Butch

Passion for using tech to solve society's hardest problems

[Orange Book 🍊📖 @orangebook]

You learn so much more from your conversations with other people once you consistently resist the urge of judging them.

[Sahil Bloom @SahilBloom]

This is the best thing you'll see this week...

A few years ago, I came across this beautiful story written by a woman named Pam Kearney in a local newspaper.

I visited Matthew, the owner of Lucy’s Flour Shop a little while back. As I nibbled on an enormous chocolate chip cookie I began to tell him a story.

A few years back on a bitterly cold December evening, there was a visitation at the funeral home across the street from his bakery.

The people, bundled up in coats, scarves, and blankets were lined up around the building waiting to hug the family of the deceased.

Seemingly out of nowhere, a man showed up and began giving away hot coffee to the people outside. People who entered the funeral home with coffee in their hands whispered of a mysterious man handing out free coffee, and how much they appreciated it.

I looked at Matthew and said, "I have a suspicion that you were that man. Is that right?"

Matthew very humbly replied, "Yes, I felt so bad for them and wanted to do something, but all I could do was make coffee, so I made coffee."

I responded that he blessed so many people that night by helping them warm up and by showing there’s good in the world. He added a positive note to a devastating situation.

I paused, then added, “That visitation was for my sixteen-year-old son. Thank you for being so kind.”

That conversation has stuck in my head since then:

"All I could do was make coffee, so I made coffee."

***

I want you to read that final line again...

"All I could do was make coffee, so I made coffee."

Every single day, we face our own version of this situation.

Different circumstances, yes, but the same general experience:

We feel stuck. Completely frozen. Not because of the lack of options, but because none of the options are perfect. None of the options feel big enough. None will solve the entire problem or fix the entire issue. So, most of the time, we do nothing.

But nothing is the one option that's guaranteed to change nothing.

If I could synthesize the lessons of my five years of writing down to one single statement, it would be the following:

Do the thing. Take the action. Just start. Show up. Make the move. Walk the path.

Because the change you want to see doesn't happen unless you create it. The new life you want doesn’t magically appear. It’s built through action. New habits. New mindsets. New standards. New boundaries.

Action, however imperfect, is always the cost of entry.

I might think of it as the Paradox of Imperfection:

The most perfect outcomes are often just a byproduct of a large volume of imperfect actions.

In the immortal words of Teddy Roosevelt:

"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are."

As you continue on this crazy adventure of life, you will face daily moments that conspire to make you feel completely helpless. You'll feel paralyzed. Unable to see a clear path to create momentum or improve the situation.

In these moments, you have a decision to make:

You can freeze, paralyzed by the imperfection of your options.

Or...

You can act. You can do what you can, with what you have, where you are. You can make the coffee.

This is the single most important decision of your life.

Making the coffee isn't just for the moments of turmoil or crisis.

It's for the ordinary Tuesday when you dread getting out of your warm bed. It's for the business idea that's been sitting in your head for two years. It's for the hard conversation you've been avoiding. It's for the workout you want to skip on the day when everything fell into chaos. It's for the dream that feels too big to begin.

The moments themselves can be big or small, but the lesson is clear:

Action doesn't have to be perfect for it to be right.

So, the next time you face a situation and start to feel helpless, remember:

Just make the coffee.

[MatScouts @MatScouts1]

Kids today will never know the joy of having to go in the hallway to look at brackets on the wall to see who you wrestled next.

[PNLWRESTLING @pnlwrestling]

Say it louder for the people in the cheap seats!!

PNL Coach, Cyler Sanderson, talks about exactly what he IS and (more importantly) IS NOT willing to do to help his young athletes become successful.

This is great reminder for this time of the year

[david friedberg @friedberg]

why not just raise income tax rates?

because your real intent is not to just “provide healthcare”.

you’re masking that you are proposing the creation of, for the first time in the 250 years of this American republic, an organized government seizure of private property from citizens.

you’re calling it a “wealth tax” or a “billionaires tax” or “millionaires tax” or whatever nom du jour polls well. but at the end of the day, it’s the seizure of private property from citizens by the government. citizens that earned money, paid their fair taxes on those earnings (53% if they live in California) and are now being told they need to hand over after-tax assets because the government has failed to provide promised services with the revenue it’s collected, and are now re-casting their own failure to be a socio-economic inequity that must be justly resolved... a slippery slope that has never gone anywhere good (see economic effects in USSR, Cuba, Venezuela, France and Norway wealth tax etc.)

the American founders fled tyranny in Europe and this amazing nation was populated by immigrants (myself and your parents) from around the world not just looking for a “better life” but for a place where they could have freedom from tyrannical governments that can take what they want from private citizens. a great nation borne of property rights, the rule of law, and endowed freedoms to believe, speak, or act. these principles led to the greatest run of innovations, successes, and widespread increase in prosperity, for all citizens, ever seen.

the citizens, the individuals, not the institutions, delivered this progress. those who invented, who toiled, who bled, who sacrificed, who took risk and persevered, who led, and who changed the world, are not charlatans, kleptocrats, or oligarchs. they’re what made us all better off. prosperity is a measure of america’s success, not its failure.

it is your principle that is so offensive, as evidenced by the broad disdain for your flippant flirtation with the darkest of human fantasy - socialism. you and other neo-socialists have led so many of us to reflect on America’s history and what it is becoming. that now leads so many to consider, so unnecessarily, leaving their homes for a place where everyone stands up to shout down the principle you suggest. because if your ideas are now considered moderate, it’s clear this titanic is sinking.

that a “simple tax” of taking assets that have been earned, through toil and tribulation, rightly taxed, and preserved, should now be unjustly seized, is your solution to a problem of obvious government mismanagement and outright fraud, tells us that your true motivation lies not in giving people healthcare but in cutting down success and deleting the system of prosperity and opportunity for all.

i don’t care, and neither should anyone else, what the sum total market value of a private citizens private assets might be. it is none of my business and should be none of yours. because, again, once you open that pandora’s box, we might as well study Lord of the Flies … there is literally nothing stopping 51% of citizens demanding that their government go out and seize 100% of the private property of the 49%.

want to give healthcare to people in need? do your job and fix healthcare. make it affordable. want to be lazy about it? then do your job lazily and raise income taxes.

want to take private property from private citizens who have paid their fair share of taxes and legally earned their property, then honestly declare that it is envy, not inequity, that you strive to resolve…

[Lex Fridman @lexfridman]

"The problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts." - Bertrand Russell

[Butch @JoeButcher]

@Q1043 Let's finally take down the champ! Let's go Queen!

[Butch @JoeButcher]

@Q1043Stairway where you at @Q1043Stairway ?! countdown ending before noon this year... this the year you'll be taken down?

[Dr. Nicole LePera @Theholisticpsyc]

What if the American dream became having a family that knows how to emotionally support each other.

[Lex Fridman @lexfridman]

I think that neither Trump nor Harris will destroy America if elected president.

Call me crazy, but I think that Trump is not a fascist and Harris is not a communist.

I think this is a reasonable rational position, but according to the internet it's insane 🤣

Either way, getting attacked by both sides has been mentally exhausting for me. Perhaps that's the design of the current political climate: anyone with moderate open-mindedness needs to be pushed out in favor of a "battle" between dogmatic extremes. This doesn't seem like the right path toward truth.

[Butch @JoeButcher]

@jlinitz Congrats, cuz!!

[Anthony Pompliano 🌪 @APompliano]

High school principal Dan Marburger risked his life to distract a school shooter earlier this month so students could escape.

He was shot and wounded in the process.

Today, Marburger paid the ultimate price & died.

A true hero with rare courage. RIP 🙏🏼

[Anthony Pompliano 🌪 @APompliano]

Navy SEALs were conducting a mission in the Gulf of Aden over the weekend.

They were boarding a foreign ship transporting weapons to Somali.

As they boarded, a massive wave from the rough sea threw one of the SEALs into the ocean.

Immediately, a second SEAL jumped into the ocean in the dark of night to stay with his brother.

Both SEALs are currently missing and the Navy is conducting missions to find them.

The level of loyalty, dedication, and sacrifice that our service members exhibit on a daily basis should be an inspiration to all of us.

Leave no man behind. Small teams working together to do the impossible.

May both of these warriors come home and may the rest of us learn from the heroic act.

[Butch @JoeButcher]

@orangebook How did you start? What are lessons you wish you knew before you started?

[Christopher Perkins 🦅🌎⚓️NYC @perkinscr97]

On December 23, 2004, my HMMWV was hit by an IED while returning from a humanitarian mission to deliver aid to local civilians in AR Ramadi, Iraq, after a terrorist attack. Every year on this day, I pick up the shrapnel that nearly took my life and think about who I am, what I stand for, and how to make the most out of whatever time I have left.

In recent days, the crypto industry has been accused of undermining national security.

Nothing is farther from the truth. And the truth is a powerful thing. As someone who has been on the other side of that AK-47 that was “barely bought with $600”, I assure you that no amount of funding that goes to terrorists is acceptable. I’ve lost too many friends and seen the generational impact on their families firsthand.

Blaming or scapegoating a technology for failed policies is a very dangerous distraction from the truth. And yes, the extraordinary violence we faced in Iraq was well before blockchain existed.

I work in crypto to help build a better system by working closely with promising entrepreneurs to drive responsible innovation, which is the lifeblood of our economy. And any expert will tell you that a vibrant economy is an important pillar of national security.

While no technology is perfect (it’s just technology) the transparency delivered by blockchain is a vast improvement over fiat when it comes to identifying and stopping illicit actors.

So, I will fight on—for my friends and their families.

[Allie K. Miller @alliekmiller]

@sama - make your board more representative of your userbase
- remove board members who don’t believe your women employees have the same “intrinsic aptitude” as your other employees
- enterprise-secure GPT-3.5 sandbox w auth
- code interpreter gets ability to build simple ML models

[a16z crypto @a16zcrypto]

A few things we're excited about in crypto next year.

🧵

[DAN KOE @thedankoe]

Without lying to yourself, create a product that *you* would actually buy, use, and benefit from. There aren't many shortcuts in business, but this is one of them.

[Dr. Nicole LePera @Theholisticpsyc]

True success is building healthy relationships, freeing yourself from survival mode, and generously sharing your gifts with the world.

[Butch @JoeButcher]

@jlinitz This looks awesome! Excited for the drop.