nostr wins if it stops trying to be a twitter clone and starts being the invisible layer underneath apps you actually want to use. like bitchat for location-based messaging, diVine for entertainment, whitenoise for private messaging, zap.stream for streaming, shakespeare for vibe coding, etc.

it wins by unbundling into 50 different apps that all talk to each other, rather than one giant app/corp that traps you. it's all about the ecosystem.

I read the book Blood Over Bright Haven by ML Wang.

It's a stand-alone fantasy novel about a woman who seeks to become the first ever female highmage in the 300-year history of this city. Along the way, she uncovers dark secrets that others feel are best left hidden...

I enjoyed the author's prior book, The Sword of Kaigen, so I figured I'd give this a try. It's extremely highly-rated and was kind of a breakout last year. The author tends to not have plot armor for any of her characters, and the stories don't necessarily follow typical three-act structures, which is refreshing.

I found it well-written and engaging, I read it very quickly, and overall enjoyed it. Maybe an 8/10 for me.

The main character is kind of intentionally unlikable. She has a single-minded drive toward greatness through her work, and doesn't relate well with people or pay attention to people around her, but is ethical in the sense that she doesn't mean others harm and when confronted with examples of harm she does care about it a lot.

The one main criticism of this otherwise well-rated book is from those who say it is too heavy-handed in its themes. Sexism is a very strong theme in the book, as well as racism/colonialism, and the author is not subtle about it. So I was aware of that criticism going in, and wanted to see for myself what constitutes a theme being considered too heavy-handed here, in this moment. My assumption was that I would agree it's overdone.

Surprisingly, I only half-agreed. I think whether it's overdone depends on the reader's context. It feels overdone here in the 21st century in US/Europe. It's like, "we get it, blatant sexism and racism/colonialism is bad".

But on the other hand, the culture in the book is basically just 19th century England in terms of sexism and racism/colonialism. It's less sexist than some countries are today.

I literally have in-law relatives that were victims of female genital mutilation in Egypt. The type that cuts off your clitoris, with all the lifelong limitations that come from that. And I see some of the strains of sexism that occur there in the present day. The themes in the book would not be heavy-handed in contexts like that. But if one is reading this in the US or Europe, there are certain eye-roll moments like, "Okay it's been enough, I get it."

Anyway, interesting read and I'd look for more from the author in the future.

I made a mistake during my Bitcoin lecture last week in the university of Bologna. One I’m not going to repeat. I assumed something. And I shouldn’t have.

Since I was talking about my job, I told the students that a big part of it is debunking myths around Bitcoin...

You know, the usual stuff: Bitcoin is a Ponzi, it’s going to zero, it’s killing the planet. I built like 15 slides for this. I was ready to fight. Ready to debunk every single one of them, one by one.

So I asked them: “What’s something negative you’ve heard about Bitcoin?”

Silence. No one raised their hand. No one mentioned pollution. No one said anything about volatility or scams. These were 22 years old, curious, open-minded, and genuinely there to learn. They didn’t have myths to unlearn.

So there I was, spending the next 20 minutes talking about gas flaring, carbon-negative mining, and all the reasons Bitcoin is not what “they” say it is. But “they,” in this case, didn’t even exist. The only person bringing up those narratives was me.

And that’s when it hit me. All these years in the Bitcoin scene have trained my brain to always be on the defensive. To expect resistance. To anticipate criticism. And that mindset slowly killed a part of the joy I used to feel when I first learned about Bitcoin.

Back then, no one had told me it was bad. I just found it exciting, revolutionary, empowering. My brain wasn’t busy filtering negative takes it was busy being amazed.

That beginner’s energy, that childish awe, that sense of discovering something precious, it’s something I want to reconnect with. I don’t want to be the person who walks into a room full of open minds and immediately starts talking about the bad things people say.

I want to talk about freedom from banks and government, creativity, women empowerment, potential. I’m not saying I’ll stop responding to critics when necessary. But I want to stop assuming that everyone is a critic.

There are way more people out there who are just curious, interested, open to learning, than there are loud contrarians I’ll never change the mind of anyway.

From now on, I want to speak to the curious ones. Not the ghosts in my head.

I never really thought about it before, but I have no first cousins.

I was chilling with my husband’s extended family and everyone was counting how many first cousins they had. One of them had over 50 first cousins. Another had over 30. All of them had over 10.

Then it came to me and I had been going through it in my head and I was like, “uh… zero. Huh.”

When you have to double-check you are not reading satire.

just posted on olas! nostr:npub1l2vyh47mk2p0qlsku7hg0vn29faehy9hy34ygaclpn66ukqp3afqutajft nostr:npub18ams6ewn5aj2n3wt2qawzglx9mr4nzksxhvrdc4gzrecw7n5tvjqctp424

Next up will be communities; I want Nostr to be able to provide the type of cohesion that something like Cara, which is a phenomenal app, is providing.

A community you can call your own, with your own ethos, open or closed, around whatever topic/values/interest you want.

👉 If this calls out to you, if it gets you saying "YES! THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT I WANTED FOR MY ____" reply to this note and help me shape it! 😀

Of course, NIP-29, so compatible with Chachi, 0xchat, highlighter, Flotilla, etc, etc.

Repost for visibility, in all my genius... I'm writing this Friday at 2.30am 😂😂😂😂

Elon resorting to overt censorship and algo manipulation because he was getting ratio’d will be looked at as the mask off moment.

I think I don't understand that Twitter drama, but the less you know the less you care, right? 😆 #asknostr

UNICEF says one in six children live in conflict zones this year, but normies are still waiting to see "if" world war 3 "will start"

I'm becoming increasingly convinced the US will nationalize MSTR

this was so crazy, i still fan girl thinking about it.