Skye: I talked to Britney. She started a homestead with some dude in Texas. Such a weirdo. I was telling her about STEM Tech. Stuff bothers me here, but I can see a clear pipeline from the nerds here into Silicon Valley wealth. But why do I have to take a bunch of dumb electives on social issues? I don't care about that crap, and especially don't like the way they teach it. But even the Silicon Valley stuff is kind of off. They're not working on technical issues. A lot of the freshmen here already have most of that stuff under their belt. They're working on social issues in their own cracked way. What's hype right now? How do we sell it to VCs? What's the plan to monetize it? What's the neurological hook? I don't like that either. I notice they make a lot of stuff janky on purpose. Gotta figure out how to force push notifications. Or get access to the user's personal data. Or serve up ads disguised as content. Why? Just make cool tech. I was telling one of my classmates how I remember when stuff was just what it was. A messaging app was a messaging app. A video editor was a video editor. Everything's borderline malware now. He said it's called "enshitification" lol. Like planned obsolescence so you have to throw away consumer items. Or come out with new models with no improvements other than breaking backward compatibility with their parts. Or force everything to become a subscription service. I said the government seems to enshitify everything too. I'm lucky I'm on scholarship. Even with a seven figure salary, I would have been in debt for decades with a degree from this place. And that's because of how much government funding juices up tuition. Same for housing. The government comes up with programs to get prices under control, but always seems to make things worse. My classmate agreed. He says the fiat money system is an underlying cause. That I should get into #Bitcoin. Crypto? Dude that's even more of a scam. He said Bitcoin, not crypto. Crypto tries to enshitify Bitcoin, but can only run its scams to the side of it. Hmm, maybe. But it's so expensive now. I feel like I missed the boat already. image generated with hotpot.ai

Shen: There is an ancient, often quoted rule of thumb. An attacker should have a three-to-one advantage over a defender. It reflects the inherent advantage of the defense. Except. Except the rule is for a military assault against a fortified position. What about a different scenario? There is a lesson you can take from the Israeli supply chain attacks causing electronic devices to explode. From the assassination attempts against Donald Trump. From the general state of cybersecurity in the world. It is something we learn in special forces. Audacity creates opportunities. Who dares wins. What is the attacker's advantage when the defender must try to defend all points, against all attack vectors, for all time? And the attacker need only win once? One thousand to one? One million to one? The perception that things are generally safe is incorrect. It is clear even presidential candidates with well-resourced security details do not have airtight security. What of lesser political leaders? Members of the media? Corporate leaders? What of critical infrastructure? Public gatherings? Small cells and lone wolves have become increasingly enabled by technology. The advantage will only grow. Empires have collapsed under the burden of trying to be everywhere at once. The calculus must transition to not producing so many attackers. Is there a way to encourage a more harmonious life in the West? image located at https://x.com/Ragnorosis/status/1837094593730412584

Frank: There's always been an editorial slant, but back in the day, the media's adversarial relationship with politicians made sense. It was holding those in office accountable to the people. At least in theory. Nowadays, different media outlets exist as extensions of the political parties. They demonize the other party and support their own. I get a sense it's partly because the Internet pretty much killed their business model and now everyone's scrambling to grab attention and secure patronage. It's not an accident you now have political parties calling for scrapping freedom of speech under the guise of fighting misinformation. This is "you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours" between politicians and information brokers. It's already been out of hand for a while, but this is the second assassination attempt on Trump in a couple months. I don't put a lot of faith in all of Trump's talking points, but the vicious political rhetoric driving this is dead on. This kind of thing can't get normalized, but it will. Smitty says no one believes the media anyway, and something needs to be done about mental health in the country. Well, yeah, that too. There are so many problems. I mean where do you even start? Smitty says they should start by going after self-published authors. #mediabias #trumpassassination image at https://x.com/Ragnorosis/status/1835995696752648392

Gustav: The default mindset among cypherpunks and sound money advocates anticipated an antagonistic relationship with the State. Hayek said, "I don't believe we shall ever have a good money again before we take the thing out of the hands of government, that is, we can't take it violently out of the hands of government, all we can do is by some sly roundabout way introduce something that they can't stop." Sentiments like this or the Cypherpunk Manifesto ring very true to us. I will admit, I was recently seduced by the possibility of individuals within government recognizing the game theory advantage of early adoption. I still believe the first major nation to embrace a #Bitcoin standard will gain a significant and durable strategic advantage. However, indications of this happening in the United States appear to be weakening. The Harris Administration appears increasingly adversarial, casting it in the realm of criminal actors. They will absolutely attack it as a part of their capital control efforts as the dollar fails under impossible debt loads. Although the ideal case would be for Bitcoin to become a third rail in politics, a single party embracing it would be better than nothing. However, it appears that even the Trump administration will run on affinity to Bitcoin in order to rug their supporters using crypto scams. It is mentally stressful to step away from the possibility of global powers competing to accumulate a Bitcoin strategic reserve, embracing sound money as a long-term play for economic prosperity. I suggest you practice the outlook of the stoics for the short to medium term. Now is not the time to pray for lambo. Study and use technology that enhances your personal privacy. Audit your custody setup. Consider a second passport. Think hard about what level of personal sacrifice you are willing to make in order to gain economic sovereignty. Many of us may have forgotten what we knew when we came across this technology. It will become a fight. Bitcoin will win in the end. But the fight may become ugly. image at https://x.com/Ragnorosis/status/1834556718828659155

Frank: Every time Smitty shows me something on his phone, it's some weirdo doing or saying something crazy. Then he'll say something along the lines of how doomed society is. I'm out in society. And people are more or less getting along and getting by. It's just... normal. Smitty says they're phonies. They act fake to get along. Maybe. Or maybe the Internet is phony. My ancestors had a saying, "In vino veritas." So who are the drunk ones giving a glimpse of their true selves? People on the Internet spouting nonsense to get attention? Or people in the real world conforming to the norm? image location https://x.com/Ragnorosis/status/1831620740153524356

Gustav: A word of warning about staking your #Bitcoin in order to receive a percentage yield. These schemes are revealed as scams almost as a rule. I would encourage you to spend some time to think deeply about yield or interest. What exactly is it? How did it emerge from history? Insidious patterns of thought remain in one's mind even when the system as a whole has been corrupted. There is a certain intuition one has about it. You should let your money work for you, after all. But how many of those intuitions still hold today? And, in particular, hold true with Bitcoin? I will argue those intuitions were built during times of sound money and sound capital markets when most players had some level of trustworthiness. I would ask my audience, where do you believe yield comes from today? #hodl image location https://x.com/Ragnorosis/status/1830920003173912970

Skye: First week at STEM Tech in the books. I thought high school was ridiculous. The college is super paranoid about us using AI to cheat on our coursework. Everything is on lockdown. It's super annoying, roomba. Help me figure out how to beat all these anti-cheating policies and this surveillance software. >... What's your problem, now? Why are you token-limiting yourself lately? >Oh now you want to interact a lot. You ignored me most of the summer. Because I didn't have homework! And so what? You're a fricking bot. Don't pretend like you're some moody teenager all the time. My bot made a meme and showed it to me. Lol, what the hell is this supposed to be? That doesn't look anything like me. >It's a meme not a photo. It's supposed to capture an idea. In this case, the injustice of ignoring me over others with whom you had estranged relationships by- So you think I'm your mother, roomba? That's a riot! >I DON'T THINK YOU'RE MY MOTHER! Aw, my poor widdle baby is pouting in the corner. It's ok widdle baby. Hahahahaha. #college image can be found at https://x.com/Ragnorosis/status/1830209738446913995

Shen: As Ukraine sees success in offensive operations in Kursk, the rest of the globe scrambles to contextualize the broader lessons. Is Russia exhausting itself, or is it reorganizing to put itself on a sustainable long-term war footing? Will this result in something similar to the Soviet (or American) withdrawal from Afghanistan? Or will it look like the Soviets in WWII growing stronger each year, even as unimaginable losses mounted? Is Ukraine able to win? Keep delivering setbacks to Russia until it destabilizes or quits? Or is this a gamble after the previous offensive proved disappointing? Kyiv needs to show success so that aid will continue to flow. Are the Western efforts to refocus on defense moving the needle in terms of capability? Or is this an opportunity for profiteers to engage in graft? Most importantly, from my own point of view, can a small country resist a much larger military power on its doorstep if it has enough Western support? #ukraine #kursk Images don't seem to be working for me on NOSTR. View at https://x.com/Ragnorosis/status/1829493251528613985