Some helped me understand the world and human beings better , while others helped reinforce the formers’ ideas by either consistently contradicting themselves, introducing ridiculous ideas of their own or just regurgitating things others have said but completely out of context, thus exhibiting no understanding at all.
So today… as an homage to Jordan’s work, and as an attempt to introduce him and his audience to Bitcoin, I’ve decided to write a series of articles that examine Bitcoin through a Jordan B.
I’m going to use his most popular book, “12 Rules For Life” as the framework.
This chapter is extraordinarily dense, with so much to unpack and relate to Bitcoin.
Humanity has, over the millennia, developed methods of protecting territory because it is fundamental to our survival as a species.
What’s important to note here is that without a mechanism for the protection of private property, society collapses.
They exist by decree and because there is little to no skin in the game for some, they form at the expense and the exclusion of many.
Many who know my work will know my position on inequality.
When the opportunity to move up exists and the risk to fall remains, the game is fair and the results are dynamic.
Fast forward a few years, and the saver managed to grow his total wealth through some intelligent investments.
The saver, turned investor, gets addicted to his strategy and gets super greedy in the process, so he decides to take some silly risks to yield 50% on investment.
In this scenario, the original spender who has seen his friend get ahead decides that he wants to catch up.
All distribution is dynamic and can either compound or erode.
On a short enough timescale , they are no longer subject to the downside.
It’s like playing a game of monopoly with one person keeping their hand in the box of money, so they can’t lose.
If you play well, you can amass enough chips to begin to play harder and more rough, but, the chance to lose it all always exists, and thus, keeps the game fair.
It’s like a dance.
Individuals have the capacity to voluntarily and wilfully “stand up straight with their shoulders back” in order to influence these processes, and therefore what matters in a system, or a society, is enabling mobility.
It means adopting the burden of self-conscious vulnerability, and accepting the end of the unconscious paradise of childhood, where finitude and mortality are only dimly comprehended.
The framing of order and chaos, yin and yang, duality or whatever name that simple yet profound principle has donned throughout the ages is something that resonates with me.