Bitcoin Tech Talk #422
Interesting Stuff
Lions and Foxes - The article is about the current political situation in the UK, but the much more interesting is the Machiavellian framing around the issues at play, that of lions and foxes. The idea is that there are two types of statesmen, lions being the warriors and the foxes being the sly political players. Lions generally found nations and thrive under instability, but hate the boring and stable societies. Foxes thrive under stability but don’t do well under unstable societies. Ironically lions create stability and foxes instability. It’s a useful way to think about the cyclical nature of politics and revolutions, and yes, fiat money is definitely a fox creation.
Conversations - I love having great conversations with people, ones where some inspiration or insight emerges. This article is about different ways to ruin great conversations, and it’s a good reminder that conversations can go sideways many different ways. The one I thought was most surprising was the one about therapeutic self disclosure being a substitute for an actual good discussion. Conversing is a bit of a lost art, given how much we interact online these days, and I hope as we move to a Bitcoin standard that the art of conversation elevates.
Kuwait Biometric Law - Kuwait has some very invasive ID laws in commerce now and this article is about the various deadlines they’ve set to force. their citizens toward it. Given just how dystopian the scheme is, I was surprised to find that this was the first time I had heard about it. You can understand the logic as the government is moving toward this to increase tax revenue. We’ll see if this type of scheme will increase Bitcoin adoption.
Liquid Careers - Giving future employers a degree of certainty about you is obviously a very important part of getting a job. This article tries to define that concept a bit more precisely by combining it with the financial concept of liquidity. Certain jobs give employers a lot more predictability about your skillset. Indeed, you could argue colleges essentially do the same thing. Essentially, the fiat system encourages a certain amount of liquidity in your skills so that the parts of the corporate machine can be easily found. It makes me wonder how different a more entrepreneurial system would be.
What I'm up to
Ossification Debate - My debate with Jameson Lopp at the Lugano Plan B Forum is finally up! The main issue, in my view is that this is really a balancing money vs tech properties of Bitcoin. I’ve found that technologists make economic errors, economists make technologist errors and fiat people making both. To paraphrase Breedlove’s podcast, the question of “What is Money?” indeed the question that we need to answer first before considering new soft forks. You can read more of Jameson’s Perspective here.
Supporting Palestinian Christians - The link is to a new catalog of olive wood nativity sets and other carved items from Bethlehem. You would be buying directly from my contact in the West Bank (he was my tour guide and AirBnB host when I visited in 2022). Please email me if you’re interested in ordering and I’ll give you the contact info.
Graveyard of Demons - I don’t read that much fiction, but this is one of my favorite series. The latest is linked and it came out on election day. Lots of sword fighting, a few guns, lots of magic and politics. If you’re looking for something fun to read, this is a good series to get into.
Nostr Note of the Week
What I’m Promoting
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