Kash Sajadi's blog on startups, infrastructure, politics, and technology.
The Middle East is full of uncertainty, but two constants have shaped the region for decades: Israel is not going anywhere, and the Islamic Republic of Iran consistently overplays its hand. These two realities explain why so many attempts to normalize relations with Tehran ultimately fail. Agreements can change incentives, but they cannot change the nature of a revolutionary regime. In the end,…
The recent war with Iran exposed an uncomfortable asymmetry. Democracies are bound by accountability, election cycles, and the need for undeniable proof, while authoritarian regimes can absorb hardship and act on long horizons. The real casualty may be the assumption that liberal democracy is always the strongest system in a prolonged geopolitical struggle.
A line drawn in 1945 split Korea into two systems that, over time, produced radically different realities. The lesson is broader: when divergence is left unresolved, it compounds. The question is whether we recognize it early, or only once it is no longer reversible.
The greatest risk is not just structural; it is behavioral. Iranians are caught in endless emotional debates, arguing over sides, blame, and narratives, while the system shaping their future remains untouched. This creates the illusion of engagement without any real impact. Lebanon shows what happens when a society stays trapped at that level: decades of paralysis. If a moment for change ever…
The war did not change the Islamic Regime; it exposed it. That exposure collapsed regional ambiguity and forced Gulf states to reassess risk. As hedging becomes untenable, alignment shifts toward actors capable of constraining Iran, while economic and informational systems adjust in parallel. Immediate regime change is unlikely, but the resulting regional realignment creates sustained pressure.…
The rule of law functions inside states because it is enforced by sovereign authority. International order lacks such enforcement and has relied largely on American power since 1945. Critics of the Iran war must therefore choose: either the rules-based order requires enforcement, or the concept itself collapses into power politics.
Iran’s transition will hinge not on opposition leaders but on the fate of the IRGC. Dismantling it risks state collapse; preserving it risks regime continuity. Any post-regime stability depends on solving this institutional dilemma.
A personal reflection on the moral weight of stopping a war versus allowing the conditions for future, larger wars to persist.
The left now has a rare opportunity to redeem its historical misjudgment of 1979 by engaging constructively in shaping Iran’s pluralistic democratic transition.
Elections alone are not enough. Liberal democracy requires institutional limits and protected pluralism.
Iran's Islamic regime is a post-ideological dictatorship approaching collapse — the question is no longer whether it will fall, but how much violence and state failure will accompany its end.
The Israel-Iran war won't end with a ceasefire — it's rooted in the Islamic regime's ideology, and each round will further polarize Iranian society and destroy its infrastructure.
Late-night TV hosts who keep mocking Trump and the right are playing into the populists' hands, deepening political polarization instead of using their massive platforms to bridge the divide.
Startups live in Extremistan where past events cannot predict the future — don't trust experts who weave retrospective narratives and claim they can forecast what's coming next.
A 70,000-node Mesos cluster sat unused because containerization, unlike virtualization, requires developer buy-in and tools that bridge the gap between devs and ops.
Containers and Kubernetes threaten to erode SaaS's key advantage — infrastructure arbitrage — by letting any company build highly available infrastructure at a fraction of the cost.
A near-death financial scare reveals that over-reliance on venture capital is the real cancer of startups — too much cash kills focus on what actually matters: building a profitable business.
Daily inconveniences — not missing features — drive customer churn. Product designers must use their own products regularly to spot the friction they've become blind to.
GitHub stars are the new dot-com eyeballs — startups releasing IP as open source without a monetization plan risk repeating the mistakes of 1999.
Elevator pitches fail for cutting-edge startups because they assume shared context — instead, find investors who already understand your field and don't waste time on priming.
Most startups aren't Google and shouldn't adopt Google-scale infrastructure tools like Kubernetes — premature optimization with oversized tools burdens your business unnecessarily.
Not all open source is equal — we should distinguish between genuine community-driven open source and vendor-controlled 'open trial' projects used as marketing tools.
Tech journalists who can't code consistently miss industry trends — the software world needs more commentary from people who actually build and use the products they write about.
A critique of the 'ecosystem builders' and 'community' people in Europe who exploit government grants and startup associations without ever building anything themselves.
Stop chasing VC metrics and growth hacks — the only thing that matters for a startup is a laser-sharp focus on building a great product.