I just self-published a book - The Adventures of Leo & Henry - The Quest for the Lost Sword. This is a boys' book, I suspect for around ages 8+, and a quick read (under 80 pages). It is also my first book and was born out of the bedtime stories I make up for my sons. Yes, their names are Leo and Henry.. and yes, they are the heroes! This project is also an homage to a pastiche of things I enjoyed when I was their age, satiating my own nostalgia for unabashed boys’ stuff. It’s The Hardy Boys, Tom Swift Jr, and imagining what it may have been like if a young Indiana Jones were Catholic. This particular story is a fairly straightforward adventure. When a medieval heirloom, the Sword of St. Henry (I made it up), is stolen from its rightful caretaker, the boys embark on a quest to recover it. They encounter mystery, legend, and a sinister SECRET ORDER. The book is now available for purchase on Amazon and Gumroad (digital version only). I am also giving away the PDF for free for those who want the bootleg version. ..but wait, why is Flattery larping as an author now? Great question. The answer is that it seems kids pull unlikely things out of Dads in our desire to thrill them. So I had a lot of fun doing this and will likely be doing more, (if my audience of two demands it).

A new GENTLEMAN SPECULATOR is up. I share some personal views on another Trump presidency and allow myself a moment to indulge in some optimism. We get into the concept of America's decline, comparing it to the fall of Rome, and explore potential for continuation of the empire. I riff on the commentary of Peter Thiel on Bari Weiss’s show, Trump’s Rogan appearance, Michael Goldstein on the Art of Bitcoin Rhetoric, the Kurt Steiner piece on American Empire: A Morale Project, and Isaac Simpson’s piece on the El Segundo Hard Tech movement.

There are decades where nothing happens and there are weeks where decades happen.

While your average retiree is lounging in the La-Z-Boy, watching the tube, and wondering why the kids don't call, your boy Mel Gibson is out there at 68 doing meaningful work. Gibson is pouring energy into "The Passion of the Christ: Resurrection" – potentially the most important movie of his career. “I think you gotta keep busy. I've seen so many people that I know, they get to the end of their job and then they sort of deteriorate quickly. So I think you have to stay busy.” - Mel Gibson On this note, I’m exploring alternatives to the boomer retirement trap: like making an impact as you grow older and likely continuing to do (dignified) work. The Patriot (documentary), greatness after 60, the landed gentry, and imagining “traditional” retirement ideas beyond homesteading—new on Gentleman Speculator.

Looking to spend less time on the phone. What’s the best web browser #nostr client right now?

One of my simmering great American novels is about ragtag and profane 90s boiler room guys who make good, redeem themselves, and legitimize “Stratton oakmont” View quoted note →

I just withdrew 40,000 sats from @Fountain value for value payments. AMA.

I offer you a new GENTLEMAN SPECULATOR with guest Leandro González-Sicilia - - Family-controlled public companies - Long-term thinking as an edge - How luxury is tied to human nature - Hermès $hesay - Reading and writing your way into work that you love Leandro is a great analyst, available on any pod player.

Leandro González-Sicilia - Multi-Generational Family Businesses, Luxury Investing, Hermès

I welcome Leandro of Best Anchor Stocks to Gentleman Speculator.

Having kids has made me more keenly aware of this. Every day we are exposed to a world where nothing is sacred and ugliness is almost unavoidable. I don’t think I’m just being naive as it doesn’t seem like it has always this way. Lex orandi, lex credendi. View quoted note →

All is not lost. The Flattery boys have acquired a book worthy of princes and poets.

My conversation with Clay Finck of We Study Billionaires: - Clay's path to a dream job - The merits of the Midwest - Chris Mayer's '100 Baggers' - Copart, Constellation Software - Bitcoin for stock pickers Today onthe GENTLEMAN SPECULATOR pod

Clay Finck - 100 Baggers, Quality Investing, Bitcoin for Stock Pickers

My conversation with Clay from 'We Study Billionaires'

Two of the kids wet the bed last night. Can anyone top that?

#bitcoin whales driving crappy cars and maintaining diamond hands like a french baron refusing to sell the estate 💪 From "The Luxury Strategy" -

Global trade goes back to at least the Phoenicians. As a boy, Jesus made an apocryphal journey to England to trade with Joseph of Arimithea. This is different from globalization. Importing immigrant labor or outsourcing all production purely for efficiency, cost reduction, “gdp go up,” is not necessarily innovative. It seems to me you can be pro global trade but anti globalization.

The remaining book readers are bitcoin maximalists View quoted note →

I don’t know. If this is truly a moral issue, call out large accounts by name and not random plebs that have no reach at all. They are trying to do what Odell already did (and now has the luxury to take his audience to another platform). Beyond that, don’t we want bitcoiners to have influence in the public square? View quoted note →

You heard right. The Reformed Financial Advisor Podcast? It's gone. Dead and buried. From now on, it's Gentleman Speculator. Cleaner. Sharp as a stiletto heel. Like Alain Delon's tailored slacks. NEW POD - Inspired by William Lamport, Bruce Wayne, Raymond Chandler, Holmes, Thiel, Neal Stephenson, Bill Miller, (and a lot more). https://www.gentlemanspeculator.com/p/the-real-zorro-noblesse-oblige-gentleman

Friends - I am sharing with you a new piece - On the Gentleman Speculator. He is a hero for guys stuck in fake jobs, liberal arts majors with no job at all, nihilistic investors turning off their brains, and gamers trading digital blips on a screen. Feel free to read and subscribe to my new su***ack - Gentleman Speculator.

Large tree removal post-Mortem. Bids: - Reputable, very professional, large local company - $7k - Highly regarded amongst neighbors Mexican crew - $3k - Mom and pop white guy - never made it out to give a bid I went with the Mexican crew. They did the work in a few hours. They were extremely eager for work and comically unprofessional on a few things. What are you gonna do, I’d hire them again.

Peter Thiel is correct on the fall from grace of what he calls the "left wing philanthropy world." Joe Rogan: What about these left-wing philanthropy ventures do you think is uniquely corrupt? Peter Thiel: ..maybe it's just my hermeneutic of suspicion, but there's something about the virtue signaling and what does it mean. And I always think this is sort of a America versus Europe difference, where in America we're told that philanthropy is something a good person does. And you know, if you're a Rockefeller or you start giving away all your money, this is just what a good person does and it shows how good you are. And then I think sort of the European intuition on it is something like, you know, wow, that's only something a very evil person does. And if you start giving away all your money in Europe, it's like, Joe, you must have murdered somebody or you must be covering up for something. So there are these two very different intuitions and I think the European one is more correct than the American one. And probably there's some history where, you know, the sort of left-wing philanthropy peaked in 2007, 2010, 2012, and there's these subtle ways, you know, we've become, you know, more European in our sensibilities as a society. And so it has this very different valence from what it did 12 or 14 years ago.