jimmysong

Bitcoin Expert
Open-Source Coder
Follow me to learn #BTC

Author of 5 Bitcoin books

Fiat Ruins Everything: https://fiatruinseverything.com

PGP: C1D7 97BE 7D10 5291 228C D70C FAA6 17E3 2

Public Key

npub10vlhsqm4qar0g42p8g3plqyktmktd8hnprew45w638xzezgja95qapsp42

NIP-05 Address

jimmysong@programmingbitcoin.com

NIP-57 Address

jimmysong@primal.net

Profile Code

nprofile1qqs8k0mcqd6sw3h524qn5gslszt9am9knmes3uh268dgnnpv3yfwj6qpp4mhxue69uhkummn9ekx7mqpzemhxue69uhky6t5vdhkjmn9wgh8xmmrd9skcddk482

Publishing to

nos.lol

bitcoiner.social

relay.damus.io

Author Public Key

npub10vlhsqm4qar0g42p8g3plqyktmktd8hnprew45w638xzezgja95qapsp42

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Last Notes

2024-11-05 19:42:08

Painful truth: The stock market is mostly derivatives of the dollar.

2024-11-04 21:06:42

The normie liberal culture is in huge decline, as can be seen in the insanity of the two-tiered justice system, hookup culture, safe spaces and the like.
But there are pockets of different cultures out there like church which are a lot more healthy. Survival will soon mean getting into those cultures and not staying in the mainstream death culture.

2024-11-04 15:17:31

Free issue for the first Monday of the month!
Everyone's a Bank, Sahara is greening, Republican Origins of Lawfare, Costless Signaling, Discrete Log Equality Proofs, Using LN to pay for Solutions using ZKPs, MSTR's $42B raise and more!
#Bitcoin Tech Talk #420
https://jimmysong.substack.com/p/bitcoin-tech-talk-420

2024-11-03 21:06:02

2016: A New Hope
2020: Empire Strikes Back
2024: Return of the ...
Almost feels like someone wrote a script.

2024-11-03 20:14:00

I'm starting to hate the autocorrect on my phone. Seems to screw up every Nostr post.

2024-11-03 15:13:57

The presidency that everyone in obsessed about us the centralized power point that everyone in competing for.
Decentralization in superior. In might wake some time, but the rest of society will come around to this idea.

2024-11-02 22:43:10

I don't miss drinking or carbs.

2024-11-01 23:23:25

The host difficult moral stands to wake are when everyone else disagrees, on worse when they think you are unkind in holding your stance. Bet such are the demands of morality that expediency of seeing someone be happy in not enough to swap your judgement.

2024-10-31 21:35:21

If you're wanting to support the Palestinian Christians in the West Bank, here is your chance. These are descendants of some of the first followers of Christ that still live in Bethlehem and they make nativity sets and jewelry made from the olive wood that grows in the area. Unfortunately, they're not exactly tech savvy and you need to contact them personally, but message me if you'd like to purchase them. Also, thanks to my friend Fadi, I've convinced them to take Bitcoin.
Many of the people in this Christian community have been suffering a lot the past few years due to the collapse of tourism, especially around Christmas. They're also a minority in a largely Muslim area which make their faith that much more remarkable. Please support them if you can!
https://m.primal.net/LocI.jpg https://m.primal.net/LocJ.jpg https://m.primal.net/LocL.jpg

2024-10-30 19:39:38

It's crazy how many restrictions we accept on real estate. Not only zoning laws, but property taxes, eminent domain, even condo associations. I'm not sure it's even possible to get truly unencumbered property.
This is why Bitcoin will beat real estate as a store of value.

2024-10-30 12:54:25

The arguments against ossification are almost entirely around new stuff that devs want to build.
If that's the priority, why don't you build it on Liquid or Lightning or some other place that's not the base layer? Liquid in particular has a very similar system as L1 and on testnet, they have Simplicity enabled, which should get you pretty much any primitive you want that's not Turing complete. If your idea is so great, why don't you show the benefits of your idea by building elsewhere? Your argument for why you want a soft fork would be a lot better received if you showed evidence that the thing you want to build actually has a robust market.
If the reason why you won't build on another layer is that it's too cumbersome or difficult, then I have zero sympathy for your plight.

2024-10-29 18:38:53

Understand that not everyone values freedom.
For a lot of people freedom can be stifling. This is because there's an inbuilt assumption that given freedom, you have to make optimal choices to make that freedom worthwhile and in that space of decisions making is a deep anxiety, one that blames you for any bad choices you make.

2024-10-28 15:04:56

For free subscribers: History of Dollar Financial Deplatforming, Venture Capital Destruction, Accountability Sinks, Rhodesia, Ossification and more!
For paid subscribers: Client Side Validation, Spark, Tando, Pubky, USD interest paid in BTC and more!
#Bitcoin Tech Talk #421
https://jimmysong.substack.com/p/bitcoin-tech-talk-421

2024-10-27 21:15:09

I, for one, would love tariffs instead of income taxes. Consumption taxes are generally way more fair.

2024-10-26 21:43:12

Logic only wins where rhetoric has cleared the path.

2024-10-24 22:16:56

Spend your time on high EV actions. Sadly almost all Twitter drama is low EV

2024-10-21 14:11:08

For free subscribers: Colleges becoming more female, Millenial Smugness, Therapy Industrial Complex, Laziness Spiral of Doom, Rhetoric vs Dialectic and more!
For paid subscribers: Silent Payment HWW Considerations, Group Channel Opens, ECB Paper on BTC, Bitcoin Backed Credit Cards and more!
#Bitcoin Tech Talk #419
https://jimmysong.substack.com/p/bitcoin-tech-talk-419

2024-10-19 16:53:12

Capitalism or a free market economy is the natural state of things. It is the default, not an upheaval of a different order. It is every other system, Communism, Socialism, Corporatism, etc which are forced modifications to the natural order.

2024-10-18 19:25:34

It's crazy to me that data breaches don't result in bigger payouts for the people whose data has been compromised.

2024-10-16 22:27:44

The etymology of the word educate has its roots in Latin with "ducit" which means to lead. The idea of education, then is to lead young people. But where are they being led?

2024-10-14 18:46:39

Destruction of the old order is inevitable. We just have to outlast them.

2024-10-13 12:04:23

The. bankers run the world. It's Bitcoin that frees us from their control.

2024-10-12 23:36:00

Fiat money forces you to worship it if you hope to keep any of it.
Our struggle for sound money is at core, a spiritual one.

2024-10-11 19:21:57

Every politician promises to clean up the mess in Washington. The problem is they can't because the money created the mess and the money ain't getting fixed.

2024-10-09 00:44:25

Low key global economy risk is what happens when China enters stagflation.

2024-10-07 17:44:14

Fiat money is deeply nihilistic. At core, it's the idea that you can create value from nothing, and by extension, meaning from nothing. In a subtle way it concedes the metaphysical ground, that nothing is the default state, hence trivializing anything and everything. Denial of reality is its inevitable end.

2024-10-07 15:17:22

Free issue for the first Monday of the month!
Zombie Companies, Nihilistic Ironic Detachment, Life of Virtue, Rent-seeking Research, DATUM, BIP85 Drama, Diamond Hands Wallet, Lightning Piggy, Decoy Wallets and more!
#Bitcoin Tech Talk #417
https://jimmysong.substack.com/p/bitcoin-tech-talk-417

2024-10-06 14:19:34

Centralized restrictions are never used purely for good. It may start out that way, but the longer such institutions exist, the more corrupt they get, until they get reformed, and the cycle repeats.
Decentralized institutions generally improve over time as the markets punish the bad.
This is why Nostr and Bitcoin will win.

2024-10-05 17:06:00

I talked to @npub1du6…yf3c and started started on a series where we'll try to make a product. We talked in part 1 about strategy, the different concerns you should have at this stage of idea development and what you want to have produced by the end of it. We did this with an idea I had for being a Bitcoin bank for my friends and family.
https://rumble.com/v5gluor-bitcoin-fixes-this-128-building-a-product-part-1-with-will-cole.html

2024-10-04 22:28:42

The most enjoyable conversations are ones when you are giving shape to an idea to solve a problem. And if you have the right kind of conversation partners, you go to a place where none of you could have gotten alone.
That's my takeaway from Global Bitcoin Summit 2024

2024-10-04 00:50:09

Sketch of a protocol I discussed with @npub1xts…kk5s for proving storage of a file.
before uploading, select 32 random bytes from the file, store their indices and the sha256 hash. do this 1000 more times (select 32 different random byes, calc sha256).
upload the file to the server. every day, ask for the hash of the 32 bytes at the indices stored from the server. if it matches transfer some sats. if not the server no longer has the file. you can check for 1000 days.

2024-10-03 19:18:35

Nostr is 3 years old It's like Bitcoin in 2012.

2024-10-03 18:53:11

Twitter: USD
Threads: ETH
Nostr: BTC

2024-10-03 15:58:58

The big hurdle in Bitcoin education seems to be that it's intimidating and scary.

2024-10-02 21:37:39

Freedom dies gradually then suddenly. If its not protected with vigilence, freedom dies.

2024-10-02 15:23:03

Just heard from Marco (a Bitcoiner) in Lebanon via video about the situation there. What struck me was his optimism.
In the midst of hyperinflation and war, Bitcoin offers hope.

2024-10-01 22:52:33

- reply

You can if you use FROST. You can be the dealer and send keys that need to sign to each server. 3-of-3 is possible, but you can also do arbitrary k-of-n.

2024-10-01 16:06:08

I've been saying for a while that IBM is a zombie company. I had no idea how bad it was until I read this:
https://www.reddit.com/r/IBM/comments/1fqt826/why_are_any_of_us_still_here_ibm_is_dying_and_we/

2024-09-30 20:46:25

The main deception of authorities in general and regulators in particular is that gatekeeping is a net benefit. It sounds reasonable, for example for certain goods and services to have to go through some examination before being brought on the market, particularly if it has some potential for harm.
And at first, that may even work, and certain dangerous goods and services not brought to market as a result of the gatekeeping. But as regulion ages, not only does gatekeeping keep out dangerous goods and services, but also new and innovative goods and services. This is due in part to the capture by the incumbents that have influence over the gatekeeping, but also due to the burden that increases as the bureaucracy around the gatekeeping grows. Indeed, the incumbents often collude with regulators to make it so that nothing can get through the gatekeeping except the incumbents, often getting carve outs for "legacy" institutions that got past the gatekeepers when the requirements were much more lax.
Gatekeeping ultimately then makes everything static and becomes a giant rent-seeking operation, where payment to the rent-seekers become licensees who refuse to issue new licenses. Competition slowly disappears, through mergers, bankruptcies and so on until there's only a few players, who, being critical to the economy as the only providers, get bailouts when they are in trouble.
Such has been the fate of many different industries where a few giant companies dominate. Industries as diverse as Banking, Airlines, Health Care, and Food Production all operate in something like a pseudo fascist manner. Note that I use fascist here in the original definition, where companies are essentially directed by the government.
Gatekeeping, in other words, is the first step toward tyranny and it should be opposed on philosophical grounds.

2024-09-30 14:25:47

For free subscribers: Male Feminism, Paganization, Fiat AI, Gaslit Art and more!
For paid subscribers: Shielded Client-Side Validation, Bolt12 Merge, Lightning Tx Censorship, HeatPunk Manifesto and more!
#Bitcoin Tech Talk #416
https://jimmysong.substack.com/p/bitcoin-tech-talk-416

2024-09-30 02:16:26

Hardware is the next frontier for open source.

2024-09-29 14:33:35

Forgiveness is hard, but do it for the sake of your soul.

2024-09-29 01:55:27

Are there any Nostr clients that don't have such a present bias? I'd like to see older posts that have been popular and continue to get engagement as that's probably the most evergreen content.
Wisdom > hot takes.

2024-09-28 17:39:26

The software that civilization runs on has a lot of bugs and incompatibilities.

2024-09-27 20:11:06

Every central bank is a vampire, sucking the life out of the economy and turning many other institutions that get bailed out into vampires as well.

2024-09-26 21:11:51

The best posts have a lot of affordances. That is different directions where the conversation can go.

2024-09-25 19:41:18

Technologies show your politics. There is no neutral anymore

2024-09-25 16:40:27

Decentralized Capitalism > anarchocapitalism

2024-09-24 17:22:18

We are inundates with propaganda in normal everyday life.
Anything with a gatekeeper will be mostly propaganda.
This is why we Nostr.

2024-09-24 03:19:34

Santa Claus
Tooth Fairy
Modern Monetary Theory

2024-09-23 21:25:41

Plausible deniability is the worst form of defoecting blame. The fact that so many people use it as a license to screw others seems to be a fiat consequence.

2024-09-23 20:13:07

- reply

Diversity is needed in fiction. It's hard to tell a story when every character has the same PoV. But it need not be the gender/race/sexual orientation diversity that's constantly pushed. At least for me, the far more interesting diversity is one of morals, belief and goals. The best stories at least in my opinion, have some moral dilemma at the crux and you can't get that without some conflict.
Anyway, I'd love to read stories you publish, Lyn.

2024-09-23 14:27:07

For free subscribers: libertarian fail, half-assed religion, cholesterol lies, game theory of feminism and more!
For paid subscribers: mainnet Ark Tx, UTXO ZKP, SuperScalar, Proof of Reserves and more!
#Bitcoin Tech Talk #415
https://open.substack.com/pub/jimmysong/p/bitcoin-tech-talk-415

2024-09-22 14:36:28

Inflation is resisted by every actor as much as possible. That is, sticky prices are a real thing and preserving the status quo a big part of contracts and planning. So prices are held down as much as possible, through scale, debasement, shortages and the like. But even after all that when the prices go up, politicians typically demand even more concessions, accusing goods and service providers of greed.
It's such rank hypocrisy given that it's the politicians greed which creates the inflation in the first place.

2024-09-20 21:50:08

inflation is a hidden tax. this is why so many people feel so blindsided by it, but tis ultimately the result of deficit spending through loans.

2024-09-20 19:08:03

It really doesn't take much to make me happy.
https://m.primal.net/KvxD.bin

2024-09-20 13:37:47

50 basis points is honestly not very much. But you can bet that there are going to be a lot more cuts behind it.
Current central banker dilemma is between recession and inflation, but they pivoted from fighting inflation a little too late to stave off recession.

2024-09-19 17:20:25

I'm still seriously offended by the lockdowns, the ban on all sorts of innocuous activities and the complete destruction of civil liberties.
And no, I won't let this go.

2024-09-19 16:16:21

I talked to Ella and Lisa Hough about raising Bitcoiners.
Find out how Lisa raised Ella to be the high agency, independent and responsible young woman she's become!
https://rumble.com/v5f5ov9-bitcoin-fixes-this-127-raising-bitcoiners-with-lisa-and-ella-hough.html

2024-09-19 00:55:02

Are there any Nostr clients that are relationship-centered instead of content centered?

2024-09-18 16:17:17

Any day that starts with a deadlift is a win, guaranteed.

2024-09-18 01:40:24

Nostr, like Bitcoin, only needs to survive as the other centralized competitors blow themselves up over time.

2024-09-17 18:34:05

All positivist law, which grant positive rights such as the right to health care or housing, or food, inevitably lead to some form of slavery. This is because such goods and services must be provided by someone.
No positive rights exist, they are a political fiction to get support from compliant people.

2024-09-17 01:31:49

It's not where you start, but where you finish.

2024-09-17 00:40:14

Content that you dont pay for is advertising.
Pay for valu.

2024-09-16 14:55:13

So the golf round was a last-minute decision yet the shooter somehow knew and brought his guns and a camera to record himself.
The shooter was recruiting people to be a mercenary in Ukraine.
So a black ops guy, most likely that got a tip to go shoot Trump.
Someone in the deep state wants civil war, really, really bad.

2024-09-16 14:27:37

For free subscribers: Fitting in, Blue Zones are Lies, Volunteers as Health Signals, People stuck with Purple Pills and more!
For paid subscribers: NOIST, BOLT12 Decoder, Law of Ossification, 6.6 BTC Claimed and more!
#Bitcoin Tech Talk #414
https://open.substack.com/pub/jimmysong/p/bitcoin-tech-talk-414

2024-09-15 19:44:18

- reply

Here's the article that it's from https://substack.com/home/post/p-148148075

2024-09-15 14:28:28

Fiat people are scared to be called Nazis, racist, sexist, homophobic, anti-trans, or any number of labels.
Once you overcome this fear, then you'll be truly free to think for yourself.

2024-09-15 11:01:36

- reply

prayer is the next obvious step then.

2024-09-14 19:47:17

The state is an agent of death and destruction. Thus, the bigger it grows, the more death and destruction it leaves in its wake. Conversely, the more restrained it is, the more life and creation can happen.
The thief steals kills and destroys.

2024-09-14 03:25:25

- reply

Glad to hear that. The next action isn't about adopting organized religion, it's about prayer.

2024-09-13 22:46:33

China will inflate first and that will make inflation a bit more manageable for the US.
Also true of every US trading partner. They dont call it an exorbitant privilege for nothing.

2024-09-13 02:04:15

- reply

How do you even find out about these things? I suspect people I've orange pilled in the past have gone full retard altcoin, but I can never tell, because it's not like they come back around to me and tell me that they've lost all their money, or worse, that they're pumping something else.

2024-09-12 22:29:17

- reply

I published this here some time ago, but here it is again. You can find the PGP key fingerprint in my X profile (as well as many other places). You have to substitute the npub in my profile with the at jimmysong in the string below.
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA512
I, Jimmy Song, attest that this is my Nostr Public Key: @jimmysong
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
iQEzBAEBCgAdFiEEwdeXvn0QUpEijNcM+qYX4yZ55FUFAmPcw90ACgkQ+qYX4yZ5
5FVNSwf+I+LMBsxa21fgGydqVrlewu9eW2+0XXF9V4w4+eZ1up13adbTo6MtkB07
nfO0QnX0w71KahcrQ8rOlvkY6E5k5ELBq9ft3vOV6zKsDaoIhSD34EbWgTOcFCkK
femb1RWGdQJ2mDgO1gWG84sb71s8H70vOiRI5Bl4QDBi/iCA5CovqsF2PhlXVu9g
l2nqIr67ILqZGPEX/k+t8WkQXvbUJZBY9VhF6ffTRztmqNTDUs1Jghjtr3p7uscF
6ZpI9NKbke1ZcfIRRDwr0+vKaUvUwBHjlRiQtWdcX2Km9N1gYuKQSY9Q55bk7Dn1
U4I5Izc69em5w/2HJj6hxkVvU4dFZw==
=ngfe
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

2024-09-12 21:25:20

We've gone from an academic culture that explored and dove deep to find the truth to a culture that tells you where you're not allowed to go.
Gatekeeping is almost always a function of preserving the status quo.

2024-09-12 17:09:26

I talked to @npub1dtg…up6m about Virtue, Vice and his upcoming book. There was a lot of conversation about Nietzche, Christianity, Bushido and much more.
https://rumble.com/v5e2f64-bitcoin-fixes-this-126-virtue-and-vice-with-aleks-svetski.html

2024-09-11 21:15:32

Laws and courts are supposed to give people justice. Instead, now it's a place for government show trials against their political enemies.

2024-09-10 19:54:05

AI vs Bitcoin
The AI hype has been non-stop for the last 2 years ever since ChatGPT came out with its 3.0 chat. Since then, there's been an insane amount of investment into AI tech from every direction. There are hundreds of startups, every tech giant has been making investments and companies in between have been putting a lot of money toward it as well. It's not a small amount, either, as the AI hardware costs make Bitcoin mining look like discount bargains.
Yet after two years, what have we to show for it? Maybe some faster image editing on newer phones? Slightly faster answers to questions you would normally ask Google? Some productivity increase among junior programmers? The investment was enormous, as can clearly be seen in NVIDIA's growth, but the results are pretty underwhelming. As with any hyped technology, the possibilities have run past the actual use.
One of the supposed benefits of fiat money is that capital accumulation is unnecessary to create real value. You can build roads, for example, without having to save up for it. What this misses are many obvious drawbacks, but one of them is that there has to be someone that evaluates whether something will create value and create the money out of thin air to fund the project. This is not just inherently centralizing, but also deeply political.
For whatever reason, AI passed this political test and got the blessing of the money printers, which, to a company that sells, shovels like NVIDIA has been great news. But the drawback is that there's bound to be at least *some* that don't pan out. Maybe some segment of the economy can't use AI profitably, for example. Yet the powers that be, mostly Cantillionaires, have decided that this is worthwhile and have poured insane amounts of money into this bet.
But much like hyped tech of the past, it's looking more and more likely that there's little profit to be made here. Yes, there's some useful things that can be made, but the costs are simply too high right now to justify spending that much. It's a luxury item that mostp people simply don't need, and hence don't want to pay for. AI has become an expensive solution looking for costly problems to solve.
This was always my analysis with another hyped tech: blockchain. It never really made any sense as the cost was too high for what was really just a distributed, very redundant but hard to upgrade database. It, too, couldn't find costly problems to solve, with the exception of one. That, of course being Bitcoin.
What differentiates Bitcoin from AI is that people *need* Bitcoin. It's its own killer app. AI is not so popular that people will pay for what it costs right now. And that means that most of the investment will be wasted. Like most hyped things in a fiat economy, it's doomed to have significant malinvestment.
A lot of people complain about Bitcoin businesses and how hard it is to make them profitable. In a sense, I get it. You want more people to have steady jobs and so on. But in another sense, I think this is the market speaking. You're not going to get paid from Bitcoiners easily and there's no flood of printed money looking for a place to go. At least there won't be once fiat money has run its course. Building a profitable company is hard and so few meet that mark, especially in a new segment as AI has shown.
So in that way, I'm encouraged, because the companies that survive in Bitcoin will have something truly worthwhile. By contrast, the companies that survive in AI will probably be the ones that get subsidized the longest.

2024-09-10 19:09:35

Sometimes the hardest times are the times you cherish the most later. Because that's when you find out the most about yourself, good and bad.

2024-09-10 02:49:57

There's little incentive for centralized platforms to ban bots.
There are lots of incentive for relays to ban bots.

2024-09-09 19:38:34

It is so hard to gain weight as a carnivore. I have to seriously overeat to even gain a couple pounds. And one day of slip up, I lose the weight gain. It's like the inverse of the standard american diet.

2024-09-08 23:27:08

Every video, book, article, even platform is a window through which you perceive reality. Some are less manipulative than others, but the cost is paid at the front end by how the window is framed.

2024-09-08 19:19:45

Don't focus on finding "a place" for yourself. If you care too much about fitting in, you'll inevitably get compromised into the values of the gatekeepers.

2024-09-07 16:58:50

Every 20th century leader that advocated and pushed for war has been, in my estimation, caused immense human suffering for not much gain, despite what the propagandists will tell you.
They were bloodthirsty warmongers and should be looked at with contempt.

2024-09-07 00:10:02

Politics:
Tyranny by your guy is unacceptable.
Tyranny by my guy is ok.

2024-09-06 16:26:45

I canceled my credit card of 29 years yesterday.
As rates go up, fiat mechanisms like credit cards make less and less sense. One of the realities of hyperinflation is that ironically, there's no consumer credit to be had anywhere.
I've always thought that Bitcoin as method of payment would come about when merchants demand it. Now I'm thinking that there might be some pressure on the consumer side as well, as the cost of credit cards goes up.

2024-09-05 19:43:07

You don't understand propaganda if you think you're immune to it.
The dumb people continue their exposure thinking their rational facilities will make them immune. "I read the New York Times because I want to know what my opponents are thinking!"
The smart people decrease their exposure and don't engage in the framing.

2024-09-04 16:51:00

Thinking from first principles is hard. Not the logic, but the conclusions. If they're against the main narrative, you are going to be called a conspiracy theorist or weirdo or wack job. The social isolation and peer disapproval is the hardest part.
This is where you need to let go of that desire to fit in and be well thought of by the normies. It's hard work, but worth it for the intellectual freedom.

2024-09-03 22:35:40

All these bureaucrats think that banning speech on these centralized platforms will get everyone to see only the info they want you to see. I kinda hope they succeed so Nostr can show just how wrong they are.

2024-09-03 20:27:54

With phones in everyone's pockets, we've eliminated boredom.
But also eliminated contemplation along with it.

2024-09-02 15:45:24

Free issue for the first Monday of the month!
Nobody wants happiness, Home Ownership Incentives, Mandibles Review, FROST DKG, MPP Simulator, Pig Butchering, IMF on El Salvador and more!
#Bitcoin Tech Talk #412
https://jimmysong.substack.com/p/bitcoin-tech-talk-412

2024-09-01 20:24:43

Anything rising in price is absorbing the money being put into the market.
Human progress is deflationary.

2024-08-31 22:17:43

The Mandibles: A Review
Dystopian books have a fine tradition. 1984, Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451. These are classics because they give a glimpse of what people fear and give voice to the dread that lurks underneath the doldrums of the day-to-day.
I heard about Mandibles from some Bitcoin podcasts about how it "predicted" some economic ills that we're facing now, and given that I hadn't read modern fiction in some time, I decided to give it a go.
The book is, as the author describes it, a different kind of dystopia, one that's economic in nature than scientific (post-apocalyptic wasteland), environmental (asteroid or climate disaster) or political (authoritarian oppression). It's set in 2029-2049 and imagines a world where fiat games have gone haywire and have resulted in economic disaster. The book follows 4 generations of a single family, the Mandibles, whose wealth has been wiped out from the economic reset.
It's a delicious setup. There are so many possible things to explore in this world and much opportunity to explain how bad economic policy choices lead to bad outcomes later on. I wanted to like the book. I wanted to be able to recommend it as reading for people that were just getting into Bitcoin, to be able to use as a warning of what could be if we kept our theft-based economic system.
Unfortunately, the book misses more often than it hits. The economic disasters in the movie are heavy handed and presume an all powerful government. In that sense, what could have been an economic dystopian story just ended up being a subset of a political dystopian story. There is some good dialogue about how the system works, but precious little thought seemed to have gone into how those systems would break or what would cause it to break.
So much of the book is spent on the economic disasters that befall the members of the Mandible family, which is to give you the impression that this is what could happen to everyone when the economy breaks. But so much of it doesn't make much sense, like a well to do family selling their house but not their stocks and being forced to live with their cousins. There's also the continued existence and perfect functioning of the internet, TV and futuristic mobile phones, but somehow there are food shortages everywhere. There are lines for things all over the place, but no mention of price controls or government subsidies that create them.
I found that I most liked the parts where the internal monologues of the family were articulated. The emotional turmoil and subsequent action and motivation in interpersonal relationships between characters in the book were the best parts. I wish the author had put in that much thought into the actual economic system and how it would actually collapse than declaring it did so for the convenience of the plot. There was just a little too much deux ex machina in the book for me to really get into the story.

2024-08-30 18:52:22

Environmentalism is a religion.
God is earth/nature.
The apocalypse is climate change.
Sins are your carbon footprint.
Redemption is for garbage (recycling), not for your soul.
It's sad that such a hopeless religion has become so popular. No wonder adherents are so depressed.

2024-08-29 18:32:10

According to Zuckerberg, the FBI was pressuring them constantly to censor in 2020-2021. They couldn't speak up about it for a host of reasons, mostly around the fact that they are a centralized entity that has to do what the governing authorities tell them.
Extrapolating out, we can assume that such shenanigans have been and continue to be at play for every centralized company to keep the regime's narrative going. This is why Nostr is so important.

2024-08-28 21:19:36

I thank God every day that I can work in Bitcoin.
It's rare for people to find an intersection of what they're good at, what they can get paid for, what they enjoy and what makes a difference.
To all of you who are here. Thank you.

2024-08-27 21:21:33

What is your relationship with the truth? This is not an ivory tower theoretical angels on the head of a pin question. Your relationship with truth determines your relationship with everything else.
Most people at least publicly say that they want the truth and seek after it. If you don't profess that, it's hard for anyone to trust you. And without trust, it's really hard to have any sort of relationship.
Yet for most people, power is the priority. When prioritized, it's a nihilistic Neitzchean value, and it can be effective. But it's also highly destructive and sociopathic. Admitting to such is not going to win you friends. So the modern values system tends to be lip service to truth while pursuing power. We can see it all around us with politicians, CEOs, journalists and academia. Pretty much any centralized organization where power is in the hands of a few have at the top one or more people that pursued power to get there.
Power is seductive. And it's easy to see why people pursue it. But to do so at the expense of truth, where truth becomes secondary destroys, not just these people's souls but the organization that they create. Ill-gotten power doesn't last.

2024-08-27 02:16:41

Children are the ultimate flex.

2024-08-26 22:58:42

Centralized platforms are rulers, whose rules change on whim and enforced arbitrarily.
Decentralized protocols are rules, which are consistently applied.