Bitcoin Tech Talk #354

Jul 24, 2023

∙ Paid

Weak Mimesis - Luke Burgis argues that we are imitating too many weak traits and not enough strong traits. That is, we are copying the thin veneer of success instead of the deeper more underlying character matters that would help us. I couldn’t help but see this with altcoins, where people imitate the shallowest thing possible about Bitcoin, which is buying something early, rather than the much deeper imitation, which is a mentality toward saving.
College Disillusionment - A striking example of where the labor market has gone. As the writer shows, most of the jobs that recent grads are now doing are completely superfluous, like social media manager or being a diversity hire. College degrees simply don’t mean what they used to as their value has been heavily debased. Add to the mix a heavy dose of terrible fiat incentives and you have a generation of young people who wonder if jobs have any meaning at all.
Video Games and Gambling - The article is frightening in how addictive many of these games can be. People spend thousands of dollars and these companies engineer the UX similarly to casino games. No doubt that exchanges will be using similar tactics in the next cycle. What’s scary is how specific this science has gotten. In many ways, profitable businesses seem to rely more on deception to make profits than providing value. That’s not a good pattern.

What I'm up to

Bitcoin Basics Podcast - I talked with these guys from New Zealand about ordinals, layer 2’s, Taproot and more. For me, the most interesting part was thinking through some of the dynamic possibilities of L2 interactions (more on that for paid subscribers). I also talked to them a bit about what it’s like traveling and how I got into it during my 20’s.
Financial Fox Podcast - I talked with this podcast about the decentralization of Bitcoin and how it’s very unique in the history of money. We spoke at length about the basic properties of Bitcoin, mining and energy, central banks, ordinals, custody and much more. It’s a bit of an altcoiny audience and hopefully
Pacific Bitcoin - I’ll be at this conference in LA on October 5-6. I was sad I couldn’t make it last year, and I know Cory is talented at putting together events. The fall schedule is absolutely crazy this year (5 in North America, 3 in South America, 4 in Europe, 2 in Asia), but that’s probably due to the anticipation for next year's bull run. Still, this will be one of the better ones. Hope to see you there!
London Meetup - I’ll be speaking at the London Bitcoin Meetup (the one in Canada, not the UK) on Tuesday. If you happen to be around, please stop by! I’ll be doing a short talk and signing some books. There will also be free food!

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