Oddbean

I want some philanthropic whale to start an open source program where people are payed to read history books and verify their knowledge. You read and understand a book. You take a test online. You have 4 seconds to answer each question-not enough time to ask Siri. If you don't answer, you miss the question. If you understood the material, you get $5 worth of sats. Paying for information is a scam. Pay people to educate themselves and this world will be unrecognizable in 3 years.

Spitballing here, but how many broke people would read a book for the first time in their lives? Now your least capable are more educated. What better way to incentivize the lowest tiers of society to elevate themselves?

This would be an ideal book for anyone to read in the spirit of this thesis. 'The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America: A Chronological Paper Trail' https://image.nostr.build/f0f7d3890dd027e6393fd639a947a33e2068c191543a5f8ebdcd7940d089ce3f.jpg Book by Charlotte Thomson Iserbyt.

Macro history agreed 👍 I don’t think history is the only skill lacking in general society. Most people want somebody higher up to reassure them. That parental role is assumed by government and corporations if we allow them to. Most Bitcoiners are self sovereign, so we see this, even if we don’t all articulate it.

Agreed. Skills are equally lacking, self sufficiency as well as sovereignty. Community participation like volunteering, cleaning up litter, park stewardship. And just like you pointing this out, I'm spitballing this idea hoping someone more capable than myself might take the idea and run with it. In a perfect iteration of this idea, there would be all sorts of avenues to stack while legitimately contributing to society. Decentralized labor if you will. But also decentralized self improvement. Anything to incentivize ambition.

If the idea is for people to become more self sovereign, or contribute more to society, then I think Bitcoin is doing just fine. History has some uses in some societies, but in many, such as the UAE, it is ignored. As for litter volunteering such as litter picking. That is certainly a valid objective and desirable outcome, but being able to pay people to collect litter is a more desirable outcome. As for everyone becoming self sovereign, to use the Bitcoin parlance, Bitcoin is for anybody, but not for everybody.

I think that's true for those who are curious inherently, who were exposed to markets at an early age, or those who operate on the assumption that governments are corrupted or at least corruptable. Meanwhile I still talk to strangers on a regular basis who don't even know Bitcoin is a thing. It isn't in everyone's view, and even then, statistics and facts aren't immediately engaging because they don't trust base premises like, for instance, it seems like most bitcoiners do. By enabling savings through action, then a cycle as a holder, then those people who couldn't be reached through data will be reached through their own benefit. Just another vector for exposure where in other cases, there probably wouldn't be any until the fiat system finally buckles.

I think we're mixing out metaphors here. You started by wanting a fund to encourage people to read history books. I don't believe that this is the best use of money or time. As for spreading the philosophy of Bitcoin, it may look slow from your perspective, but, Bitcoin is spreading faster than any other technology or product in history. The Internet itself, built in 1969, took 20 years to allow commercial traffic on it. Then another 10 to reach the current level of adoption that Bitcoin has. On a separate ethical note, paying people to correctly answer questions is questionable and ripe for abuse. I think this route would lead to a very, very dark place.

Sure, OK, but I’d prefer a deeply thoughtout discussion. I was an investor in tech city for nearly 20 years, so this is natural for me. Apologies, if I’ve hurt your feelings, I promise that wasn’t my intention. Also, if you want to start or run a business, take it from an old guy that your hubris needs to take a back seat. I wish you every success going forward, but please be ready for this type of scrutiny of any idea you raise to angels or VC’s.

BTW: My old website still contains lots of advice and help to startups from an investors point of view, feel free to peruse it at your leisure. It should still have some useful information: https://mikehardcastle.com/