Circle Three 84 / Neon
I didn’t include any commentary this week on the banking sector. The situation isn’t confidence-inspiring, and frankly I’m trying to understand exactly what is going on myself. This year, ‘March Madness’ refers to more than just some basketball games.
Contents:
brain bites: Psychology & Health
Ray Dalio's 5-Step Process on Goals & Objectives
Newton’s Flaming Laser Sword
brain bites: Business & Investing
Modern Meditations: Josh Wolfe
brain bites: Technology
Letter 36: All about ERC-4337
Lyric: Neon by John Mayer
brain bites: psychology & health
Ray Dalio's 5-Step Process on Goals & Objectives. Article here. It’s almost the end of Q1. The time has flown, making a little reflection all the more important. Part of my reflection was recognizing the successes and failures in working towards my goal of clearer, transparent communication.
“If you’re not failing, you’re not pushing your limits, and if you’re not pushing your limits, you’re not maximizing your potential”― Ray Dalio
Newton’s Flaming Laser Sword. Here’s a longer read from Mike Alder on differences between scientific and philosophical thinking, and the origins of Newton’s Flaming Laser Sword. Applying this razor to everything would cut out a lot of what life is about, but engaging in dialogue and debate I try to keep this in mind.
The scientist’s perception of philosophy is that all too much of it is a variation on the above theme, that a philosophical analysis is a sterile word game played in a state of mental muddle.
Newton made his philosophical method quite clear. If Newton made a statement, it was always going to be something which could be tested, either directly or by examining its logical consequences and testing them. If there was no way of deciding on the truth of a proposition except by interminable argument and then only to the satisfaction of the arguer, then he wasn’t going to devote any time to it.
brain bites: business & investing
Modern Meditations: Josh Wolfe. From The Generalist, Josh Wolfe is not a name I was familiar with but one that I will remember after reading this. From his company’s phrase (“failure comes from a failure to imagine failure.”) to his love of fiction to his philosophies on parenting, I found myself wanting to peer deeper into Josh’s mind.
The work of Nobel laureate Ilya Priogine beautifully explained how dissipative structures (think: whirlpools in a bathtub or a hurricane) share common characteristics. They have observable, stable forms that dynamically evolve in response to unequal distributions of energy or pressure. A similar pattern plays out in finance. Talent, financial resources, and technological know-how often cluster, creating discrete pockets of abundance and scarcity. Companies form to degrade and diffuse these asymmetries, creating new opportunities. Founders might not realize that’s what they’re doing, but from a structural perspective, their work draws on these dynamics to create something like an entrepreneurial hurricane.
brain bites: technology
Letter 36: All about ERC-4337. For those not keeping up with the crypto world, this is a short piece about the Ethereum protocol upgrade, termed “account abstraction” but what is more familiarly called Smart Accounts. The upgrade makes Ethereum massively more user-friendly: for example rather than writing down a 12-word phrase that serves as the only recovery option for your wallet, biometric and 2FA options will be introduced. I also think Sponsored Transactions will have massive implications — a new wallet holder doesn’t need ETH to participate immediately. And lastly, Subscriptions; Visa wrote about them too.
Lyric: Neon by John Mayer
John Mayer performed his third show of his Solo Acoustic tour this past week in NYC at Madison Square Garden. I was there listening to his music and his banter, which was particularly funny that night. The highlight, though, is always the extended solos and off-recording riffs, like this version of Neon.
She's always buzzing just like
Neon, neon
Neon, neon
Who knows how long, how long, how long
She can go before she burns away
Stay Curious,
Dan