Astral Codex Ten

Cambodia

6 min read

Cambodia

Article

Cambodia is a recurring place in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 7 times across 7 issues between July 01, 2021 and January 06, 2026. The archive places it in contexts such as “richer than their historically more-centrally-planned neighbors Vietnam and Cambodia”; “PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA”; “extending conflict to the sovereign nations of Cambodia and Laos”. It most often appears alongside China, US, France.

Metadata

  • Category: Places
  • Mention count: 7
  • Issue count: 7
  • First seen: July 01, 2021
  • Last seen: January 06, 2026

Appears In

Source Context

Recovered passages from the original issue text. When the raw archive preserved outbound links inside the source passage, they are listed directly under the quote.

Highlights From The Comments On "How Asia Works"
July 01, 2021 · Original source
A negative outlook for the South Asian foils (Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines) seems unjustified considering how quickly they are growing at present despite not following the book's advice. Also they are still richer than their historically more-centrally-planned neighbors Vietnam and Cambodia. In the past 20 years, all the foils have increased their GDP per capita by at least 2.8x, which is a CAGR of at least 5.2%.
Spring Meetups In Seventy Cities
April 10, 2022 · Original source
PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA Contact: Amos (me@amos.ng) Date: April 30 Time: 11:00 AM Coordinates: https://plus.codes/7P36GWV7+7M Location: 11:11 Cafe in TTP Notes: If possible, please email me beforehand so I know you’re coming.
Inline links: https://plus.codes/7P36GWV7+7M
Your Book Review: Public Choice Theory And The Illusion Of Grand Strategy
June 24, 2022 · Original source
The Vietnam War (1954-1975): from the initial American involvement in fighting off communist insurgency in the South as requested by the sovereign state of the Republic of Vietnam, to the later ceding of governing responsibilities to South Vietnam with the signing of the Paris Peace Agreement in 1975 (notwithstanding the violation of proportionality in the Vietnam War, and the violation of international law in extending conflict to the sovereign nations of Cambodia and Laos)
From Nostradamus To Fukuyama
September 28, 2022 · Original source
Third, be careful saying that certain categories of very extreme thing won’t happen. People who want to argue with you will rules-lawyer the definition of those words until they do. For example, it might have seemed like a fair prediction in 2000 that Britain would not commit genocide in the next twenty years. Genocide is an extreme event that usually happens in dysfunctional countries like Cambodia or Rwanda, and Britain is a developed liberal democracy. But you would have to deal with the people who think Britain committed genocide by being in the Iraq War, or that Boris Johnson’s COVID policy constituted genocide (an argument by a professional genocide scholar, no less). Some people argue that various forms of opposition to gay or trans people constitute genocide, in the sense that it keeps them in the closet and prevents them from being a unique culture/population - and isn’t destroying unique cultures/populations genocide by definition? Unless you want all these people using you as a foil and example of a regime dupe, be very careful to clarify exactly what you’re saying (“I don’t think the British government will violently kill tens of thousands of members of its own population” might be safer than “I don’t think Britain will commit genocide”).
Inline links: Britain committed genocide, constituted genocide, Some people argue
Links For July 2025
July 01, 2025 · Original source
9: Meta has spent $50 - 70 billion on the metaverse over the past five years. For context, that’s about the GDP of Cambodia, or 1/5 the inflation-adjusted cost of the Apollo Program. Forbes has an update on the state of the technology as of this February: “Looking at . . . the current state of Meta’s VR universe, it is absolutely impossible to imagine a world where this kind of thing is ever going to succeed.”
Inline links: has spent $50 - 70 billion, has an update
Links For October 2025
October 30, 2025 · Original source
50: Tomas Pueyo with a new theory for why cold/temperate countries are rich and warm countries are poor - it’s the mountains. Warm-climate agriculture and civilization cluster in highlands regions, where transportation and trade are harder. Partially paywalled comment responses 1 and 2. I find this very interesting, and far more thoughtful than most attempts at this question, but I’m pretty concerned about his answer here to the objection that India, Cambodia, etc birthed great empires while being hot and nonmountainous. He says that they may have had high GDP, but always had low GDP per capita, which he pinpoints as the real measure of wealth. My impression is that pre-Industrial Revolution, all countries had low GDP per capita, because they were in a Malthusian regime where economic improvement translated to population density rather than increasing per capita GDP. Any differences between regions reflected minor fluctuations in the exact parameters of their Malthusianism and were not of any broader significance. So I think the India etc objection still stands and is pretty strong.
Inline links: it’s the mountains, 1, 2
Highlights From The Comments On Boomers
January 06, 2026 · Original source
But it is *emphatically* false that “Boomers were a perfectly normal American generation”. They have served far more terms in Congress than any generation before or since (and we currently have the oldest average age of elected officials in a legislative body IN THE WORLD other than apparently Cambodia), they have dominated the presidency (look up the birthdate of every major party candidate since the 2000 presidential election...), they controlled the commanding heights of major companies, cultural institutions (especially academica).