@jack Just downloaded Tidal for iPhone (13 mini). The app is not starting.

Market makers attempting a final shake-out before moom...

Perfect Days: We’re all trying to do a lot. And we need to take responsible for filling every waking minute with activity. In his new film Perfect Days Wim Wenders reminds us that this is not necessary. He convincingly depicts how a toilet cleaner in Tokyo is enjoying a simple life, yet one full of meaning. Many of us could take a page from his book.

The most pressing concern wrt to #Bitcoin at the moment is unaudited Bitcoin on exchanges… There are only two solutions: - Creating awareness of importance of moving BTC into self custody - Incentivizing exchanges and ETFs to provide proper audited proof of reserves (and liabilities)

I’m genuinely trying to comprehend what will happen when Bitcoin breaks convincingly above 100k now that everyone has access to it. I just can’t see it go to 200k or 300k slowly. It just seems like everyone will suddenly get it… So the path from 100k Bitcoin, to complete demonetization of all other assets seems like it may just be instantaneous. But then the current powers can’t let that happen. So I think they will have to act very forcefully in the near future.

I’m sure this is a great interview but I just want to stress: I don’t like this talk of banking failures. I don’t think this seems very likely in the US. They let SVB and Silvergate fail because it was a somewhat welcome development. They will never let any of the major banks fail. The risk has now shifted to US sovereign creditworthiness which could be much more difficult to predict in terms of how it plays out. I know a banking system collapse would be welcome but we shouldn’t hold our breath for it. View quoted note →

Coping vs. Thriving A while ago I decided that in my life I want to thrive, not cope. Since then I’ve been very sensitive to areas in my life where I’m coping. I define coping as resorting to compulsory behavior in order to manage a situation. This can be at the level of an addiction but it can be as minuscule as a morning coffee. If the morning coffee is not being enjoyed but is an unconscious necessity to get out of bed, it’s coping. In that case I ask myself the question: “What is it about the way my life is currently oriented, that I need this in order to cope?” Sometimes a solution is easily accessible and coping can be replaced with thriving. In other cases, it requires real patience and dedication. It’s worth it.

The future is bright: Let me put on my utopian hat for just a second. Artificial Intelligence is about to deliver incredible productivity gains to humanity. The rise of Bitcoin as a global immutable currency will reign in the irresponsible use of our wealth and distribute it to those who genuinely contribute to society. And in the midst of all of this humanity may be on the brink of its next evolution from a contracted, ego-centric consciousness to one of awake awareness. Let’s focus our energy on these bright lights on the horizon.

Hearing the beating of my heart: I once spent an extended period practicing Zazen in the Japanese Zen monastery Antaiji. At one point during my stay, each of the residents of the monastery had to give a 20 minute lecture on their experience in Antaiji or some Zen writing that had touched them. One of my most memorable moments occurred during one of these lectures. One of my fellows, a Japanese history student named Takeo, who was my age and who had arrived on the same day as me, was speaking about the reasons why he had decided to join the monastery. Unlike me Takeo was not planning to stay for a couple of months. He had committed himself to becoming a monk. The reason, he said, was that he wanted to “hear the beating of my heart”. And as he said this, a tear rolled down his cheek. In this moment I realized that he was not spewing the types of platitudes and cliches we grow accustomed to. Takeo meant what he said and to witness it was beautiful.

Why is it so much easier to follow someone you disagree with on #nostr?

Aspirare: Aspiration according to Merriam Webster: 1. a. : a strong desire to achieve something high or great. In our culture the desire to achieve is arguably greater than ever. But the desire to achieve something high or great has gone missing. The etymology of the word is from Latin “aspirare”, “to breathe upon”. We’ve lost the art of breathing well and hence we’ve lost the art of aspiring, of breathing spirit into our actions. Let’s relearn to breathe spirit into our actions and things will be good.

People should start to realize that #Bitcoin is highly correlated to expectations for global liquidity… and they’re going to print forever

Wisdom is the tolerance of cognitive dissonance: I first heard this said by Josh Waitzkin, former chess prodigy and Tai Chi Chuan world champion and it stuck with me. It is possible to verify this in one’s own experience. Wisdom is being able to hold two competing thoughts and recognizing that the true answer is never one-sided and never conceptual. It can both be true that climate change is real and that the right response to it is not to try to reverse it. It can be true that the acts of Hamas were horrific and that Israel’s response is not justified. It can be true that Donald Trump’s presidency was a low point in American history and that one should not vote for Joe Biden. In Zen, Koans are a way to resolve cognitive dissonance. Every once in a while we should look at the world as if it’s a Zen Koan.

The truest sentence: Today things got in the way and I am late to publishing Soir Bleu. So I’m going to go with advice from Ernest Hemmingway: “All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.” What feels truest to me today is that it is worth hanging in there. When things feel uncomfortable, whatever endeavour we may be pursuing, new doors tend to eventually open for those who persevere. I’m standing by, waiting for that next door to open.

Is someone tracking the average time miners are holding #bitcoin after mining over time?

#Chess and stoicism: A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the humbling benefits of chess. In addition to humility, chess is a great teacher in stoicism: Compare the post match interviews of football players (and most other athletes) with those of chess players and you’ll notice a striking difference. Football players are usually still emotional about the game and frequently feeling hard done by, whether by luck, refereeing or other conditions. When watching chess players analyse their game, on the other hand, it is not rare that it is almost impossible to parse whether they won or lost. In fact, rather than talking about themselves, they will say things like “black’s position” or “white was very slightly worse”. This is a masterclass in stoicism. Because their game does not leave room for subjectivity, it is essential for chess players to avoid redundant posturing or emotional outbursts which become a waste of energy. Interestingly other sports seem to exist on a spectrum between emotionality and stoicism depending on the objectivity of the game. Tennis post game press conferences, for example are somewhere between those of chess and football when it comes to objectivity. Arguably the reason is that tennis is not quite as objective a game as chess, but luck and external factors play a much smaller role than in football. Challenge me to a game!

@Robert Breedlove Not sure if it's intentional but just a heads up it looks like your most recent podcasts have not been added to Spotify yet.

Mysticism trumps orthodoxy: Most religions nowadays don’t call themselves orthodox but they are: they want you to take at least some element of scripture literally and make believe that by following certain rules, you can obtain salvation. A lot of the time this leads to confusion and conflict. Wisdom and awakening can never be the result of submission to some relative belief. They are the result of direct recognition of the absolute, achieved through openness and authentic engagement with what is real in this moment. In other words, they require a unitive experience, a certain level of mysticism. In fact, one might argue that every prophet, including Jesus and the Buddha are likely to have been mystics, men who were deeply in touch with the absolute. And the bible, while it is hopelessly inapplicable to our life today when read literally, becomes a book of wisdom, when it is reclaimed through a mystical lense of openness.

No time for things that have no soul: If you haven’t read Charles Bukowski, there’s no time like today to start. His work is like a gut punch from another dimension of meaningfulness: In his classic novels Ham on Rye and Post Office as much as poems like Let it enfold you. What distinguishes Bukowski is encapsulated in one of the most famous quotes attributed to him: “Understand me. I’m not like an ordinary world. I have my madness, I live in another dimension and I do not have time for things that have no soul” If nothing else, his art reminds us to not settle for the empty, the shallow or the superficial and… just from time to time to have the courage to decline to spend time on “things that have no soul”.

The only reason the market does not react more to these terrifying economic numbers is because everyone is waiting for the Fed to jump in. That’s the perversity of the situation we’re finding ourselves in..: