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Replying to Avatar Saifedean Ammous

Dr. Hisham Ammous: Life as Clinical Surgery

Sept 1, 1944 - June 6, 2025

Hisham Saifedean Rashid Ammous was born in the village of Atteel in Palestine on September 1, 1944. After finishing high school in nearby Fadiliya school in Tulkarem, he moved to Saudi Arabia to work as a school teacher, then to Kuwait to work in the electric company. Unsatisfied with his career, he decided to become a doctor, and applied for a scholarship from the Jordanian government to the University of Madrid in Spain, through the Spanish embassy in Jordan. He moved to Madrid without speaking a word of Spanish, but graduated as a surgeon with distinction in 1976. After that scholarship, he practically never needed, asked for, or took anything from anyone until his last day.

In his five decades as a surgeon, Dr. Ammous must have performed over 20,000 surgeries across Spain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Jordan, Palestine, Brazil, Lebanon, and Libya. He relished his work as a plastic and reconstructive surgeon. To his profession and mission, he was the most devoutly dedicated man. He lived for surgery. Come rain, shine, snow, checkpoints, military invasions, cranky kids, genocide, or regional war, he found a way to make it to Al Makassed Hospital in Jerusalem almost every day, braving countless Israeli occupation checkpoints and dealing with the young criminals manning them and getting all of their life's meaning from the impunity they have to make the lives of innocent Palestinians hell. He became a regular traveler to wars and refugee camps to perform surgeries. He worked nonstop all day for days on end in warzones. He went to Gaza for surgeries after every Israeli mass slaughter over the years, and was desperate for the current genocide to end so he could return. His favorite 'vacation' was to visit me in Lebanon and perform dozens of free surgeries for destitute refugees.

His discipline was supernatural. He was never late for anything in his life, and was never disorganized. No matter what life threw at him, he relentlessly pursued his mission and was always prepared. His doggedness, determination, focus, and obsession will sound insane to most people, which is why most people will never perform 20,000 surgeries or do anything remotely as important with their lives. In his wake, hundreds of messages have poured in from people remembering how he helped them with his kind generosity, healed them with his skilled hands, and made them laugh with his legendary searing wit. Among the most amazing stories I heard was that he gave his patients’ families the keys to his hospital office so they could sleep in it and not have to drive through hours of checkpoints every day.

His supreme motivation in life, and the thing that gave life meaning for him, was to give his children a life better than the one he had, and he dedicated himself to it until the very end. He never ceased repeating this lesson to me, and he exemplified it every day. All his time, attention, and interests revolved around improving the lives of his children. He understood the whole of our human civilization rests on the foundation of people investing in giving their children a better life, and this was also the most profound lesson I learned from years of studying economics, and the central theme and most important lesson of my third and best book, Principles of Economics. For teaching me this lesson before I could read, that book was dedicated to him.

He is survived by his two sons, Ahmad and me, his daughter Dana, and three loving grandchildren who lit up his last ten years. Nothing can compare with the joy his grandchildren brought him. No money or accomplishment by him or me could have made him happier than my 2 year old making ever more outrageous demands for gifts as she tries to discover if there is anything he won't get her. His joy around her convinced me that the best thing you can do for your parents is to give them grandchildren. It seems offensive that life could be this simple and banal, that mere reproduction is the secret to its satisfaction, but he showed me it was true, and far from banal. We humans are wired to spend our lives seeking reproduction, and having it shape our happiness and satisfaction, because we wouldn't exist otherwise.

In my 44 years of life, I never recall seeing him bedridden with illness, and after five decades of caring for patients and children, he must have dreaded the thought of being on the receiving end of the care of others.

Dr. Ammous passed on the first day of Eid Al Adha, while taking a nap, after having called his friends and family to exchange Eid greetings. He died suddenly and immediately, and almost certainly felt nothing, and never had to suffer any serious illness or confront his impending mortality.

He lived blissfully immersed in his life's mission until its very last second. And he succeeded in it completely and perfectly. He gave his children everything they needed until they needed nothing more from him. The only consolation in his passing is that until his last minute he was strong, cheerful, healthy, sharply-dressed, and eagerly looking forward to seeing his grandchildren in a few days and giving them the many gifts he bought for them, and looking forward to vacationing this summer with his family in his beloved Madrid.

In his passing, he deprived his loving children of the chance to provide him a tiny fraction of the love and care he provided them for decades. This was a man determined to contribute more to this world than take from it, and to give his children everything. And he accomplished his life's mission clinically, like his surgeries.

Rest in peace, my condolences Saif!

Replying to Avatar Jeff Booth

Incredible trip to El Salvador to meet Bukele and see for myself what has changed since last time I was there.

I think most that follow me, know where I stand on #bitcoin. That, as long as it stays decentralized and secure (which means it must be used as a medium of exchange) it is IMPOSING the first global free market that has ever existed. A competitive, yet cooperative protocol and network that forces abundance broadly. We are both the map and territory - our actions within it, and aligned to it, strengthen and protect Bitcoin, bringing more people to it and they each, in turn grow in their own understanding - which in turn strengthens it further. We are bitcoin, we are Satoshi. Each node (us) of sovereignty adding our voice, time, energy into something that changes the course of history.

Because that map of “what will be, or “what already is” (as long as it remains decentralized and secure) has never existed before, our minds have a hard time with it. So instead, most revert to measuring #bitcoin from within the system they have always known. This leads to most of the fights within bitcoin. People far deeper down the rabbit hole, versus those just entering or choosing to remain trapped (and not being able to yet see the bigger picture)

You can imagine - that change would be chaotic because the change……is the change within each of us. All 8 billion of us, and we often can’t see our own hypocrisy, the lies we tell ourselves. Etc etc. In addition, with over 3000 years of us living in a zero sum game - where someone else had to lose for us to win. So for many, it would seem normal to play by the rules of the old game.

This is why I went to El Salvador. I went to meet the President and see for myself who he was and what choices he might make along the way. Ie - how deep was he down the rabbit hole? Did he see El Salvador and himself as part of system change to a global free market that would permeate around the world - or would he be a pawn and be captured in a game that created imperialism 3.0? It was a very deep discussion…..lasting almost 2.5 hours. I came away convinced that he gets it. Moreover, he might be the most impressive leader of a country I have ever seen. Said to me, more people in El Salvador need to be in self custody, more need to use it as a currency, not in stablecoin but natively on lightning, more in non custodial. He understands the larger forces at play here.

El Salvador is still Bitcoin country, but is still early. Having a nation with security is a big deal. 50 years of poverty, gangs, wars, fear in a society doesn’t change overnight. (All of that caused by broken money and psyops)

It takes time to rebuild trust. I was last here the day after all the gang violence (coincidentally starting after introducing Bitcoin as legal tender)

Huge changes since I was last here, not only safer, but hopeful. That hope will lead to opportunity for people, and that opportunity to value creation. The downtown core in San Salvador, previously one of the most dangerous places in Central America is feels a like a European city with thousands out walking. Cool Social houses (Video below) shops everywhere with the hustle and bustle of people and opportunities. Bitcoin isn’t yet used broadly, but making inroads. I spent in it almost everywhere - but you could tell - bitcoin transactions are fairly rare.

Lots more to do, and big plans underway. Stay tuned!!!

And a huge thanks to Max and nostr:npub1pq2ll9l7qdmxsfqyrd5w9gul8c7ftqy9yepcqvc8a2l2ys9zhd6sk42rew for all their work in El Salvador and in helping make this a fantastic trip.

What a time to be alive!

https://blossom.primal.net/3937c43a0c98ec9871ac97651bc23885c6698586d63734bff846c271423e4369.mov

Good stuff!!

Replying to Avatar Ross Ulbricht

nostr:nprofile1qyxhwumn8ghj7mn0wvhxcmmvqyehwumn8ghj7mnhvvh8qunfd4skctnwv46z7ctewe4xcetfd3khsvrpdsmk5vnsw96rydr3v4jrz73hvyu8xqpqsg6plzptd64u62a878hep2kev88swjh3tw00gjsfl8f237lmu63q8dzj6n showed me nostr recently. Reminds me of a writeup I did back in 2021 on decentralized social media:

https://rossulbricht.medium.com/decentralize-social-media-cc47dcfd4f99

I'll be mirroring my X account here and hopefully finding some good conversations.

Welcome 🙏🏼

New additions to the library, looking forward to reading this nostr:npub1a2cww4kn9wqte4ry70vyfwqyqvpswksna27rtxd8vty6c74era8sdcw83a