I have so many conversations with Bitcoiners that begin with “low time preference” and end with “that won’t pay my bills”
We need to learn that a low-time preference is transient and doesn’t last long without structure and integrity - many times it doesn’t even survive a short conversation.
This spring I had a series of large unexpected expenses. Past low time preference, saving and growing an emergency fund for years, literally paid my bills when those expenses got bigger than what was left of my paychecks after regular expenses.
I keep hearing that most Americans can't handle an unexpected $400 expense. Low time preference meant I covered 20x that with plenty of room to spare and no credit card debt.
Anyone who says low time preference doesn't pay their bills doesn't know what low time preference is or never actually tried it.
I’m thinking of most of the thinking and building that needs to be done now but there’s no money in it. A lot of Bitcoiners quickly justify their decisions based on “paying the bills” without realizing they are relinquishing their time preference.
I see this frequently with influencers who have spent many years creating content that was never monetized - then they take shitcoin money as a sponsor or quit and offer their survival as a reason that Bitcoiners are supposed to accept without criticism.
The point I want people to understand is that a low time preference isn’t any permanent state of affairs - it requires a lot of work and sacrifice to maintain and should almost be held sacred and not offered cheaply to rationalize decisions that clearly wouldn’t have been made under such a low-time preference.
It’s worse to LARP a low time preference than to be a honest golden retriever.
It is certainly work to maintain a low time preference. Taking the financial savings example, it is a collection of thousands of decisions to live below your means spread out over a long time. Meals at home, used cars kept longer, gadgets not bought, smaller housing. Everywhere you look someone is trying to convince you to go high time preference again. High time preference is the default and easiest path.
Your point is taken - savings is a structure to maintain a low time preference. When savings is depleted, time preference ultimately is raised.
This is why people shouldn’t necessarily have all their savings in Bitcoin.
