Virtues
Below are some virtues and principles that have enduring significance for me. Their inclusion does not necessarily imply that I have mastered them, rather that I strive to. Over time I'd like to add, remove, and refine these.
Curiosity.
I believe curiosity is one of the most important human characteristics. Over time, our brains struggle more and more to stay curious as we convice ourselves we finally have the answers. As our brains optimize for cognitive performance, they seek the path of least resistance through pattern recognition. While this may be efficient, it can undermine our curiousity. The good news is curiousity can be practiced and learned.
Gratitude.
I believe that having an abundance of gratitude adds immense value to daily life and a partial root to happiness. As a student of history, you can have gratitude for those who came before you. As a living human, you can have gratitude for the people who bring you joy and support. As an optimist, you can use gratitude to make the worst of circumstances become a force for good.
Execution.
Fostering an ability and desire to get things done can be empowering. Someone who is constantly dreaming but never doing is at risk of being unhappy. Taking charge, even with the little day to day things, is empowering and incrementally builds confidence. I believe finding a way to look back on your day, your week, your year and identify things you executed start to finish will make you a more confident human. Over time, you can curate an action bias within yourself that allows you to take risks, seize opportunities, and learn through doing.
Bitcoin
Separation of Money and State.
If you have not delved into the history of money, you likely underappreciate how much it has transformed over the millennia. Money is a technology. Like all technologies it has taken many forms, some better than others. Similarly, money has been controlled by different entities over the years. The US Dollar and America's role in the global monetary system has only been around since 1944.
Decentralization.
I believe in the power of atomic and distributed systems. This concept goes beyond technology for me. I think society, supply chains, politics, as well as the Internet have all gotten too centralized and top heavy. On average, I think this centralization has maxed out and is now generating more perverse effects than benefits. I believe Bitcoin started us on a path towards a more decentralized form of humanity as it provided digital primitives necessary to establish a sovereign network using inexpensive digital tooling. The book The Sovereign Individual by James Dale Davidson, Michael David Axtell greatly helped me see this centralized-decentralized pendulum more clearly.
Internet-Native Money.
The Internet needs its own native money infrastructure. If you view the Internet as an overlay network on top of human economic activity, it becomes clear that it must reduce economic friction within its network. Native money infrastructure allows the Internet to asymptotically approach a zero-friction transaction settlement layer. Small efficiency gains here will allow humans, Internet applications, smart AI agents, and autonomous infrastructure networks to all engage in low-friction economic activity
Bitcoin Reference Materials
You can download the Bitcoin Whitepaper here to understand its purpose and design.