#Bitcoin fails as a money b/c of its naive monetary policy. Many people think government printing too much is evil, so a fixed money supply must be good. The reality: a money that cannot expand would crush the economy and put us all in poverty. Here’s why and how to fix it. To see this we need to understand why monetary deflation and expanding economy do not go together. Let’s simplify so it’s easier to…
If you live long enough, at some point you’ll be faced with the decision of whether to continue down a certain path (which you’ve invested time and resources in) or change direction. These are not easy choices for most people. Though if you’re used to following your own intuitive guidance with trust, big decisions can often be quite obvious. What has worked well for me is to feel into the “liveliness” of a certain path/project/relationship/venture,…
Ethereum will be the new government bond. Staked ETH, or PoS asset of a dominant blockchain, will replace US Treasuries as the risk-free asset in any portfolio. This shall be the biggest revolution in the history of financial markets. Here’s how I think it’ll go down 👇 First, how does a “risk-free asset” come to be? There’s no guarantee in life. Everything has risk. An asteroid can hit earth tomorrow and we all die. But…
Your bank offers 0.2% APY but BlockFi offers 8%. Are high yields in crypto for real? The answer is yes AND no. Here’s my review of 6 types of yields in crypto, ranked from most Ponzi 🤡 🤡 🤡 🤡 🤡 to most durable 🏰 🏰 🏰🏰 🏰. (Note: A Ponzi simply means the price of X depends on more people buying X, but without creating a meaningful network effect of intrinsic value. I have…
You think venture capitals are successful? The truth is 85% of VCs underperform the stock market. And 50% of them downright lose money. The crypto market is forcing retail investors to act like VCs. How will this turn out for most people? Many don’t realize that early stage VC is a tough business. 95% of startups fail. Most of the rest 5% are getting by and nowhere near unicorn status. If you invest in 100…
The easiest way to de-risk bitcoin is to have governments become miners. Government needs revenue, bitcoin needs legitimacy. It’s a match made in heaven 💍 Not convinced? Let’s break this down 👇 Unlike 3 years ago, you need serious investment to be profitable in bitcoin mining today. Mining startups have been raising capital in the hundreds of million dollars to invest in mining facilities— they see what it will take to remain competitive in this…
The US is in big trouble with twin deficits & high debt. But few realize that a Fed-issued digital USD token can change the fate of America. How? Grab a coffee ☕️ & read on 👇 Contrary to common beliefs, America’s biggest export is not tech, not Hollywood… It’s the USD. USD is the biggest money network in the world—used for 40-50% of global trade settlement and int’l credits. With reserve currency status, USD allows…
Some say: “Central banks will start buying #bitcoin as international reserves and that’ll make price go up”. Totally false. Governments can’t use bitcoin as reserve asset, at least not now. But they could do something else instead 👇 BITCOIN IS NOT QUALIFIED AS RESERVE ASSET Let’s be clear what international reserves are for. They are assets a country uses to: 1) pay for imports & debt, 2) buy and sell in forex market to affect…
So, suppose you got kidnapped. Someone put a gun to your head and say “Go get 1000 Twitter followers this month or go see Abraham Lincoln!” What do you do? Here’s what I did. I do not recommend it. But in case you get kidnapped, you’ll want to reference this post. First, I did not encounter no terrorists. Instead, I met the notorious @dickiebush and @nicolascole77, who tricked me into joining their 30 day writing…
Amazon stock went up 100x in the past 15 years. Any idiot could have made money on it. Yet I managed to accomplish the exact opposite 😆 Here’s how it went down. It was the fall of 2005. I was in school, penniless, but managed to save $2000. I just read the first investment book in my life, Peter Lynch’s One Up on Wall Street. He said you should invest in companies you know and…
So everyone seems to think Axie Infinity is the “next big thing” in crypto. After all, it’s making more money than ethereum and bitcoin right now. But I think it’s going to fail. Here’s why. Yes, it’s growing like crazy right now. The game has 300k daily active players, 30x growth from beginning of the year. Revenue is higher than all projects combined in DeFi. The value prop for users is you can make money…
Most business books are not worth the time, NYT bestsellers included. But once in a while you bump into a gem and it changes your life forever. Here’s my brutally honest and sometimes snarky review of 20 biz bestsellers I read the past year, ranked from worst to best👇 20. Trailblazer: The Power of Business as the Greatest Platform for Change, by Marc Benioff Ideal birthday gift for a Salesforce groupie. Read this if you…
Unpopular opinion: Being an entrepreneur is a bad deal for most people. Having grown Soundwise to an 8-person team, I realize everything I was told about entrepreneurship was wrong. Here are 4 common myths about starting companies, and what you should do instead👇 1. Starting a company is not an escape from your sucky job People unhappy at their job daydream about being their own boss. They think it’s a way to make quick money…
Most people can draw obvious conclusions about situations. But if you only think the obvious, you’re just like everyone else, with no edge in investment or life. Reality is complex. The ability to make nuanced judgement allows you to stand above the rest. Here’s how to do that👇 Most people are what Howard Marks calls “first level thinkers”. They think simplistically— “Growth is slow and inflation going up, let’s sell our stocks”, or “This company…
What would you invest in if you are to live to 120? Most people live life not looking too far ahead. That’s why their options shrink over time. If you want to live a long and free life, you want to plan it like a long-term investment portfolio. Here’s a 6-part framework of how to do that👇 1. Get into a growing field with steady cashflow Choose your first profession in a field with growing…
In 2012 I bungee jumped off a 111-meter tall bridge in Zambia.Think you know what fear is? When you’re free falling at 100 miles / hr into a crocodile-infested river, you realize you knew nothing about it.Here’s what I learned about fear since then and how to overcome it👇 1. Fear is a physical, not emotional. How do you know you’re afraid? It’s not a thought, not even much of a feeling. You know it…
The average person spends 5.4 hrs a day on the phone. If you can cut it by 1 hr, you get almost an extra working day of time per week to create, learn, play, connect. It’s actually easier than you imagined. These 3 small tweaks to my day instantly cut my phone time by 20% 👇 1. Keep your phone away from bedroom. I used to use my phone as an alarm clock like many…
Bitcoin maxies tout it as the ultra sound money. But in fact having #bitcoin as the global reserve currency would be one of the worst ideas of the 21st century. It’s not gonna happen. Here’s why👇 1. “Ultra sound money” makes it ultra difficult for anyone to get out of recessions People are having a knee-jerk reaction to monetary policy excess right now. Fed prints too much. Asset prices all inflate. Your money is worth…
In 2014, I was in a deep depression. Nothing felt meaningful or interesting. Even breathing was painful. But strange as it sounds, it was such an amazing experience that I wouldn’t trade for the world. Here’re 7 realizations about life, taught by the dark night of the soul👇 1. Compassion happens when you stop haggling with life. It was a hard blow on the ego to see friends and peers lead productive, seemingly normal lives,…
It took $240k and 6 years to get my PhD. 4 out of 5 of my classmates didn’t make it to the end. It was brutal, but it taught me how to think. To save you quarter million dollars, here are 10 lessons on how to learn about any topic and form your own original insights, quickly👇 1. Study the “classics” hard, and ignore the rest. For any topic there’s the definitive classic text, and…