vitalik wrote an existential essay today that is entirely worthy of such a birthday milestone.

It's ironic how as a child that day brings such effervescence (if fortunate enough) and as you grow into adult it brings a sobering clarity about the navigation you currently follow in a time limited existence.

the link: vitalik.eth.limo/general/2024/01/31/end.html

while I don't agree with all of his declarations, I certainly resonate with the ones that 'matter' most to me personally.

crypto.. you beautiful, ugly, chaotic, optimistic, filthy bastard. I love you so dearly and yet you irritate me to no end it seems.

the divisiveness of crypto proliferators is par for the course of current times - dev, content creator, lead, narrator - we continue the human folly of ignoring spectrum manifestation. but vitalik worded it beautifully in about 4 paragraphs.

we need complimentary opposites. it's the only way this thing gets built 'meaningfully'. and it's early enough to still be accomplished.

man, I love an existential essay from thoughtful humans - it was just the thing I needed today!!!

If a bull market truly is on the horizon, then things are about to get nutty. Waves of new ct members. Tons more engagement farming. Ridiculously pumps and equally ridiculous dumps.

Orgs will desperately try to convert new users and those that were 'sharpening their swords' in the bear will be cutting through the noise best.

I wish us all good fortune in this next cycle. And if I had the pleasure of getting to know you, and collaborating in some capacity, I hope that we build something even more amazing next.

Happy New Year you beautiful anons. Let's have some fun in 2024!

absolutely binged 8 waffles last night

I'm raring to go but in a conversation with 0xfoda yday I was struck w the full framed insight that in a world where, in his words, "[he] literally can't stop thinking." - due to ai, smartphones, endless inputs and imagination, etc - the pendulum has swung from 'work harder/smarter' to 'rest harder/smarter'

2.5 weeks off in Vietnam. 3 weeks off in December. For some reason I told myself that would be inconceivable, down right irresponsible. While conveniently neglecting that 'weekend' is a term I discarded a decade ago..

7 days a week, for 46 weeks.. 322 days of work.
And I tried to act like 42 days off would be impossible.

lol

30 days of notes to close out the year. Weirdly enough, it has helped refine my personal journaling habit. It made me realize where I was holding back - as if someone may end up reading those one day.

how odd to realize that even in a private journal, I was avoiding the embrace of my full disclosure. if you do not have a place to practice such honesty, how does one refine it?

feel that this unlock may provide the most outsized returns for the effort the experiment required.

... and this is why we play the games

lotta new insights, currently all tangled up.
telling myself to rest, $enjoy the remainder of my time off.

we hit the ground running in the new year.

I find it personally gratifying that the many years I spent chaotically are starting to bear fruit. Wouldn't it be nice if I could honestly say "it's all going according to plan."

:)

Happy Holidays you degenerates and giga chads!

something is just constrained ‘anything’

"Elitism is the intellectuals prejudice." - from my Twitter

The distribution curve meme can fold onto itself for a compounding curve with a slight bend at the top.

In the meta, the meme variant represents 'evolution/adaptation/adoption'. Individuals more-so walking on top of the curvature - with the strata that raises the arc being 'consensus integration'.

Those 'early and right' experience more of the compounding arc. Those that 'wait for consensus signaling' experience less of it relative to their moment of walking the graph's circumference.

All of these ramblings are simply a thought gestalt spurred by the idea that many intellectual types (who populate crypto's more technical/theory spheres) are very similar to 'back-country bigots'.

In the sense that they deem swaths of diverse realities as threatening, existentially illegitimate, and choose to denigrate them through the veil of righteous double speak.

Idk who would've read all this, but if you did and see/agree with the core tenants, imo you have a massive opportunity to outperform those 'intellectuals'

I love you Zora.
Thanks for a fun year.

While I certainly see the merit of some degenerate criticism. It's odd, in my opinion, to see such rage toward bear market survivors taking their opportunity to make money.

For two years this group has suffered together, improving the tech, building new toys, expanding the fundamental thesis. Might I also add, at nearly -90-95% losses on speculative investments compared to the bull. While the corpo-politico machine shat on and kicked us for ad rev whenever possible.

Now the sun is starting to shine, experience has been gained, fun is being had. Sure, there are sore winners and losers like any sporting event. But it continues to amaze me how fickle the human psyche can be when funneled into third-party content algorithms.

People make different choices. People have different values. People respond to different stimulus. All because people...have lived and continue to live different lives.

As far as I can tell, this diversity is integral to the human experience.

we’re back when you see large inflows of capital going into ‘onchain hedgies’

w their entire investment thesis built on aggregated shitcoin ‘indexes’

- from my twitter

Most likely will end this daily notes experiment at eoy. It has given me even greater admiration for Beeple and 0xD though.

Moving beyond them - for fear of confusing what I want to discuss now with my recognition of them - I used to deal with a lot of envy towards the specialist types.

One of my dearest friends is an aerospace engineer. He is so damn locked in on doing his one or two things to their peak. Then I think of my travels throughout Japan, and the gap in excellence when comparing service workers. The precision. The quest to shave off fractions of percentages. I longed to find my 'thing'. Feared being labeled a 'master of none'.

That fear is no longer present. That longing has found its proper function. The rest of the realization is for me alone.

open chart tabs. adults acting like children on the timeline. my normie friends returning to pillage.

feeling speculative again innit.

There's this mental model I often feel holds quite true.

Think of a circle almost fully looped. In the manner of a horseshoe, but much less distance between ends closing on each other.

Clockwise or counter-clockwise makes no difference in the model. Just that you start at one point and 'walk' the circumference to the other end.

You end near your starting point. And in the common use of this model, it's used to illustrate the similarities between 'opposing' positions. But I like it for personal understandings.

There are a couple nuances to this variant of the model:

1. You factor in what 'walking the circumference' signifies
2. You factor in the one-way nature from start to finish

In this model I often feel that my intuitions (starting point) are a few degrees off. And those few degrees are only acquired through 'walking the circumference'.

It's not until I get to look at my intuitions from close, but not on top, that I feel a more mature understanding of the initial [thing].

Have had a few walks compound on top of each other during this eoy break. Excited for 2024.

reps in. lots of epiphanies I'm not yet ready to disclose.

Really is important to let the mind wander. The main quests may be done for 2023 but I'm finding all kinds of gems here that I wouldn't have expected.

Part of me feels for the heavy-leaning intellectual personalities. Confused by the affluence of chaos, and the seemingly illogical consequences thrust upon them in this infinite time space.

I'd be lying if I said I too didn't wish for eternally harmonious sequences and an effortless flow of logic into manifested reality. But I also did a lot of bad and stupid shit in my past.

Hurt people. Was hurt by people. Caused destruction. Was destroyed.

Temptations of romanticizing hindsight aside, it can be a very fruitful teacher if you happen to piece yourself back together. It makes evident the influences of what Tim Urban dubs the "Primitive Mind," more prescient.

Helps you realize the momentary limits of logic. Syncs your gut with your thinking. And illuminates the disparity in one's behavior and speech about said behavior.

It seems that 'the thinkers' are the most vulnerable to this part of reality. After 'the timid' that is.

Worth it by Amber Mark.
70% max volume. Windows down.

We're having conversations.

I create art as a means of conversation.
Create media as means of conversation.
Tweet as a means of conversation.
Write as a means of conversation.

I learned to fight as a means of conversation.
Learned to cook as a means of conversation.
Learned to shred mountains, jump out of planes, see the world, and play the piano as a means of conversation.

I want to learn certain coding as a means of conversation.
Want to build hypercultures as a means of conversation.
Want to learn infinitely more as a means of conversation.

My 92 year old grandmother can no longer drive, live alone, walk more than a driveways-length without needing oxygen; nor can she walk her dog, eat certain foods, handle her finances, or figure out where batteries go in her magnifying glass.

But without pause, her vitality returns to her... during conversations.

The first principles of most things, as far as I have gathered, is we want to have conversations. With whom is the variable.

"Life isn't a game, it's a series of games." Since I heard it I've felt it deeply in my gut.

People also like to paint 'Life' in the skin of a marathon. And in this manner, I equate calendar years to a hybrid of basketball quarters, rounds in a fight, and a marathon.

Today I very much feel like I finished the marathon 'early'. Earlier than I expected is probably more aptly descriptive.

The past weekend felt like I was standing around at the finish line, adrenaline still peaking, fool-heartedly ready to run another one as I mistook the adrenal rush for boundless energy.

Thankfully I made that mistake years prior. So here I sit, at my desk getting this daily note out, icing my chafed nipples, taking my wet socks off, eating some cookies.

Got a couple weeks to recover before we go again, because... it's a series of games.

Going to start listening to some sol podcasts, read some sol docs, and play around on the chain now that my EVM season is closed for 2023. There's too much hope & cope simultaneously occurring.

Before I knew better, I would pick a side and then trust them to deliver. Now I know that friction is the signal in and of itself.

My discography is on Ethereum, Mainnet and multiple L2s. But in my own experiences globally, I can see the appeal of Sol's memetics and cost.

Add in the fact that ETH maxis are already going for their anti-SOL propaganda (when the token is -70% its ATH), they must feel threatened for some legitimate reason.

I want to learn more. Synthesize more. And eventually, build more.

Wonder when the first person will unironically say "shut up and mint."

Mintboard is live. Already quoted as the “easiest minting experience on the planet.”

Based Management has been around for little over a quarter. It has done:

- invite only model while still using nouns builder
- found a way to use zora rewards as a way for entrants to "create in" instead of "buy in" to the dao
- created an onchain are.na/pinterest board that splits rewards to the creator and the dao treasury (mintboard)
- simplified the mint ui
- created an onchain suggestion box using comments by @fascinated

It has over $20,000 USD in its treasury, has hosted partnerships with TITLES, PartyDAO, Uplink, and UFO Club. And has dropped a song by world touring musician Reo Cragun.

We just wanted to make something "fun and emergent." Wild how quickly things can happen!

Got something cool dropping tomorrow for BM. Really hope it's something other DAOs can use!

Rumors by Fleetwood Mac in the cans. Hydrated, Celsius Dragonfruit x Lime in hand.

My episode on Hypercultures has made its way onchain. Feels like closure in a sense truthfully. Besides these daily notes idk if I have more to put on the record in 2023.

I have maybe 2 more mirror articles it seems (one for me and one for BM) - equaling 52 essays this year.

I've been building in the bear. I'll be interested to see if the proverbial 'they' will be correct about its translation in a bull.

I used to only read nonfiction. The famous religious texts. The ancient philosophies. Historical accounts of battles and infamous figures. Strategy, chess books, and the rest.

Now I read a lot of fiction. Scifi, mystery, adventure. It's uncanny. In both instances I felt that "well I already am quite familiar with [insert opposite]."

That pendulum keeps on swinging.

Already don't want to be doing these each day - a clear sign that I need to (for the time being) as something usually reveals itself after that resistance.

Creativity training is eerily similar to weight training. Resistance, recovery, personal records, training splits.

Maybe it's because I used to be a bodybuilder years ago. Or maybe it's the damned web of knowledge that beautiful Korean woman was so confident in.

putting the rep in. they aren't all going to be profound

Have been finishing the show Billions. In the later seasons they start talking about crypto. They say the words in a clunky fashion. Writers probably did just enough research to fill the gaps.

Even had a scene where 10 Gridplus lattices were in the DA's office in a showdown for unlocking the devices.

*Spoiler*

It was a modern version of a shootout. The lattices locked after 10 attempts and the antagonist supposedly lost access to 1.5 billion dollars.

Beyond the amusement it garnered. It reiterated that theory - forget who brought it to my attention - that 'insiders' are able to spot how surface level "mainstream" articles, assessments, and declarations usually are. And how that same pattern can be found in most trades, sectors, and niches across the board.

The lattice devices are locked but if the character has his seed phrase then he actually just got away scott-free from the DA. He can buy a new lattice and recover the wallet there.

Makes me wonder how many assumptions I've made in the other areas of my life, based on entertainment-depth theatrics meant to 'fill the gap'.

Today is the start of noteseverday,

Have absolutely no clue what will transpire. But I've danced with the Muse long enough to know it will feel magical in those serendipitous moments of insight.

It is the willingness to dance in the Abyss that enlivens the lights you knew not were there to begin with. Because, in my experience, the Idea matrix is picky. She has standards on who she kisses on the forehead. And long standing tenure is only a valid membership for fleeting instances.

You must avail yourself each time. Shed the skin. Face your ineptitude. Embrace unknowing.

This is what I currently know. The price paid for it emboldens my confidence in this attitude.

Type something