GM frens,
As always these musings, particularly in this open format, are just my opinions, thoughts, ideas. Particularly when I wax philosophical, take it and anything anyone says with a hefty grain of salt. Everyone is in a unique situation, may be laden with debt, extenuating circumstances, life-threatening circumstances, et al. Often, I notice with myself, I hear something that clicks and think something must be done immediately. Although it can be quick, change is slow. The market trains us simultaneously to be more reactive and patient. The point (I think) is to live with immediacy, not take everything as immediate. I sincerely appreciate all constructive feedback and hope to open more positive dialogue from writings like this. And please collect&subscribe if you enjoy!
I came across the above obituary by way of Tim Ferriss’s interview with Ed Thorpe, most famous for his work on beating blackjack and the market with his funds. Mr. Thorpe (I think 96-years-old in the interview?) references many risk-related, logical, hypothetical mental models against his own personal anecdotes in the interview, but at the very end is when he shares the above chestnut from Kurt Vonnegut.
For those who aren’t familiar, Tim asks his guests the same question at the end of every interview, summarized basically as “what tidbit of information, request, plea, quote, etc. would you leave my audience with?” which is when Ed (a child of the great depression) decides to expound upon this beautiful insight:
but what is ‘enough’ anon?
When asked this question most people respond with a number attached to a hyper-inflating fiat currency based off some future idea of a life from the vantage point of who they are and what they care about rn. In truth, the question is qualitative not quantitative. And what’s more, is when we consistently measure our life against a dollar, we continually create a market for our own depravity to live on in.
“Just need $10 million and then I’m good.”
“A 1000 ETH should do it.”
Pause.
Before we go on let’s get something straight: I’m not naive. Money is a hyper efficient tool for an exponentially growing human society. Pretty much the apex method of energy exchange when the underlying money is sound and even when it’s not. I probably spend half of my time writing, talking and trying to make it. I understand it can bring immense joy to the right people. So who are these people?
Newsflash: they aren’t the ones who include a specific car model or number of rental properties in their response when asked what would suffice as ‘enough’.
The system trains and molds us to be this way. Especially in America, we are grown to be compliant cogs, shackled with debt at an early age so we can climb some made up ladder pressed like a hard anti-anxiety pill down our throats. We scorn others who don’t play the same games we do. We cherish what we can snap pictures of and post about while we plan for a life with the contents of ‘what I really want to do’ at some arbitrary point in the future that never comes.
“I’ll just do this for a few years and then quit.”
“If I can just get filled down here, I’ll sell up at the top of the range.”
One of the most profound and life changing things I have ever done was take the time to truly think about what I value and codify that into my being. We’re not taught to think about values, we’re taught to talk about them and cringe-post about them while circumventing the actual consideration of them.
When I say ‘take the time’ I’m not referring to an exercise you can knock out in an hour one afternoon either bc invariably, when I ask people what their values are, they often immediately start listing off various nouns: friends, family, god, travel, sports, love. This is excellent and a great jumping off point for deeper examination. The problem is that most never get farther than that. This should probably take months/years (though everyone is different) and requires reevaluation and re-prioritization as you age bc the goal is to be 100% crystal clear. I think it took me a solid couple years to really get to the meat of what I value.
It was ultimately from Tim’s work that I was fortunate enough to start thinking about this while I was in college. My biggest value since then has and continues to be time, the most scarce non-fungible resource in this shared conscious experience we call life. Starting there, I got more specific. I value my time, so I can spend time with friends. OK—doing what? with what friends? When I started looking, I realized rubbing elbows with my mates while we all watched Game of Thrones zonked out on thc/booze/ whatever wasn’t cutting it as far as quality.
Little critical thought is given to what we are passionate about. A lot of showcasing is done by those who claim to lead the most passionate existence. So how do we go about finding what lights us up? Usually, we start by looking at all the people around us for clues.
*not pictured: crippling depression, tumultuous partner relationships, substance abuse, health issues, or the other universe of hurdles we have the capacity to encounter as humans.*
There is an excellent chat with Luke Burgis on the podcast The Knowledge Project where he explains the power of mimetic desire, i.e., how all of our desires and behaviors basically come down to imitation of others. Evolved from the work of René Girard, mimetic desire is essentially how dreams are sold. We see a rapper with the Bentley and we decide, hey we want that too. Van life is sweet, just look at how much fun we are having! How else are we supposed to know where to start in our search for individuality? This is how we learn—perhaps the best way we learn—from the people around us. Basically the reason for so many paid groups in crypto. Mimetic desire and imitation is not bad. It’s how our brains are wired that fucks us up.
In the interview, Burgis references a quote from Girard that goes as thus:
“Man is like a creature that starts lifting over all of the rocks on earth looking for the one thing he really wants, and comes to decide in his mind that the one thing that he wants must be under the one rock that is too heavy for him to lift.”
We see happiness and assume it must be the effect of whatever we perceive to be the cause, not taking into account the temporal and disintegrating nature of all states of being (love, anger, grief, etc.) Or the 99% of the other moments the person has to go through just like we all do. Social media has made only seeing tip of the iceberg of someone’s existence the status quo.
“Maybe if go to yoga more like her I’ll find someone too.”
“If I use this indicator and meditate each day there’s no way I won’t be profitable.”
I will spare you any of my thoughts on determinism (for now), but let’s use a conduit that most of you will be familiar with: the general concept popularized by Malcom Gladwell’s book Outliers that 10,000 hours in anything is needed to achieve mastery or expertise. Later, Naval improved upon this significantly imo (but I’m a Naval fanboy fwiw):
By this logic, the idea that we will suddenly hit a magic milestone and flip a happiness switch is insane. How could you possibly be happy if you haven’t spent any time figuring out what makes you happy? How could you possibly feel fulfilled if you haven’t taken the time to figure out what is fulfilling to you? Luke Burgis says towards the end of the podcast also, “There are plenty of people who are happy with what they have, but few people who are happy with who they are.” I notice this more and more as I get older and it breaks my heart fr fr.
OK sir smol I get it but where do I start?
My brother/sister/them/smol in Christ, by figuring out what you value, in a hyper specific way. When we live in alignment with what we value, we remove the measuring stick from the equation. Of course we have direction, of course we have goals, of course we push ourselves to get better in what we are doing; these are all in service to what we value. And then suddenly, we have enough.
Pretty simple. But simple ain’t easy.
All of this has been rehashed better than I can say a 1000 times over in various podcasts, philosophies and -isms. I bring it up only bc I think it’s valuable to share from someone not in these ‘unique’ circumstances, who has little (which is more than most) and spends most of his time scraping for alpha and degen-ing shitcoins on Twitter like you reader; someone who can’t fall prey to the usual lazy arguments from people who are convinced that the individuals espousing these lofty ideals of happiness have already made it.
“Yeah easy for them to say when they are sitting on $20 million dollars.”
“You don’t get it. It’s different for me.”
And it truly is. It’s different for all of us. All suffering is relative. However, now that I’ve talked and met enough people with cash, one of the most common threads I’ve noticed is how empty they feel and seem. Especially in crypto we know, many of the most vocal are the most internally bankrupt and suss. I feel like every other Coinfession is about someone who is sitting on a ton of cash and is miserable like wtf mate:
Expecting positive outcomes for ourself with out doing any positive self-work.
When money is your reality not the fuel for it, it gets bleak quick.
And of course there are always the people who will just say this is massive cope:
Ignore these soft af dweebs at all cost in your life.
Money is actually the easy part of the life equation. You can always make more of it and they are constantly printing more if it. It’s a matter of balancing sacrifice and expectation that dictates the quality of your experience.
The market—but specifically crypto—is the greatest cornucopia of money-making and money-losing opportunities on earth. There is always new blood, there are always doomers, there are always pumpers, and the seasons change and we grow older and die. We are drawn to the possibility and we stay for the memes (kek half kidding). We are drawn to the chance at freedom money has to lift us from the rigged circumstances of this complete ass-backward society we wake up in each day.
***LEL think it’s safe to say most of us in crypto understand what it’s like to be unemployed***
The point is this: trading requires intense mental fortitude and an ability to decipher information through various intelligence centers: your mind, your body, your gut. The easiest way I have found to improve one’s trading performance is to make sure I am living in alignment with what I value and am working towards is a vision of life that makes me feel whole. When I do this, for me, all the dots start to connect, I make better decisions and make more money. When I’m too stressed, forcing myself to make money or ignoring other parts of my life (family, friends, joy), undoubtedly time and time again I end up burnt out and taking the L.
We’re coming up on harder times still. I share all the above bc bear markets are, I have realized, the BEST opportunity to make sure you are filling up your other buckets of life.
Also bUt mAcRo is really crushing the vibe on CT lately so I hope this is a nice fresh of breath air in the Threadooor Golden Age we are currently living through. In fact, there are many of non-vocal market participants cruising about their lives just fine not being miserable doomer gits on Twitter. Spread love, spread gratitude. Take it from Jebus:
Crypto is a great metaphor for how the building blocks to a happy life overlap. Many of the aha! components are simple, triple-digit-accounting type realizations that evolve into positive reflexivity. The flywheels of a great life are truly not much different than your favorite tokenomics paper at a metaphysical level. Build your base layer first and watch what happens.
Closing Remarks:
Beyond grateful for anyone who is taking time out of their lives to read what I am writing. It fr means a lot. Please reach out to me and connect to talk about anything here! DMs, email, metaverse doors are perpetually open.
Definitely listen to the podcasts in this letter in particular when you have a moment!
As always, nothing here is to be taken as financial advice. I write so that I may learn more deeply about crypto, the world, and connect with others. None of us should be making investment decisions based off random cartoon character internet musings without due diligence. As in every other facet of life, no one has any idea what they are doing; alas, least of all me—I promise you.
Crypto remains, and likely will always remain, a boutique and nascent market with high risk. Everything here is still one giant experiment and if anyone tells you otherwise they are lying. However, if you did dig this content please be sure to subscribe, RT, check out my other writings, share with others and collect this piece as a Writing NFT as it really does go a long way in supporting my work! 🙏🤝💚🫡