Oddbean

Whitney Webb on WBD recently really took me and my bitcoin optimism to a dark place. I feel like bitcoin destroys all current business models but the whole idea that somehow legacy finance can / will co-opt bitcoin is incredibly disappointing. Also, Fred the finance boomer you had on recently also just made me mad … his apathy and entitlement … as I have learned bitcoin it feels like bitcoin is set to just expose so much about the legacy system(s) but Fred was pretty bearish outside of any value beyond ETFs. (Also, a caveat, I only listened to WBD because @jack linked out WW on NOSTR … PM is insufferable.)

I can't fish, farm or hunt (lack of skill and money). My hemorrhoids from a steady Taco bell diet prevent me from transporting gold properly. I was bearish after her podcast here but now 2 days later stacked hard bc wtf other option do I have.

I think you can be realistic without being pessimistic. A post-bitcoin world won't be the city on the hill- it will have corruption, and rent-seeking, and powerful men using power for their own benefit. and yet it will solve some problems, and things will improve. no rapture, no Utopia: just slowly solving problems, building capital, making things better

Well I'm actually being a touch unfair. I think Whitney is highly useful in the sense that she is good at looking at situations from a different perspective and loves to turn over or look under rocks. We need those people. What I think Whitney sometimes gets wrong is the 'connecting of dots'. Or at least she makes connections using severely incomplete data that really leaves her conclusions exposed. I think this happened most recently with Neuralink. The thing we all need to guard against is the tendency to dig only deep enough to make the data fit our narrative bias. No one is perfect and I certainly can't expect perfection from Whitney when she is forced to operate in the dark with hands tied behind her back given the nature of the topics she tries to expose. Having written this reply I think I've realised my frustration is perhaps more directed at those who interview her and are not more robust in their interrogation of her conclusions.

This is fair, yes. I think the "took me ... to a dark place. ... disappointing" feeling happens to me sometimes when listening to Whitney. It can be almost like "here are the plans of the elite and there is nothing you can do about it" feeling. But I doubt that is the correct takeaway. The takeaway to build alternatives is better.