I am a student/entrepreneur interested in economics, machine learning, cryptocurrencies, powerlifting, street workouts, psychedelics, online education, and comedy. I enjoy outside-of-the-box thinking and being the devil's advocate in debates. No argument or conflict is bad as long as you enjoyed the process, learned from the experience, and became better off in the end. I have attended MIT at one point, but for now, I think I get more marginal utility out of just working on my own projects and learning on my own. My name means "limitless" in Chinese and Limitless is also one of my favorite movies. I have worked with my friend @nphacker on several projects and we are in the early stages of making a blockchain related startup.
Currently, I spend much of my day listening to podcasts, reading books, reading and writing about cryptocurrencies online, working out, and taking courses on Coursera.org. My favorite podcasts are The James Altucher Show, Let's Talk Bitcoin, Bitcoin Knowledge Podcast, Smart Drug Smarts, Jocko Podcast, Ram Dass Here and Now, STEM-Talk, The Tim Ferriss Show, The Duncan Trussell Family Hour, The Joe Rogan Experience, Drunken Taoist, History on Fire, Aubrey Marcus Podcast, Stuff to Blow Your Mind, Freakonomics Radio, EconTalk, and Singularity 1 on 1. Usually, I prefer to travel by foot whenever possible, so I listen to the podcasts while I'm walking, eating, or cooking at 1.5x to 2.0x speed. Similarly, I prefer to watch Youtube videos and Coursera lectures at no lower than 1.25x speed. I'm not sure if I've developed a learning disability or a learning super ability, because I can't stand attending slow 1.0x speed normal lectures anymore. It's either accelerated or none at all.
I actually heard about Steem on a podcast and decided to sign up immediately while I was listening to it. I am sick of everyone acting so politically correct and the censorship on social media. I highly value the freedom of speech and diversity of thought. Real hate speech is obviously terrible, but Facebook and Quora censor memes, which is completely unacceptable. I've written a bit about my thoughts on this issue here: https://steemit.com/politics/@limitless/42-reasons-why-scott-adams-is-genius-for-endorsing-hillary-clinton
I hope that many people will actually read this paper. It is a basic overview of the economics of cryptocurrencies. Please pass it along to anyone who is unfamiliar with cryptocurrencies and provide me with feedback about any errors or ways that I can improve the paper.So far, the Steem community has been far more supportive. I was pleasantly surprised that dozens of people liked one of my earlier posts here and it's now worth thousands of dollars: https://steemit.com/cryptocurrency/@limitless/the-rise-of-cryptocurrencies
My favorite "philosophers" are Ikkyu Sojun, Lao Zi, Sun Zi, Seneca, Duncan Trussell, Peter Thiel, and Nassim Taleb. They probably don't even consider themselves to be philosophers, but they see the world in unconventional ways. Particularly, Ikkyu is famous in East Asia but relatively unknown in the West. Daniele Bolleli, the host of the Drunken Taoist and History on Fire podcasts, wrote a great article about Ikkyu. Ikkyu believed that the true way to Zen Enlightenment was through sex, drugs, and rock and roll. He was also very good at solving logic puzzles and there was an old anime show about his childhood, Ikkyu-San, where he practices the art of trolling while being a wise ethical authority. He is similar to Sun Wukong, the character from the Chinese classical text, Journey to the West, whom the Dragonball character Goku was based on. The commonality between all these philosophers are that they think outside of the box and that they practice antifragility. My goal in life is to become as antifragile as possible. Nothing in life should make me afraid; I want to be able to fuck up as badly as necessary and still succeed in the end. When I build a startup, I want it to embody an antifragile system rather than just make a quick buck and blow up.
Antifragile philosophy is why I got involved with cryptocurrencies in the first place. I was only somewhat intrigued by bitcoin when I first heard about it years ago, but I was not completely addicted until I heard about SolarCoin. One day, I was conducting thought experiments about the nature of currency and what I conclude was that energy is the only "real" form of value. Everything is made up of energy and it is grounded in the laws of physics, not in arbitrary human laws. All fiat currencies are subject to fading out of existence, but energy will always have value. SolarCoin is a proof of stake time coin that is backed by a team with solid economic and technical abilities and promotes the positive externality of solar energy generation. This is a coin that tries to make a permanent, widespread, positive impact on the world on multiple dimensions. This is why I believe that SolarCoin is the most antifragile cryptocurrency that I'm aware of. It's amazing how a cryptocurrency may actually be the best form of clean tech. I am grateful to have Nick Gogerty, cofounder of SolarCoin, as a mentor for helping me understand the economics of cryptocurrencies. I highly recommend reading his book, The Nature of Value. You can join the ElectricChain Slack if you wish to contribute to SolarCoin related projects.
Thank you very much, everyone! I look forward to contributing more to this community.
Best,
Limitless
Fellow powerlifter here :-) Nice to meet you!
Awesome, do you compete?
excellent insight into your mind & life. :-)
This is great! I think we share a lot of interests, and I especially like the mention of Taoism and your idea about energy being the only real form of value.
I understand everything in physics is made up of energy. Do you think there's any form of value that is created and exchanged in human relationships that can't be explained in terms of physical energy?
Thanks. Interesting question, not sure if I understand it completely. I don't see how you can directly say much about human relationships in terms of energy, but an energy backed currency could still be used in exchange for services. I don't think you can really place an exact number on the value of relationships with friends and family if that's what you mean.
You seem to be interesting person! I listen many of the podcasts you mention, too. Taleb has also influenced a lot my thinking.
I see you do street workouts. Is Convict Conditioning familiar? It's the most efficient and antifragile training program I've found.
Thanks! Convict conditioning is cool. Also checkout beastskills.
Yeah Nassim Taleb coined the term "antifragile" and those a really important concepts as the world transitions to crypto currency and these blockchain based ecosystems. I had a similar thought experiment at the end of 2013 when they kept talking about how much energy Bitcoin was needing to maintain consensus. I subsequently discovered SolarCoin in January 2014 and the rest is history. Great writing @limitless.
Thank you! A lot of great links in there. :)
And cheers to our limitless future o/
Thanks for reading!
So... how much modafinil do you take daily?:D
btw great read
Thanks. Tried modafinil before, but haven't bought any in years. I try to be not dependent on any substance. Usually no caffeine or some Yerba mate and dark chocolate.