AndreyBelyakov
Andrey Belyakov

Russian (not supporter of Putin!) writing about marketing, self-help, biochemistry, time-management & productivity, genre movies and TV shows.

Public Key

npub10gz5wa2zpnarrwyl7q2nk24t6hksckzej8uwug5u08e8mjjavdeq39tf0y

NIP-05 Address

andreybelyakov@iris.to

NIP-57 Address

andreybelyakov@getalby.com

Profile Code

nprofile1qqs85p28w4pqe733hz0lq9fm924atmgvtpver78wy2w8nunaefwkxus5k68va

Author Public Key

npub10gz5wa2zpnarrwyl7q2nk24t6hksckzej8uwug5u08e8mjjavdeq39tf0y

Show more details

Last Notes

2024-10-12 13:08:14

- reply

I've only started listening to Alex Hormozi (who did quite annoyingly over-saturate internet with his presence over last couple of years) recently and I think he definitely has quite smart and useful ideas about marketing, sales and productivity, regardless of whether he does exaggerate his net worth (I personally try to exclude all thoughts of somebody's wealth from equation, because there are so many wealthy idiots and poor geniuses).
As for separate topic of multi-millionaires not retiring I personally completely understand it as a person who had kind of a mini-retirement and did no work for money for 6 years while being quite young (early thirties).
In myself and other people I knew who were living similar lives I've seen scary cognitive decline which in my opinion can be much more pronounced with age.
So in my opinion commerce for a lot of people is a very important tool for mental and even physical (because they are connected) fitness.

2024-07-29 15:45:23

- reply

Both video games and chemical stimulants like amphetamine and cocaine are actually artificial surrogates for work and natural dopamine it produces — which is why work should zap (why not use this word) you like mix of amphetamine and gaming, not make you chronically tired.

2024-07-29 15:42:16

There's definitely something to this.
#note16uc…w4up

2024-07-28 16:16:06

Work and commerce are like a video game, but with real money and for that reason more interesting.
By remind yourself of this view (which I personally had adopted from the start of my working life in 2005) you get tired much less and gain energy from work much more often.

2024-07-26 06:00:47

- reply

P.P.S.: Self-help author Randy Gage said that in ideal world «As a man thinketh» should be selling for $10 000 - $15 000.
I agree and add that the same is true for «Tao Te Ching».

2024-07-24 12:44:18

- reply

Yep. If you talk to people, even ones who work in IT and finance and should be qualified (and should already understand Bitcoin and be selling you on it), about Bitcoin, a lot of them start to avoid you like plague! A lot of normies are only now getting into stocks, which have existed for more than a century, and I won’t be surprised if they get into Bitcoin only after it has existed for a century.

2024-07-24 09:31:47

- reply

P.S.: Also both of these books are very short.
They can be read in a couple of hours.
Actually the audio version of «As a man thinketh» I like the most is the one I found on The Resilient Mind Podcast's feed and it's 55 minutes long — https://theresilientmind.podbean.com/e/as-a-man-thinketh-by-james-allen/
However the catch is that reading «Tao Te Ching» in one sitting is not the best for retention, it's better to make a lot of pauses to absorb the verses while reading it for the first time).

2024-07-24 08:17:12

- reply

I think the best things I get out of using at this point relatively buggy, slow, user-hostile ecosystem like Nostr are:
1) Feeling of freedom. Not walking on eggshells and being afraid of shadow-bans or deplatforming.
2) Feeling I am on fertile ground which is already producing a lot of growth, not just platform owned by one team and dependent on right and wrong decisions of aforementioned team (like Facebook, X and other old school corporate social platforms).
When I use Nostr, I feel like I'm following the wisdom of «skating to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been».

2024-07-24 02:23:11

The two books I recommend and gift to people the most right now are «As a man thinketh» by James Allen and «Tao Te Ching» by Lao Tzu.
Both I read shamefully late.
Both have the rare effect similar to injecting your brain with nootropic drug (like NZT from movie «Limitless»).
Both stood the test of time (first is 100+ years old, second — 2000+ years old)
Both should be re-read multiple times.

2024-07-22 13:40:37

I have first read about importance of social circle in forming one's personality and reality in self-help books as a teenager — and even without reading understood it just by looking around.
Yet I have excluded the last two toxic, radioactive people from my own social circle only 9 months ago — less than a year!
Why so late?
As I understand now, it seems that I used to have major problem with co-dependence (and probably still do to an extent) and also was used to and, honestly, addicted to frustration and arguing.
But accumulation of positive factors (better sleep, eating, intellectual diet, management of resources in all forms) caused me to at last break it off with my last two radioactive acquaintances.
As title of one of the manuscripts I'm working on right now says «Everything influences everything».

2024-07-18 03:28:54

- reply

Probably multiple causes which are hard to weight for sure at this point. Vaccine shots would be an obvious cause, because they are done at birth (as loony and tinfoil hat as it sounds in today's climate, I wouldn't be surprised if in 50-100 years data about their harm will be collected), a lot of artificial elements in environment (from artificial sweets over-consumed by children to lighting and technology) are likely a contributing factor, just like they are likely a contributing factor to a lot of mental health problems in adults. And also modern environment allows for more people to be diagnosed and treated differently instead of just living with their mental problems without knowing and speaking about them, which was more prevalent in the past.

2023-11-03 06:23:05

- reply

This is a good question and in my case the books that helped me the most WITH cultivating self-control and its important companion, emotional self-regulation, were not necessarily focused on the subject exclusively. I would say «Tao Te Ching» by Laozi and «As A Man Thinketh» by James Allen were the most important texts in this regard (both very short and re-readable). But also both of these skills are products of multiple elements like sleep, nutrition, meditation and others, so books on these subjects, for example «Mindfulness» by Mark Williams and Danny Penman, are useful in developing them.

2023-03-20 07:13:40

- reply

Yes, it doesn’t change, but the process of generating it in the first place is random (as I understand WoS combines 2 words and a number), unlike Alby where you can claim unused one, like when registering an email address.

2023-03-19 23:41:39

Alby (https://getalby.com) lets you choose a permanent lightning address (similar to e-mail address) — which Wallet of Satoshi generates for you randomly. Such wallet generated in Alby can be then imported into Blue Wallet and Zeus (as of now). It works and it’s a good promise of things to come on Lightning protocol.

2023-03-03 03:44:13

- reply

Probably Wallet of Satoshi (https://www.walletofsatoshi.com) is overall best and most well-liked by everybody. Also Alby browser plugin (https://getalby.com/) might be ok for Chrome and Firefox users.

2023-03-03 03:00:13

- reply

Same here. Installed and launched Bisq, was scared by confusing interface and never returned to it since.
Agree on Europe's direction, though some individual countries might go in the opposite direction and adopt super laissez-faire policies around Bitcoin and crypto.
I think I will probably learn to use more hardcore platforms like RoboSats (which is P2P and works over Tor) this year just out of curiosity and as a preparation for the times I might need it.

2023-03-03 02:36:53

Beating procrastination is tricky - even for a person very conscious of it, who read and even wrote a lot on the subject, like me.
As I mentioned before I was procrastinating starting to use and understand Bitcoin for 12 years - and might have been procrastinating it still if Putin didn't invade Ukraine and bury Russia in western sanctions (and the reasons my brain generated for procrastination were absurd - like for a couple of years I stopped process of buying first sats at the step of choosing the address type - which is a good argument to have only one address type in a mass market wallet, by the way).
How long I was procrastinating learning to play poker is harder to tell, but at least the last couple of years I did it.
A year ago in January I downloaded and watched some courses on Poker and borrowed a poker playing set from a friend - but haven't played ONE game for a year after that!
Right now I'm happy to say I have beat this process of procrastination by finding the lightning poker site https://lightning-poker.com/
It is kind of dead and unpopulated for a lot of hours of the day right now, but it has a cool minimalist interface and has tables with very small buy ins (200 and 400 sats) which is very convenient for a beginner (I think it is better for fun and learning process to play this game for real money from the beginning, and sats are perfect currency for this right now).
I think it will get more popular and maybe even this post will help this.
By the way, if you know and can recommend either other similar poker sites or clients, or just some resources on poker you think are valuable, write them in replies to this post.

2023-03-03 01:53:06

- reply

Update: Alby browser plugin (https://getalby.com/) lets you choose the lightning address for your wallet. The wallet generated by Alby can be imported into BlueWallet on the phone.

2023-03-03 01:46:36

- reply

The largest Russian aggregator of these sites is https://www.bestchange.com It includes not only local Russian sites, but also international ones, but a lot of those are restricted by laws of their jurisdictions. I have heard that good international options for buying with no KYC are HodlHodl, Bisq and RoboSats, but haven't tested them myself yet. A lot of info on these services can be found on the YouTube channel BTC Sessions.

2023-03-02 16:35:44

- reply

In Russia there are a lot of websites where you can buy BTC or other popular cryptocurrencies with no KYC. They are kind of in a gray zone legally so it might be risky to use them for large sums, but for small sums they are quite reliable. Also there are telegram bots for P2P exchange. In large cities like Moscow there are physical offices where Bitcoin can be bought for cash. I’ve seen a couple of ATMs on the maps, but don’t know if they are active. Even if they are they are quite rare.

2023-03-01 01:55:44

- reply

Zap away!

2023-03-01 01:50:37

- reply

In short I think it’s both, no algorithms and filters plus very specific demographic joining at this point.

2023-03-01 00:36:12

- reply

Wallet of Satoshi is probably the simplest one for beginners right now and it creates a lightning address automatically. Another interesting one is Alby browser plug in, which allows to create custom lightning address.

2023-02-28 20:17:44

Pondering the reasons I didn't get into Bitcoin - of which I knew from the very beginning from libertarian podcasters - much earlier, I find these key reasons, which, in my opinion, are quite typical:
1. There were no Michael Saylor and Saifedean Ammous to explain to me the unique value proposition of Bitcoin as improved digital gold (sadly most gold bug libertarians I was listening to couldn't clearly articulate it - and many do not understand it to this day).
2. My brain extremely exaggerated how complicated it is to use.
For some reason I thought I would lose my private key even though I rarely lost info in the past.
Also I let myself become confused by 3 types of addresses - for a couple of years, no joke, I was always interrupting my first attempt of buying sats at the point of choosing address type in the wallet (even though in reality any of the address types would work and there would be very little difference).
By the way, this is a good reason to recommend newbies wallets with only one address type and minimal element of choice in general.
3. I was spoiled by convenience of relatively stable, mature and plugged in Russian financial system which existed before 24.02.22 (if not for the invasion and following sanctions I might have been still finding an excuse to postpone my first steps).
Paradoxically as a libertarian dreaming of the day money will become private it took me 14 years to realize that honest private money had already been created in 2008!
Funny to think about how even those actively looking for something can be mentally blind to it for long periods of time.
P.S.: Will greatly appreciate zaps to help me meet my weekly BTC accumulation goals (and maybe also to play some poker with). Thanks.

2023-02-28 16:10:57

A little ashamed to admit it, but after knowing of Bitcoin since 2008-2009 from libertarian podcasters like Tom Woods (even though I didn’t understand it’s unique value proposition as an improved digital gold until very recently), I only got into stacking sats after Putin invaded Ukraine and Russia was kicked off from Visa, MasterCard, WU and PayPal. Right now my goal is to deposit 250’000 sats a week (which would add up to 1% of BTC a month) — which was no problem at $16’000 per Bitcoin but is a little more challenging now. So I will appreciate zaps helping me with this modest goal and will try to write something useful here, maybe share knowledge and experience in practical areas like online selling, time management, financial psychology, self-motivation etc (I mostly create content on these topics in my native Russian language, but maybe Nostr is a chance to practice writing in English).

2023-02-28 00:53:32

- reply

lnbc500u1p3l6n7cpp5qz8txxvlrgkyt3g6fpfpupqwgdjvz0e0tegyun63zf92ymea7ylqdqu2askcmr9wssx7e3q2dshgmmndp5scqzpgxqyz5vqsp534922y5pxg69h4fczusdsxpwvp98zu644lq6gs96tk5w2cmv3khs9qyyssqz4n7hl7tgfe7hrl8ktslxtmu8swke5xl6j0dqvqepkk7telgzmdhzu84vqudavdsgs6a3cwmccu8c40dmznraw7r4fuqnatcfdpdrqgp90m44j

2023-02-28 00:52:11

- reply

Just learned how to create an invoice for a certain amount, so might as well post it.

2023-02-27 13:58:42

- reply

I’m actually kind of a newbie on lightning wallets myself, learning as I go. I think some of them do generate similar permanent address, but don’t remember which. BTC Sessions on YouTube probably has the most videos on different lightning wallets.

2023-02-27 13:47:07

- reply

In the Wallet of Satoshi you can press receive and then choose a lightning address, which is similar in format to an e-mail, and should work multiple times, unlike lightning invoice which apparently only works one time only.

2023-02-27 13:33:09

At last watched «One Hour Photo» by Mark Romanek with Robin Williams in the lead role from 2002 (only took me 20 years to get to this one, which might be for the best, at least I watched it in 1080p, widescreen and English language, not on VHS from a video rental with a cropped 4:3 picture and Russian dubbing).
Was really surprised and impressed by it’s modern Kubrickian style in the vein of Jonathan Glazer and Sean Ellis.
Williams was brilliant and reminded me of young DeNiro in «Taxi Driver» and «King of Comedy», but even more realistic and understated (the film itself is in the same subgenre as these two — character study of a disturbed loner).

2023-02-27 12:59:59

- reply

Thanks for zap, really appreciated.

2023-02-27 12:50:52

- reply

Changed to a Lightning address, which should not expire, in theory.

2023-02-27 12:24:48

- reply

Actually yes, because it’s very simple, traditional and short, a modern take on «Rear Window». But actually it’s quite hard to say, what is the best entrance into his filmography, because the films are very different. My personal favorites are «No Sudden Moves» and «Unsane», but for most people probably his less experimental and more Hollywood style movies like «Out of Sight» and Ocean’s trilogy would work better as entrances.

2023-02-27 12:15:28

- reply

The most uncontroversial definition is that most or possibly all crypto assets excluding Bitcoin are unregistered securities, because they have teams that control them and can be hard-forked. Bitcoin is the only one that achieved neutral and impersonal status, resistant to being hard-forked by any person or group of people, so it’s the only proven digital commodity as Saylor and Gensler point out. Because of other crypto-assets being unregistered and unregulated securities, they should be approached with extreme caution at least and are probably not a great place to invest for normal people until regulation and proper disclosures come into the space.

2023-02-26 06:38:36

Watched «M3gan». A very cool b movie in the vein of «Upgrade» (also by Blumhouse) and «Black Mirror». A rare example of humor and absurdity not detracting from tension. Written by the same crazy woman who wrote «Malignant» by James Wan.

2023-02-25 20:23:51

- reply

Thanks a lot!

2023-02-25 10:28:23

In my first Nostr post I will name my 5 favorite films of 2022.
Because why not.
1. «Watcher» by Chloe Okuno.
A masterpiece of Hitchcockian hyper-minimalism. Can’t wait to see what Okuno directs next.
2. «Execution» by Lado Kvataniya.
An encyclopedia of serial killer genre with enough plot twists for a couple of seasons of a TV show.
3. «The Banshees of Inisherin».
Undeniable even if cryptic and perplexing.
4.«The Batman» by Matt Reeves.
A very impressive exercise in grounding the reality of Gotham. First Batman film that works on psychological level for me. Brilliant acting from Dano, Farrell and Turturro.
5. «Kimi» by Stephen Soderbergh.
Not as minimalist as «Watcher» (although close and quite similar in many aspects) or as encyclopedic as «Execution», but still very enjoyable and fully self-aware and mature modern Hitchcockian thriller.