Teaching Bitcoin: A Fresh New Look
I hated writing a newsletter.
I love guiding people towards some fundamental insight.
As it turns out, I was writing for the wrong audience. Most of you already understand the criticality of bitcoin. What you needed help with was communicating that to those you care about.
The key to teaching others about bitcoin is to teach around bitcoin. This encompasses monetary history, technology adoption, and cognitive biases.
In a single word: incentives.
So that's what I'm going to help you with.
People don't react well when reality reveals their ignorance.
In 1999, Russell Foster discovers a new type of cell in the eye that can detect light independent of previously known cells. Instead of celebrating the discovery, the ophthalmology community tried to discredit him.
"They struggled to accept that something they had been studying for 150 years–namely the human eye–had a type of cell whose function they had completely overlooked." –Russell Foster
Lesson: scientific and technological breakthroughs are rarely welcomed by the status quo because it may threaten their livelihood or be a source of embarrassment.
Declining birthrates = global battle for talent.
No country (no matter how sacred) is immune to a declining quality of life. When economic conditions become excessively burdensome, individuals with the capacity will permanently exit a jurisdiction in an effort to avoid anticipated societal decline and increased rates of taxation required to pay it off.
“In the Information Age.. the rational person will not respond to the prospect of higher taxes to fund deficits.. Sovereign individuals and other rational people will flee jurisdictions with large unfunded liabilities.” —The Sovereign Individual (Davidson & Rees-Mogg)
The mobility of skilled workers has been unlocked over the last two decades. Now we have capital that is digital, frictionless and borderless. It's a dangerous combination for complacent nations.
Lesson: Talent and capital goes to where it's treated best.
What I'm Reading
