Another example of how fiat ruins everything:

Last week, worked in with this kid while he was using the Hack Squat. Noticed his form was shit. Asked him a couple questions that revealed he didn’t understand the first principles behind training quads. Took a few minutes to explain them, trying to get him to the point where he could use the knowledge on all his quad movements.

This week, he comes up to me right away. Thanks me profusely; explains how sore he was the next day and how much my explanation helped him and how it carried over into other movements. Called it game changing advice.

The gym is top tier and full of competitive bodybuilders and coaches. I drive an hour to use certain pieces when I can. But he said no one’s freely offered that level of explanation before I did. Reported that he’s only ever been solicited by guys looking to add him to their $300+ per month coaching rosters.

I can rag on modern gym culture all day. It’s a shadow of what it once was and there are numerous culprits. Cell phones, social media, universal inclusivity, the decline in the presence of highly masculine men, etc are all contributing factors. But fiat underlies all of them and is centrally responsible for gatekeeping information that was once freely shared between men.

Fiat interdicts iron sharpening iron.

It forces the men who have figured out how to become bigger and stronger to put a monetary premium on information that could lead to the men around them - and thus the world around them - becoming better. It turns meatheads into salesmen who learn scripts to overcome rejection rather than freely and openly building tribes of strong men around them.

Bitcoin affords me the ability to help others without concern of compensation. If I want to see gym culture improve, the best way is to represent the kind of culture I’d like to be a part of. That culture is one that’s generative, open-source and kind at its base layer.