Bitcoin Tech Talk #363
Interesting Stuff
Liberal Teen Depression - Insightful article by a pretty influential progressive, Matthew Yglesias about an interesting finding that Liberal Teens are more depressed than Conservative ones by a significant amount. His contention is that there’s a doomerism among Liberals in general and a catastrophism that’s become a standard part of political discourse since the 90’s. He points out that there’s a cultivation of various groups’ fragility as a way to grab more power. As a result, what we’ve gotten is a particularly vulnerable group that feel they have little agency in making the future better. Sadly, the power dynamics of fiat money incentivize a powerlessness mentality and a catastrophism that removes hope.
Elite Colleges and Class - Apparently, a middle class student with the same SAT/ACT scores has a huge disadvantage compared to an upper-class student in getting into Ivy League level colleges. The authors of the paper conclude that more emphasis should be given to SAT/ACT scores and not less, given the importance for influential roles (NY Times reporter, senator, etc). What struck me was the very obvious ignoring of the race factor, particularly with respect to Asian-Americans. As a group, Asian-Americans are much more likely to be middle class, and I suspect that a lot of the gap can be explained on elite college admissions committees desire to limit their student population. Of course, most of the positions they talk about are rent-seeking institutions and I believe that the appeal of elite colleges will diminish as we move toward a sound-money economy.
What Killed Genius? - According to this rather unrefined blog post, the concept of intelligence. The main contention is that genius is what people that are deeply interested in a particular area do but that their confidence has been destroyed by the concept of intelligence, essentially making only high-IQ people qualified for such work. While I agree to some extent, I think this line of thought completely discounts the fiat-based gatekeeping that’s responsible for so much wasted talent. Credentialism is real and unfortunately, the path to get to most credentials require a lot of propaganda-swallowing and regurgitation. Is it any wonder we don’t really test new ideas in such an environment?
What I'm up to
Bitcoin Community - I talked to Matt Odell and Harry Sudock about the community they’re building in Nashville and the importance of face-to-face gatherings. We talked about the origin of Bitcoin Park, why they made it and how they’re focused on building the Bitcoin community through in-person events.
Stephan Livera Podcast - My podcast tour this week starts with the Stephan Livera podcast where I argued that people should get out of debt and use savings to consume, and not use debt. Mainly my argument centered around debt being leverage, creating more failure conditions and its immorality given that debt almost always expands the money supply.
Why Bitcoin Show - I made the argument against altcoins, talked about food and made the analogy to fiat money, incentives around family and much more. As with most industries, food has a few companies that control everything and are enormous and take short cuts.
Coach Carbon - I made some more basic arguments for Bitcoin, including explaining why Bitcoin is the only decentralized digital and scarce asset. I also talked a lot about family and the incentives that have been changed by fiat money.
CJ the Accountant - I talked to CJ from Black Bitcoin Billionaires, not only about the new book, but also Thank God for Bitcoin and Bitcoin and the American Dream. I discussed with him why these are separate books and the appeal of each including learning how most industries at this point are captured by 4-5 big companies.
Nostr Note of the Week
What I’m Promoting
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