My favourite quote of the day comes from my seat neighbor at a Maryleborne Café this afternoon: “The only thing that graduating from Central Saint Martins [a prestigious London arts and design school] has given me is ADHD” This is an equally funny and insightful statement. Too often do we treat mental disorders as something intrinsic, rather than something inflicted on us by our circumstance. It’s an important distinction. If ADHD is something intrinsic, then we need to treat the symptoms. And we do. For many children and from a young age. With amphetamines. If instead we recognize it for what it is: a condition delivered to us by a very unnatural environment, then we create a possibility and a responsibility: A possibility to actually address the root causes of ADHD and many other conditions instead of creating more problems by drugging our children. And a responsibility for all of us to change the environment we live, study and work in. Marc Chagall’s “I and the Village” (1911)

it’s time 🚀

#bitcoin price development of the last few weeks feels distinctly like market makers fucking around. I suspect they will soon find out.

Psychedelic movies Movies are amazing. They can change how we see the world over the course of 2 hours. To do so, it has to be a movie that takes us out of our comfort zone. If your comfort zone is a circle with radius r=0, this is not difficult to achieve. However, if the movie is in a whole different orbit than your heliocentric comfort zone it may miss the mark. So the art is in picking a movie that is far enough out there to influence you in a meaningful way, but not too far to be obtuse. Below is my selection of great movies on scale of 1 (mainstream psychological) to 5 (psychedelic): Mainstream Psychological: The Matrix (Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski) Parasite (Bong Joon-ho) Fight Club (David Fincher) Psychological Mystery: Rashomon (Akira Kurosawa) Shutter Island (Martin Scorsese) Poor Things (Yorgos Lanthimos) Iconoclastic: Contempt (Jean Luc Godard) Mother! (Darren Aronofsky) The Dreamers (Bernardo Bertolucci) Existentialist: Pierrot le Fou (Jean Luc Godard) 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick) Easy Rider (Dennis Hopper) Psychedelic: Enter the Void (Gaspar Noé) The Tree of Life (Terrence Mallick) Mulholland Drive (David Lynch)

Technique is everything: This may not be news to most but when it comes to exercise, technique is everything. I used to not pay too much attention to this. My approach was to perform an exercise by meeting its general criteria and increasing the number of repetitions over time. Squat? Lower my upper body while keeping my heels on the floor, done. Downward facing dog? Hands on the floor, feet on the floor, lift the hips and try to approach the floor with the heels, done. Rowing? Just pull the oar towards you and push it away by using both legs and arms, done. Over time I realized there is much more to every exercise I’m engaging in. In fact there is a whole internal landscape to be explored. Small feelings and sensations that deserve attention and that can make all the difference when it comes to performing an exercise efficiently and safely. An exercise not done with the correct technique is an exercise not worth doing. In fact, it may be counterproductive in the long run as bad habits eventually accumulate and cause injuries. Helmut Newton’s “Lisa Taylor and Jerry Hall” (1975)

Sick has become the new normal: I’ve been listening to this excellent podcast conversation about Ozempic between athlete and podcaster Rich Roll and author Johann Hari. The conversation perfectly summarizes two diametrically opposite views of our current healthcare system: On the one hand have you have Hari, who has been studying (and ingesting) the Diabetes-drug-turned-weight-loss-drug-turned-panacea and is a proponent, though, to be fair he also cautions about some of the side-effects and general enthusiasm. Roll, on the other hand, is a former alcoholic and fast-food enthusiast who has turned his life around to become an ultra-marathon runner and is a proponent of a holistic and preventative approach to health. The most telling moment in the conversation occurs when Hari talks about the benefits of Ozempic, goes on to call a healthy lifestyle “the alternative” and Roll calls him out on it. Our assumption has become that it is no longer possible to be mostly healthy and that we all, from a young age, must rely on medication to live a tolerable life. Living a healthy lifestyle has become a secondary, far distant alternative, not really accessible to most of us. In some sad, matter-of-fact way this is true because many of our fellow citizens are now effectively socio-economically locked out of a healthy lifestyle. But when we talk about aspirations for our health and that of future generations, we have to aim much higher than a dystopian world in which we are all hooked on medications for life. Jacques-Louis David’s “The Death of Marat” (1793)

@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.