My latest newsletter, #Bitcoin Tech Talk #336 is up! Excerpt below:

1. The Case for Staying Put - I’ve been traveling for the past 6 months so this was an interesting article for me to read, about the virtues of familiarity and how weak ties are a necessary part of a communal life. The disconnectedness that we all feel is largely due to this phenomenon of not having enough weak interactions. One aspect that I thought was enlightening is that most people only improve a house in a way that enhances resale value. This is a function of real estate being a store of value. In a deep way, finding meaning requires us to value things in non-monetary ways.

2. Why Weddings - Along the same lines, this is an article about the intangible benefits of a wedding. I’ve been a fan of weddings and encourage people thinking about them to have one. As the author discovered, he thought it would be a waste of money and found out that it contributed something much deeper to his life than he imagined. We’re very used to valuing things only from a monetary perspective because of the hold that fiat money has over us. But as this article shows, there’s value to be found that’s not monetary and it’s those things that are often the most meaningful.

3. Organized Fun - I guess that makes it three articles in the same genre, that of disconnectedness in modern society. This one is on the proliferation of “organized fun” or the structuredness of leisure that’s now so common. The article is pretty cynical, but makes some good points about the monetization of peoples’ boredom. In a way, the proliferation of these things reflects the much higher bar for entertainment people these days have.