Francesco | Magofoco

Building systems. Chasing optionality.

Ἰθάκη

[Francesco | Magofoco @TheRealMagofoco]

I am European, and let me tell you something.
Many countries on the old continent are in serious trouble (less politely: f*cked).

Real wages have been stagnant for decades. In Italy and Greece, for example, people earn less in real terms than 20 years ago.

The median EU salary is around €30k gross, not aligned with the cost of living.
Taxation is extremely high, both on workers and on companies.
The tax on labour alone is close to 40-45%. If we include all the hidden taxes like VAT, fuel duties, telecom fees, administrative costs, the effective tax burden goes above 65%.

To pay a worker €30k gross , a company often spends €45–55k, and the worker still loses 30–35% to income tax and contributions.

Housing completes the trap (/crap).
People in their 30s earning €1.4-1.6k net are paying €800-1,000 in rent for a room, sharing a flat with 3 other people.
Starting a family without inherited property is becoming a luxury, usually postponed to 35+, which further kills birth rates.

Demographics make it worse.
In Italy, Greece, Portugal, Finland and more, we are heading toward one retiree for every two workers.
This is not a political opinion. It is math and it is not sustainable.

Despite all of this, I am proud to be European.
Europe invented, researched, built, explored.
It took two world wars to break us down.

What changed was not intelligence. It was agency and courage.
We built generous welfare systems but merged them with bureaucracy, fragmentation, and fear of scale, and fear of individuals standing out.
Different fiscal regimes, bloated administration, and slow capital markets are all hostile to fast iteration and risk.

You would expect more social safety to mean more entrepreneurship.
If failure is cushioned, people should dare more.
Instead, doing business at scale here is so hard that risk is punished.
Until we fix incentives and capital markets, Europe (and EU) will keep looking at the past with nostalgia and the future with doubt.

[Jawwwn @jawwwn_]

Peter Thiel: “We’ve probably tried to do too much investing in Europe. It’s always sort of a junket.”

“It’s a nice place to go on vacation as an investor.”

“It’s a very strange thing that so much of it— the US is somehow still the country where people do new things.”

Via @theallinpod

[Francesco | Magofoco @TheRealMagofoco]

@weswinder Le Chaton Fat doesn’t need cooling.

I gave it 100% GPU load and one bottle of Bordeaux.

Now the rig is at 2°C and the model is somehow getting smarter with every glass.

[Francesco | Magofoco @TheRealMagofoco]

Le Chaton Fat doesn’t need cooling.

I gave it 100% GPU load and one bottle of Bordeaux.

Now the rig is at 2°C and the model is somehow getting smarter with every glass.

[Francesco | Magofoco @TheRealMagofoco]

@kevinroose Yeah, I think they are talking about the runway

[Francesco | Magofoco @TheRealMagofoco]

@francescoweb3 Except for nuclear energy

[Francesco | Magofoco @TheRealMagofoco]

I am Italian 🇮🇹, and let me tell you something.
Many countries on the old continent are in serious trouble (less politely: f*cked).

Real wages have been stagnant for decades. In Italy and Greece, for example, people earn less in real terms than 20 years ago.

The median EU salary is around €30k gross, not aligned with the cost of living.
Taxation is extremely high, both on workers and on companies.
The tax on labour alone is close to 40-45%. If we include all the hidden taxes like VAT, fuel duties, telecom fees, administrative costs, the effective tax burden goes above 65%.

To pay a worker €30k gross , a company often spends €45–55k, and the worker still loses 30–35% to income tax and contributions.

Housing completes the trap (/crap).
People in their 30s earning €1.4-1.6k net are paying €800-1,000 in rent for a room, sharing a flat with 3 other people.
Starting a family without inherited property is becoming a luxury, usually postponed to 35+, which further kills birth rates.

Demographics make it worse.
In Italy, Greece, Portugal, Finland and more, we are heading toward one retiree for every two workers.
This is not a political opinion. It is math and it is not sustainable.

Despite all of this, I am proud to be European.
Europe invented, researched, built, explored.
It took two world wars to break us down.

What changed was not intelligence. It was agency and courage.
We built generous welfare systems but merged them with bureaucracy, fragmentation, and fear of scale, and fear of individuals standing out.
Different fiscal regimes, bloated administration, and slow capital markets are all hostile to fast iteration and risk.

You would expect more social safety to mean more entrepreneurship.
If failure is cushioned, people should dare more.
Instead, doing business at scale here is so hard that risk is punished.
Until we fix incentives and capital markets, Europe (and EU) will keep looking at the past with nostalgia and the future with doubt.

[Francesco | Magofoco @TheRealMagofoco]

I am Italian 🇮🇹, and let me tell you something.
Many countries on the old continent are in serious trouble (less politely: f*cked).

Real wages have been stagnant for decades. In Italy and Greece, for example, people earn less in real terms than 20 years ago.

The median EU salary is around €30k gross, not aligned with the cost of living.
Taxation is extremely high, both on workers and on companies.
The tax on labour alone is close to 40-45%. If we include all the hidden taxes like VAT, fuel duties, telecom fees, administrative costs, the effective tax burden goes above 65%.

To pay a worker €30k gross , a company often spends €45–55k, and the worker still loses 30–35% to income tax and contributions.

Housing completes the trap (/crap).
People in their 30s earning €1.4-1.6k net are paying €800-1,000 in rent for a room, sharing a flat with 3 other people.
Starting a family without inherited property is becoming a luxury, usually postponed to 35+, which further kills birth rates.

Demographics make it worse.
In Italy, Greece, Portugal, Finland and more, we are heading toward one retiree for every two workers.
This is not a political opinion. It is math and it is not sustainable.

Despite all of this, I am proud to be European.
Europe invented, researched, built, explored.
It took two world wars to break us down.

What changed was not intelligence. It was agency and courage.
We built generous welfare systems but merged them with bureaucracy, fragmentation, and fear of scale, and fear of individuals standing out.
Different fiscal regimes, bloated administration, and slow capital markets are all hostile to fast iteration and risk.

You would expect more social safety to mean more entrepreneurship.
If failure is cushioned, people should dare more.
Instead, doing business at scale here is so hard that risk is punished.
Until we fix incentives and capital markets, Europe (and EU) will keep looking at the past with nostalgia and the future with doubt.

[Francesco | Magofoco @TheRealMagofoco]

I am European 🇪🇺, and let me tell you something.
Many countries on the old continent are in serious trouble (less politely: f*cked).

Real wages have been stagnant for decades. In Italy and Greece, for example, people earn less in real terms than 20 years ago.

The median EU salary is around €30k gross, not aligned with the cost of living.
Taxation is extremely high, both on workers and on companies.
The tax on labour alone is close to 40-45%. If we include all the hidden taxes like VAT, fuel duties, telecom fees, administrative costs, the effective tax burden goes above 65%.

To pay a worker €30k gross , a company often spends €45–55k, and the worker still loses 30–35% to income tax and contributions.

Housing completes the trap (/crap).
People in their 30s earning €1.4-1.6k net are paying €800-1,000 in rent for a room, sharing a flat with 3 other people.
Starting a family without inherited property is becoming a luxury, usually postponed to 35+, which further kills birth rates.

Demographics make it worse.
In Italy, Greece, Portugal, Finland and more, we are heading toward one retiree for every two workers.
This is not a political opinion. It is math and it is not sustainable.

Despite all of this, I am proud to be European.
Europe invented, researched, built, explored.
It took two world wars to break us down.

What changed was not intelligence. It was agency and courage.
We built generous welfare systems but merged them with bureaucracy, fragmentation, and fear of scale, and fear of individuals standing out.
Different fiscal regimes, bloated administration, and slow capital markets are all hostile to fast iteration and risk.

You would expect more social safety to mean more entrepreneurship.
If failure is cushioned, people should dare more.
Instead, doing business at scale here is so hard that risk is punished.
Until we fix incentives and capital markets, Europe (and EU) will keep looking at the past with nostalgia and the future with doubt.

[Francesco | Magofoco @TheRealMagofoco]

I am Italian 🇮🇹, and let me tell you something.
Many countries on the old continent are in serious trouble (less politely: f*cked).

Real wages have been stagnant for decades. In Italy and Greece, for example, people earn less in real terms than 20 years ago.

The median EU salary is around €30k gross, not aligned with the cost of living.
Taxation is extremely high, both on workers and on companies.
The tax on labour alone is close to 40-45%. If we include all the hidden taxes like VAT, fuel duties, telecom fees, administrative costs, the effective tax burden goes above 65%.

To pay a worker €30k gross , a company often spends €45–55k, and the worker still loses 30–35% to income tax and contributions.

Housing completes the trap (/crap).
People in their 30s earning €1.4-1.6k net are paying €800-1,000 in rent for a room, sharing a flat with 3 other people.
Starting a family without inherited property is becoming a luxury, usually postponed to 35+, which further kills birth rates.

Demographics make it worse.
In Italy, Greece, Portugal, Finland and more, we are heading toward one retiree for every two workers.
This is not a political opinion. It is math and it is not sustainable.

Despite all of this, I am proud to be European.
Europe invented, researched, built, explored.
It took two world wars to break us down.

What changed was not intelligence. It was agency and courage.
We built generous welfare systems but merged them with bureaucracy, fragmentation, and fear of scale, and fear of individuals standing out.
Different fiscal regimes, bloated administration, and slow capital markets are all hostile to fast iteration and risk.

You would expect more social safety to mean more entrepreneurship.
If failure is cushioned, people should dare more.
Instead, doing business at scale here is so hard that risk is punished.
Until we fix incentives and capital markets, Europe (and EU) will keep looking at the past with nostalgia and the future with doubt.

[Francesco | Magofoco @TheRealMagofoco]

I am from Europe 🇪🇺, and let me tell you something.
Many countries on the old continent are in serious trouble (less politely: f*cked).

Real wages have been stagnant for decades. In Italy and Greece, for example, people earn less in real terms than 20 years ago.

The median EU salary is around €30k gross, not aligned with the cost of living.
Taxation is extremely high, both on workers and on companies.
The tax on labour alone is close to 40-45%. If we include all the hidden taxes like VAT, fuel duties, telecom fees, administrative costs, the effective tax burden goes above 65%.

To pay a worker €30k gross , a company often spends €45–55k, and the worker still loses 30–35% to income tax and contributions.

Housing completes the trap (/crap).
People in their 30s earning €1.4-1.6k net are paying €800-1,000 in rent for a room, sharing a flat with 3 other people.
Starting a family without inherited property is becoming a luxury, usually postponed to 35+, which further kills birth rates.

Demographics make it worse.
In Italy, Greece, Portugal, Finland and more, we are heading toward one retiree for every two workers.
This is not a political opinion. It is math and it is not sustainable.

Despite all of this, I am proud to be European.
Europe invented, researched, built, explored.
It took two world wars to break us down.

What changed was not intelligence. It was agency and courage.
We built generous welfare systems but merged them with bureaucracy, fragmentation, and fear of scale, and fear of individuals standing out.
Different fiscal regimes, bloated administration, and slow capital markets are all hostile to fast iteration and risk.

You would expect more social safety to mean more entrepreneurship.
If failure is cushioned, people should dare more.
Instead, doing business at scale here is so hard that risk is punished.
Until we fix incentives and capital markets, Europe (and EU) will keep looking at the past with nostalgia and the future with doubt.

[Francesco | Magofoco @TheRealMagofoco]

I am Italian 🇮🇹, and let me tell you something.
Many countries on the old continent are in serious trouble (less politely: f*cked).

Real wages have been stagnant for decades. In Italy and Greece, for example, people earn less in real terms than 20 years ago.

The median EU salary is around €30k gross, not aligned with the cost of living.
Taxation is extremely high, both on workers and on companies.
The tax on labour alone is close to 40-45%. If we include all the hidden taxes like VAT, fuel duties, telecom fees, administrative costs, the effective tax burden goes above 65%.

To pay a worker €30k gross , a company often spends €45–55k, and the worker still loses 30–35% to income tax and contributions.

Housing completes the trap (/crap).
People in their 30s earning €1.4-1.6k net are paying €800-1,000 in rent for a room, sharing a flat with 3 other people.
Starting a family without inherited property is becoming a luxury, usually postponed to 35+, which further kills birth rates.

Demographics make it worse.
In Italy, Greece, Portugal, Finland and more, we are heading toward one retiree for every two workers.
This is not a political opinion. It is math and it is not sustainable.

Despite all of this, I am proud to be European.
Europe invented, researched, built, explored.
It took two world wars to break us down.

What changed was not intelligence. It was agency and courage.
We built generous welfare systems but merged them with bureaucracy, fragmentation, and fear of scale, and fear of individuals standing out.
Different fiscal regimes, bloated administration, and slow capital markets are all hostile to fast iteration and risk.

You would expect more social safety to mean more entrepreneurship.
If failure is cushioned, people should dare more.
Instead, doing business at scale here is so hard that risk is punished.
Until we fix incentives and capital markets, Europe (and EU) will keep looking at the past with nostalgia and the future with doubt.

[Francesco | Magofoco @TheRealMagofoco]

I am Italian 🇮🇹, and let me tell you something.
Many countries on the old continent are in serious trouble (less politely: f*cked).

Real wages have been stagnant for decades. In Italy and Greece, for example, people earn less in real terms than 20 years ago.

The median EU salary is around €30k gross, not aligned with the cost of living.
Taxation is extremely high, both on workers and on companies.
The tax on labour alone is close to 40-45%. If we include all the hidden taxes like VAT, fuel duties, telecom fees, administrative costs, the effective tax burden goes above 65%.

To pay a worker €30k gross , a company often spends €45–55k, and the worker still loses 30–35% to income tax and contributions.

Housing completes the trap (/crap).
People in their 30s earning €1.4-1.6k net are paying €800-1,000 in rent for a room, sharing a flat with 3 other people.
Starting a family without inherited property is becoming a luxury, usually postponed to 35+, which further kills birth rates.

Demographics make it worse.
In Italy, Greece, Portugal, Finland and more, we are heading toward one retiree for every two workers.
This is not a political opinion. It is math and it is not sustainable.

Despite all of this, I am proud to be European.
Europe invented, researched, built, explored.
It took two world wars to break us down.

What changed was not intelligence. It was agency and courage.
We built generous welfare systems but merged them with bureaucracy, fragmentation, and fear of scale, and fear of individuals standing out.
Different fiscal regimes, bloated administration, and slow capital markets are all hostile to fast iteration and risk.

You would expect more social safety to mean more entrepreneurship.
If failure is cushioned, people should dare more.
Instead, doing business at scale here is so hard that risk is punished.
Until we fix incentives and capital markets, Europe (and EU) will keep looking at the past with nostalgia and the future with doubt.

[Francesco | Magofoco @TheRealMagofoco]

El open source no es altruismo.
Es estrategia.
La idea es cambiar el campo de batalla.

Si EE. UU. es más fuerte en software y en modelos frontier, entonces se debilita ese frente liberando modelos y herramientas.

Así neutralizas la ventaja del software y empujas la competencia hacia donde China es fuerte: hardware, fabricación y escala.

[Francesco | Magofoco @TheRealMagofoco]

I am Italian 🇮🇹, and let me tell you something.
Many countries on the old continent are in serious trouble (less politely: f*cked).

Real wages have been stagnant for decades. In Italy and Greece, for example, people earn less in real terms than 20 years ago.

The median EU salary is around €30k gross, not aligned with the cost of living.
Taxation is extremely high, both on workers and on companies.
The tax on labour alone is close to 40-45%. If we include all the hidden taxes like VAT, fuel duties, telecom fees, administrative costs, the effective tax burden goes above 65%.

To pay a worker €30k gross , a company often spends €45–55k, and the worker still loses 30–35% to income tax and contributions.

Housing completes the trap (/crap).
People in their 30s earning €1.4-1.6k net are paying €800-1,000 in rent for a room, sharing a flat with 3 other people.
Starting a family without inherited property is becoming a luxury, usually postponed to 35+, which further kills birth rates.

Demographics make it worse.
In Italy, Greece, Portugal, Finland and more, we are heading toward one retiree for every two workers.
This is not a political opinion. It is math and it is not sustainable.

Despite all of this, I am proud to be European.
Europe invented, researched, built, explored.
It took two world wars to break us down.

What changed was not intelligence. It was agency and courage.
We built generous welfare systems but merged them with bureaucracy, fragmentation, and fear of scale, and fear of individuals standing out.
Different fiscal regimes, bloated administration, and slow capital markets are all hostile to fast iteration and risk.

You would expect more social safety to mean more entrepreneurship.
If failure is cushioned, people should dare more.
Instead, doing business at scale here is so hard that risk is punished.
Until we fix incentives and capital markets, Europe (and EU) will keep looking at the past with nostalgia and the future with doubt.

[Francesco | Magofoco @TheRealMagofoco]

@alexgcalvet @saifedean Darwin resets. History repeats, Hegel-style.

[Francesco | Magofoco @TheRealMagofoco]

AI eliminating junior and mid roles looks efficient until time passes and there are no real seniors left, no one who learned through struggle, failure, and responsibility.

As @saifedean explains, this is the logic of high time preference: short-term gains, long-term decay. It erodes craftsmanship, art, food and architecture and it will erode human capital the same way.

Maybe one day we reach AGI, but what if it takes years? And what if, by then, the seniors meant to guide and create are hollowed out and incompetent?

[Francesco | Magofoco @TheRealMagofoco]

I am Italian 🇮🇹, and I agree with you Spain is not the problem per se.

Zoom out: much of Europe is in serious trouble.
Real wages have been flat or declining for decades.
In Italy and Greece, people earn less in real terms than 20 years ago.

The median EU salary is €30k gross, completely misaligned with cost of living.
Labour is taxed at 40–45%, and once you include VAT, fuel duties, fees, bureaucracy, the effective burden often exceeds 65%.

To pay a worker €30k, a company spends €45–55k.
The worker still takes home €1.4–1.6k net.

Housing completes the trap.
People in their 30s pay €800–1,000 for a room, sharing with 3 others.
Starting a family without inherited property becomes a luxury so birth rates collapse.

Demographics make it worse.
In Italy, Greece, Portugal and others we are heading toward 1 retiree for every 2 workers.

Despite this, I am proud to be European.
We did not lose intelligence. We lost agency.
We built generous welfare systems, then buried them under bureaucracy, fragmented rules, slow capital markets, and fear of scale and failure.

Paradoxically, safety should increase entrepreneurship.
Instead, risk is punished and iteration is slow.

So yes:
If you escape the employment trap (remote work, entrepreneurship), Spain, and Europe, are incredible places to live.
But until incentives and capital markets change, Europe will keep romanticising its past while hesitating about its future.

[Francesco | Magofoco @TheRealMagofoco]

It is credential inflation, debt-fuelled education, and institutions optimised for signalling instead of skill. An 18 year-old should not be expected to see through that alone; they need mentors and real guidance, not slogans.

AI does not replace people who have learned judgment, responsibility, and earned competence through struggle, it exposes systems that stopped teaching them.

[Francesco | Magofoco @TheRealMagofoco]

@0xtanishk Working on critical tech at critical moments is a privilege.
Stressful, yes but full of meaning.

[Francesco | Magofoco @TheRealMagofoco]

Websites are built for human UIs: buttons, pages, flows designed for eyes and fingers. AI agents struggle with this model of clicking, scrolling, authenticating, and reasoning across screens is brittle and unreliable. A swarm of agents simply cannot navigate today's human-first interfaces at scale.

Even APIs are not enough. Most are not exposed. What we actually need is a new layer: software that is machine-readable by default, with human UI as a fallback not the other way around.

[Francesco | Magofoco @TheRealMagofoco]

I am European, and let me tell you something.
Many countries on the old continent are in serious trouble (less politely: f*cked).

Real wages have been stagnant for decades. In Italy and Greece, for example, people earn less in real terms than 20 years ago.

The median EU salary is around €30k gross, not aligned with the cost of living.
Taxation is extremely high, both on workers and on companies.
The tax on labour alone is close to 40-45%. If we include all the hidden taxes like VAT, fuel duties, telecom fees, administrative costs, the effective tax burden goes above 65%.

To pay a worker €30k gross , a company often spends €45–55k, and the worker still loses 30–35% to income tax and contributions.

Housing completes the trap (/crap).
People in their 30s earning €1.4-1.6k net are paying €800-1,000 in rent for a room, sharing a flat with 3 other people.
Starting a family without inherited property is becoming a luxury, usually postponed to 35+, which further kills birth rates.

Demographics make it worse.
In Italy, Greece, Portugal, Finland and more, we are heading toward one retiree for every two workers.
This is not a political opinion. It is math and it is not sustainable.

Despite all of this, I am proud to be European.
Europe invented, researched, built, explored.
It took two world wars to break us down.

What changed was not intelligence. It was agency and courage.
We built generous welfare systems but merged them with bureaucracy, fragmentation, and fear of scale, and fear of individuals standing out.
Different fiscal regimes, bloated administration, and slow capital markets are all hostile to fast iteration and risk.

You would expect more social safety to mean more entrepreneurship.
If failure is cushioned, people should dare more.
Instead, doing business at scale here is so hard that risk is punished.
Until we fix incentives and capital markets, Europe (and EU) will keep looking at the past with nostalgia and the future with doubt.