The Self-Hosted Manifesto

What Does Freedom mean to you?

Freedom comes in many forms. Sometimes it comes in the form of choices and sometimes it comes in the form of a F-35 fighter jet. There is no definitive answer to the question what it means really. Every government and every revolution claims to somehow free the people from something else which is oppressing them.

But what does freedom mean to you personally? For me it has something to do with being able to do what I like, with being able to express myself, not being restricted. Now I am incredibly lucky to live in a place and time within a society that grants unprecedented individual rights legally. But does that really mean I'm free? Well it certainly is one of the prerequisites, but there is more to it. In my opinion there are four conditions that have to be met in order for an individual to be truly free and I will list them in order of priority, but The Hosted Startup focuses on the last one.

Conditions for Freedom

1. Fundamental Human Rights
2. A Strong Legal Framework
3. Wealth
4. Awareness of Choice

Human Rights

The first and most important layer of freedom are human rights. If people are enslaved, tortured, or stripped of their dignity they can hardly be considered free.

Legal Framework

In order for humans to flourish they need a reliable legal framework they can rely on. Now this is not a political manifesto and The Hosted Startup is not a political blog. I know there are many disagreements and discussions around how this framework should look like and personally I consider that as a positive thing. Nevertheless I think there are some important aspects we can easily agree on: fair trials, freedom of speech, and education etc..

Wealth

When it comes to money... Well without any money I can hardly do the things I like. Does that mean money makes you free then? I don't think so! There are degrees of freedom that come with an increase in wealth and one needs to be able to, at the minimum cover the basic needs in order to live a free life. Though it is worth bearing in mind there are diminishing returns!

Elon Musk will never be as free as me, since he wants to fly to Mars and doesn't have enough money, while I just want extra cheese on my pizza, jokes on him because I can afford my dreams.

Awareness of Choice

So far so good you might think, human rights, legal framework, and wealth. But what is awareness of choice supposed to mean? Fair point, let me explain because now we are getting to the core of the manifesto.

Say we have all these things, we are not enslaved, we have institutions and laws we can rely on, and we have enough money to buy us whatever we like. What would you really buy then? Which choices would you make and why? Or should I ask:

Many of us often give away our agency to live more comfortably. It is a short-term thinking really. Data is the new gold, everyone has known it for 20 years, yet the average person and organisation seems to give away more and more of it. Shovelling all that disgusting gold out the window like a true ascetic.

Today big tech and AI companies know us better than we do. Technology is not susceptible to the same biases and blind spots we are prone to when judging our own behaviour. They see us not as the hero in our story like we do, they see us for what we are, influenceable and conditionable animals.

I recently saw the movie "Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die" – which is great fun to watch by the way – but what I personally took away from it is something that seems to be missing in all the sensationalist, alarmist discussions about whether AI will take over. Namely we make this scenario more likely every time we open our Instagram feed, every time we put our thoughts into Claude, every time we share our workflows in GMail. Yes the technical details of AI development are interesting, but what about the human factor?

Don't get me wrong Google, Apple, OpenAI they all designed fantastic products and did meaningful contribute to the advancement of the human race. But ask yourself does them being innovative companies justify handing over your life decisions to their technologies?

Today the open-source community is strong enough to offer equal alternatives, with the caveat that you are able to host them yourself. Control your data to control your destiny, personally, as an entrepreneur, and we together as a society. We all know SaaS-startups and cloud-native startups, now it is time for The Hosted Startup!

Individuals

• Giving away your data means giving away your agency
• If you consume media without intent, your preferences are being shaped for you
• Control your data to control your life choices and happiness

Startups

• Real innovation can only be inspired by real-world human experience
• Disruption happens when you do things differently, don't let them mine your secret sauce
• Control your tech stack to have the freedom to move differently

Society

• If more than 50% of individuals gave away their agency, democratic participation becomes performative
• Distributed infrastructure is more resilient
• Technological progress is fine, but social progress is finer. Raise your voice to decide where we are going!

Nothing is set in stone, not even this manifesto.
Did I miss something? If you think there's a proclamation worth adding, drop it in the comments below.