Hearing "you were right about Bitcoin" from friends hits differently. It’s not an admission—it’s a defeatist shrug.

It means, "You were right, but it’s too late now. I missed it." That attitude is the hardest to hear because it’s not true.

A lot of people think Bitcoin is too good to be true. And when you describe it without thinking, yeah—it does sound that way. A future of sound money, fairness, and freedom? It’s hard to imagine because we’ve been trained to expect disappointment, not hope.

People have been conditioned to be nihilistic about the future. So when Bitcoin offers a way out, it’s easier to dismiss it as "too late" or "not real" than to accept it’s already here.

They think it’s over. They don’t see that it’s barely begun.

You weren’t right then. You’re right now. And you’ll keep being right. It’s not about the past—it’s about waking up to the future.

Hey, David. I'd like to try this. Where can I learn about the GrapeRank algorithm and the variables being used to determine ranking?

a logarithmic function is an inverse function to an exponential function.

since bitcoin displays many power law relationships, we should study logarythms more thoroughly in order to better understanding bitcoin and it's natural behavior.

Great recommendation, I think I'll give it a read!

This has been on my list for quite some time.

Read the book, Debt- The First 5,000 years. It’s blowing my mind right now. Money has always been fucked and was likely debt first- as opposed to the false tale of the pre-existing barter system, then money. Oldest recorded Sumerian text contained a ledger of recorded debts. This book is excellent and has been a welcome change from the typical echo chamber. Check it out.

I hope you enjoy it!

Happy New Year #Nostr! 2024 was a wild ride and incredible adventure, looking forward to the days ahead.

Read the book, Debt- The First 5,000 years. It’s blowing my mind right now. Money has always been fucked and was likely debt first- as opposed to the false tale of the pre-existing barter system, then money. Oldest recorded Sumerian text contained a ledger of recorded debts. This book is excellent and has been a welcome change from the typical echo chamber. Check it out.

A lot of people look down on blue collar work, which I think is misguided. Especially for skilled blue collar work (and most type of work does benefit from skill/experience).

Basically, there’s a popular notion that it’s objectively better to be a CEO than a plumber, or an engineer than a barber, and that’s pretty off base. So it’s not that they criticize blue collar work in any overt way; it’s that they assume that that people in “lower” jobs would all want to be in “higher” roles if they had the choice. A technician would want to be an engineer. A janitor would want to be a CEO.

There are a lot of studies on job happiness and one of the most consistent correlations is that people are happier when they get more immediate feedback. Like if you cut people’s hair or fix mechanical issues or wire up electronic boxes, you often resolve things in minutes, hours, days, or weeks depending the specific task, and with progress along the way, so you get that quick feedback loop where you see the positive results of your work quickly and tangibly. Nothing lingers, unclear and vague.

And for those jobs, often when you’re outside of work hours, you’re truly out. You don’t have to think about it. You can fully devote your focus elsewhere. There’s not some major thing hanging over your head, other than sometimes financial stress or indirect things.

Now, obviously jobs with more complexity and compensation and scale give people other benefits. More material comfort and safety, more power to impact the world at scale, more public prestige, etc. and for some people that’s important for happiness, and for others it is not. And the cost is that it’s generally highly competitive, rarely if ever turns off, and usually comes with much slower and more vague feedback loops in terms of seeing or feeling whether your work is making things better or not.

There was a time in my life where wiring up electronic boxes was really satisfying. Each project had a practical purpose but then also was kind of an artform since I wanted it to look neat for aesthetic and maintainability purposes. I would work on these things like a bonsai enthusiast would sculpt bonsai. And then eventually I would design larger systems and have technicians wire them instead, but for some of the foundational starting points I’d still set up the initial core pieces to get it started right. I wasn’t thrilled when I realistically had to give that up when I moved into management for a while.

I have a housekeeper clean my house every couple weeks. She’s a true pro; she used to clean high-end hotels for years and now works for herself cleaning houses. When we travel, she can let herself in and clean our place, since we trust her.

She doesn’t speak much English, but her daughter does, and that daughter recently graduated college.

Notably, she consistently sings while she cleans. She could listen to music or podcasts but doesn’t. She just sings every time she cleans. I can tell she’s generally in a state of flow while cleaning. She’s good at what she does, and it’s kind of a meditative experience involving repetition but also experience to do it properly and efficiently and then a satisfying conclusion of leaving things better than how they were found. Turning chaos to order.

Last year she was hit by a truck while driving, and had to be out of work for a few months to recover. When she came back, we just back-paid her the normal rate for those few months as though she cleaned on schedule, so she wouldn’t have any income gap from us. Full pay despite a work gap. She was shocked when we did that. We weren’t sure her financial situation (I assume it’s pretty good actually based on her rate), but basically we just treated the situation as though she were salaried with benefits even though she works on a per-job basis. Because skilled, trustworthy, and happy people are hard to come by and worth helping and maintaining connections with.

If I were to guess, I honestly think she is a happier person than I am on a day to day basis. It’s not that I’m unhappy; it’s that I think whatever percentage I might be on the subjective mood scale, she is visibly higher. I experience a state of flow in my work, and my type of work gives me a more frequent state of flow than other work I could do, but I think her work gives her an even higher ratio of flow.

Anyway, my point is that optionality is important. While it’s true that some jobs suck and some jobs are awesome, and financial security matters a lot, for the most part it’s more about how suited you are for a particular type of work at a particular phase in your life. And you’re not defined by your work; it’s just one facet of who you are among several facets.

Find what gives you a good state of flow, pays your bills, lets you save a surplus, and lets you express yourself in one way or another.

Be more like #theNostr, you damn bluechecks.

yo dawg, I've heard you like reticulum so we've put the creator of reticulum into your reticulum

nostr:note1n7mmcl784xqeu475hx26kkw569wkzx8xh93pgp5dn684famacnhsgl5eq5

yeah a long time ago he did that for my profile pic too. I picked the fire one. it's great

One of my favourite artists here