Bitcoin Tech Talk #333
Interesting Stuff
Programming Culture - This is a wonderful read about how engineering cultures at large companies are badly incentivized. Many of the practices and results in the article are things I’ve directly experienced as a programmer and one of the points of the article is how small companies have an advantage because there’s so much less process. I touched on this in my article in Bitcoin Magazine (see below). The main thing I got out of the article is that at a certain largeness, politics and status games are inevitable and they directly affect productivity and efficiency.
Defending Colonialism - This article is timely since I’m in the middle of reading the book that he’s basing the article on, Modern Times. The article makes the case that colonialism was much more a burden keeping disparate colonies in peace and that post-colonial countries have been much worse in comparison. While I agree with the assessment, many of the post-colonial governments were sadly influenced by Marxism, which led to a significant amount of suffering. I can tell you that the book gave me a whole new perspective on Ghandi, one I hadn’t heard before and worth pondering.
Economics of Glory - My co-author Jordan Bush has written an interesting analysis of the story in Genesis of Abraham’s interactions with the King of Sodom. The main point he makes is that the one who can afford to be generous and give is the one that gets the glory. There’s a communal reputation that is earned when you give to someone else, which is unfortunately the rational calculation that many billionaires like Bill Gates make to enhance their reputations. The whole thing is worth reading, as it sheds light on how much of what we think of as religious is really more economic than we think.
What I'm up to
Company Level Incentives - My article for Bitcoin Magazine continues the series on how fiat corrupts incentives. This time, we look at company-level incentives and how they’re unnaturally large and are very zombie-like as a result of fiat money. Unsurprisingly, this has meant that we, too, become zombie-like as we go into these soulless corporations running on borrowed money.
Real Vision Interview - I went on Real Vision to talk about Bitcoin, Nostr and a bunch of other stuff. Their founder tends to be very altcoin-centric, so it was my intention to try to orange pill these people. One of the thoughts for me coming out of this interview is that this line about how Nostr is to Twitter what Bitcoin is to fiat, including altcoins, is one that will get more powerful as Nostr gets bigger.
Changi, Siem Reap and Kuala Lumpur - I’m in Chennai right now, but will be traveling to these places over the next couple of weeks. If you’re in any of these places and have suggestions or a Bitcoin meetup that is happening, please let me know!
Nostr Note of the Week
What I’m Shilling
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