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How to gain more power How to gain more power and ascendancy?
In America and much of the western world, we make the wrong mistake and we have the wrong idea that more US dollars currency means more power. 
In truth, US dollars, currency is only an intermediary to other stuff.
Real estate?
It seems that the traditional person, the baby boomer, the millennial, the General why whatever, the thought is that real estate is true wealth. However, there are many downsides of real estate:
First, taxes. Property taxes. I think the problem is you never really own the land; rather, it is more like a privilege loan or borrowing or leasing from the government or the local city municipality.
For example, let us say that I buy a house or property for $3 million or $5 million. Whether I’d like it or not, I must pay $7,000-$8,000 in property taxes, month, perpetuity, even if I don’t do anything with it. 
Liability or real asset?
Michael Saylor talks about “trophy assets”; your Picasso, your classic Ferrari, whatever.
However, all these things are not appreciating assets, rather they are liabilities.
For example, let us say that you get that brand new Lamborghini with the scissor doors, and you accidentally get a flat tire. Boom, you’re out $12,000.
Or, let us have that expensive; slowly overtime, the value of that thing bleeds; and also, maintenance costs.
Physical laws
Also a big consideration is physical laws; rust, erosion, mold, termites ants whatever.
Another big downside of physical property, owning a house or whatever or a home, regardless of how good the materials you build it with, slowly overtime, the thing will slowly rust and rot away.
I think if you think about the laws of entropy, it is simple; as time goes on, the durability of the thing goes down.
For example, any home sooner or later, will get some sort of mold, and will be needed to be torn down and reconstructed. I’m shocked even in the year 2024; a lot of wood actually is going into building these homes.
If you have your ideal glass, it seems like a pain to keep all of the windows clean! 
Life?
Philosophers have grappled with issue of the purpose or the end of life, for millennia.
I think for me, the most interesting set of ideas comes from Nietzsche in his unpublished manuscripts, “The will to power”. The wheel to power, is not a true book in the sense that he didn’t want it to be published, it was just like a set of his ideas started down, and eventually he brought up the project at the very end. I believe that I read a footnote that You found out that his concept of the world to power was flawed, as it was an all encompassing idea, ended up just using the last pages of his manuscript to write out a shopping list of groceries or whatever.
However, I think the basic concept ring is true. What is it that man desires? More power, more ascendancy, more dominance.
In today’s world, what is the most dominant for economic power. Perhaps above that is military power, as it is the underlying asset which supports economic power, but for most of us typical individuals, it is monetary economic wealth and power.
Quit buying those dollars
In Los Angeles, if you work in McDonald’s the minimum wage is now point dollars USD an hour! This is insane. It seems that economically rational thing for most people to do is quit their traditional minimum wage jobs, and never to just get a job at Shake shack, In-N-Out, or McDonald’s. Maybe even Taco Bell?
The reason why I find this so alarming is that slowly but surely, we are going to see a massive devaluing of the US currency. Truth be told,  globally, the US dollar is still probably the most valuable currency, worth 1 trillion times more than the Chinese yuan, the euro or whatever… But still, this is scary.
For example, a shock now if you just want to get a single hamburger patty, just a patty no bun no nothing, a shake shack it is $2.50! This is insane, literally two weeks ago it was only $1.49.
Mathematics economics perspective the price of this food commodity has almost doubled!
What this means is that in the long run, I think we will see the prices of everything close to double in terms of rent prices, food prices, even Costco and Amazon and Amazon Amazon prime and Whole Foods is trying their best to keep prices down, but still… This inflation is getting out of control.
I was just doing some basic math in my head, let us say that you work at McDonald’s for $20 an hour, and you work eight hours a day. That is $160. Let us say that after taxes you’re making about $120 a day. Let us say that, you’re working 30 days a month, your take-home salary might be close to $4000! For working at McDonald’s?
Solutions?
First, a paradigm shift. I think the first to big realization that I made is that currency, US dollars is not money. 
For example, Fernando Galliani wrote his treatsie on money, nearly 500 600 years ago, talking about the history of money,ducats, gold, silver and the like. 
Some interesting things:
First, there have been periods of history in which silver was actually worth more than gold! Also I wonder, in the past, in that infamous scene in the Iliad in which may be Ajax and the other hero on the Trojan side exchanges arms and armor, apparently They trade golden shield for a bronze shield, and apparently the value of the gold shield was worth 100 times more than the bronze shield. But I wonder if maybe… even back then, bronze was worth more than gold? Because of war?
I think most Americans are stupid with money
It seems that 99% of the fascination of Americans has to deal with automobiles and cars and vehicles.
For example, it don’t matter if you’re in the Midwest, the coasts, if you’re liberal, support Donald Trump or whatever… Everyone is being suckered by some sort of car and vehicle.
For example, let us say that you are a true patriot, you’ll probably want to buy some sort of Ford or Chevy truck, and wave some sort of American or confederate flag from it.
Or let us say that you’re a proud American liberal, you might drive a Tesla because Teslas are sexy and cool and they are built in America. This is where I find cyber truck to be so fascinating and disruptive because traditionally we think about people who drive trucks is being some sort of hillbilly rednecks Republican from the south, not liberal. Elon Musk has disrupted all of this; now it is cool to drive a truck, because it literally looks like something out of a video game, Like a cyberpunk universe. Maybe for marketing purposes, the new cyberpunk video game should make the cybertruck the official vehicle. 
Economic power?
After World War II, in the toppling of the Hitler Nazi regime, I think for most practical purposes, Germany has been castrated. I think America has position things in such a way that even if shit hits the fan, Germany will never have enough military power to overtake or even challenge America.
So what did Germany do instead? She shifted all of her power resources and energies towards economic production, economic might. A consequence, Germany now has become a economic powerhouse, on the planet. It seems that even Americans now, we are still obsessed with German good; much of the American population still desires to drive “foreign“; which is some sort of Mercedes-Benz, AMG, BMW, Rolls-Royce, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Porsche, etc. And let us not forget that almost all these luxury car brands are owned by the Volkswagen VW group.
Are people stupid? Don’t they know that a Porsche 911 is just a Volkswagen beetle on steroids? And that a Porsche 911 GT 3 RS is just a turbo beetle with a body kit? 
Or that an Audi is just like an upgraded Volkswagen Passat? 
And that a Rolls-Royce Cullinan is just a BMW times seven with a facelift, and that even a Rolls-Royce ghost is just a BMW seven series with different doors.
Power for the sake of what?
Power wars?
Going back to ancient Greece, I still find the Iliad to be the best book and cultural document, of all time.
 for example, what was the power struggle in the Iliad? King Agamemnon, just wants to keep gobbling up more land, whereas the hero Achilles, just wants to retire from battle, take Breisis his prize, and just chill out on his own home pasture. 
The second best book, the Odyssey with Odysseus as the hero, what does he want? He just wants to sell home back to his wife, back to his kingdom, take back the throne with his son, and just chill out.
Modern day society is much more greedy? 
It seems like a lot of people, either people are foolish, or greedy.
I don’t necessarily think greed is a bad thing, maybe it’s just a foolish thing?
For example, people just want to keep accumulating more property, more cars, more cash dollars, whatever… For the sake of what? Nobody gives this anycritical thinking. 
Jobs?
A big realization: also job are bad because they are closed ecosystems.
For example, let us say that you work at Apple or whatever, and it seems that the impetus of your whole life is to keep climbing the corporate letter. But the critical problem and the flaw here is that it is all a closed ecosystem.
For example, that one position that you want, to get that upgrade, that salary bump or whatever… If you are in a corporation or a company, it is very zero sum.
Think the open free market?
Free enterprise!
Free enterprise means freedom enterprise.
I think the only real way to thrive today’s modern day capitalist world is to build your own capital, for you to become a capitalist, and to start your own company, your own corporation, your own sold for prior ship or whatever.
Also a new ones; I wonder if it is actually superior to be a private corporation, rather than a public one.
It seems that the big problem about being a publicly treated company, even though you might get more flows of capital, the major downside is that you lose control, you have to sit on the boring board of trustees or whatever, you become enslaved to boring meetings.
If you’re private corporation, you could just do whatever you want and not have to report to anybody.
Solo, sole proprietor?
My ambition for Seneca is for him to build his own capital, for him to do his own thing, learn how to wisely leverage economics in his favor, and not be be bedridden to any BS in modern day society. 
Free school
Seneca is currently three years, one month old, and this is my great pride:
For his whole existence, from conception until now, he has never watched any YouTube, Netflix Netflix, Disney Disney+, etc.
He really has no idea what Spider-Man or Batman is, he has no notions of superheroes, he has never watched Moana or whatever.
My sister Anna always jokes that “We must not send him to public school, or private school, because all these kids are bad!”
It is true. Even private school kids, they all get hooked on weird designer drugs, etc.  
Not only that, the parents are bad. It doesn’t matter if they’re rich and affluent, or poor and or working class. It seems that all modern day parents are foolish.
Have I ever met another wise parent? No. Only myself.
Power and kids? 
I am 36 years old, born at 1988. It seems that for my generation, the new modern day flex is children. Having children, kids, and to some extent, the more kids you got, the more successful.
For example, seems that the majority of people nowadays either have zero kids or one kid. They would rather have dogs, go to festivals, engage in degenerate things. 
Even amongst my real friends, I think I’m the only one who is married and has a kid, and at most, the most kids I have witnessed is maybe two kids. Three kids in my age group is almost unthinkable. Four or five kids? Forget about it.
I think the reason why kids were the number of kids you have is the new social status is that the number you got is kind of a proxy of how rich you are. 
For example, the traditional family must go to work, send their kids to daycare or whatever. This is very expensive.
Also part of it, not really sure why people pursue career; for the sake of what?
Still at the end of the day, I think the duty of the parent is to take care of the kids. And also maybe the duty of a grandparent is to help take care of the grandchildren?
Lineage?
I think when you think about it long enough, eventually you want to live a life and do things which is beyond yourself. Which means that after you die, some part of you will remain and continue and ideally last into perpetuity?
For example, a simple one is your kids, thinking about your kids kids kids.
Most Americans don’t think this way because the typical Americans is too individualistic; they think only about themselves, their own personal life etc.
I think the reason why a lot of people don’t have kids anymore is that they think it will positively happiness. That is if you have a kid, your life will positively become negative happy.
But is this true? No. There is literally no breeder joy and happiness on planet earth and beyond then seeing the face in the laughter of your own blood child.
Grandparents without grandkids?
Another very very sad side; seeing the elderly without either any children or grandchildren?
I should find a really really sad, I see this already my family is that my cousins don’t want to have kids, and now that my uncles and aunts are older and they’re 70s, they are Baron and don’t have any grandchildren. Seneca is almost like proxy grandchild for them; and the amount of happiness and joy he brings to them is astounding.
Even me, I’m quite certain that that will decide to have kids, but if I was a grandparent in my 70s or 80s, and Seneca didn’t have his own child, or even worse he said that he’ll never have kids… This might be the most sad and miserable thing of all time.
Maybe this is also why people or parents decide to have multiple kids; the chance that one of your kids will not procreate?
Bitcoin and economic power
The more research I do on bitcoin, the more I think about it so yet and philosophies about it, the better and better of an idea it seems.
First, I spent a lot of time thinking about it by myself, solo. Then I started listening to a lot of interviews and lectures and writings from Michael Saylor, one of the great bitcoin proponents. I really delight in the wisdom and experience of Michael Saylor, as he ran his own software company for over 30 years, I would probably trust the opinion of a CEO, who has real life world experience, rather than the average guy on the street. 
Trust no man over the age of 40?
I’m currently at 36, I’m going to be 40 years old soon.
Apparently the guy who discovered that blood was pump through your heart and recirculated back into your heart, when he discovered this, he famously said that no doctor over the age of 40 would believe him. Because they were too set in their ways of thinking. 
Even amongst my age group, I’m starting to see the nihilism in the blaze kick in. The ones optimism hope joy and foolish knives optimism has become overshadowed by drugs, festivals, marijuana, sports, video games, etc. Living towards no ends.
This is even happening in the “zillenial” or “Gen Z” age group — the world is inequity injustice whatever, so what is the point of all of it? Do a bunch of drugs, go to festivals, lose yourself in nonsense.
The feeling of power?
What is power? I think ultimately, power is a feeling — a physiological feeling.
For example, it don’t matter if you got $1 billion, if the guy next to you has $1 trillion, and has 10 yachts while you only have one yacht, you might feel poor by comparison.
Therefore the first idea is wealth power abundance whatever is all comparative.
For example, it is very different to own $1 million in Culver City, than own $1 million in Cambodia.
Portable wealth
You cannot take your Lamborghini with you to Cambodia. But, you could take your bitcoins with you!
Also, you cannot take your single-family home in Los Angeles with you to Thailand. But you could take your digital property, a.k.a. your bitcoin to Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam Korea etc. 
Human capital
Out of all the forms of capital, certainly there is no greater wealth than human capital, let us not forget that the notion of capital comes from the notion of “kaput“, or “caput” or “cap”– which literally means head. 
For example, back in ancient Greece, before money was invented, you would actually count your wealth by how many heads of oxen you had. For example, if if you wanted to make a libation or a sacrifice to the gods, to Zeus, he would sacrifice the heads of 100 oxen and cattle,… Certainly a very expensive endeavor considering that oxen are useful for many things; plowing the land, and also, food. Let us say that the average male ox is at least 2000 pounds… 2000 pounds of meat, that is a lot.
Even if you do modern economics, 2000 pounds of meat, assuming that meat is five dollars a pound… That is $10,000 a head of oxen? 
Then, 10,000×100 … 1,000,000–  I had to come was like 1 million bucks?
Anyways, I think the most enlightening thing about going to Asia Southeast Asia etc. is how cheap labor is. In America, I think the great downside is that labor is so expensive, and the people are so lazy and entitled.
Also, the thing which is really bizarre America is that a lot of these men labor jobs, are being run by adults… Whereas they could easily be run by teenagers, or college kids. Even apparently back in the day minimum wage was a means of pink highschoolers to do random Jobs like restaurant work, fast food work, coffee shop barista. Imagining a 35 year old man working at Shake shack, or a coffee shop to pay rent and support his family… Seems bizarre?
Keep stacking those bitcoins 
20 bitcoins matte black 
Is bitcoin a gamble? Probably. But, if you have a once in a 10,000 year lifetime opportunity, don’t you want to seize it?
ERIC
