they should write "big brother is watching you" lol. Can't be far the truth these days in most parts of the world. The concept of library phone booth is really nice tho. I'd totally donate a cupboard full of books.

me too!

Cahlen's outdoor-living videos are very nice, he def has a good on-screen charisma. He is doing a video to showcase nostr clients and think this would be a good stepping stone for all. I hope many clients pick this up.

For my input :

1. I use and have used Coracle, Primal, Snort, Iris, Satellite, Agora

2. I've been very curious on More Speech and Gossip

3. The popular ones i've not used (because i don't use nostr on my phone) are damus, amethyst, Nos

Also some of these devs have so much of backstories on them which makes it really interesting - Amethyst Vitor is an eye entrepreneur, Martti of Iris is one of the earliest people to speak to satoshi, uncle bob of more speech is crazy famous all over the world and the best story teller here, mike dilger worked in sun microsystem and rares sheeps in NZ, rabble is the coolest rebel here and early twitter guy, Pablo is from Argentina he has stories of strapping phone and taking it between countries to sell them - that and his awesome hikes too, artur from turkey, we were chatting with him while there were earthquakes going on. I think the little things are pretty awesome.

Btw nostr:npub1kemda478drtx5at65wt8kyjrmy9l27hmp8gsgnfjr8vdgf8y46sqsw0hnv if you are exploring "the other stuff", i also think including lot of work by Artur Brugeman, Pablo, Verbricha would be very interesting - they have created so many - other stuff - from browser, to DVMs, highlighters, habla.

Thanks for doing videos like this (and the outdoor ones). We def need more of this

nostr:note156xul52jes8qrxjrya5nha89xpfpp0qrjvf373gyqlys9wsptszq2xha3m

Reading on neuroscience and the impact of nature (genes) vs nurture (environment). One concept of nurture is conditioning. There are 2 types - classic conditioning (little albert, pavlov theory) and operant conditioning (reinforcement, punishment). The brain/behaviour connection also can be influenced through habits, hypnosis, psychedelic substances, lifestyle, circadian rhythm and more.

In the Little Albert experiment, they used a little kid and a white rat (natural stimulus) that he initially had no reaction to, and paired it with unconditioned stimulus (loud noise to induce fear). The kid eventually got rattled with just the rat alone. One example of application is that if the parents are afraid of something, the kids might be afraid of it too as part of natural conditioning.

A similar study was done by Ivan Pavlov a few decades before this, on bells and dogs salivating. The concept was built around the consistency of dog being hungry, sees food (visual), bell is rang (audio). Eventually, the dog salivates with just the bell, without food.

Operant conditioning developed by Skinner has both +ve and -ve reinforcement and +ve and -ve punishment, with +ve reinforcement being the most effective of the operant conditioning. An added concept to this is shaping behaviors by breaking it down into smaller tasks and rewarding each completion. I use this quite a bit as a self booster.

Another concept of nurture is the art of creating a habit. This is not the exact same as conditioning, but it does overlap. The idea here is to create a routine practice that involves a process of behavioral repetition. Charles Duhigg in his book ‘The Power of Habit.’ talk about the habit loop which includes cue/trigger (what initiates the habit), routine and reward. I don't know if the 3 weeks thing is a thing (there are several studies on this) but repetition works - sometimes it takes longer than 21 days, sometimes shorter.

Hypnosis is slightly different as it induces a state of altered consciousness. It’s sort of like a trance-like state where you are not really aware of your surroundings. The goal is to explore your subconscious process. While both hypnosis and conditioning involves modification of behavior, they operate through different mechanisms and are used for diff purposes. Huberman has a lot of talks on this.

There are others along this brain / behavior line such as mushrooms that can alter your neural connectivity - esp those linked to self referential thoughts and sense of ego. Other things include having sufficient sleep that makes a lot of difference in behaviour. Change of a stressful environment is another modifier. Sunlight, circadian rhythm adds on to this.

There’s a lot more to the understanding of neurons and neuroscience - but these were some of the areas I've been wanting to understand a bit better.

There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.

- Mark Twain

Statistics are like a bikini. What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital.

- Aaron Levenstein

Researchers, especially academic and scientific journals, are fascinating, not just in terms of the researches, but in how selective the topics, hypotheses and tiny and skewed sample sizes are. And all this are often enhanced through “statistical analysis” using various theories - your pearson, spearman, kurtosis, regression, parametric etc.

The more you understand the concept and root of these theories, the more you’ll realize how whacked the idea of “assumptions based on assumptions” are made substantial. This perhaps defies that the mother of failures are assumptions - or maybe it doesn’t because we've become a headline society, ignoring the fine prints hidden in these journals.

Similarly, mathematical tools such as ratios, algebra, and matrices, while powerful, harbor their own set of assumptions. What appears as a "favorable unit" may not authentically represent the underlying dynamics of flow or value.

But by then, the excitement catches creating a wave of crowd hype. Over time, what was once a hot topic fades into habit and culture. Even if many months later, the true nature of findings are revealed, it no longer matters. Madness of crowd has picked up and will carry on. This madness has existed for centuries.

If we were to look back and ask ourselves - how often do we dig into something to a point of really understanding it, not just the operations but its applications and impact on the world ?

How often do we believe it blindly because it’s a hype or because our friends and respected figures whom we deem to be smart have already looked through and gave their raving reviews? How often do we not want to be seen “stupid” for asking what might be seen as the “basic” questions ? How easily are we influenced?

I'm so sorry nostr:npub1matmfxr293jejewrm72u50l2x5e6ypasn0ev2kns6srv05zfzf8s0z6fsr. What's going on is not right

When we stop looking at someone else’s bar that’s too high to achieve, we’ll realise that our own bar and drive is pretty damn high too, if not higher. Always be your biggest fan and your most demanding critic.

I like the tabula rasa concept, that our brain is a blank canvas to start with. May not agree on everything John Locke wrote on, but pretty powerful to stand up and voice out what might seem alien and sinful at that time (the 1600s) i.e. in separating state and church, and that God did not appoint Kings. What seems obvious now did not seem obvious then. There's something about gaining clarity of perceptions, and this courage of voicing it out.

https://youtu.be/bZiWZJgJT7I

* I was suppose to highlight the next sentence lol

'And what a person thinks on his own without being stimulated by the thoughts and experiences of other people is even in the best case rather paltry and monotonous'

- Albert Einstein

It's a good reminder to stay humble and open-minded. I'm realizing how much I don't understand. But not everyone can explain diff perspectives w/out negative emotions - angst, ego, arrogance and sometimes we get wrapped up in it too. Hence perhaps it’s not just about being open-minded but also filtering unnecessary elements in conversations to stay focused on the context. This is something that’s been on my mind lately - some way of exercising the frontal + parietal lobe better, or a quick intercept as a way of conditioning

On a diff note, I finished a book of Albert Einstein's writings. I thought you might like this piece.

(And also his take at diff time frames of his life on democracy, socialism, russia, disarmament, and peace, given his involvement in creating atom bombs, was fairly interesting)

it's so pretty

I think this could just be a clash of principles. Some are against NFTs on Bitcoins and put off by it, and some against restrictions of transactions are are put of by it. Often time, one way to gauge is what benefits humanity.

NFT on Bitcoin started off with the promise of classy and exclusive, and ended up with with dick pics. And it can get worse - you don't want to be mining and transacting on blocks with genocides, child porno etc. People can convincingly and genuinely believe it wont happen, but if there is an allowance and support to, it could and it will. And this will become one of the easiest excuses for countries not to adopt Bitcoin.

There was a time, for a few centuries, where human trade was hailed as peak global economic boost, even historical pump and dumps on companies executing this. People genuinely thought it was ok to capture Africans and sell off them to work as slaves. There was a time people thought it was ok to capture Asians and Africans and display them in museums across the US. Humans are not always rational and kind beings.

When it comes to clash of principles, maybe one way to think about this is what will benefit humanity and mankind, and actively push for it.

I think actively pushing out distractions and staying strongly focused on using Bitcoin as money will benefit humanity.

I just want to leave a correction here - the 'Y' in this case is a form of partnership/client engagement and not investment - which is still great because it opens up a lot of doors for various revenue-based growth

I like your curiosity. I do not know what was running through Einstein's mind, I don’t think anybody does, but maybe we can try to understand the situation during that time.

Einstein was a German, Jew born in 1879, moved to Switzerland at 18, introduced the theory of relativity at 26, and later moved to the US at 54 when Hitler came to power. He also helped create nuclear bombs.

He wrote this piece in 1919, likely when he was still in Switzerland and while advancing his academia and scientist career

Latin originated in Italy during the Roman Empire phase 8 BC. This was Old Latin and it had many variations. And then it went through all the famous philosophers like Cicero, different periods - medieval era, Renaissance era , Enlightenment era - tit started declining when the British empire rose to global power in the 17th/18th century but still used in academia and churches.

During the widespread colonization (16th - 19th century), a prominent economic period was the transatlantic slave trade, with the Spanish and British empires capturing Africans for trade in South America. This period peaked around 19th century, leading to investments in slave trade companies like the South Sea Bubble. South America and the Caribbean experienced extensive colonization. One way to unite everyone was language and hence you see predominantly Spanish throughout the regions. In some regions, Portuguese and French are practiced, based on the colonizing powers.

SEA has a long history of colonization since the 1st century, and only truly gained independence the last 60 years. Prominent colonizers include the Dutch, Spanish, American, and British. The Philippines was colonized by the Spanish for 300 years. The Spanish-American War happened in the 1900 I think where the US won and they took over the Philippines and Puerto Rico. Spain also had colonies in Africa, including Morocco.

Eventually the world headed towards industrialization during Einstein’s time. This started with machinery, the Wright brothers just created airlines, phones were available but only to the upscale families in the 1920s (in the US, only after the 70s, it achieved 50% phone ownership rate). Communication was still limited.

WW1 started at this point 1914 and it was the first time the US entered the global engagement. I believe after WW2, English became a globally used language due to the strong influence of the US - especially in international diplomacy, business, science, and tech.

Plus the British colonized 50+ countries hence it must have come in handy. After the internet era begin post 70s, English became more of a norm

What we see now is probably an evolution of the language. But I do not know what was going on in Einstein’s mind when he wrote it.

This is pretty much all I know

thank you. don't have the time tho, working on book 2 , part of research!

apparently so. This was early 1900s, maybe traces of Spanish colonisation. It was also used during Roman empire, Caesar era, until enlightenment period (French Renaissance). I don't know the history of languages to have an accurate explanation, maybe someone else who understands the formation of linguistic can help explain about this.

Reading this book 'Ideas and Opinions' by Albert Einstein - its some of the most popular collections from his other books ‘The World As I See It’ (1934), Out of My Later Years (1950), and Mein Weltbild (1953) . There are plenty of great stories, thoughts and opinions. He was quite a charmer, aware of his own fame but remained humble and pursued what he loved. There are many interesting short pieces. I’ll share one on the formation of the League of Nations (predecessors of United Nations)

i know, so bloody and scary =(

good suggestions! i never got around watching Pulp Fiction. That one Quentin Tarantino movie I did watch - Hostel - couldn't sleep for a week.

A conversation with a friend this morning on why not all innovations appeal to investors.

Startups are funded if they fulfill certain market needs, revolutionize tech, boost economies, and are sustainable with growth potential. Often, we focus on necessity and innovation but overlook the economic impact and long-term growth.

Investors, despite kindness, expect returns. Prominent accelerators often target 8x to 10x returns within 5-7 years. Like it or not, business growth is a key attraction factor. Even an unremarkable business with rapid growth will attract investors. Rapid growth here, can be organic or infused with multi-layer funding. In early stages, there’s no growth - hence potential growth becomes a decisive factor.

Startups and SMEs diverge as SMEs head towards stable growth with smaller incremental profits for investors, while startups tend to grow rapidly. Startups may evolve into SMEs or even larger enterprises.

Additionally, early adopters play a significant role. SMEs, often with established products/services like F&B, focus on branding, sales, and marketing in early stages, with continuous adaptation to their surroundings. Startups on the other hand must identify early adopters and market needs before they get to a stage of heavily investing in branding, sales, and marketing. Though riskier and takes more time, successful startups, once past the market penetration stage, gain higher confidence in branding and market growth.

Hardware startups esp if it comes with manufacturing is wayyy more complicated and expensive than software startup. Often times you don't want to expand on in-house manufacturing early own because of the high asset cost.

Entrepreneurs' understanding of growth and adeptness at handling change is a huge attractive factor to investors. Change matters as business evolution has to be constantly aligned with market demands, hence continuous shocks + recovery + building, happens in a loop.

Investors also assess how entrepreneurs allocate funds to maximize business output. Some prioritize personal branding to expedite growth, leveraging popularity to bypass organic growth. Certain investors are drawn to fame and succumb to the FOMO trend. Other investors are put off by it. Some entrepreneurs put in effort in business growth. Some just build and wonder why nobody shows up, blame the tech and everyone else.

A common misconception is that marketing occurs later in the process and is costly. This isn't true. Marketing is about reaching your target audience. Identify where your users are and connect with them. Understand what motivates them to share your product with others. And gather feedback to enhance their experience. Marketing costs escalate as the market size expands horizontally or vertically, typically in later stages when the product is more stable.

There are many entrepreneurs out there struggling to build, dealing with insanity, corruption day in and day out, working many jobs to bootstrap - so if you have any funds at all, be grateful and maximize its output.

Some of entrepreneurs biggest mistakes :

1. This idea that the world owes you because you are creating something.

2. Ego - massive ego

3. Bad management of fund

4. Assuming everything will work out.

5. Go big or go home. Most go home high and dry.

Some entrepreneurs that I’ve seen succeed

1. Adapt to change well

2. Decent relationship with everyone

3. Pick up after a fall, find better ways and try harder

4. Time optimisation

5. See a clear picture of the larger goals and the smaller steps of getting there

6. Realistic as much as they are optimistic

7. Connections - some make use of family, wealth etc. Some put themselves out there to get to know people

There's more to this but this is a wrap up on a short conversation on startups that are investor friendly.