Tech isn’t a relaxant. It’s an accelerant. Automation technologies, whether they take the form of AI, digital payments or Uber, primarily make our lives faster, rather than easier, but we’re flooded with stories that present this acceleration as unstoppable progress. To survive this we need to start studying the tech accelerationist playbook, the stories and background mental models used by mainstream progress junkies to sell their techno-utopian visions. In this piece, I’ll show you four cor...

Despite its young (adolescent by human standards) age, blockchain is now very popular. News about it appears in the media daily, theses are defended, monographs and dozens of specialized journals with hundreds of scientific articles are published, apocryphal stories of blockchain circulate on social networks in the epic spirit of Homer and the Prophetic Boyan - "The Saga of Public Keys", "The Legend of Bitcoins, Economic Left and Cyberpunks of the XXI Century", etc. In short, a picture of the...

Fintech firms like the German digital bank N26 will present themselves as innovators serving this transition, but also as efficiency-mong...

Fintech firms leverage these misunderstandings to promote the idea that cash is a burden on society, while disregarding its role as an essential component of a well-balanced monetary system.

Game money as one of the main game tools was present in computer and console games of the 1980s. From there, they migrated to the 1990s and at the very beginning of the zero years of our century in the online version of these games. And the number of new games based on the accumulation and spending of virtual goods (commodity money) or in-game currency grew rapidly, the popularity of such games was off the charts. There is no point in looking for which online currency was the first. There wer...

“Confiscation all comes down to this: the government makes the rules, changes the rules, and enforces the rules. Though it lacks the moral right, it can create legal authority.Though it lacks the constitutional empowerment, it can turn a blind eye to the Constitution…The Constitution did not stop the government from taking people’s gold in 1933.”Some historical context: The Eurodollar SystemThe Eurodollar system emerged as a workaround to the limitations of the Bretton Woods monetary system e...

According to legend, Narcissus kneeled every day beside a lake to admire his reflection, until one day he became so fascinated with his own beauty that he fell into the lake and drowned. The goddess of the forest appeared at the lake and found the water transformed into salty tears. She asked the lake why it cried for Narcissus, assuming it had admired Narcissus’s beauty. The lake replies that it had been enjoying its own beauty reflected in Narcissus’s eyes. Main character syndrome is a tend...

The story of how the A340 came into Gaddafi's possession is a fascinating story in its own right. The A340 was ordered by Brunei's Prince Jefri Bolkiah in August 1996, who spent $250 million on its acquisition and decoration. Now $250 million is already a lot of money, but it's even more so considering it was not even his own money. You see, Prince Jefri had somewhat of a habit for misappropriating Brunei's state budget, and was accused of unrightfully taking $14.8 billion from Brunei's treas...

Suffering is a stark reality, a force that dwells in the deepest recesses of our souls. Its presence can be unbearable, marking us with emotional scars that are not easily healed. Yet suffering is not a burden we should flee from. It is, paradoxically, the crucible of our growth and the hallmark of our humanity. In a society where comfort has become the ultimate goal, the mere mention of suffering stirs discomfort. We view it as the unpopular kid in school, as someone to avoid even being seen...

People are capable, at any time in their lives, of doing what they dream of. - Paulo Coelho! Today, I am going to write about MY ALL TIME FAVORITE BOOK since I had the chance to read it again as a 30 year old that pursued his own legend after all these years.Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist.This book was given to me by one of the smartest people I know: My Mom. I do not say this lightly, but this gem has truly changed my life…This book motivated me more than any other book I have read to head out ..