Bitcoin Tech Talk #346
Interesting Stuff
Money and Morals - The article is a summary of the prevailing attitude of the money worshipers which is that of thinking money can buy essentially everything. Of course, this is untrue, and the article points out the debasement of certain relationships when money enters the equation. Though the article doesn’t mention it, the culprit for this attitude is fiat money, which has sadly become the false panacea for all problems. The article is well worth reading for the insight into the deep corruption that fiat money has produced in every institution.
Reflections on Identity - Luke Burgis takes his always poignant pen to the issues around discovery and identity. As he points out in this piece, our current mentality is that change comes from information or knowledge. But as he points out, it doesn’t. Change comes from experiences and we have precious little that transforms us as they should. We need more rites of passage, opportunities to reflect and to mark transitions.
Dumb vs Stupid - This article makes a very useful distinction between dumb (not having mental horsepower for evaluation) and stupid (not having the right framework for evaluation). As it points out, there are a lot of very intellectually accomplished people that are very stupid in some area. And it’s because they are using the wrong mental model for evaluation. The worst mistakes and the greatest evils come from stupidity and not dumbness. We could say, for example, that many smart people in other areas are stupid about Bitcoin because they don’t know how to think about it.
What I'm up to
Celebrity is Fake - I’ve been writing a lot of mini-essays and this one is on the substack “notes” platform. My argument is that most celebrities are not created by merit but are astroturfed. Even when it comes to fame, we should be verifying, not trusting.
The Bet - I’ve been asked about the bet with Joe Lubin by more than a few reporters so I’ll mention it here so I don’t keep repeating myself. We agreed to a bet in 2018, I followed up several times to finalize it including once on Laura Shin’s podcast. He backed out of finalizing each time. At Consensus 2019 we once again had a handshake. I kept trying to get the bet finalized after that appearance, but he kept trying to change various terms. My final email attempting to finalize was still about a dispute on how to define an active user. He never responded and that was August 2019. I shared that the bet wasn’t finalized multiple times since then, including on Peter McCormick’s podcast. And no, I have no idea who would have won since we couldn’t agree to the terms.
New Zealand, LA, Austin - My final stop on this world tour is in New Zealand. I’m in Auckland for a little bit longer before heading back to the US for the first time in 9 months. I’m not excited about the rampant inflation, but I am excited to come back home and see friends I haven’t seen in a while. I’ll be working out of the Bitcoin Commons in a couple of weeks. I’ll also be in LA for Swan Salon on June 1. If you are subscribed to their private events, you’ll know where to go and what the topic will be. If you are in the area and would like to attend, please reply to this email and I’ll see what I can do.
Nostr Note of the Week
What I’m Shilling
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