I rarely log into LinkedIn but use it as "business card" from time to time. It is funny how messages are trying to catch up culturally (from informative to _being cool_) but are trailing by at least five years.

The following excerpt is from *The Vital Question* by Nick Lane. In his book, Lane explores how the production of cellular energy—through the respiratory chain—is a deeply coordinated process between mitochondrial DNA and nuclear DNA. In this passage, he discusses the trade-off between fertility and energetic efficiency. Species with exceptionally high energy demands, such as birds, have a very low tolerance for mutations in the genes encoding mitochondrial proteins. Even slight mismatches between mitochondrial and nuclear genomes can trigger apoptosis (programmed cell death) early in embryonic development. Here’s how Lane puts it: “For bats and birds and other creatures with high aerobic requirements, the threshold must be set low — even a modest rate of free-radical leak from mildly dysfunctional mitochondria (with slight incompatibilities between mitochondrial and nuclear genomes) signals apoptosis and termination of the embryo. For rats and sloths and couch potatoes with low aerobic requirements, the threshold is set higher: a modest rate of free-radical leak is now tolerated, dysfunctional mitochondria are good enough, the embryo develops. There are costs and benefits to both sides. A low threshold gives a high aerobic fitness and a low risk of disease, but at the cost of a high rate of infertility and poor adaptability. A high threshold gives a low aerobic capacity and higher risk of disease but with the benefits of greater fertility and better adaptability. These are words to conjure with. Fertility. Adaptability. Aerobic fitness. Disease. We can’t cut much closer to the grain of natural selection than that.” In my view, the book’s title is aptly chosen. The Vital Question touches on fundamental truths about life that our society would benefit from understanding more broadly—especially the biological logic underlying how we operate. But of course… let’s fix the money first.

Evolution has favored puberty, a developmental phase in which some people show random behavior. The ongoing experiment is to establish whether this has positive outcomes also for entire countries.

GM

PV

We will recognize the great people by their ability to change their mind: "I was wrong about Bitcoin for all these years. Where can I buy some". Whoever you are, you'll be welcome here.

I am a fan of #Proxmox, but I think I headed into HA clusters naively. Based on what I know today, if your container or VM runs anything with time-critical data (such as a lightning node, databases in general, or complex Docker hosts), then automatic migration can be detrimental. On several occasions, I was happy to have a Proxmox Backup Server to fall back on. So, before configuring HA, shutdown, backup, start, test, and evaluate.

Coming back to this book ... which is an unexpected positive surprise for me. In the 1980s and early 1990s, I spent ten years studying biology and associated research technologies. Plants, animals, biochemistry, human physiology, spectrometry, microscopy, immunology, with a focus on cellular and molecular biology. Still, reading Nick Lane's book introduces me to essential concepts I have never heard before. And all of a sudden, I start to understand the struggles of a boomer economist in grasping the value proposition of Bitcoin. Firstly, the problems that Bitcoin solves were less prominent then, and secondly, the 80s are eons ago. View quoted note →

Looking forward to attending this year's Baltic Honeybadger 🎯 View quoted note →

I have installed @SimpleX Chat smp server (using docker compose), and it seems to be running (finally). Is there a debugging/installation guide for getting the xftp service up and running (I used again the docker compose from the official installation guide). ChatGPT suggests I announce the xftp via the smp-server.ini file, but I cannot find any documentation on that, and it might as well be a hallucination. #simplex

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is a great resource. Today, for example, I learned about SmolLM, a small yet highly performing model, even for limited resources. Isn't it cool to know that you can still use AI even when the internet is down? The world's knowledge on the laptop or the server in the basement... #AI

If you are selling products or services for #Bitcoin using Lightning and need inbound liquidity, DM me. Let me know how much liquid would be ideal, and I'll be happy to review and open a channel accordingly. #noderunner #circular #economy #payment #adoption

No matter the yield. No matter the staking reward. No matter the DeFi buzz. You're always better off just hodling Bitcoin. 🧡

Listening to a podcast with an AGI pioneer bringing me back to my origins as a biologist. Half of my library consists of names dropped in pod eps.

Feature request for password managers: need a function "leaked to ChatGPT, rotate and update".

What we are observing in the last weeks or even months is the perfect answer to those who claim that a deflationary currency will never be spent. We have significant purchases from new market participants and a flat price. Probably due to whale OTC sales. At some stage every individual realizes that time is more valuable than Bitcoin and sells some. And shareholders realize that they don't need to have a company if all it does is holding their coins. They will divest and (see above).

Whenever I explore a new tool—whether it’s a stove, a task planner, or a language model—I remind myself of the deeper purpose: to make meaningful use of the limited time I have. If a tool promises efficiency but ends up consuming more than it gives, I step away. Life is too short to optimize for the tool’s sake. These things exist to serve us, not the other way around. Our time is finite, and we should spend it walking our path.