Bitcoin Tech Talk #435
Interesting Stuff
Avoiding Hard Questions - The article is about the main cognitive bias that we have which is that we don’t like answering hard questions and instead substitute easier questions in their place. There are many good examples in the article, but I suspect that the application is much, much wider than even the author suspects. Keynesian economists, for example, will answer easier questions about numbers and math equations than something hard like “what are the unseen effects of monetary expansion?” I suspect that the lack of first-principles thinking is a phenomenon closely related to propaganda, which is unfortunately super-charged in a fiat economy.
Jordan Peterson Conundrum - There are critics of Jordan Peterson from both the left and the right, many of which are valid but this one struck close to home because it’s from a Christian perspective. Essentially, the author argues that JP dances around the issue as much as he can to avoid actually confronting who Christ was. I’ve found this frustrating about him as well, as he psychologizes and turns into metaphor all the claims of Christianity rather than dealing with the question head-on. It’s a form of intellectual cowardice that I pray he gets out of, but is all too common among academics.
Overcoming Despair - The article is by an educator and Classicist. As he writes, young men have it hard these days. The careers that they’re shepherded towards are little better than corporate slavery and don’t pay much to boot. The loans they’ve accumulated make it hard to start a family and status in particular is very difficult to get with all the boomers refusing to leave their positions. Yet the black pill is not the way to go and submitting to the rigged status game is not going to be satisfactory. What everyone wants is a different path and it’s away from fiat money.
Bureaucratic Idiocy - The article is about the push to open a casino in Chicago and all the stipulations, well-intended or not, which have resulted in a red tape nightmare. The financial tricks themselves are mind-boggling, but the real gem is in the terms of the offering, which for weird DEI reasons has to be bought by minorities within the city. Essentially, the investment vehicle will screw these people out of their money through some really nasty tricks. I knew the bureaucratic sausage was messy, but learning about this is several levels beyond what I’ve ever seen or read about.
Free Trade Critique - Readers of this space know that I’m a proponent of the Austrian school of economics. Part of the philosophy of the school is that free trade is an unmitigated good and until I read this article, I would have said the same. But there are some really good points made in the article, particularly with respect to Ricardian Comparative Advantage which I found very compelling. There’s an Austrian response to the article here, but as the article admits, if capital and labor flow out, the jurisdiction essentially dies an economic death, which isn’t a good fate for any nation. Are there good justifications for tariffs? I’m not sure, but it’s worth thinking through the secondary effects of free trade, like the lack of development when the good produced is not particularly advanced.
What I'm up to
Bitcoin Group - I was on the long-running World Crypto Network show to talk about the issues of the past week. We talked about Coinbase, San Francisco, Mark Cuban, Strategy and what’s been going on with DOGE. It’s been a while since I’ve had to have quick takes on things, and it was fun to talk about some of these Bitcoin-related news items.
Programming Blockchain - My two-day seminar will be in Austin March 31-April 1! If you want to be a Bitcoin developer, this is the course that’s helped hundreds of people to get into this industry. I will not be running this course as this will be the final one.
Palm Beach Atlantic University - I will be speaking at this university on March 27th. Details to come but rest assured, I’ll be talking about Bitcoin to a bunch of college students.
Nostr Note of the Week
What I’m Promoting
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