Why I Trust Electricians & Plumbers More Than an MBA: A Builder's Manifesto

While the credentialed class created "paralysis" by valuing credentials over results, the "Builder-State" is building a new economy on the constraint-respecting, cryptographic proof of blockchain.

My name is Tradesman (Jonathon Chambless), and I grew up on a farm in the Appalachian foothills of Northeastern Georgia.

Not the romantic kind you see in Instagram posts, but the kind where you learn physics from working with large-breed animals and economics from working on buildings and equipment. By the time I was working on roofing construction sites in my twenties, I’d already internalized the most important lesson about the world: “you can’t bullshit gravity, and you can’t argue with a budget”.

The people I respected most—the electricians, plumbers, roofers—shared this constraint-respecting worldview. They lived by fidelity to proven principles: physics, blueprints, building process. If a plumber got it wrong, the building flooded. If an electrician screwed up, the place burned down. Usually at they’re own expense…Results mattered more than intentions.

Then I entered the world of ‘real estate financial professionals’—the MBAs, the policy wonks, the credentialed elite who’d never built anything physical in their lives. And I have watched them break the US economy.

THE CURRENT CRISIS (I’ve lived it.)

I have lived in Arizona for the last 20 years, and over the last two I’ve had the privilege to work with StandWithCrypto.org as a multi-state crypto policy advocate, watching state legislatures in Wyoming, Arizona, Texas and Georgia attempt to build regulatory frameworks for digital assets. I’ve built no cost professional training content with for a 47,000-member global construction industry community trying to modernize building management infrastructure. I’ve publicly spoken about Arizona’s $105 billion semiconductor investment—TSMC, Intel, the reshoring of American chip manufacturing.

In every single case, I’ve watched the same pattern:

The builders know exactly what needs to happen.

The credentialed gatekeepers create ‘paralysis by process.’

The construction professionals know artificial intelligence and blockchain can solve their payment reconciliation nightmare. The semiconductor engineers know permissionless innovation is how you compete with China. The state legislators know clear regulatory frameworks attract capital and jobs.

But the MBAs, the consultants, the Ivy League policy advisors? They demand another study. Another committee. Another 18-month ‘stakeholder engagement process.’ Meanwhile, the problem gets worse.

This isn’t anecdotal frustration. The data is damning:

- $4 trillion in cumulative GDP erased by regulatory accumulation since 1980 (Mercatus Center)

- $13,000 in lost income per American from institutional sclerosis

- 4.5-year average for Environmental Impact Statements (the ‘paralysis of permitting’)

- $2.155 trillion annual cost of federal regulatory compliance (CEI, 2025)

The credentialed elite didn’t just fail to prevent this. They created it.

This is their system. MBAs run the Fortune 500. Ivy League graduates staff the regulatory agencies. McKinsey consultants advise every major institution.

And what have they delivered?

A generation starting with negative capital (student debt + unaffordable housing). Regulatory costs that hit low-income households 6-8x harder than the wealthy. Infrastructure projects that take longer to permit than to build.

The ‘expertise’ class has presided over the largest economic failure in modern American history.

THE CREDENTIALED ELITE VS THE BUILDERS

Let me give you concrete examples from my work.

Semiconductor Industry (My Direct Experience)

The builders—the TSMC engineers, the Intel fab managers, the Arizona Commerce Authority coordinators—know exactly what they need: fast permitting for water infrastructure, clear regulatory timelines, and streamlined compliance for international talent recruitment.

These are tractable problems. Taiwan solved them in the 1980s. Singapore solved them in the 1990s.

But when you enter the room with the federal regulatory agencies, you meet a different species. These are people with graduate degrees in public policy who’ve never operated a semiconductor fab, never managed a construction timeline, never signed a payroll.

They don’t understand that a 4.5-year Environmental Impact Statement for a water line is a de facto project cancellation. They think ‘stakeholder engagement’ and ‘environmental justice reviews’ are virtues, not bottlenecks.

When you explain that China is building fabs in 18 months while we’re still in year 2 of permitting, they nod sympathetically and say, ‘Well, we have different values.’

No. We have a credentialed elite that values credentials over results.

The TSMC engineer who’s built 17 fabs across 3 continents has more relevant expertise than the Harvard-educated bureaucrat who’s ‘studied’ semiconductor policy. But our system grants authority to the credential, not the track record.

This is the tyranny of merit.

I work with a 47,000-member community of construction and real estate professionals (BIMHerosDAO). These are project managers, general contractors, BIM coordinators—people from around the globe who manage $10 million, $50 million, $200 million projects.

They’ve identified a specific, solvable problem: data and payment reconciliation across subcontractors is a nightmare of delays, disputes, and 3-7% administrative overhead.

The solution is obvious to anyone who’s used a blockchain: a shared, immutable ledger where payment milestones, lien releases, and fund transfers are cryptographically verified.

The technology exists. The business case is clear. The ROI is measurable.

But when you talk to the ‘innovation consultants’ and ‘digital transformation advisors’ that construction firms hire (at $300/hour), you get:

- ‘Proof-of-concept’ studies that take 18 months

- ‘Change management workshops’ to ‘align stakeholders’

- Recommendations to ‘assess organizational readiness’

The builders want to build. The credentialed consultants want to study building.

Meanwhile, the 3-7% administrative overhead continues, year after year.

As a multi-state crypto policy coordinator, I’ve watched state legislators who genuinely want to attract blockchain businesses get sabotaged by their own staff attorneys.

The legislators understand the economic opportunity: clear regulations = jobs, tax revenue, and tech leadership.

But the attorneys—Harvard Law, Yale Law—see only risk. They want to ‘study how other jurisdictions approach this’ (read: delay). They want to ‘ensure consumer protection’ (read: copy California’s de facto ban).

The US has passed sensible blockchain legislation because the legislators overruled their credentialed staff.

The builders—state senators who’d run small businesses, city councilors who’d worked construction—understood constraint-respecting better than the Ivy League attorneys who’d spent their careers in conference rooms.

Here’s the fundamental difference:

Electricians and plumbers are constraint-respecters.

- They respect physics (water flows downhill, electricity follows Ohm’s Law)

- They respect blueprints (the plans are law, not suggestions)

- They respect load calculations (20A circuits, 3-inch drain pipes—no exceptions)

- They respect building codes (the inspector will check, lives depend on it)

If they get it wrong, the consequences are immediate and undeniable. The pipe bursts, the building floods. The circuit shorts, the place burns down. The client doesn’t pay.

In the information economy, the same principles apply. Payment infrastructure is like plumbing (money flows through pipes). Data infrastructure is like electrical wiring (information flows like current). And just as oil powered the industrial revolution, data powers ours—which means we need builders who respect infrastructure constraints, not consultants with PowerPoint decks.

An MBA is a credential-waver.

- They respect ‘thought leadership’ (the latest Harvard Business Review framework)

- They respect ‘strategic alignment’ (endless PowerPoint decks)

- They respect ‘stakeholder buy-in’ (meetings about meetings)

- They respect credentials (where you went to school > what you’ve built)

If they get it wrong, the consequences are diffuse and deniable. The project fails, but it was ‘organizational culture’ or ‘market conditions.’ The strategy underperforms, but it was ‘black swan events.’ The policy backfires, but it was ‘unintended consequences.’

Nobody gets fired. The consultant gets hired for the next project.

This is why I trust electricians and plumbers more than MBAs.

The trades built the infrastructure of the industrial age—power grids, water systems, oil pipelines. Today’s builders are wiring the infrastructure of the information age—payment rails, data verification, cryptographic proof systems. Different century, same constraint-respecting mindset.

Fidelity vs Sincerity

The philosopher in me would frame this as fidelity vs sincerity.

Fidelity = adherence to constraints that are proven to work (physics, math, empirical track records)

Sincerity = good intentions, virtuous rhetoric, credentialed expertise

The plumber has fidelity to gravity (water flows downhill).

The electrician has fidelity to Ohm’s Law (V = IR).

The MBA has sincerity about ‘core values.’

The data infrastructure builder has fidelity to cryptographic proof.

The consultant has sincerity about ‘digital transformation.’

The construction foreman has fidelity to the blueprint.

The McKinsey consultant has sincerity about ‘organizational transformation.’

The semiconductor engineer has fidelity to yield rates and process nodes.

The policy advisor has sincerity about ‘stakeholder engagement.’

The credentialed elite broke the economy because they valued sincerity over fidelity.

They meant well. They had good intentions. They followed the ‘best practices’ they learned at business school.

But they ignored the constraints. They ignored the blueprints. They ignored the builders.

Results > Intentions

I learned this on construction sites: nobody cares about your intentions when the pipe bursts or the electrical panel catches fire.

The client doesn’t care that you ‘strategically aligned stakeholders’ or ‘implemented a robust change management process.’

They care whether the plumbing works. They care whether the power stays on.

In the information economy, the stakes are the same: does the payment infrastructure move money reliably? Does the data verification system prove authenticity? Does the code execute as written?

Results matter. Credentials don’t.

The credentialed elite has created a system where process has replaced results as the measure of success.

Did you follow the correct regulatory procedure?

Did you convene the required stakeholder meetings?

Did you submit the proper paperwork?

Did you actually solve the problem? (But we tried!)

This is the inversion that’s killing us.

The builders know: the only thing that matters is whether the building stands.

The credentialed elite has forgotten this.

THE BUILDER STATE SOLUTION

For the last five years, I’ve been building on blockchain.

Why blockchain? Because it’s constraint-respecting infrastructure.

- Deterministic finality: Transactions settle in 2 seconds, not ‘eventually’

- Predictable costs*: Stablecoins (USDC), not volatile crypto assets

- EVM compatibility: Use battle-tested Ethereum smart contracts, not experimental tech

- Institutional backing: Coinbase (a public company) operates similarly with Base Network, not anonymous developers.

This is the opposite of ‘move fast and break things.’ This is ’build on proven foundations.’

Blockchains aren’t sexy. They work because they are permissionless and are privacy-preserving.

They do what a plumber does: respecting the constraints, following the blueprint, and making sure the system works.

And that’s why institutions are adopting it. Circle Financial (USDC issuer) on similar principles: **100+ institutional validators** including BlackRock, Visa, Mastercard.

Why? Because these institutions don’t want ‘innovation’ for innovation’s sake. They want infrastructure that works.

The builders are choosing constraint-respecting systems over credential-waving hype.

Building on Blockchain Framework (My Technical Contribution)

My specific contribution to this ecosystem is building payment infrastructure for TradFi→Web3 migration. (LV8RLabs.com + MicroPayTechnologies.com)

Coinbase has similar projects where the name comes from HTTP 402, the ‘Payment Required’ status code that’s been dormant in the internet’s protocol since 1997.

Why has it been dormant? Because the ad-funded model made micropayments unnecessary.

But that model is dying. AI agents are generating 10-60x traffic while generating $0 ad revenue. Publishers can’t survive.

The future is API-based data access + micropayment rails.

Ai + Blockchain provides:

- Smart contract payment verification

- Compliance hooks for institutional requirements

- Cross-chain interoperability (Base, ETH, SOL)

- Automated settlement in USDC

This isn’t speculative. I’m implementing it for:

- BIMHerosDAO (47K construction professionals, contractor payment reconciliation)

- Arizona semiconductor ecosystem (supply chain payment infrastructure)

- Multi-state policy pilots (government data access monetization)

These are builders solving real problems with constraint-respecting technology.

No ‘thought leadership.’ No ‘18-month proof-of-concept.’

Just: Here’s the problem. Here’s the code. Does it work? Yes. Ship it.

The Philosophical Framework (Builder-State)

I’m not the first person to notice the credentialed elite’s failure.

Peter Thiel—PayPal founder, Palantir co-founder, early Facebook investor, and Stanford Philosophy & Law credentialed—wrote an email to Mark Zuckerberg in January 2020 (leaked in the Facebook Files) diagnosing the ‘broken generational compact.’

His argument: Millennials support socialism (70%) not because they’re stupid, but because they have no stake in the capitalist system. Student debt and unaffordable housing mean they start with ‘negative capital.’

His conclusion: ‘If one has no stake in the capitalist system, one may turn against it.’

Thiel’s response? Back Erebor Bank, a crypto-friendly US bank, and call Bitcoin the ‘most honest market in the world.’

I agree with his diagnosis. But I’m not waiting for Thiel to build the alternative.

I’m building it.

This is the Builder State manifesto:

- The credentialed elite broke the economy ($4T GDP loss)

- They value credentials over results (tyranny of merit)

- They distract with identity politics while ignoring property rights

- The solution is cryptographic proof over human trust (blockchain)

- The builders are already shipping it

This isn’t philosophy. It’s code. It’s running in production. Come build with us.

JOIN THE BUILDER STATE MOVEMENT

This is the first essay in the Builder State manifesto series.

Over the next six weeks, I’ll publish:

- Week 2: Peter Thiel’s ‘Finance Gerontocracy’ and why Bitcoin is the builder’s rebellion

- Week 3: The GENIUS Act and ‘policy-as-code’ becoming law

- Week 4: The death of ad-funded internet and the micropayment future

- Week 5: How Circle Financial and Accumulate Foundation implement Builder State principles for Institutional Financial Compliance.

- Week 6: The ‘broken generational compact’ and why Blockchain is the solution

Subscribe to get the full series delivered to your inbox.

Follow me on:

- Farcaster: @tradesman.base.eth (daily builder updates)

- Mirror: Technical use case tutorials in token-format.

- LinkedIn: Institutional analysis for enterprises

Build with me: blockchain framework consulting for TradFi→Web3 migration

The credentialed elite broke it. The builders are fixing it.

Let’s ship.

I learned to trust electricians and plumbers over MBAs on construction sites, watching credentialed consultants recommend strategies while the guy with the pipe wrench or multimeter fixed the actual problem.

I confirmed it in semiconductor fabs, watching Ivy League policy advisors delay what TSMC engineers built in 18 months.

I proved it in crypto policy, watching state legislators who’d run businesses outmaneuver attorneys who’d only studied law.

Constraint-respecting beats credential-waving. Fidelity beats sincerity. Results beat intentions.

The Builder State isn’t coming. It’s already here.

You just have to choose to build. Tool Rocket.