I explained cryptocurrencies to my dad

 ( Yet another note, so matter of testing different ways of saying the same thing to different audiences. )

Recap of how blockchains work : 

• 1. at the root : the basic data structure is a distributed ledger ... a complete record of the history of something, given to a number of different parties in a network
• 2. consensus protocols : changes to the ledger are submitted to a certain number of parties ... and the parties must agree, to some majority, or the network fails to function
• 3. cryptography : using cryptographic hashes makes the ledger cheaper to check
• 4. cryptocurrencies : the ledger is used to store the records of a currency's unit creation, transfer, and destruction
• 5. smart contracts : the ledger is used to store computer code that be executed upon the meeting of certain criteria
• 6. governance : some cryptocurrencies carry voting power, like shares in a company, within the rules of their protocol
• 7. incentives : in exchange for computing power, parties in a network may be rewarded with units of the network's currency
• 8. The extrinsic value of cryptocurrencies ... like the extrinsic value of shares in a company ... is not tied to the internal functions of the cryptocurrency's network. 
• - If Apple's stock price goes to zero, operations of the company are not internally affected. 
• - Likewise the price of bitcoin is only a measure of the faith of the world in the value of bitcoin, in terms of USD or other currencies.

I am an NPC

I am an NPC. That's gamespeak for non-player-character, or a robot in a fictional world which human-controlled avatars can interact with. I am joking of course, but bear with me. I came to this conclusion after making a snarky comment on a celebrity teacher's post about solipsism and experience as a fully-quantifiable data structure.

I have since the early 2000s been of the opinion that all my experiences are possible to quantify. To detail this a bit more, all my sensory experiences are no-doubt quantifiable, and I generally have no categories of experience which I think of as non-sensory. This is a common, and in some traditions canonical, view among analytical and/or meditative thinkers, but most laypeople don't really think of things that way. Instead the plebeian uses concepts of irreducible emotional and spiritual experience to describe their mental life.

But what if there actually exist such ineffable, incongruous, unquantifiable, intuitive, irreducible experiences in other people ... and it is only I that don't have them? Aha! I must be an NPC!

My friends would probably say : that explains everything.

Reflections on Operational Anxieties

Fear of loss. Kierkegaardian palpitations. Eye watering nausea. Spine numbing diarrhoea. Metaphors for unregulated uncertainty.

Feel like buying? Don't buy.

Feel like selling? Don't sell.

Feel love? Wrong signal to love.

Feel hate? Wrong signal to hate.

Opportunities forgone in times of disregulation are written off, as unpredictable accidents.

Actions taken without the impulse of unplanned activity, can be studied structurally for further development.

Politics is Knotty

Political engineering is, figuring out how to hand everyone enough rope with which they will happily hang themselves. 

Political philosophy is, the habit of asking of anything in hand, what kind of rope is this?

guess who's running the 64% of bitcoin validators hiding behind the TOR network :D

I don't know - the economic incentives are kinda trite. Be my guest, hazard a guess. Could be the US deep state, or BRICS, or someone else.

• competes with the function of sovereign currencies
• debases any sovereign power projections executed via currency agreements, policy, or controls ( i.e. mutually assured enfeeblement of nation-states )
• soaks up retail liquidity
• soaks up USD liquidity
• moderates the price of any other inflation hedging assets ( gold, US equities, particularly tech stocks )
• ???

Nota mengenai Sektor Aset Kripto

1. Cerita Saya dalam Dunia Pemasaran Mata Wang

2. Penghayatan Kritis dari segi Ekonomi Politik Antarabangsa

3. Lima Dikotomi Penting

Small Algorithm for Sector Asset Allocation

• - assets are sectored to the degree that there is data to differentiate their markets, but assets in a cluster may be of any capitalisation size
• - assets within each sector are equally weighted; sectors are weighted based on broader criteria, tactically and/or strategically, with allowance for tactical changes in relative weight 
• - tactical rebalancing : bull market : when one asset in sector appreciates out of weight against other assets in the sector, buy up other assets in the sector until all assets are of equal weight
• - tactical rebalancing : bear market : when one asset in sector depreciates out of weight against other assets in the sector, sell down other assets in the sector until all assets are of equal weight

Hmm!

Motivation to Pursue Rote Skills

Most of my motivation to pursue mastery of dumb skill is of one of two kinds (a) it's often easier to DIY something than to hire someone else (b) at scale I don't want to be managing labour without insight into what labour is doing.

Mostly (a) : cooking, cleaning, simple fabrication and construction, clothing repair, accounting, sex

Mostly (b) : nutrition, physical conditioning, software development, business administration, project and program management and governance, asset and investment management

All the dumb shit in the world. But useful learnings, in context.

Music played with money

It's become considerably interesting to me that liberal arts colleges don't make it mandatory to study the widely practiced and economically impactful visual culture of what is horribly misnamed, 'technical analysis', in the finance industry. It's nothing more or less than music played with money.

Thinky Poem

You may think, I have not lived. I have lived, mostly bored, yet not depressed - I have found things to build, and it has amused me; mostly I have built myself, sometimes I have built other people.

You may think, I have not loved. I have loved, many parts, yet few wholes - I have found things to fix, and it has amused me; mostly I have fixed myself, sometimes I have fixed other people.

I may think, the world is a series of ugly things, half-arsed ideas, broken stories, and damaged machines, destined to encounter myself, a force of irony.

We may think, I have yet to live, that I have yet to love, or, we may think that the world has yet to me.

It doesn't matter what I think, I just think things because I am bored.

Cognitive architecture of beauty and intention

LT and ST memory interactions, the psychology of beauty and intentionality, and the architectural impact of economic privilege :

Form 1 : the conceptual brain is in read mode, outputting concrete sensory forms into sensual memory; in this mode, the output of peripheral sensory cognition, into sensual memory, is less consequential, because the conceptual brain (wherein the wetware may constitute both memory and computing functionality) is not in write mode, and therefore not taking input via sensual memory, from peripheral cognition.

Form 2 : the conceptual brain is not outputting intentions, and is therefore available for reflective inputs. It experiences pleasure from recognised cohesion, and pain from recognised chaos (high entropy).

More assertive personalities find themselves more often in the Form 1. More sensitive personalities find themselves more often in the Form 2. The privileged person is naturally or culturally enabled to switch between the forms with agility.