Great piece on "dopamine fasting". I find myself too often unlocking the phone for emails, messages, apps, etc. (not even social media!)
I liked the approach to combine the Intermittent Fasting window with the "dopamine fasting" window. Which means for me no articles, instant messages, emails (on the phone), Twitter, ReadUp, until I'm done with my workday. I'll think about how I will implement it asap.
In 2013/14, Christian, a good friend and travel mate of mine, and I travelled and worked in Australia for a couple of months. We loved the country, we loved the nature, we loved the people, we loved the cities. When our stay came to an end, we filed our tax return. We had to choose whether we will or will not return to Australia for work purpose in the future. I crossed “No”. At that time, I did it to avoid further bureaucracy. I questioned my "cross" at that time, as I was pretty certain that I will return and one day move to Australia.
Today, I'm asking myself: what went wrong in Australia? One of the (previously) most liberal countries became totalitarian. Citizens are stranded abroad, citizens are not allowed to leave the country (not even intrastate travel is allowed), not allowed to leave the house. South Australia is even working on an Orwellian app to monitor its citizens.
So totalitarian that I know, at that time I crossed the right answer: I'll never return to Australia for work.
However, I wish it were not like that. I hope that Australians will wake up and stand up against their completely totalitarian dictatorship. By doing so, you show me (and the world) that Australian people still stand for freedom and liberal values.
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The thought alone is fascinating and makes the future exciting. It is clear that there is soo much more we don't know
(somehow our society stopped progressing - that's another topic)
I mean the points are solid. But funny that when applied to the author, who tries to sell self help books and tries to establish himself as an expert, I shall run away.
Demand for quality writing far exceeds the supply of it. Since people who don’t write in public are blind to the benefits, there’s relatively little competition for those who take the craft seriously. Good writing is rare. There may be more writing than ever, but most of it is shallow. People are bombarded with worthless ideas and the distractions of the news. They’re tired of clickbait articles, exaggerated political dramas, and attention-burning articles. People are starving for creators who speak with depth and nuance. That’s why everybody reads Wait But Why and Joe Rogan stole the culture.
So true. For quite some time I blogged daily. It learned soo much! I somehow stepped down and write an article only when I really feel like it.
This article gave me the kick in the ass to prioritize writing again! From now on I strive for one high quality article each week. With a few occasional ones throughout the week!
I'd divide 'having an opinion' into two categories.
First: things which are out of your control (for example Economics or politics i.e. commenting as a German on the Brexit). Here I agree, don't waste time and say "I don't care, I don't have an opinion".
Second: things which directly impact you and your familiy or your business - which are (I'd call) opinions with skin in the game. If things DIRECTLY impact you, I believe it's a moral obligation to call out BS.
If I have an opinion I make sure I understand the arguments on both sides and that I have skin in the game. Which means that I feel personally responsible for the advice or opinion I give. If not: I don't have an opinion.
Article is good because it talks about the big BTC and TETHER FRAUD.
(It is however one-sided by ignoring and not even mentioning solid projects like ETH, ADA, DOT, LINK, ...)
So in the end it is (a) an internal cultural question of the company (remote or build a close culture in an office) and (b) a legal problem.
The legal problem will be overcome as soon as countries adapt to these changes. How? As the main issue are (income) taxes, countries must either introduce visa programs which are somehow bound to paying taxes on the income generated while in the country or ditch all income and corporate taxes and focus only on VAT. If rich Americans or Europeans are living, working and consuming in Thailand (let's say) the simplest way would be to increase the VAT tax rate from 10% to 150%. But in order for this to work, every country would need to adapt this new taxation model. Well ...
This is an absolute brilliant re-surface of a 2013 article of Yanis Varoufakis - which is today in 2021 even more accurate than back in 2013. I'm a big believer in blockchain technology in and of itself. However, the Ponzi happening in the BTC community at the moment is getting out of hand.
Let us focus on supporting and developing real solutions, i.e. beautiful projects such as Ethereum, Cardano, Chainlink, Polkadot, etcetera. For digital cash? Maybe it will be Dash, BCH (Bitcoin Cash) or BSV (Bitcoin SV) or a coin issued by the FED or ECB. At the moment nobody knows. But with every passing day, I realize that the BTC (Bitcoin) community is getting crazier and crazier making it clearly some kind of Ponzi with BTC being neither digital cash (too much volatility) and neither digital gold (clearly no hedge against inflation).
"You should realize that yes, experts will sometimes lie to you. But (with a few exceptions) they usually don’t do this out of lack of concern for your own welfare. Instead, they do it out of lack of regard for your truth-handling abilities. You’re probably not being punked; you’re being babied. So if and when you go fact-checking the experts’ recommendations, remember that they probably do have their assessment of your own best interests in mind. Think of them as an overprotective parent, not as an enemy."
Too often we forget about the victims of geo political wars and sanctions: the people.
Sanctions if used only and selected against evil dictators and their friends seem to be a good balance. However, sanctions against entire countries affect the people more than their leaders and therefore to more harm than good. Syrica, Iran, Venezuale are some examples.
I think we need to openly discuss the agendas behind geo political wars and sanctions to avoid them and move more towards a primarily pacifistic world.
When talking about the 30% rule, I think it's a really good way to prevent ghettos and ensure proper integration into the society.
China is a good example that it works interestingly well..