About Maret
Free-range thinker with a long career as a technology consultant working in North America and Europe. More in love with humanity than gadgets.
Dog-lover, too.
A favorite concept Maret lives by is from the Australian movie, Strictly Ballroom - here's the core theme of the film:
A life lived in fear is a life half lived. It's the dancing that matters.
The story of
Maret Jaks
Maret’s voice is distinctive in this age of conformity. Direct and grounded in personal experience, she combines sharp analysis with storytelling, never sacrificing humanity for ideology.
Born in Canada, raised in the United States, and having lived and worked in Europe for many years, she brings a wide international perspective to her work.
She comes from a mixed heritage. Her Estonian mother and grandmother fled Soviet communism while the rest of their family remained trapped behind the Iron Curtain and suffered terribly. Her father came from a very poor working-class family that had its share of struggles (including run-ins with the law). Maret grew up with an instinctive understanding of justice and how quickly freedom can be lost to ideology and centralized power.
This heritage deeply informs her writing, giving her a unique perspective on contemporary threats to Western liberty, cohesion, and truth.
Blunt yet compassionate, rigorously researched, and uncompromising, her writing challenges readers to think clearly and live like it matters — because it does.
- Blunt analysis grounded in facts
- Compassionate storytelling
- Fierce defender of free speech
Author Background
- 2015
Wrote KILLER CODE in response to the fact that Toyota’s deadly Sudden Unintended Acceleration issue was, indeed, caused by faulty software but it took over a decade to prove. More than twenty years after car software began killing, there are still no software safety laws. With AI on the scene, it’s evern more critical we examine what should be done to tame the Wild West of the coding world.
- 2016
Wrote NOTES FROM A BLONDE to warn of the dangers that multiculturalism without boundaries does to the West’s culture of justice and equal rights – a culture that took our ancestors over a thousand years to build yet can be destroyed in mere decades.
- 2017
Out of fear about how some would choose to interpret NOTES FROM A BLONDE, took the book off the market.
- 2018
Published A TRYST WITH PARIS, a book that is considered a “candid, funny, and fearless memoir” of a woman determined to live boldly on her own terms.”
- 2022
Founded NOT YOUR DONKEY as a podcast and as a Substack (free to subscribe). Maret is still working out the kinks and learning the technology since she is (so far) still “a one-man band”. Plan to establish a regular update schedule (stay tuned).
- 2023
Republished NOTES FROM A BLONDE in response to growing evidence that the West is allowing itself to be consumed by forces destructive to the rule of law and equal rights protections. Plus, to be honest, she felt ashamed that she had backed down when she — in 2016 – had seen the looming threats of unbounded multiculturalism, wrote the book, and then unpublished it. Western civilization should not cower, ever. It needs to be strengthened and protected by each and every one of us.
- 2026
Publishing CORPORATE COMMUNISM after years (and years!) of writing and rewriting the book. Launching August 2026 and looking for help in getting the word out!
- Today
Preparing for the launch of CORPORATE COMMUNISM and writing the companion guide, THE LITTLE BOOK OF CORPORATE COMMUNISM, to help people negotiate political conversations. Plus ramping up NOT YOUR DONKEY.
Bray freely, everyone!
Let go your tiny anchor.
It won't hold you, anyway.
The river has a job to do, and
you can't keep your life at bay.
Maret Jaks, 2006.
Books available
Bray freely!
NOT YOUR DONKEY is a bold, blunt, and refreshingly compassionate Substack by Maret Jaks. Profoundly opposed to language-policing and creeping political correctness, it’s a space dedicated to free-range thinking—roasting sacred cows across the political spectrum without carrying water for any party, ideology, or agenda.
Drawing on her background as the daughter of a refugee from Stalin-era Estonia, Jaks champions unfettered speech as the bedrock of democracy and invites readers to “bray freely” even when opinions clash.