The Countdown to the Clown World”

Bitcoin: The Countdown to the Clown World Knut Svanholm and Luke de Wolf, Lemniscate Media, 175 pages, $25.00.

This is a book from Mining issues in Bitcoin magazine printing. Get your copy here.

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Similarities in Bitcoin books are published this summer (Part 1): they are all about self-improvement and spiritual development. As a community, we seem to have evolved from writing about what money is, in the past or in the way it works in the modern world or in specific ways Bitcoin has been different.

Instead, we now write and think about life and Bitcoin. Bitcoin has a culture where virtues and values ​​push users in certain directions. (Aleks) Svetski has written about classical virtues and how they can make us live well by Bitcoin standards. Mekhail has written about how to raise children with intention and long-term orange emphasis. exist Bitcoin: The Countdown to the Clown WorldKnut Svanholm and his podcast Sidekick Luke de Wolf provide us with a “journey of introspection and self-improvement” (p. 11). This is “A Book About You” (Page 13); it is no different from (George) How Mekhail thinks about parenting.

This is an incredibly entertaining and powerful book with lots of food about the insanity of our world. The chapter title is smooththese chapters are easy to digest and related in themselves. If the measure of a book is how often I laugh, pull out the highlighter or send quotes to my friends, then The Countdown to the Clown World Get excellent scores. It’s the perfect combination of light, easy reading and hard punching – sprinkle a can of humor.

charm inverse It is to see that all the madness in the world – political grandeur, gender irritability, broad morality, fiscal and political decay – are called for explanation. Why does this happen? What’s going on? It’s obviously irrelevant and obviously stupid.

Svanholm and De Wolf have an answer, “It’s simpler than you think. When money stops working, everything becomes politics and farce” (p. 51). Shockingly, the main suggestion of this book is that moral and political collapse is downstream of money.

The opening chapter throws directly at us, is practical learning – this is the arcane, philosophical foundation of all Austrian economics. We then venture from the highest echelons of academic economics and mathematics to Christopher Nolan’s popular culture interpretation Dark Knight, Observe mutual altruism in nature and its peers in human Internet affairs. Indeed, high and low.

In dozens of pages, it feels like reading the description of a textbook similar to the market and the stylized economic assumptions called the prisoner’s dilemma. The authors draw important conclusions in modern debates about the practice of the game’s theoretical practice: “(Economist Robert) Axelrod’s discovery emphasizes the importance of friendship and tolerance, but also appropriate revenge” (p. 19). “The balance between self-interest and cooperative behavior is crucial in the game of life, and decision-making shapes futures” (p. 21).

It’s a little unclear about what’s related to the clown world, and indeed, we have to wait about fifty pages to understand what the label’s author means. Again, if you’ve read Svanholm before, or have heard of the Bitcoin Infinity Show entirely (or, you know, won’t be tied up in caves for the last decade), then you have a great idea.

Several descriptions are broad, and it is understandable when you try to capture something that roughly means “everything stupid.” This is a wish for a free lunch (p. 41). Here, “the pleasing bureaucracy becomes increasingly profitable, while providing as much value as possible for your fellow countrymen becomes increasingly futile” (p. 50). The clown world follows political funding directly, “this makes people focus on completely arbitrary problems” (p. 65); indeed, most so-called social problems are not even problems. The clown world is centered on equality (p. 101). Bitcoin, by contrast, is fair, honest and elite. At the end of the book, we learn that “the clown world is a byproduct of people not taking responsibility.” By this definition, it quickly follows through self-reflection and better “psychological software” that “responsible for your behavior is the only thing that can make the entire circus disappear” (p. 163):

“The success of the Bitcoin world stems from providing value to your fellow citizens, not mass theft or political manipulation. Everything divided by 21 million is equal to the reciprocal of the clown world.”

There is no doubt that the Joker World is indeed disappearing, evacuating its most enthusiastic supporters, and finally, the beneficiaries of pain are kicking and screaming. Svanholm and Mr. De Wolf think something similar:

“Things like Bitcoin ATMs look as ridiculous as phone booths.

Between ridiculing fanaticism and the troubles of climate change, we have a lot to suggest about sifting noise and protecting our time and thoughts. We get personal chapters about the Struggle in the rainy mud of Gothenburg, Sweden, and an incredibly long adventure in Einstein’s space-time and astrophysics. The far-fetched relevance to the clown world (“Our attention shapes our reality too,” p. 113) may not be as much luxury.

We have a lot of ideas about the relationship between freedom and responsibility. Indeed, “increasing personal free footprints regardless of any small step you take will increase the total free level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere” (p. 133).

Why do you want to read this book? It’s really simple: it’s hard, it’s fun, and sometimes it’s inspiring.

Selected quotes:

• “When people understand Bitcoin enough to no longer worry about their financial future, they usually don’t care much about how others view their words and actions, but care more about honesty and integrity” (p. 53).
• “In a correct pronoun assignment, teenage weather activist, last night’s big game, Taylor Swift’s latest boyfriend and most harmless flu world, it’s easy to see that some forces try to avoid our eyes, from behind the curtains” (pp. 24-25) (pp. 24-25)
• “As long as politics itself exists. They appear in many ways, shapes and forms, and it may be difficult to see their absurdity when living among them” (p. 36)

The final Nuggets:

“If you have a little more this year than the last year, you are the absolute winner. Shrink and be patient. Sell the chair, kill the hero and take responsibility for your actions” (p. 63).

Disclaimer: The views expressed are entirely the author’s point of view and do not necessarily reflect the views of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.