Around the Block, Issue NºZ: MOVE
3 min read

Around the Block, Issue NºZ: MOVE

tl:dr; Around the Block is getting more personal and focused on long-term value for you. Subscribe to my personal newsletter for all new writing on crypto, tech and beyond!

Around the Block is now over five months old. I'm reflecting on what I've learned, what audience I want to be writing for and how this publication can be the best thing for you to read. I'm taking a number of steps to make sure this is true.

Writing every week has been a significant motivator to keep learning and synthesizing and has allowed me to get up to speed in crypto quickly

Connecting with you online and offline has been very rewarding. For that alone, it was worth it.

I want to continue to do that going forward while making sure I deliver valuable content.

How do you make great content?

Ultimately, you need to take on of the following approaches:

As an individual, you pretty much need to churn out unique and quality perspectives on related and current topics every week. The only way to do that is to be authentic and write about what's on your mind.

For me, Around the Block has been a way to learn about the crypto world while building up my project, Auditless. Auditless is now at a point where I'm deeply interested in developer tools in the Ethereum ecosystem, a topic that is extremely well covered in existing media.

What's next

I wanted to maintain the flexibility of writing about crypto and tech while also connecting with people who are interested in a broader theme of long-term living. I've taken on the belief that good things happen with a long-term focus. This is especially true in tech, crypto, investing, health, fitness, decision making, etc. I think this is very hard to do and existing markets don't serve us very well.

Just think about all the decisions we make that ignore long-term economics:

  • Stock-heavy portfolios
  • Taking a mortgage
  • Unhealthy food products
  • Lack of preventive care in health care systems
  • 12-week fitness plans

The right decisions are really hard to make in these areas for a number of reasons:

  • Everyone around you cares about short-term benefits so there is no market for long-term thinking
  • Compound interest and other exponentials are non-intuitive, progress towards big things often feels like no progress at all
  • Research is very difficult to do over long time horizons (this manifests in health care and finance)
  • You have no idea what you will want in 20 years, why not satisfy the person you know very well today?
  • “Black swan” events are extremely rare so there is no natural feedback loop built into long-term decisions
  • The people that are making good long-term decisions now are not yet famous, the people who are now famous (e.g., Ray Dalio) made those decisions under different conditions

The best time to act is always now, if you postpone this until you are smarter, richer, less busy, you will miss most of the compounding effects from making good long-term decisions. In fact — the time for short-term decisions is later in life.

Finally, youth is dwindling but purpose is ever expanding; if you seek it and achieve it. Simply speaking, if you can invest your energy in your purpose, you will be happier over time.

Pseudo-science: people who think about the long-term become happier over time

I hope you will join me in putting together a simple, meaningful long-term plan for our lives that puts health, wealth and purpose up-front.

I can't wait for the opportunity to share all the things I'm reading and thinking about, most of which will still undoubtedly be related to technology & crypto.

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