• 3 Posts
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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: July 2nd, 2023

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  • What is a first edition holographic charizard worth? What is the utility of that card?

    Things are worth what people are willing to pay for them.

    You can’t eat a Bitcoin for sustainance. Or hammer a nail with it. You can’t do either of those things with a pokemon card either.

    I feel like you get this, based on your post… But you still are hung up by it.

    Bitcoin’s attractive utility for many is that you can transfer them pretty much unimpeded by any external entity. Like a government for example.

    Like, hypothetically, what if you wanted to send a million dollars to your family back in, I dunno, Hong Kong. Do you think you can put that in a suitcase and hop on a plane? Do you think your bank will just send that wire? No. Government needs to know about it.

    You can send a million dollars worth of Bitcoin, though. No problem.

    What about if the government decides to seize your assets, for whatever reason? Maybe you were a little too loud about your support of Palestine and a man child president decided to make an example of you? They can raid your home. They can seize your bank accounts. Can they get your Bitcoin? Nope (if you’re actually holding it yourself)

    What sets Bitcoin apart from other currencies is that it’s very government resistant. You CAN hold it yourself. Not digitally in a bank. Not as bills under your mattress. It cant be seized.

    How much SHOULD Bitcoin be worth, given the utility it provides? No idea. But it’s something.



  • I see it ALL the time, across MANY domains.

    Language, music, golf, programming, driving, competitive gaming, etc etc.

    It’s not necessarily a bad thing; it’s WAY more effort to push for improvement. Once you’ve gotten to the point where your skills are serving your needs, is that what you want to invest your finite energy into? Maybe not. God knows I’m not actively trying to improve on every skill I have. Very few. Most of my things (music, games, sport) are just to have fun. If you’re having fun you’re probably not really improving, and that’s ok.

    But when people lament that they’ve hit a wall on a skill, in my experience it’s this effect, MUCH more than any other.

    I think if OP reflected on their already MASSIVE achievement of becoming functional in another language, they’d likely conclude that their skills rapidly increased up until the point that they had a functional level of the skill, and then hit a plateau once they subconsciously began expending less active effort on improvement.




  • I mean, it’s a reasonable place to start at the very least?

    We’re talking about pickpockets, right?

    Someone tried to pickpocket me in Europe on the train. I blocked the door and, despite having no common language, I left them know I was aware they had taken my stuff. I’m pretty sure they understood it was my intention to get it back and that was going to be a hassle for everyone.

    They just handed it back and left.

    Should I have just started swinging?


  • I get it, but it has to be obvious how quickly this logic can spiral, though.

    If I come around a corner and find you putting the boots to someone begging you to stop, you’re getting smoked by the biggest thing I can find. I don’t know the context. Violence to stop violence is measured.

    Being wronged isn’t a carte blanche. As soon as you introduce violence, suddenly violence actually becomes the measured response against YOU.






  • Gonna pull out my hair splitting razors for a moment…

    OP didn’t say more intelligent, they said smarter.

    Can one get smarter? Does “smart” conceptually include the quanity of acquired information? Does the quality of thought impact the ability to acquire new information? Does smart include the concept applying knowledge appropriately? Is the ability to do that informed by the quality of thought?

    We might have different definitions for a lot of these words, but I think I gotta say “yes” to all of them.

    I’m not this guy so I can only guess their experience, but the more time they’re able to spend in a mental state that maximizes the quality of their thought processes, I would expect it would help them learn new things and more effectively apply that knowledge. I’m contented to say that counts as smart.

    So ya: More think good make more smarter that guy.