The text titled “Bitcoin Thoughts” presents a wide-ranging, personal exploration of various topics, notably focusing on Bitcoin, its key players, and the cryptocurrency world, while also touching upon broader themes of wealth, investment, lifestyle, and philosophy.

Bitcoin and Key Players: It begins by discussing the rebranding of Square to Block.xyz and its involvement in Bitcoin. The author highlights the significance of Jack Dorsey, former Twitter CEO and a major proponent of Bitcoin, and his investments in Bitcoin-related ventures. It delves into the rapid transaction capabilities of the Lightning Network and the potential future viability of Bitcoin, backed by influential figures and major corporations like Tesla.
Bitcoin Investment and Market Dynamics: The text touches on large Bitcoin holdings by entities like MicroStrategy, Binance, and individuals like the Winklevoss twins and Tim Draper. The author shares their personal journey with Bitcoin, from an initial investment at $6000 per Bitcoin to witnessing its significant rise in value.
Philosophical Insights and Fallacies: The author draws from philosophical ideas and fallacies like the Lucretius fallacy and the turkey fallacy (referencing Nassim Taleb’s “Antifragile”) to caution against overreliance on past trends for future predictions and the dangers of complacency.
Critique of Statistics and Personal Lifestyle Choices: The author questions the reliability of statistics and shares personal anecdotes about diet and lifestyle choices, challenging mainstream dietary advice and celebrating individuality and outliers.
Bitcoin’s Branding and Market Position: The narrative praises Bitcoin’s branding, its recognizability, and its position as a leading cryptocurrency, while expressing skepticism towards alternative coins and the myth around Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin’s mysterious creator.
Reflections on Wealth and Status Symbols: The author critiques certain status symbols like luxury cars, suggesting that real wealth and success are not always reflected in such external displays. They express skepticism about the value and authenticity of luxury car brands.
The Future of Bitcoin and Wealth Philosophy: Looking ahead, the author speculates on Bitcoin’s long-term prospects, considering factors like the ‘halving effect’. The text concludes with reflections on the true nature of wealth, emphasizing health, family, and a child-like approach to life as the ultimate forms of richness.

Overall, “Bitcoin Thoughts” is a blend of personal finance insights, philosophical musings, and lifestyle reflections, centered around the evolving landscape of Bitcoin and the broader implications of wealth and success.

Bitcoin Thoughts

Back in the bitcoin game: 20 bitcoins, Matte black.

Block.xyz

So Square, the company that you see at every single hips or coffee shop with the iPad and the little white square payment thingy, the company company is called block now, their website URL is block.xyz

So certain things which are quite interesting:

First, block, which is now the parent company they own the cash app, which is very popular in the African-American community, they own square, which essentially runs all small coffee shops and boutique places, and also, they are heavily invested in bitcoin. The head honcho Jack Dorsey, Probably one of the most underrated entrepreneurs of all time, who is also the founder of Twitter… Is really big into bitcoin. Even the last time I checked his Twitter profile, I think his biography signature was just a bitcoin icon, and maybe a lightning bolt, which signifies the lightning network. The lightning network for bitcoin, lightning.network, is essentially an additional layer or innovation, I think it may be came out in 2014, that makes bitcoin transactions insanely fast, near instant, and also, for you to buy a very very small fraction of a bitcoin, .00000001 percent of a bitcoin or whatever.

Bitcoin is the best money?

First and foremost, bitcoin is not real money. It is fake money. Now that we got that out the way, what can we extrapolate from this?

First, if Jack Dorsey, the head honcho of block, which owns square the cash app etc.… And also they have a partnership with Coinbase, and I think they have connections with Gemini a popular crypto platform, I think what that means is then, bitcoin has viable future.

For example, ChatGPT 4, the paid premium one, only 20 bucks a month, might be one of the best financial research tools. Why? It is very good and effective at scraping financial data, in seconds, without having to click fucking Google content marketing ad advertising spam bullshit.

for example, do you member for a minute Tesla was accepting bitcoin to buy Tesla cars? Doing some research, apparently Tesla owns 9,720 bitcoins — $300 million dollars USD roughly of bitcoin.

The plot thickens

It gets even more interesting, other entities which own more bitcoin than Tesla:

Micro strategy, which is based in Virginia, apparently they own 189,000 bitcoin, under the CEO Michael Saylor.

Binance, the infamous CZ who took down FTX, and also Sam Bankman Fried – their total holdings are over 580,000 bitcoin. That is roughly $18 billion worth of bitcoin. Not only that, but, apparently the largest wallet on their platform holds close to 250,000 bitcoin, which once again, might be worth roughly 9 to $10 billion USD as of this writing. Assuming bitcoin is roughly $32,000 a bitcoin. But, if and when bitcoin pops higher, breaks at $50,000 a bitcoin mark, the $65,000 bitcoin mark, and I am pretty certain it’s going to break the $70,000 or $75,000 bitcoin mark… Once again this number will balloon like crazy.

Bitcoin whales

Apparently the Winklevoss twins own an estimated 70,000 BTC — that is a lot. Around $2 billion worth of bitcoin.

Or, Tim Draper who owns around 30,000 bitcoin. Even crazy is when Tim Draper bought all of those bitcoins, which was seized by the US government, I think bitcoin was somewhere at the range of $300-$800 USD a bitcoin? Shame on me for being a fool, I’m not going to be a fool twice.

When did I get in the game?

I personally got into the bitcoin game at around $6000 a bitcoin, which was funny enough considered high at the time. I rode it up 10X, all the way up to 60,000, $65,000 a bitcoin.

Ironically enough, bitcoin is actually a very safe investment

The tricky thing about bitcoin is that it will be more difficult for it to go up 10 X, 100 X, or 1000 X in price. The price increases will be more steady and gradual, you’re not going to see a pop like crazy like a Dogecoin or any of those other meme coins.

The Lucretius fallacy

The fool believes that the highest mountain that exists in the world is the highest mountain he has personally witnessed or climbed himself. – Lucretius, Roman poet philosopher thinker

One of the big problems that we cannot use the past for future predictions. Nor can we use our current position to predict the future.

For example, these fucking idiots who text while driving. The thought is this: “I have successfully driven while driving and text messaging for the last 10 years, and therefore I shall never die.”

But the funny thing is this, one day later, there could be a drunk 18 wheeler, and while you are distracted for half a second, boom you dead.

Once you’re dead, you cannot regret texting while driving.

Also, the big issue is that you could be the worlds best driver, the world’s best texting while driving driver, the best driving while slightly higher or drunk driver or whatever… But even if you were 100% sober and focused, you can still get into a car accident that will kill you, and even potentially kill your kid.

Therefore as a consequence, it is critical to consider and think, don’t do nothing that will potentially cause your own personal death, or the potential death of your own kid.

The turkey fallacy

Once again, to quote TALEN and his insanely insightful book “antifragile“, let us consider the turkey fallacy. Let us say that the highly esteemed turkey economist, with double PhD is from Yale and Harvard school economics and business, shows a graph in which the farmer has been steadily feeding him and all the other turkeys well for the last 30 years, and my following this graph chart, will continue to Feed the turkeys well. What the turkey doesn’t know, and the turkey clan doesn’t understand is actually the next day on Thanksgiving, they will all be slaughtered for a delicious Thanksgiving feast.

All statistics are fake statistics

Perhaps one of the most useful things about studying sociology as an undergraduate at UCLA was statistics, my statistics class. Even my high school, Castro Valley high school in California, I remember my senior year I had the option of taking AP calculus or AP statistics, AP statistics seemed a lot easier, and I hate math, and it seemed to involve less math, so I decided to do statistics instead. In fact, it was surprisingly one of my most fascinating Classes and moments, even as a highschooler. Why? I remember I learned about this notion of a “outlier”, in that in fact, if there was an outlier in the data, what some sneaky people would do is just subtly erase it, or get rid of it.

The reason why I found this a bit weird, unethical or strange was this; what if you, you as individual were an outlier, should a statistician just rub you out?

Or for example, all of this nonsense about diet health physiology etc.; they say that you have to eat carbs and starches and all this other BS in order to gain muscle, but I have been 100% carnivore for the last five years, making immense gains. No protein powder, no creatine, 100% beef, top sirloin pecan Anna, beef ribs, ground beef, lamb leg roast from Costco etc.; not only that but I don’t consume whey protein powder, and I exercise and lift weights while fasted, I never eat anything before lifting weights. The only beverages I drinking include tapwater, filtered water, and just straight up black coffee. No other BS.

As a result, this is the most Demi got my body and physique has looked, at the age of 35. I look far sexier and more beautiful today than I was in my 20s.

And also stronger. I pause it, I might be the strongest person in the world, who doesn’t take steroids, 100% all natural all natty, once not even protein powder!

1,000 pound atlas lift.

Back to Bitcoin

What I love about bitcoin is that it is legible. Everyone knows what a bitcoin is, even Cindy‘s mom knows what it is! It is easy to remember, it rolls off the tongue easily, and the icon is great; the big ass bright orange icon, with the B and two stripes through it. I guess spot the logo from a mile away.

How and why marketing matter matters

What about bitcoin is that it is cool and sexy. All of these other crypto losers want their fake alternative coin to become the next bitcoin; but why not just buy bitcoin instead?

Things I don’t trust

I am extremely wary of any alternative coins, coins which are not bitcoin. Why? What I find so interesting is the mythology of Satoshi; yes, a real human being, probably not like Binsky in which he is a distributed entity of several people. It seems that Satoshi is just a real life person, I don’t think he is Japanese because his English is too good. Just look at the email list server email correspondences that he wrote, his English is too good. Having spent some time living in Japan abroad, no real life Japanese person is that fluent in English.

Who is Satoshi?

I don’t think it really matters. Why? His original bitcoin white paper is so elegant, I think it is only six or eight pages long. This is the simple heuristic:

a good paper must be a short paper.

For example, Thomas Pikkety’s “CAPITAL”– mix for a great doorstop, not a good book. Why? When a book is too long, full of all these fixed statistics etc., it is typically assigned that the author their argument is actually not very strong or robust. Why? Most fools think that the more pages, the more information, the more graphs etc. means for a better idea. This is not true. Would you rather have 1000 Honda Civic, or one Ferrari?

Or would you rather have 10,000 Corolla, or one Lamborghini Aventador with the scissor doors?

Economics, finance, etc.

The reason why I put no faith in any economist or constipated thinker is that their theories have zero to no connection in real life with their real life lifestyle or mode of living.

For example, whenever I meet anybody, whether an economist, business school person, professor etc., I always like to ask them, “what car do you drive”? why? I find this information to be insanely critical, because your car actually says a lot about you.

For example, I put zero to no faith and give no respect to anybody who drives an Audi, either a baselevel Audi like an Audi Q3, or an Audi A3, anybody who drives some sort of SUV, Mercedes SUV, etc. Even anyone who drives a Mercedes car or any German car Porsche etc.

Also, no faith in anybody who drives or owns a Lamborghini Huracan; if your Lamborghini doesn’t have the scissor doors, you’re just driving an expensive Honda Civic.

Why? Real successful people I Found Dr., Ford fusions, if they have a family a white Honda Odyssey, or individual successful people and Doctors Dr., Honda Civic, or even seeing the $150 million mansion in Holby Hills across the Holby park, just a simple white Toyota Prius.

In fact, if you really wanted the supreme luxury car, and to be super low-key, the best car is probably a Hyundai Genesis G90; maximum luxury, and nobody has any idea what it is.

Or even more simple, I met a private security guard who does private security for one guy he quoted as “having more money than God“, and said that he just drives a BMW 7 series.

Fake rich people in LA

In Los Angeles, car culture of the world, fake rich people seem to drive these cars: mercedes-benz AMG G wagon, all matte black, murdered out, all black everything.

Also, any sort of Mercedes or BMW SUV.

What is a bitcoin worth?

The tricky thing is that we evaluate the value of a bitcoin based on the price of the US dollar. But this is the tricky thing; if the price of bitcoin goes up or down in ratio to the US dollar, is that a sign that the US dollar is getting stronger or weaker?

And I suppose ultimately the question is this; in the future, what will be the more valuable acid to have? Bitcoin or the US dollar?

8 years from now

There is this phenomenon in bitcoin called the “halving effect”. The idea is that every four years, the mining difficulty to mind bitcoin becomes astronomically more difficult. As a consequence, every four years there is a big shift.

Thinking eight years from now, that is two more halving effects, technically Seneca will only be 11 years old, still very young, I am very certain that the price of bitcoin is going to be higher than it is today.

But I don’t want to wait! I want to buy the Lamborghini right now!

Lamborghinis are for losers!

Let us note that the word Lamborghini and loser will start with the capital L.

I think the sex and allure of Lamborghinis is simply from the suicide scissor doors, or the Lamborghini billionaire doors.

Essentially the Lamborghini Countach.

Therefore, the Lamborghini Urus is a fake Lamborghini, it is just an Audi Q8 with a body kit.

The Lamborghini Huracan is also a fake Lamborghini, it is just an Audi R8 with a body kit.

Even the Porsche 911, Porsche 911 GT3 RS whatever, it is essentially a Volkswagen beetle turbo on steroids.

Also Ferrari; even now today, I don’t really understand the appeal. The cars are not designed that interestingly, but it seems the only reason people want it is for the chrome prancing horse icon?

You will never see a Ferrari without the Ferrari emblem in the back. I would maybe only ever respect a Ferrari owner or driver if they intentionally debadged their car, and really really really tried to make it look not like a Ferrari.

So ultimately, what is the purpose or value of wealth?

Well, wellness. Health. I think it is actually all the same word in ancient Greek (-hwelh*)– or something.

Dimitri wealth is sleeping 8 to 12 hours a night, having a happy family, good bowel movements, maximum time outside in the direct sun, bright and cherry moves, a beautiful muscular body with low body fat percentage, smiling a lot, shooting the shit with random people, joking around, being like a big kid!

Kids don’t care about money

Kids care about playing, having fun, physical exercise and adventures, they have little interest in money they don’t even know what it is. Only society indoctrinates them to care about it.

Ultimately then, perhaps ultimate goal is to just become like a kid, become like a child! A life of fun, adventure, conquest, bright blue seas, beautiful yellow light, beaches, Malibu, Cabo, Mexico and beyond.

ERIC

Bitcoin Thoughts

Back in the bitcoin game: 20 bitcoins, Matte black.

Block.xyz

So Square, the company that you see at every single hips or coffee shop with the iPad and the little white square payment thingy, the company company is called block now, their website URL is block.xyz

So certain things which are quite interesting:

First, block, which is now the parent company they own the cash app, which is very popular in the African-American community, they own square, which essentially runs all small coffee shops and boutique places, and also, they are heavily invested in bitcoin. The head honcho Jack Dorsey, Probably one of the most underrated entrepreneurs of all time, who is also the founder of Twitter… Is really big into bitcoin. Even the last time I checked his Twitter profile, I think his biography signature was just a bitcoin icon, and maybe a lightning bolt, which signifies the lightning network. The lightning network for bitcoin, lightning.network, is essentially an additional layer or innovation, I think it may be came out in 2014, that makes bitcoin transactions insanely fast, near instant, and also, for you to buy a very very small fraction of a bitcoin, .00000001 percent of a bitcoin or whatever.

Bitcoin is the best money?

First and foremost, bitcoin is not real money. It is fake money. Now that we got that out the way, what can we extrapolate from this?

First, if Jack Dorsey, the head honcho of block, which owns square the cash app etc.… And also they have a partnership with Coinbase, and I think they have connections with Gemini a popular crypto platform, I think what that means is then, bitcoin has viable future.

For example, ChatGPT 4, the paid premium one, only 20 bucks a month, might be one of the best financial research tools. Why? It is very good and effective at scraping financial data, in seconds, without having to click fucking Google content marketing ad advertising spam bullshit.

for example, do you member for a minute Tesla was accepting bitcoin to buy Tesla cars? Doing some research, apparently Tesla owns 9,720 bitcoins — $300 million dollars USD roughly of bitcoin.

The plot thickens

It gets even more interesting, other entities which own more bitcoin than Tesla:

Micro strategy, which is based in Virginia, apparently they own 189,000 bitcoin, under the CEO Michael Saylor.

Binance, the infamous CZ who took down FTX, and also Sam Bankman Fried – their total holdings are over 580,000 bitcoin. That is roughly $18 billion worth of bitcoin. Not only that, but, apparently the largest wallet on their platform holds close to 250,000 bitcoin, which once again, might be worth roughly 9 to $10 billion USD as of this writing. Assuming bitcoin is roughly $32,000 a bitcoin. But, if and when bitcoin pops higher, breaks at $50,000 a bitcoin mark, the $65,000 bitcoin mark, and I am pretty certain it’s going to break the $70,000 or $75,000 bitcoin mark… Once again this number will balloon like crazy.

Bitcoin whales

Apparently the Winklevoss twins own an estimated 70,000 BTC — that is a lot. Around $2 billion worth of bitcoin.

Or, Tim Draper who owns around 30,000 bitcoin. Even crazy is when Tim Draper bought all of those bitcoins, which was seized by the US government, I think bitcoin was somewhere at the range of $300-$800 USD a bitcoin? Shame on me for being a fool, I’m not going to be a fool twice.

When did I get in the game?

I personally got into the bitcoin game at around $6000 a bitcoin, which was funny enough considered high at the time. I rode it up 10X, all the way up to 60,000, $65,000 a bitcoin.

Ironically enough, bitcoin is actually a very safe investment

The tricky thing about bitcoin is that it will be more difficult for it to go up 10 X, 100 X, or 1000 X in price. The price increases will be more steady and gradual, you’re not going to see a pop like crazy like a Dogecoin or any of those other meme coins.

The Lucretius fallacy

The fool believes that the highest mountain that exists in the world is the highest mountain he has personally witnessed or climbed himself. – Lucretius, Roman poet philosopher thinker

One of the big problems that we cannot use the past for future predictions. Nor can we use our current position to predict the future.

For example, these fucking idiots who text while driving. The thought is this: “I have successfully driven while driving and text messaging for the last 10 years, and therefore I shall never die.”

But the funny thing is this, one day later, there could be a drunk 18 wheeler, and while you are distracted for half a second, boom you dead.

Once you’re dead, you cannot regret texting while driving.

Also, the big issue is that you could be the worlds best driver, the world’s best texting while driving driver, the best driving while slightly higher or drunk driver or whatever… But even if you were 100% sober and focused, you can still get into a car accident that will kill you, and even potentially kill your kid.

Therefore as a consequence, it is critical to consider and think, don’t do nothing that will potentially cause your own personal death, or the potential death of your own kid.

The turkey fallacy

Once again, to quote TALEN and his insanely insightful book “antifragile“, let us consider the turkey fallacy. Let us say that the highly esteemed turkey economist, with double PhD is from Yale and Harvard school economics and business, shows a graph in which the farmer has been steadily feeding him and all the other turkeys well for the last 30 years, and my following this graph chart, will continue to Feed the turkeys well. What the turkey doesn’t know, and the turkey clan doesn’t understand is actually the next day on Thanksgiving, they will all be slaughtered for a delicious Thanksgiving feast.

All statistics are fake statistics

Perhaps one of the most useful things about studying sociology as an undergraduate at UCLA was statistics, my statistics class. Even my high school, Castro Valley high school in California, I remember my senior year I had the option of taking AP calculus or AP statistics, AP statistics seemed a lot easier, and I hate math, and it seemed to involve less math, so I decided to do statistics instead. In fact, it was surprisingly one of my most fascinating Classes and moments, even as a highschooler. Why? I remember I learned about this notion of a “outlier”, in that in fact, if there was an outlier in the data, what some sneaky people would do is just subtly erase it, or get rid of it.

The reason why I found this a bit weird, unethical or strange was this; what if you, you as individual were an outlier, should a statistician just rub you out?

Or for example, all of this nonsense about diet health physiology etc.; they say that you have to eat carbs and starches and all this other BS in order to gain muscle, but I have been 100% carnivore for the last five years, making immense gains. No protein powder, no creatine, 100% beef, top sirloin pecan Anna, beef ribs, ground beef, lamb leg roast from Costco etc.; not only that but I don’t consume whey protein powder, and I exercise and lift weights while fasted, I never eat anything before lifting weights. The only beverages I drinking include tapwater, filtered water, and just straight up black coffee. No other BS.

As a result, this is the most Demi got my body and physique has looked, at the age of 35. I look far sexier and more beautiful today than I was in my 20s.

And also stronger. I pause it, I might be the strongest person in the world, who doesn’t take steroids, 100% all natural all natty, once not even protein powder!

1,000 pound atlas lift.

Back to Bitcoin

What I love about bitcoin is that it is legible. Everyone knows what a bitcoin is, even Cindy‘s mom knows what it is! It is easy to remember, it rolls off the tongue easily, and the icon is great; the big ass bright orange icon, with the B and two stripes through it. I guess spot the logo from a mile away.

How and why marketing matter matters

What about bitcoin is that it is cool and sexy. All of these other crypto losers want their fake alternative coin to become the next bitcoin; but why not just buy bitcoin instead?

Things I don’t trust

I am extremely wary of any alternative coins, coins which are not bitcoin. Why? What I find so interesting is the mythology of Satoshi; yes, a real human being, probably not like Binsky in which he is a distributed entity of several people. It seems that Satoshi is just a real life person, I don’t think he is Japanese because his English is too good. Just look at the email list server email correspondences that he wrote, his English is too good. Having spent some time living in Japan abroad, no real life Japanese person is that fluent in English.

Who is Satoshi?

I don’t think it really matters. Why? His original bitcoin white paper is so elegant, I think it is only six or eight pages long. This is the simple heuristic:

a good paper must be a short paper.

For example, Thomas Pikkety’s “CAPITAL”– mix for a great doorstop, not a good book. Why? When a book is too long, full of all these fixed statistics etc., it is typically assigned that the author their argument is actually not very strong or robust. Why? Most fools think that the more pages, the more information, the more graphs etc. means for a better idea. This is not true. Would you rather have 1000 Honda Civic, or one Ferrari?

Or would you rather have 10,000 Corolla, or one Lamborghini Aventador with the scissor doors?

Economics, finance, etc.

The reason why I put no faith in any economist or constipated thinker is that their theories have zero to no connection in real life with their real life lifestyle or mode of living.

For example, whenever I meet anybody, whether an economist, business school person, professor etc., I always like to ask them, “what car do you drive”? why? I find this information to be insanely critical, because your car actually says a lot about you.

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Introduction to Stoicism

Something I have been meaning to write or create or do is like some sort of book, ebook, pamphlet, or introductory primer to stoicism. I really think that stoicism is probably one of the most useful and philosophical models to live normal every day real life. Yet, I haven’t really found a good instructional guide on it, especially when I was self teaching it to myself.

Consider this a practical primer, cutting through the BS:

What does stoicism mean?

Stoicism, stoic, the stoa in ancient Greece– essentially the stoa was like some sort of portico, patio, pillar, outside, essentially a spot where guys would just hang out, talk shop, talk philosophy, etc.

I think about the show “Hey Arnold” in which I was raised with… the notion of “stoop kid“, the notion of a stoop is that in a lot of cities, especially the east coast in New York, you have this little stoop or porch, stairs that go outside your front door… and you could just hang out there, engage in social and neighborhood life etc.

The new stoa?

One of my happiest moments was when I was living in Providence Rhode Island, and then COVID-19 hit. Everything was closed, besides the park. I can still go to the park, hang out, workout, do chin ups– I learned how to do muscle ups, more bodyweight calisthenics stuff, and also… I had a lot of fun with this “rock toss“ challenge and workout… in the middle of the park was a huge ass rock and huge ass stone, and every single day I would go there pick it up, and then eventually work out with it; throwing it around for fun, doing overhead presses with it, clean and jerks, squats, and eventually I would just throw it around for fun. Funny enough it might have been the most fit I was in my life… this was the true “functional” fitness.

The inspiration — Hector lifting an insanely massive stone (barely 2 strong men could lift it)… using it to break down the door of the ships of the other side.

Open air, open sun concept

Anyways, the reason why that period of covid was so good is that it was in the middle of beautiful Providence Rhode Island summer, so nice and bright and warm and lovely… and one of the good things was going to the park was like an open forum, a new anatheum for a lot of really cool guys to come, hang out, talk shop, go topless and shirtless, workout and hang out.

I met some really interesting people during that period of time. I met some guys who were really cool. For example, one guy I met was in the US military Navy, I think he was training to be a Navy seal or Delta force or something. Another guy in some sort of ROTC training, another cool guy from the hood, and also I would say I probably met half a dozen friendly drug dealers there. And of course a lot of people who believed in conspiracy theories; really friendly, a little weird, but overall good guys.

Anyways, one of the biggest benefits of hanging out at that outdoor park, open air, nothing but green grass, the beautiful sun and the fitness equipment was that I think having this sort of open air environment is actually very conducive to socializing, thinking and thought, and pro social behavior. My theory about a lot of modern day antisocial behavior has to do with the structures which enclose us. For example, almost universally most guys at the gym are extremely antisocial. Why? My theory is that because most gyms have closed, cramped narrow ceilings, and do not have access to natural light, or outside space.

Cramped indoor spaces promote antisocial behavior.

The only good gym I went to which was interesting was the golds gym in Venice, which has this really big outdoor workout area. I think this is much more natural and more fun and better; to be able to work out directly outside outdoors, with your shirt off.

Who is this philosophy for?

Stoics, stoicism — it was originally I think codified by this guy named Zeno, and over time he picked up some followers. Essentially the whole thing happened organically; Zeno would first share his thinking on philosophy ethics and pragmatic ways to deal with other people and the downsides of life, he built a following, and then his followers would propagate the thoughts and start their own little schools of thoughts, their own little stoic clubs.

What is “real” stoicism?

Would I like about stoicism is how loosey goosey it is. It is kind of like zen, or taoism… it is not really quantified as a religion, or a strict moral order. In fact, a lot of the ancients stoics would meditate on random stuff like cosmology, natural sciences like Seneca, how volcanoes worked or whatever. I think nowadays in today’s world, we focus primarily on the pragmatic side; how to deal with fear, uncertainty, downsides etc.

So how did I discover stoicism?

I think I might’ve first learned about stoicism from Nassim Taleb and his ANTIFRAGILE book. I was curious, and my curiosity went to deep. To quote NASSIM TALEB and the Venetian saying “The ocean goes deeper, the deeper you wade into it.”

I literally consumed every single book I could find on stoicism, even the obscure ones. Funny enough, a lot of the stoic thinkers tried to claim other philosophers as being stoic, like Seneca did with Diogenes the cynic.

Cynic, cynicism, actually comes from the word canine, the dog. Diogenes was considered the “dog” philosopher, first used as a pejorative, but ultimately Diogenes reappropriated that title for fun! He saw dogs as tough, almost like wild wolves, rather than seeing them as a negative thing.

Even Achilles when he was raging against king Agamemnon, he called him “dog faced“ as a heaping insult.

Who is worth reading?

First, Seneca. Seneca the younger, his dad was called Seneca the elder.

In fact, this is such a big deal because Cindy and I named our first son, Seneca, directly after the stoic philosopher. This is true soul in the game; if you name your kid after your favorite philosopher, certainly it is a sign that you really liked that philosopher, or found them impactful.

The reason why I really like Seneca the stoic philosopher is because he had real connections to real reality. What that means is he wasn’t just on the sidelines; he actually existed in the real world, engaged in real politics, was even advisor to the emperor Nero, the bad one, who eventually low-key coerced Seneca to commit suicide, in a manly, dignified manner.

I think this was because maybe… there was actually a plan to overthrow Nero, and essentially Nero found out.

What makes Seneca so good?

I really like Seneca because his writing is accessible, practical and pragmatic, and interesting.

A lot of thinkers tend to lack connections to real reality, I have no tolerance for boring philosophers to talk about metaphysics, which is things which are not physical. Like thoughts ideas, the universe, electricity and energy, strange phenomenon and conspiracy theories on ghosts, “energy” whatever.

For a long time, I would hear the term “metaphysics” being thrown around, and I had zero idea what it actually meant.

Meta– on top of. Or nestled within.

Physics — the physical, physical phenomenon like gravity, first principles.

The reason why metaphysics philosophers tend to be a bunch of losers is that they are all weak and anemic, nerds or geeks or weaklings who seem to have some sort of physiological degeneracy, which encourages them to opine or talk or think about impractical things, superficial things.

Personally speaking, I think philosophy must be practical.

Practical, praxis, practice — to do!

The Spartan, Zen Stoic, demigod ideal

I have a very funny ideal; the general idea is that your body looks like a demigod, and your physiology is out of control. The general idea is one must be tall, strong, highly muscular, low body fat percentage, I’m not exactly sure what my body fat percentage is, but maybe it’s around 5%.

Also, physical fitness is critical to any stoic. My ideal is to walk 50 miles a day, eat 20 pounds of meat like Milo of Croton a day. And also, abstinence from silly things like media, alcohol, drugs, marijuana etc.

Trust no thinker who does drugs!

Even our best friend Nietzsche said that coffee was bad, because it would make people dark and gloomy. He encouraged 100% cocoa powder instead.

You let the drugs talk I let my soul talk ayy! – Kendrick Lamar

Simple technique:

First, look at a picture or a portrait or a full body shot, ideally topless of the artist, philosopher or thinker or individual… then judge their thoughts later.

Why? My theory is this: the thoughts of an individual is hugely affected by their bodily physiology.

For example, an extreme example: if somebody is locked inside a solitary confinement cell, and not permitted to go outside for years, but, he had a pen and pad and would jot down some thoughts… Would be the quality of these thoughts? Certainly dark and morose.

Why does stoicism matter?

In today’s world, why does it matter, what is the significance of stoicism, etc.?

First and foremost, I think we are living in a troubling time, especially with the advent of modern day internet based media and advertising. I think 99% of what is propagated on the internet is fear mongering, and what is hate? Hate is just fear.

The first thought on stoicism is that it is just fear conquering. What I discovered about street photography, is that 99% of it is conquering your fears. Conquering your fears of upsetting other people, getting in some sort of verbal or physical altercation etc. In fact my bread and butter workshop is my conquering your fears and street photography workshop, the workshop which is still interesting to me even after a decade.

Why is this so important? I think it is rooted in almost everything; conquering your fears is rooted in entrepreneurship, innovation, risktaking and real life.

Even my speculation in crypto. 99.9% of crypto speculation is just balls. Having the balls to make big bets, and when things go south, knowing how to master your emotions.

A simple extra I have is this: just imagine it will all go down to zero.

It was useful because when I was in college, my sophomore year I got really into trading stocks, and I eventually lost my whole life savings, maybe around $3500 USD, and some bad penny stock which I actually misread the financials… the whole time I thought the company was making a profit, but actually it was taking a loss. I actually didn’t know that if profits are written in parentheses, it means a loss.

It was funny because my initial start as an investor was back in high school, I bought some Adobe stock when I was a high school junior, and also some mutual funds, which both went up after about 4-5 years.

Also I remember in elementary school computer class, when I was in the sixth grade in Bayside Queens, there was some sort of stock stimulation trading game, and actually it was funny… the kids who made the most money and were the most successful just put 100% of everything into Apple, note this is when we were only 12 years old, and I was born in 1988.

Stoicism and capitalism?

Funny enough, it seems that stoicism actually plays well with capitalism. Why? According to modern day capitalist thinking, the best way to approach life is to be objective, strong, stoic, unemotional, logical and rational.

Also, with modern day media there is so much fear mongering in the news, about some sort of global armageddon, global financial ruin, etc. I call it “fear porn”.

Therefore stoicism as a mindset is useful to think and position your mind in such a way that you could consider that life is all upside, no downside.

In fact, if I could summarize stoicism in one sentence, it is that life is all upside, no downside. Inspired by NASSIM TALEB.

Sex and Stoicism

So, is stoicism useful to you if you’re a man or a woman? Does it matter?

The good thing is I think it could apply to both sexes. Conquering sexism and social pressures is useful if you’re woman, and also if you’re a man.

Also, gender is social. Lot of the expectations set on us by society is socialized and gamed to a certain degree.

Stoic strategies

First, we got to unchain ourselves from modern day ethics and morality. I believe that all modern day philosophy and thinking and ethics and religion is bad.

For example, the notion of turning the other cheek is a patently bad one. Why did Jesus turn his cheek? It is because he lacked on army.

Also, philosophically I think we should put no trust in Socrates. I thought which has puzzled me for a long time was this “Why was Socrates so ugly?

Monster in face, monster in soul.

I think Socrates was a degenerate, and he lacked any sort of real power. Therefore he turned logic and rationality into his terrorizing weapon (via Nietzsche). Back in the day, you didn’t need logic or rationality to have things your way, you simply was able to dictate that which you wanted to pause it, because you had a military force behind you. Just think about Machiavelli and IL PRINCIPE– the reality of being a mercurial prince, king, and military leader is hard, stoic, “immoral”. But ultimately it all comes down to war, conquest, the military.

Trust nobody who uses rationality or logic as their tyrannizing weapon.

In fact, I believe that all should have the body and strength of some sort of super soldier. Essentially look like all the guys from the movie 300, this is our ideal.

Demigod physique.

What has helped me

Allow yourself to be a bad, immortal, “evil” person. When you decide to adopt an unorthodox way of thinking and living, you’re going to rub some feathers the wrong way. And truth be told, even if you act in a strange vibrant way… At worse you’re only “mildly” annoying other people.
For good inspirations, I think the best stoic writers and thinkers include Seneca, and Marcus Aurelius and also the humor of the cynic philosopher Diogenes. I would even posit the idea that one could consider Alexander the Great as a stoic. Why? When you’re trying to create an empire, and you always have your life on the line, certainly this takes a stoic mindset. Also, let us think and consider that Alexander the Great had a copy of the Iliad by his bedstand, it was the only book he traveled with during his military tours.
Imagine the worst possible case scenario, and backtrack: Apparently even NASSIM TALEB would do this when he was a trader; every single day when he would go to his trading desk, he would assume that his investments would all go to zero, and if that wasn’t the case every single day, it was just upside. Therefore for myself, I just think to myself very simple; imagine like I got zero dollars, zero money, and literally all I need is meat, a Wi-Fi connection and I’m good.
Live like a poor person: The notion of “debasing“ the coin or the currency is the general idea that you are not a coward in regards to money. The best way to think about money is like a social tool; I think money is actually just codified labor. If you want people to clean bathrooms, run the cashiers stand, you have to promise them money. Even Seneca said the upsides of simulated poverty; essentially living like a poor person, or even a homeless person when you don’t need to… is the ultimate position to be in. Why? True freedom of spirit and soul; as a philosopher thinker writer or whatever… you cannot be “canceled”, because there is nothing to cancel. As long as you could pay your rent, buy meat at Costco, and publish your thoughts to your own self hosted website blog, and pay your server fee, you have 100% freedom. And also, still… America is the best place to be because there is true freedom of speech and expression, you don’t want to be a trillionaire but not be able to say what’s really on your mind. And I think this is the big issue with entertainers, actors, media people… as long as you’re signed to a contract, you don’t run your own production company, or, you’re still a slave to money… you’re not really going to see what’s really on your mind. Why is it that the Rock cannot say anything bad about China, or Tibet? Because he is still enslaved by the media corporation. New slaves by Kanye West.

And this is the true courage of Kanye West; he literally put everything on the line, and even lost his spouse and I think maybe his kids? All for the sake of revealing inequities.

“I throw these Maybach keys fucking c’est la vie! I know that we the new slaves.”- Ye

Stoic training

The fun thing about stoicism is that you could just make it up as you go, devise your own strategies and whatever.

“Fucking c’est la vie!” My favorite Kanye West line.

Essentially the general idea is that in life, one should not take things too seriously. Laughter is golden, I forget the philosopher who was called the laughing philosopher… Democritus?; better to laugh about the follies of human beings rather than to be dark and morose about it.

Also, thoughts from the Odyssey; if you look far enough into the future, everything becomes comedic and hilarious.

So when you’re in some sort of bad situation, just think to yourself “Perhaps one day, 20 or 30 years from now… I will look back at this and just laugh!” It will just be humorous.

Honestly, laughter, and kind of being able to joke about things might be the best way to live life and deal with setbacks.

Modern day ailments

Problems in modern day life:

Too much time spent indoors, not enough time out in the sun. Perhaps it is better to be out outside all day, and joyful, even with the risk of getting skin cancer or whatever… rather than to be indoors, scared, weak and anemic. Differences between if you’re a man or a woman, but still… the most beautiful skin has a sunkissed, olive color tone; the true privilege is having a full body tan.
Get chatGPT, the paid premium one. And use the image generation AI art tool DALL-E. People pay therapists to just speak their mind, and get some sort of sounding board. I actually think it’s much better to chat with AI instead; because it will not judge you, and ultimately what is a therapist anyways? A therapist is just a mirror, a sounding board for you to verbalize and flesh out your thoughts. Often when we talk about our problems, 90% of the issues go away because once we verbalize it, we feel much better about ourselves. The next thing I’m going to do is build some sort of therapy bot.
Not enough walking: I have never met anybody who walks 30,000 steps a day and is depressed. Even my friend Jimmy, who works as a US postal worker delivering the mail, he walks around 30,000 steps a day and is always bright cherry and jovial. I think this is also where people who hike a lot or walk a lot in nature are so happy; when you’re able to walk around a lot, and zen out… you just feel much better. My simple suggestion is when you go on a hike or a walk in nature or even in the city… leave your phone at home, or locked inside your glove compartment, and don’t bring any headphones or speakers or Apple watches or whatever. Just bring along your camera, and enjoy. My personal ideal is the bear lifestyle; walking 50 miles a day.

Real stoics don’t call themselves Stoics?

A funny thing I have learned is that when you call something something, it isn’t that.

For example, if someone calls something a “luxury car”, it ain’t. For example, a true modern day luxury car is maybe a Tesla, but Tesla never calls itself a luxury car. Also the ultimate luxury technology company is probably Apple… but Apple is very intelligent and not calling themselves a luxury brand.

A pro tip is when it comes to websites, read the alternative text, the header text, the stuff that shows up in the tab of your browser window. If the website, the automotive retailer tries to market themselves as a “luxury” brand, typically it is actually a sign that it isn’t a luxury brand it isn’t luxury brand.

Thought: what are some good examples of true luxury brands which don’t overly calls itself luxury?

In someways, we can think and consider stoicism as our new luxury. In fact, having luxury, luxury of mind and soul… and luxury of freedom of speech, isn’t this the ultimate luxury?

When somebody asked Diogenes the cynic; “What is the best human good”? He said “Freedom of speech, speaking your mind, having the power to see whatever is on your mind.”

In fact, my current joy is becoming more and more free talking, and free riding. What that means is this; I’m ain’t going to censor myself no more, even if I might be politically incorrect insensitive or whatever.

Also, I would prefer to speak my mind and seriously hurt the feelings of others, rather than soften it for the sake of the other person.

Similarly speaking, when people call themselves “influencers”, they are not influencers.

Stoicism as a technique and tool, not the end

Ultimately I think we should think of stoicism just like having another tool inside our tool kit. For example, if you’re a chef, you’re going to have different knives for different purposes. If you’re going to cut a big piece of meat, you probably want a big ass meat cutting knife, not something you would use to slice an apple with. Similarly speaking, if you’re going to scoop out the insides of an avocado, better to use a spoon rather than using a fork, or a knife.

I think the problem is when some people get too into stoicism (I prefer writing stoicism with a lowercase), they think that everything needs to be consistent, and must fit into this nice little neat box of what is considered “stoicism“. This is a bad line of thinking… let us consider that Marcus Aurelius never even mentioned stoicism in his writings, his collections of thoughts, which we moderns call THE MEDITATIONS… it was just essentially his personal diary, to help him conquer his own personal fears and thoughts, I don’t think he ever intended it to be published publicly. I think he just wrote it to himself as self therapy. And I think the only stoic philosopher he even mentions is maybe Epictetus.

The future of stoicism?

For myself, I just come out with certain to work out thoughts and techniques because it helps me, and when I find these tricks or techniques or secret hacks or cheat codes… My passion is to simply share it with others.

And ultimately, things are ever in flux and evolving and changing and adapting.

For example, I’ve discovered the quality of my thinking is different when I am in Culver City Los Angeles, compared to being in the boring suburbs of Orange County.

Also depending on my social environments… my stoic thoughts are different when I am in a gym, vs just working out by myself in my parking spot in the back of my apartment.

Also, the quality of my thoughts is different when living with family members or other people versus just living with myself Cindy and Seneca.

Stoicism is all about living with other people

Assuming you’re not growing your own vegetables and living in the middle of nowhere… you probably have some interaction with other human beings. As long as you have an iPhone, an Android phone, a smartphone, a 4G or 5G internet connection, wifi, a laptop, have to buy groceries somewhere… you’re still going to have to interact with other human beings.

And this is good. There is no other greater joy than other human beings.

In fact, modern-day society is strange because in someways, the ethos is to be antisocial and to be cowardly. But in fact, the best way to think about things is that real life is interaction with other human beings, and social conquest. One can imagine a lot of modern day entrepreneurship as simply a big dick swinging contest. He who is the most masculine confident tall and strong and stoic shall win.

More ideas

Assume that everyone is mentally insane: Have you ever been out in public, and you see some sort of crackhead or strange homeless person who acts radically, smells terrible, and is obviously mentally ill? Do you hate them for it? When they say something weird to you… do you take it personally? No. Why? They are crazy. Perhaps we should just adopt this stoic mindset towards other people; some people are actually physiologically ill, mentally unwell… don’t trust the opinion of nobody.

A lot of people are trying to actually deal with their own inner demons: For example, becoming the successful photographer and street photographer I am today… I’ve dealt with some individuals who would say anonymous bad things about me, and later I found out that their mom just died or something. I cannot imagine what it feels like losing a mother… therefore if somebody spew some hate on me because something bad happened to them, I’m not gonna take it personally.

Self-flagellation: I think a lot of people who are sick, mentally or physiologically self flagellate themselves. Essentially the way that they deal with other people or themselves is some sort of metaphorical self-flagellation.

For example… you know those strange individuals who have the whip and whip themselves, and inflict pain on themselves? I think some people do this metaphorically to themselves and others.

You just want to stay away from them.

Why so scared?

My personal theory on fear is that a lot of it is tied to morality and ethics. I think the general idea is not necessarily that we are afraid of anything… I think the true fear is that we’re afraid that we are some sort of bad evil unethical immoral person.

For example in street photography, the general ethical thought is that it is immoral to take a photo of somebody without their permission, because there is some sort of it inherent evil behind it. Is this true? No. Taking photos and not really a big deal.

Why do people make such a big deal out of small things?

I think it is because some people are just overly sensitive, which once again comes from some sort of physiological weakness.

For example, if you’re a weightlifter who could lift 1000 pounds, assuming you’re not taking any steroids or anything… are small things going to bother you? No. But let us assume that you are a skinny fat man, all you do is drink alcohol and smoke marijuana and watch Netflix, and you spent too much time on Reddit… you are 40% body fat, and have never lifted in your life. And also your testosterone is low and you never go outside. Certainly the quality of your thoughts is going to be different than if you’re a happy gay monster, lifting weights outside in the direct sun, laughing and having fun.

In fact, I’ve actually personally discovered that the reason why a lot of people hate me is because I am so happy jovial and gay. They are secretly suspicious or envious of me?

Weather and mood

Probably one of my worst experiences was this jarring transition; I was super happy insanely happy being in Vietnam in 2017; with a beautiful weather, the beautiful light, the happy people the great amenities etc.… and then that winter Cindy and I went to Europe, in Marseille Berlin and Prague, and maybe London… seriously the worst winter of my life. Why? I wonder if so much miserable feelings and thoughts simply comes from the darkness and lack of light. a lot of Europe is actually quite miserable; dark, unhygienic, morose.

Even Nietzsche had a thought about Schopenhauer; How much of these emo European philosophers came from the fact that it was just complaining about the cold weather in Germany etc.?

For myself, my ideal weather is Southeast Asia; I love being in Phnom Penh Cambodia, Vietnam etc. In the states, am I the only one who loves living in Los Angeles? Dr. Dre and Kendrick Lamar said that LA was the best for women weed and weather… I would definitely say the biggest upside of living in Los Angeles is the light, the sunlight. It actually does get quite cold here, but usually most reliably even in December during the winter time, the sun will always come up. As long as there is bright sunny light, I will be happy. And I think maybe for myself, considering that I am a photographer, and photography means painting with light… light for me is critical.

I also wonder how much of it is a physiological thing and a genetic trait; for example I could even recall being a young child, and my mom telling me that the most critical thing in finding a home or an apartment was light and natural light. Even now… 90% of my happiness comes from being able to have access to natural light, ideally floor to ceiling windows facing directly the sun, having some sort of modern temperature regulated apartment and home. Even living in our tiny studio minimalistic luxury apartment in Providence Rhode Island, where it was always 75° warm and cozy, and not frigid and damp and cold and dark and humid… I was always good. But moving to an older house, where it always felt damp and cold… this literally lowered my happiness by 1000%.

Therefore, if you’re feeling miserable sad or whatever… I say spend three months living in Hanoi or Saigon in Vietnam, or go to Phnom Penh Cambodia. I wonder if 90% of peoples misery is simply due to the weather.

Stoic assignments

”Better to be a gay monster than a sentimental bore!” – Fernandino Galliani, via Nietzsche

My stoic ideal is somebody who is happy, gay, smiling, no headphones or AirPods on, no sunglasses on, no hat, no facial hair, no baggy oversized clothing, no tint in their car. Somebody who makes great eye contact, laughs, stands up upright, jokes, and fools around. Like an overgrown child.

Also, lift weights at least once every day, ideally in the direct sun. Just buy some weightlifting equipment on Titan.fitness, I like the farmers carry handles, the Olympic loadable dumbbell, and also the Texas power squat bar. Just buy some cheap weights, and or buy a heavy 400 pound sandbag, and just have fun throwing it around.

True stoics are masculine

A true stoic should look something like Hercules or Achilles. Or like ERIC KIM; I have the aesthetic and the physique of Brad Pitt in FIGHT CLUB except with a lot more muscle. Like my friend Soren says, the Adonis physique and proportions.

A real stoic is sexy

I think a real stoic is sexy, happy and fun. Who doesn’t take life too seriously; and think of everything like a fun game. A real stoic would be joyful and cheery like three-year-old child without any adulteration from the outside world.

Why do adults become so dark and morose?

I don’t like talking with or hanging out with adults, uninteresting.

At what point or age do people become so emo?

Typically, highschoolers are very optimistic. Even college students. But I think at least in maybe college in high school nowadays… the bad trend is towards “over concern”, about the world the planet ethics animals etc.

I find a lot of this thinking superficial, performative, and uncritical. I think “animal rights“, “saving the planet” is this new pseudo world religion; which is just capitalism 3.0. I find the whole pet industry the whole dog industry to be insanely bizarre, and I trust nobody who talks about “saving the planet“ who owns an iPhone, owns any sort of car, or has an Amazon prime subscription. Certainly not any vegans.

A real stoic is a carnivore

Animals are animals. They are lower on the hierarchy and totem pole on earth. Man is the apex predator, the apex bully and the apex tyrant.

Should we care for animals or “animal rights”? No. Animals are our slaves.

If you consider even dogs and pets… they are essentially our emotional slaves. People talk a lot about the virtuosity of dogs being loyal or whatever… and giving you unconditional love. This seems like some sort of emotional slavery.

The only dogs I respect are some sort of canine dogs, some sort of attack or defense dogs, or hunting dogs. For example, John Wick 3; Halle Barry and her dogs. An animal should either be a weapon, or nothing.

Why do people care about animals so much?

Essentially it looks like men no longer have a backbone. No more spine.

I trust nobody who owns a dog.

Let us not forget; they call it dog ownership, or “owning a pet”. There is no more concept of “human ownership, or “owning a human.”

End goals

What is the end goal of humanity? To me it is towards entrepreneurship, innovation, art and aesthetics, philosophy etc. Design.

Stoicism should be considered a tool which could aid you in these things.

For example, I think 99% of entrepreneurship is courage. Stoicism could help you with that.

I also think with design, great design is also 99% courage, having the courage to attempt something that won’t sell or be received well… stoicism is all about practical courage. The only designers with courage include Steve Jobs, Jony Ive, Elon Musk, Kanye West.

Also, weightlifting. To attempt to lift a certain weight you have never attempted before takes great courage. For example, me atlas lifting 1000 pounds; that is 10 plates and a 25 on each side, this is true stoic training. Why? The fear of injury is what holds most people back; if you had successfully conquered this fear and not injured yourself, this is pure stoic bliss.

The physical

I think the only and the only proper way to lift weights is one repetition maximum training. That is; what is the maximum amount of weight you’re able to successfully lift or move, even half an inch?

To me, the courage is the success. Even if you had the courage to attempt it… that is what is considered success.

Simple exercises to do include the atlas lift, innovated by ERIC KIM, or a one repetition max rack pull.

Or, a high trap bar deadlift, heavy Farmer’s walks, or heavy sandbag carries. Or even a simple thing you could do is go to the park or to the local nature center, find the biggest rock there and just see if you could pick it up.

Now what?

If you’re interested in stoicism, and have had some interesting thoughts on stoicism, one of the most noble things you could do is start your own blog. I think blogs are 1000 times more effective than publishing some sort of static printed book; I think the problem in today’s world is that everyone is seeking some sort of legitimacy by being picked up by some sort of legitimate publisher and getting “published“, and seeing your printed book at Barnes & Noble whatever.

I say it is better to be open source, free and permissionless, decentralized. Just publish your thoughts and book as a free PDF, and just host it on dropbox, Google Drive, or your own web server. Share the link freely, and also just publish the raw text as a big blog post.

Even Sam Bankman-Fried wisely thought; 99.9% of books could just be summarized as big blog posts.

Don’t trust any modern day published book which isn’t free, because… there is some sort of hidden clout chasing somewhere.

Even one of the worst compromises that led to the demise of Ray Dalio was the fact that he took his Principles book, which was essentially a free ebook PDF on his website, and then took it off, because I think he got a book deal with Simon and Schuster. After he did that, he lost my respect.

If you’re already independently wealthy, and you don’t crowd source your self-esteem… why would you need to externally validate yourself by getting some sort of constipated publisher and annoying editor?

Editors are bad.

Now what?

Start your own blog and start blogging your own thoughts on stoic philosophy, and even start a YouTube channel and start vlogging on it. My generalized thought is simple: if your thought your idea your blog post your video or whatever could even impact the life of one other human being on planet earth… it is worth it.

ERIC