Oddbean new post about login | logout Another thing we have to accept is the world doesn't give a shit about personal responsibility, privacy and censorship. People value safety over freedom, they aren't build like us. This is hard to see inside our echo chamber. People are very governable. Billions will not use Tor or download apk files and they sure as shit won't be buying raspberry pis and learn Linux to make payments. They want to just download from app stores, click a few buttons and stuff just works. They want to have a customer support line to contact if things go wrong. They don't want to risk getting in trouble with governments. And so we need to keep this in mind as we build. **Just Thinking out loud with y'all**
Factos
Perhaps some of this is the result of fiat money and broken incentives? I think some will learn in the future because they have to do so to survive. Hunger is a good motivator. But yeah, I hear you. We need to build for common folk.
Depends how much need they have for these things. If the water gets hotter more will need them
History shows that this is not the case. Most people are easily led by fear and populism, and spend little time questioning authority, even under the worst circumstances.
Hard disagree just based on life in Cuba Fear and populism worked for the takeover but it wasn't too much longer when people saw communism for what it was. Was it too late to get out of it? Sure... But did everyone adopt every tool available to them, no matter how "hard" yes, yes they did
That’s a very good point, but I think we are actually talking about two different things. Cuba is a failed state under an embargo with a devastated economy and widespread lack of essentials. In a society where most people have conveniences and their every day needs met, they will most likely seek the easy route that doesn’t require them to think too much as long as they have their panem et circenses.
Yep, so my original point stands? If the water gets hotter more will find the need to use these
It depends on where in the world you are. The original post is really referencing countries where people still have the illusion of democracy and freedom.
Are a large % of Cubans currently using BTC? 🤔
I was just listening to the part of @gladstein's book about Cuba. Hard to know what % are using it if they’re maintaining good opsec, but there are quite a few. I have mad respect for Cubans who have resisted their authoritarian leaders, given the severe penalties for doing so.
All so true.. I imagine they’ll get it once privacy becomes relevant to them, which it will.. only hope they have time to learn at that point. In the meantime, deepest appreciation to all the devs building building building, making the tools easier and easier to use. It’s on the rest of us to use them and spread the word
This is spot fucking on. Why don’t more people realize this. Convenience is the deadliest sin. The more convenient something is the easier it is thus more people will use it. This leads people to believe sovereignty is hard when in reality we’re just used to being spoon feed by the slave keepers & keeping ourselves stupid with entertainment.
Totally agree with that!!!
Yes, this is why all the statements hardcore enthusiasts make about how much better this or that secure OS/device/app fall on deaf ears. Most people aren’t going to use it and relegating those users to the waste bin because you feel they should have done better simply isn’t good enough. That’s a lazy response. Build things that people can use and make it accessible to them as much as you can.
That's not how Bitcoin was built and it's the only reason it won't be taken down. Not saying we can't have nice experiences, but building for app store just means your users will get rugged
Talking about apps and services that use the protocols, not the protocols themselves.
I have people I care about who are like you describe. I would love for them to care more, but they simply don't. So I've started to reframe myself as a service provider, and gently encourage them to try out things I self host. It's not a perfect example of this but: I did get most of my family to join Signal this way. As an additional point, another thing is people are highly resistant to change. In my experience so far, you can get them to change pretty much once. For example, once I learned about simplex I tried to get them to switch to that, but no joy.
It puts a fair amount of responsibility on your shoulders, but I do think Uncle Jiming people is a good way to get them on more private platforms. I do it where I can.
Likewise. I figure I am already will to accept responsibility for myself, and I can slowly scale out how much responsibility I can take by managing services for friends and family.
Common phenomenon of mistaking oneself for others. "I came to freedom through ideas, therefore I need to spread ideas to bring others to freedom" Sadly, this only works for small subset of similar people. People need to met where they are or they aren't met at akl.
I believe personal responsibility is one of the largest causes of modern "downfall" (over a very long period of time). I'd prefer if we made sure when building, were not actively hiding implementation details and are regularly encouraging personal responsibility. It's not going to be easy, but I don't see another way out.
I think the key is to develop products that don't require much of a compromise between convenience on the one hand, and privacy / censorship resistance / whatever on the other. Given the choice people will almost always choose convenience and comfort.
I think about this daily and it makes me so sad. But it's 100% the reality of the world. We have to get SOOOOO good at UI and UX that our products are easier and can do things that centralized things just can't. That's the only way to real adoption.