Ultimately, I found that what I was looking for was impossible; the most important variable is the distinction between the success or failure of existing flawed systems in practice, which often depends on the level of coordination among participant subgroups, but also includes other things we often black box as 'culture.'