Many romanticize and nostalgize their youth because they’ve let a cancerous mindset settle in. It’s the belief that tomorrow can’t be better than today. They feel stuck, convinced the best possibilities have passed them by. Too old, too tired, too set in their ways.
We have to rage against this kind of pessimism. The spark of youth isn’t in age. It’s the belief that you can begin again. That nothing is settled.
The older we grow, the less we should pretend to be adults. The best among us become childlike again.
We're now 3 years in to Bhutan's Bitcoin experiment
That means we now have robust data on how it has impacted the economy
For context: Bhutan's economy was in dire shape in 2022 due to loss of all tourism income (it's #2 export earner) during the COVID period.
It got so bad that Bhutan was 3 months away from defaulting on import payments.
IMF was poised to step in to structure a loan which would have led to heavy debt repayments, but also ceding of economic sovereignty to a lender whose loan conditions permit them to dictate how to (re)structure an economy.
Instead, Bhutan formed a large Bitcoin Strategic Reserve by using their surplus renewable hydropower to mine Bitcoin.
The IMF has warned on numerous occasions that nations embracing Bitcoin would destabilize their economy, be less effective at attracting foreign direct investment, and endanger their decarbonizing and environmental initiatives.
What does the data say (as reported by Wall St Journal, Al Jazeera and Forbes)
1. Bhutan was able to "use Bitcoin reserves to avert a crisis as foreign currency reserves dwindled to $689 million"
2. The bitcoin reserves have directly addressed pressing fiscal needs. "In June 2023, Bhutan allocated $72 million from its holdings to finance a 50% salary increase for civil servants"
3. Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay in an interview said that bitcoin also "supports free healthcare and environmental projects"
4. Tobgay also said their Bitcoin reserves helped in "stabilizing [the nation’s] $3.5 billion economy"
5. Independent analysts have now said that "this model could attract foreign investment, particularly for nations with untapped renewable resources"
Considering that what transpired in Bhutan has helped stabilize an economy that the IMF warned Bitcoin would destabilize, it begs the question: what data was the IMF's predictions based on?
For Bhutan, Bitcoin didn't just boost the economy, it allowed Bhutan to maintain economic independence and provided an example to other small nations of a path forward that did not require the IMF.
A woman shares that she’s stopped meditating and wonders if that’s a problem. She understands her true nature now, and when needed, can trace her way back to the peace of Being.
@RupertSpira explains that when you’re on a Caribbean beach, you no longer need to study the map to get there. Practice is a means – and often a joy in itself – but not an obligation. When understanding is realised, effort naturally falls away. Even he no longer immerses himself in spiritual texts in the way he once did.
What really made me smile was hearing him say he’s currently reading The Bitcoin Standard (by @saifedean) – partly because his son is fascinated by it, and partly because he finds it genuinely riveting. Two of my greatest loves colliding: non-duality and Bitcoin.
That makes perfect sense. People drawn to truth tend to recognise it wherever it appears. Different domains, same movement toward first principles, clarity, and freedom.
https://t.co/WY2aEet2Uh
The human mind evolved to find more reasons to be pessimistic than optimistic.
It’s biased for fear over hope, and to expect a bogeyman around every corner.
This is why you need to train your mind to list all the things that can go right and not just go wrong.
There’s nothing I want more than to become a mother one day.
For the first time, I feel hope that it’s possible.
Because Bitcoin isn’t just money. It’s a discipline.
It shapes men who are patient, principled, and worthy of building families with.
A fiat world creates weak men. Men chasing instant gratification, trapped in debt, and distracted by sports, nightlife, and women on a screen.
Fiat men chase fleeting pleasures. Bitcoin men learn discipline, responsibility, and leadership.
When men learn these things, motherhood becomes a choice, not a gamble.
Bitcoin doesn’t just create wealth. It creates men who can be trusted, strong husbands, and present fathers.
This is my thesis: the more Bitcoin grows, the more women will want to become mothers.
(Not my child, my sweet little niece)
@Credib1eGuy Never retire - always be working on a something and serving people/world. Working is not just about making money but serving a purpose. If you don't have purpose you have no direction in life and that always ends poorly.
I’ve often said that I didn’t know what I wanted to be when I grew up until I was in my 50s. That’s true. I didn’t have the specifics ironed out in my mind. There was no “one” answer whenever someone asked me what I wanted to be.
However, what I have always wanted was total freedom. When I was a kid, I didn’t like asking my parents for spending money. First, they wouldn’t have said yes, and second, I wanted money of my own earned through my own hard work. And so as early as nine or ten, I was doing odd jobs around the neighborhood to get cash. I was mowing lawns, delivering newspapers, weeding. Pretty much anything I was able to do that other people didn’t want to do and wanted to pay for, I was there. When I was in college, I did carpentry and started painting houses in the summers. At one point I was making so much money painting houses that I considered dropping out. The key with painting was that I managed to integrate it with my other pursuits and hobbies. I was also training hard and trying to make the Olympics as a marathoner, and house painting turned into low level cardio. I would run up the ladders carrying paint and never take a break. I was constantly hustling, both physically and figuratively.
So I knew I had always wanted two things: to be my own boss and to be involved in health and fitness and human performance. As I progressed along the path, those two worlds merged, and I found myself not only working for myself while pursuing endurance performance, but eventually working for myself toward improving the health and fitness of millions of people.
When you have a higher-level motivation, something that speaks to your inner soul like freedom (which I think is one of the most powerful and profound and uniquely human goals anyone can have) that’s when the magic happens. I honestly would have been happy with just a baseline of freedom. I didn’t have to sell my company for 200 million, although that was a fantastic turn of events and I feel blessed to have been able to do it. But even before Primal Kitchen, I had the freedom to spend time with my family, to coach Little League and go to all the soccer games, to take off in the middle of the day and go paddle boarding. That was the baseline of freedom that I needed. And I think that’s the important part. If my goal was “I want to build and sell a company for 200 million dollars,” I might not have even achieved it. I might have attempted some hackneyed contrived way of getting there, but because I was motivated by freedom and improving people’s health and fitness, that deal organically developed.
So pay attention to and heed the true base-level motivations that you have and then build from there.
I wanted freedom and I wanted a family, and I wanted to raise them in a beautiful area with access to the ocean, good schools, and good people. Everything else emanated outward from that.
That doesn’t discount the reality of hard work, long hours, and everything else that achieving my goals required, but it made them more bearable because I knew I was enduring all that in service of achieving total freedom for myself and for my family.
Freedom wasn’t a destination at the end of the path. It was the path itself.
@trudeveloper Step 0: Adjust your expectations of yourself so that $1 million sounds like the bare minimum net worth you should have.
You gotta brainwash yourself to believe that.
Because it will force you to adjust your focus towards opportunities that will actually get you there.
Welp, I turned 72. I try not to obsess about it. The years just fly by.
The hip replacement was the big event for me this year, and I feel like I’m back to 100%. Sprinting (within reason), hard hikes and walking as long as I want without any pain. I'm back playing Ultimate again. Probably will continue to resist pickleball though.
As you may know, I’m the original anti-biohacker. I don’t do wearable devices, trackers, protocols, therapies, or hot/cold regimens. Other than vitamin D and a little TRT, I don't even take supplements (and collagen doesn't count). But that’s pretty much it.
Diet is still 80% of my body comp focus. I don’t train all that hard anymore, most of it intuitively and all based on how I feel that day and what sounds fun. Almost never more than an hour or more than once a day, but I do mix it up a lot. I’m not focused on VO2Max the way some are as the "premier" longevity target.
I walk a lot. I consider myself a hybrid athlete. I want to be competent across a broad range of fitness metrics: sprints, dead hangs, slacklining, plank-holding, deadlifting, pull-ups, rope pulls, etc. I want to be fit enough to do a wide variety of endurance type activities, from Ultimate Frisbee, to long SUP sessions, to high level hiking or biking (zone 3,4,5) for an hour. Always with play in mind. Longevity is a long game, and there are many variables to consider. Once you stop moving, you start dying.
And remember: that's figurative, not just literal. Physical movement is paramount but movement in all areas of life matters just as much. Professional, creative, relationships, cognition. Are you making strides? Are you still creating? Are you growing your most important relationships? Are you still thinking about hard subjects? Are you open to changing your mind? Are you agile enough to change the minds of others?
This is what I'm thinking about when I think about longevity. Movement of all kinds.
Retirement is a psyop.
You don’t stop working… you stop growing.
Your calendar goes blank.
Your identity fades.
You become a ghost in golf shoes.
Humans are built to build.
Retirement should be renamed:
“I do what I want.”
Could be a business. A book. A garden.
But it sure as hell isn’t a rocking chair.
The goal isn’t to do nothing.
The goal is to stop doing what you have to.
And start doing what you want to do.
Retire the word “retire.”