https://elimbi.com/ Recent content on William Elimbi Hugo en Sat, 31 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://elimbi.com/books/the-roman-republic/ Sat, 31 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://elimbi.com/books/the-roman-republic/ I have almost never read science fiction, so naturally I had not taken an interest in one of its most prolific authors. But there it is, I don’t know why, while looking at the list of his works, my attention was drawn instead to his history of the Roman Republic. Reading this book is a pleasant experience. It is not indigestible. The worry is that halfway through reading, I looked at the table of contents, and the first chapters already evoked nothing to me. https://elimbi.com/books/the-weirdest-people-in-the-world/ Tue, 13 Jan 2026 10:00:00 +0000 https://elimbi.com/books/the-weirdest-people-in-the-world/ Imagine: you’re in a car with your childhood best friend. He accidentally hits a child crossing the street. Your friend was clearly driving above the speed limit. The police question you as a witness. Will you tell the truth, even if it condemns your friend? Or will you lie to save him? If you choose to tell the truth, congratulations: you answered like a true WEIRD person (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic). https://elimbi.com/journal/civilization-organized-power/ Mon, 05 Jan 2026 02:00:00 +0000 https://elimbi.com/journal/civilization-organized-power/ For a long time, I was a convinced anti-American. For nearly fifteen years, I saw in every U.S. intervention further proof of imperialist arrogance. Then, through solitary reflection, I changed my mind—not out of opportunism or weariness, but because historical logic led me there. This reflection deserves to be shared. Here is how it unfolded. 1. It All Begins with an Energy Surplus Civilizations do not appear by chance. They emerge where humanity manages to produce more energy (in the form of food calories) than is needed for day-to-day survival. https://elimbi.com/books/ultrasociety/ Sun, 14 Dec 2025 10:00:00 +0000 https://elimbi.com/books/ultrasociety/ About the Author Peter Turchin is a Russian-American scientist who straddles multiple disciplines - history, evolutionary biology, and complex systems analysis. What I find most fascinating about his work is how he applies mathematical modeling to historical processes, something rarely attempted with such rigor. Introduction: The Paradox of War and Cooperation I must admit, when I first encountered Turchin’s central thesis, I was skeptical. The idea that war has been the primary driver of human cooperation seems counterintuitive at first glance. https://elimbi.com/books/the-10000-year-explosion/ Tue, 25 Nov 2025 10:00:00 +0000 https://elimbi.com/books/the-10000-year-explosion/ Accelerated Human Evolution: From Agriculture to Conquest About the authors Gregory Cochran is a physicist and Adjunct Professor of Anthropology at the University of Utah. Henry Harpending was a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the same university. Introduction The central point of this work is that humans continue to evolve, contrary to what one might initially believe. This evolution has even accelerated over the last 10,000 years. https://elimbi.com/journal/first-journal-entry/ Fri, 24 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000 https://elimbi.com/journal/first-journal-entry/ The Perfect World Thought Experiment I can’t help thinking that if we gave a hypothetical quantum machine to many people and asked them to play with parameters to try to create a perfect world, the result would be far worse than the current world. The Demographic Collapse of Developed Countries One of the problems facing most developed countries today is demographic collapse. All countries are affected: Japan, the United States, Europe. https://elimbi.com/posts/building-open-source-rag/ Wed, 22 Oct 2025 10:00:00 +0000 https://elimbi.com/posts/building-open-source-rag/ Intro AI is becoming increasingly essential in our daily lives. Whether it’s ChatGPT for writing, GitHub Copilot for coding, or specialized assistants for various tasks, we’re all becoming dependent on these tools. The problem? Most of these services are expensive, closed-source, and require sending your data to third-party servers. I wanted to explore how we could self-host AI capabilities, even with modest resources. Sure, it’s demanding in terms of compute, but I think it’s worth experimenting with, even if just for fun and learning. https://elimbi.com/books/chip-war/ Wed, 15 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000 https://elimbi.com/books/chip-war/ About the Author Chris Miller is a professor of International History at the Fletcher School at Tufts University. Amazon link Introduction Another recommendation from X, Musk’s social network. The author aims to paint a general picture of semiconductors. A technology of paramount importance in the modern world. What stands out most to me after reading this work is how truly extraordinary the United States is. I say this without any irony. https://elimbi.com/books/secret-of-our-success/ Mon, 15 Sep 2025 10:00:00 +0000 https://elimbi.com/books/secret-of-our-success/ About the Author Joseph Henrich is an anthropologist with a rather atypical background since he started in aerospace engineering before switching to anthropology. I came across him because his latest book The WEIRDest People in the World is widely shared on X. Maybe when I have the courage to finish it I’ll talk about it too. The Fundamental Question This book tries to answer a question I’ve often asked myself: fundamentally, what’s the difference between humans and animals? https://elimbi.com/posts/rust-vs-go-vs-v/ Tue, 17 Sep 2024 04:11:38 +0000 https://elimbi.com/posts/rust-vs-go-vs-v/ I’ve known about V for quite a few years, and I admit I had stopped following the language’s development for some time. It’s a language that promises a lot, almost seeming too good to be true. The simplicity of a dynamic language, with a Go-like syntax (but better), yet with performance comparable to C/C++/Rust while maintaining good compilation speed. println('hello world!') It’s hard to get simpler than that. In a real program, however, we’ll have the classic main entry point: https://elimbi.com/posts/self-hosting-indie-hacker/ Fri, 13 Sep 2024 14:19:38 +0000 https://elimbi.com/posts/self-hosting-indie-hacker/ Intro I’m looking to increase my online presence, which was one of my resolutions for 2024. The objective is to build an audience before creating a potential product. I’ve procrastinated a lot, so things are progressing slowly. One constraint I set for myself was to use self-hosted services as much as possible. 1. Hosting In principle, what I would recommend for someone starting out is to quickly test the market and not worry too much about infrastructure. https://elimbi.com/posts/my-homelab/ Tue, 10 Sep 2024 11:11:38 +0000 https://elimbi.com/posts/my-homelab/ I want to share the main software I use in my homelab. I won’t go into depth this time; it’s just an overview. 1. Homelab I’ll start by presenting the services running at my home. Some services, like the first one I’ll present, require access from outside, in which case I use Wireguard. - Nextcloud I discovered it at least 5 years ago while looking for a seedbox for my torrents. https://elimbi.com/posts/mutlipe-saas-one-server/ Sat, 24 Aug 2024 12:19:38 +0000 https://elimbi.com/posts/mutlipe-saas-one-server/ 1. Probleme The problem: I have a single VPS in the cloud, and I have many apps that I code myself or services (Bitwarden, Nextcloud…) that I want to expose to the public. So sometimes I may want to have more than one domain for a single machine. Is that possible? The answer is yes. This may seem trivial to a lot of people, but back in December 2022, I wasn’t sure if this was possible and how to do it. https://elimbi.com/posts/how-do-i-backup-my-homelab/ Thu, 22 Aug 2024 14:00:00 +0000 https://elimbi.com/posts/how-do-i-backup-my-homelab/ In my last article, I explained how Docker saved me when my Raspberry Pi, which hosted all my services, suddenly failed. Indeed, Docker allows for good compartmentalization of configurations and data, and lets you choose where to store them, which in my case was an external hard drive. In case of a failure, you just need to take the hard drive and connect it to another machine, and you’re done. https://elimbi.com/posts/why-i-love-docker/ Tue, 20 Aug 2024 12:19:38 +0000 https://elimbi.com/posts/why-i-love-docker/ 1. The problem This morning, I had a problem: my server, a Raspberry Pi 2 bought in 2016, no longer starts. I used this old machine to host many services (WireGuard, Nextcloud, Bitwarden, ODPS server, etc.). After a few unsuccessful attempts, I gave up on the idea of repairing it and decided to use another one of my servers instead. I unplugged the external hard drive from my Raspberry Pi and plugged it into my other server. https://elimbi.com/posts/readest-ebook-reader/ Mon, 19 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://elimbi.com/posts/readest-ebook-reader/ A Christmas Mishap Last Christmas holidays, I was traveling to visit family. In the rush of packing, I forgot my e-reader. Disaster for an avid reader like me. Two weeks without being able to finish The WEIRDest People in the World by Joseph Henrich? Fortunately, thanks to the setup I described in my article about my self-hosted digital library, I could access all my ebooks from my phone via my OPDS server. https://elimbi.com/posts/homelab-access-methods/ Thu, 08 Jan 2026 11:00:00 +0000 https://elimbi.com/posts/homelab-access-methods/ Hi! Here’s an overview of the ways to access your homelab from the outside. In France, we often have the chance to have a fixed IP, but I know that in the US or in Cameroon (my country of origin), it’s much rarer because of CGNAT. We’re going to review the options, from the most basic to the most advanced: port forwarding, WireGuard, Tailscale, and NetBird. The idea is always to stay secure – never expose your services without serious protection. https://elimbi.com/posts/sync-data-nextcloud/ Wed, 07 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://elimbi.com/posts/sync-data-nextcloud/ I’m going to explain how I synchronize my data across all my devices (phone, computers, etc.). This guide is particularly aimed at iCloud or other proprietary cloud users who want to regain some control over their personal data. I’ve been a Nextcloud user for several years now, and I want to share how I use it daily. Nextcloud is an excellent open-source, self-hosted alternative that allows you to sync files, notes, photos, and much more. https://elimbi.com/posts/digital-library-with-zlibrary-syncthing-opds/ Thu, 09 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000 https://elimbi.com/posts/digital-library-with-zlibrary-syncthing-opds/ Building Your Self-Hosted Digital Library: Complete Guide Today, I’m going to show you how I set up my personal self-hosted digital library. The goal is simple: download ebooks from Z-Library via Telegram, automatically sync them to my server, and access them easily from any e-reader (Kobo, PocketBook, Kindle, or Android) using the OPDS protocol. Downloading Ebooks with the Z-Library Telegram Bot Z-Library offers access to a huge collection of digital books in English and French.