The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens Uncomfortable Questions in Unsettled Times: Iran Effects, Local Preparedness, and End of Empire?
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Mar 13, 2026 A series of probing questions about how geopolitical shocks translate into supply chain strain, rising prices, and fear. Prompts to distinguish what in modern life is essential versus merely familiar. An inquiry into whether U.S. decline would help or harm the world. Exercises to imagine your town in 2050 and practical steps to prepare with a few neighbors.
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Global Supply Chains Hide Fragile Dependencies
- Modern supply chains feel permanent but are fragile to distant disruptions.
- Nate Hagens notes a disruption elsewhere can eventually arrive as an absence at your front porch, revealing which comforts are essential versus merely familiar.
Audit What You Really Depend On Now
- Identify three things you could not live without and three things you can reduce before scarcity forces the choice.
- Nate frames this as a practical, non-purity exercise to pre-empt shortages tied to bottlenecks like the Strait of Hormuz.
Blame Clarifies Emotion More Than Systems
- Searching for blame often simplifies complex, distributed causes but also alters our nervous systems and capacity to act.
- Nate asks whether assigning blame makes us clearer or mostly shapes distress and reduces agency.