Dusty's led multiple financial technology companies and projects that range from algorithmic based lending to blockhain development. Dusty regularly speaks and writes on economics and entrepreneurship, his work has been published in Forbes, Entrepreneur, Equities.com, Mises Institute, USA Today, and TEDx. Before his career as an entrepreneur, Dusty spent his time learning the markets working on private equity and M&A transactions.
An avid student of the markets and advocate for sound economic models driven by innovative technologies, Dusty is determined to drive social change by building better financial and economic models. When he's not in a passionate pursuit of disruption, Dusty is studying philosophy and training for his next mountaineering endeavor.
Logos is the Greek word for logic but has had many different meanings at different points in history. In the bible, the Christians referred to Logos as the word of God and from which all things were made. Aristotle recognized Logos at reasoned discourse, the logic behind an argument. The Stoic philosophers interpreted Logos as the governing reason of the Universe. Logos is deeply entrenched throughout history and represents logic, reason, and truth in some form. Logos is the motivation behind my blog and my commitment to a life long pursuit of truth through logical and reasoned discourse.
I believe the greatest pursuit in life is seeking truth and why I started this blog as a way to pass along my lessons, victories, defeats and life experiences I gain by seeking truth. I have been taught many great lessons from those that have taken the time to put words on paper and this is my way of giving back to those authors by doing the same. I only hope that my words have the same influence as those I have drawn knowledge and wisdom from.
Part of my lifelong pursuit of seeking truth is building a well founded and consistent worldview that aligns best with that truth. Below is an outline of the core tenants that make up my worldview today.
Understanding the world around us and how we gain knowledge and understanding is essential to the human experience. With that said, I believe reason is the pinnacle of human nature and serves to guide our understanding of reality and of the world around us.
Reason is the pathway to understanding innate knowledge and truth in the world. We use reason to decipher knowledge from our sensory and non-sensory interactions with the world. This forms the basis of our reality. I approach my worldview from the epistemology of rationalism. I believe sensory and non-sensory experiences must be filtered through human reason and logic to properly understand truth and phenomena around us.
I believe ethics is the basis for interpersonal interactions within humanity. Individual species have their own distinct nature. For example, human nature is different than animal nature. For that reason, different species are guided by different laws based on their nature. It is important to understand that nature to derive proper ethics.
Specifically, ethics is a set of laws derived by the nature of a species. Therefore, the natural law serves as the foundational laws of human nature derived through human reason and logic. These laws are inalienable and self-evident truths also known in the political and legal sense as negative rights.
Kant's categorical imperative gives us a logical framework to derive the natural laws of human nature.
1) First Formulation – Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law.
2) Second Formulation – Act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, never merely as a means to an end, but always at the same time as an end.
3) Third Formulation – The third practical principle follows [from the first two] as the ultimate condition of their harmony with practical reason: the idea of the will of every rational being as a universally legislating will.
Furthermore, Kant's perfect and imperfect duties align with the negative and positive rights of humanity. Perfect duties represent humanities negative rights not to subjected to an action of another person or group. Imperfect duties represent the positive rights to be subjected to an action of another person or group. This framework set the foundation for my ethical, moral, political, and economic philosophy.
I believe morality is the basis for personal ethics that only apply to how an individual wants to act and not an expectation of other individuals' actions. Morality should be consistent and non-contradictory with an individual's ethical framework.
My moral framework is rooted in Judeo-Christianity. I hold true that Jesus Christ was the true son of God and was crucified, resurrected, and ascended to the right hand of God the Father in heaven. His sacrifice for our sins established a new covenant for humanity, a covenant I have committed to and therefore my personal ethical system is rooted in Christian principles and values as expressed through scripture and the leadership of my personal Church.
During Jesus' ministry he outlined two distinct laws.
The two laws Jesus laid out in his ministry are consistent with the ethical foundation outlined above. In fact, loving your neighbor is wholly consistent with natural law and Kant's categorical imperative. Thus, I can maintain my personal morality within the framework of my interpersonal ethics.
Classic Liberalism better known today as Libertarianism defines the basis for my political philosophy. Specifically, Anarcho Capitalism (ANCAP), as expressed by Lysander Spooner and later refined by Muarry Rothbard, represents what I believe to be the best application of Libertarian theory and principles.
The core tenants of Libertarian political theory are simply expressed by the below statements.
1) Right to self-ownership, private property, and voluntary contracts.
2) Adoption and adherence of the non-aggression principle (NAP).
The above axioms establish perfect duties and negative rights not to be subjected to an action of another individual or group. All positive rights and imperfect duties are established by voluntary contracts, not human based governing bodies. This establishes the core framework for my political philosophy and is fully consistent with my interpersonal ethics and personal morality framework.
We are imperfect beings that must transform the scarce resources (means) around us to satisfy our desired ends. Economics philosophy is not interested in the ends, it is interested in the use of means to get to our desired ends. The reality of scarce resources (means) makes economic philosophy a very important discipline.
Austrian economics is specifically focused on the study of individual human action and not the aggregate. Social and economic phenomena come from the subjective choices of individuals. Individual human action creates cause and effect forces that operate similar to the natural law. The Austrian School leverages a priori thinking to establish economic and theoretical laws based on logical constructs of human action.
Austrian economics as presented by Menger, Mises, Rothbard, and Hoppe is the economic school of thought best aligned with my ethical, moral, and political framework.