Deflecting is an art and we're all Picasso. Not because we're great at lying, we just don't know the truth ourselves: The physicist Richard Feynman once said that "you must not fool yourself—and you are the easiest person to fool." It's common to find ourselves in situations where we're

Sméagol became Gollum after his attachment to the One Ring: He became deformed and twisted by body and mind because of his affection for his precious. Attachments aren't bad, but it's the context that matters. Addiction is our justifications getting louder while priorities become silent. Example: ^It takes one to

I was supposed to go skydiving today, but it didn’t happen. Luck presented itself in the form of clouds instead (what can you do?). My immediate thoughts when waking up this morning were of the Latin phrase ‘Memento Mori’: “You could leave life right now. Let that determine what

Talking is easy because small talk is static. It has a structure where words feel automatic or rehearsed. Conversations are dynamic, long, and random. There's no rehearsed answer, just people making it up through improv. That's tough to do because you need to be attentive to improvise. A lot of

“Web3 is a more intelligent version of the internet, built on the principle of decentralization. If you’re not familiar with decentralization, try thinking of it simply as the ability of a group to function without reliance on a central authority. Banks, governments, and businesses are all examples of centralized

Sisamnes was a corrupt judge who accepted a bribe and gave an unjust verdict. Once his king found out, he had Sisamnes arrested. The punishment? A slow and painful death by flaying his skin alive. The skin would then be used as a seat cover for his son to sit

Schools least of all teach people about the power of incentives: It sounds harsh, but let’s understand the incentives education offers. Graduating from university means that you spent X amounts of money––to solve Y number of problems––for 1 degree. There are roughly 25 courses in a degree

There’s a deep part of our nature that wants to maintain a sense of certainty. Our inability to accept uncertainty in life causes us to overthink. What are my future plans? What comes after I graduate? Where’s my career headed? Who will I settle down with? Where will

Anxiety is a heightened activation in the sympathetic part of your nervous system. The physical elements are already measured in the human body. It's the mental aspects of anxiety that are hard to put into words. Here's how I define it: A feeling of anxiousness is not being able to

All locks have a carefully crafted key to align every pin. Only then can you unlock it without resistance. Knowing how to code, write, and invest are my attempts to craft a key. It's a system to hit each pin and open closed doors. Start constructing a key as soon

Value in companies has shifted to those who control demand rather than distribution. This section is to understand how businesses will evolve alongside the internet. "Aggregation Theory describes how platforms (i.e. aggregators) come to dominate the industries in which they compete in a systematic and predictable way. Aggregation Theory

The best investors don't give investment advice. I'm not a great investor, but I try do the same. Truth is, you'll never learn about investing from reading my newsletters (or anything for that matter). You simply learn from trial-and-error. By doing. Don't distract yourself by looking for investing how-to's. They're

The two proofs above are types of blockchain protocols. My one-sentence explanation for blockchains: Block = verified transactionsChain = blocks linked together Blockchain is a network ledger that shows a record of valid transactions–verified by the protocol. Proof of Work and Proof of Stake protocols confirm the transactions on a blockchain.

When buying bitcoin, I searched for optimistic evidence on why it's good. I now look for reasons to no longer hold (while still holding). I went to subscriber pals for the answers. Here's an interesting case: How Easy Is It To Replace The Global Reserve Currency? Money printing and inflation

It costs a lot to participate in Decentralized Finance. If you play the DeFi game, you've probably heard of "gas". Gas is a fee you pay to trigger DeFi code stored on the Ethereum blockchain. It's like a ticket price you pay to enter the carnival. Gas is the ticket

I'll now use Charlie Munger as a scapegoat on where my net-worth currently lies. Warning: it's the smartest or dumbest decision based on your views (Munger wouldn't approve). My investments: 30% cash48% bitcoin31% tech ETFs (currenly struggling)1% defi tokens That's it. A sad sight if you're against Bitcoin. Happy

A sunk cost is sticking with something bound to fail. The blood, sweat, and tears poured into a project make it harder to step away from it. It's like a captain sinking with their ship. They’re too invested in it and that investment–the one that makes you sink–

NFTs have become the optionality boom of 2021: What Are NFTs? Non Fungible Tokens are cryptographic keys that prove authenticity, ownership, and status for digital "assets". Art is the current practical application. Think of NFTs as GIFs, pictures, videos, music, or anything online, but with a cryptographic receipt attached. The

An artist by the name of Beeple has made bank selling Non-Fungible Token artwork. His latest sale: “Everydays: The First 5,000 Days.” A 21,069 x 21,069 pixels jpg file sold for $69 million. To be more accurate, it sold for ~37,300 Ethereum. This is what it

I usually watch poker when working. Poker is risk personified and exciting to watch. I'm not a great player, but watching poker has taught me a lot about risk: Players who never lose a hand make the most moneyYou'll always win and lose individual handsIt's what happens in the long

Optionality = Lots of options 2021 has been a year for optionality. Bull-markets, Bitcoin, Spacs, Clubhouse, NFTs, and DeFi. Each a passing fad, a paradigm shift, or neutral...(your choice). Seek options with limited downside and large upside (relative to your reasoning). Investing comes with high optionality. You can store money

Caution requires avoiding danger to find safer alternatives. I've sold my stake in bank shares  (avoiding danger) for cash and bitcoin (safer alternatives). Crowds are curious about stock market bubbles. Don't take my word for it, take Google's: Stocks and crypto have evolved from bull markets to big-ass rhinos. If

So far we've defined Decentralized, Blockchain, and DeFi. Smart Contracts are the foundation on what DeFi is built on. To add more context, DeFi is still in the wild west stages. It's so new and the risks involved with it are bonkers. I'm still learning and there's way too much

Explicit participation for one, requires implicit sacrifice for another. By reading this sentence, you are choosing not to read something else. Every decision we make is like this. Zero-sum. I question whether what I'm gaining surpasses what I'm giving up. Ultimately, I'll never know. That's the cost for opportunity.

Although I discussed the problem blockchains solve a few months ago, I never really explained how it works. This is a good time to do so since DeFi is a pioneer use case for Blockchain (after Bitcoin). Blockchain is a decentralized database. We know what decentralized means from last week's