Life, Movement and Money through a mindful and conscious lens. Bitcoin and ⚡️ node runner
Arctic Orang-Utan @arcticorangutan - 3d
Currently attending an investment management conference with a bunch of central bankers (organized by a large asset manager) - it is interesting to observe the increasing uneasiness with the types of investments they are allocated to… coupled, still, with complete obliviousness to Bitcoin
Arctic Orang-Utan @arcticorangutan - 8d
Happy Bitcoin Whitepaper Day!
Arctic Orang-Utan @arcticorangutan - 10d
Isolating subtle movements If you’ve been reading Soir Bleu for a while, you’ll know that I’m an avid freediver. While depth is only one way of measuring success in this sport (and a dangerous metric to become obsessed with), it certainly is a good proxy to gauge the quality of the diver’s technique. Without a solid technique, increased depths will remain elusive. Recently my depths have plateaued. While unfortunately timed colds and sub-optimal conditions played a role, the key issue has been my equalization technique, which has been, up to this point, mainly intuitive and hardly a result of deliberate practice. And as I enter a deliberate practice of my Frenzel equalization (with odd devices like this), a whole universe of subtle movements is being revealed to me, that had heretofore been wholly unconscious. As I learn to isolate subtle movements of jaw, diaphragm, tongue, soft palate and abdominals. and become aware of them, I am confident that my technique and results will improve. But more importantly, becoming more conscious of these parts of my anatomy, is translating into other areas of my life. It turns out that all these body parts perform essential aspects of our physiology and when used inefficiently can cause real issues in the long run. In other words, technique typically translates into greater excellence in one domain of life, but in many cases it unveils whole new areas of improvement in others. https://m.primal.net/LmOY.png Georges Seurat’s “Le Chahut” (1889/90)
Arctic Orang-Utan @arcticorangutan - 11d
It’s gonna be delicious to just not talk about Bitcoin to people when it hits 100k
Arctic Orang-Utan @arcticorangutan - 23d
I can’t seem to open the link
Arctic Orang-Utan @arcticorangutan - 24d
At this point, we're just waiting to see which short sellers make it out in time...
Arctic Orang-Utan @arcticorangutan - 25d
Do you feel it coming?
Conspiracy corner We often realize how important our health is only once we get sick. It is probably the most important thing we can care about. And yet most of us do not realize that we we tend to do things every day that deteriorate our health and that we are immersed in a system that actively promotes this. Don’t take it from me, take it from these Stanford educated siblings (https://open.spotify.com/episode/14XV2p3zAYVWPt7F2hpP9Z?si=330e6a658f6d4835) who were both deeply ingrained in our healthcare system - one as a doctor, the other as an employee at Pfizer - and who just could not stand it anymore. If you do not understand how serious the allegations are that these two make against the food and healthcare system and how deep the implications are for us and our children, I do not think there is a way to make it more clear for you. If your knee jerk reaction is to cry “conspiracy theory”, it is because you, too are captured by the system. Here are a few things the companies and the scientists and bureaucrats they pay, do not want you to know or express: - Being healthy is actually pretty simple and it is not something that can be easily monetized: it consists of good, unprocessed food, sleep, exercise and relationships. - All leading causes of death (heart disease, cancer, diabetes and Alzheimers) in our population are metabolic diseases, triggered by dysfunctional mitochondria. - Viruses hardly ever kill a metabolically healthy person - almost all Covid casualties could have been prevented if we were a metabolically healthy population. - Pharmaceuticals are often necessary to resolve an acute medical problem or condition like an infection (antibiotics). But they are almost never a silver bullet for chronic disease - in these situations they usually mask or relocate the problem without addressing its root cause (SSRIs, statins, now Ozempic). If a doctor is telling you otherwise, they are a drug dealer, not a serious doctor. - Vaccines are actually problematic and like anything else you inject into your body, should be treated with care: There are no studies proving that the combination of the many vaccines we expose our children to at a vulnerable age, do not cause serious long term issues - the rates of autism, asthma, allergies and other chronic diseases have skyrocketed since the broad prescription of vaccines. And vaccines are likely to play a role. - Most of the “science” proving that a given pharmaceutical is safe, is funded by Big Pharma. And Big Pharma is paying billions of dollars every year to settle lawsuits over pharmaceuticals that proved to not be safe after all. - Doctors are often very well intended but they are not perfect. And they often swim in a sea of bad incentives: “Every patient who is going to enter this ward, is going to get a surgery, whether they need it or not”. If all you have is a hammer you are going to see nails everywhere. If you listen to your intuition on a lot of the above, you’ll know that this is true. Let me be very clear what I am not saying: I am not saying that there is a lifestyle that is going to guarantee us infinite health. I am also not saying that there is not the odd person that is just unlucky with respect to the genetic lottery. I am also not saying that pharmaceuticals can never help. I am saying: If you are responsible for your own health or especially for that of your children you owe it to yourself and them to hold your healthcare providers to a very high standard. And you should question everything they say.
Arctic Orang-Utan @arcticorangutan - 26d
wow… what the fuck?
Arctic Orang-Utan @arcticorangutan - 28d
Doing from being Most of us are deeply attached to doing. From a young age, that is what our culture teaches us. When I was 23 I took a detour into being. I had a feeling there was more to life than just running from one empty achievement to another. When all you know is doing, learning to be brings you a little bit closer to the truth. However, when you then become too enamored with being, it can lead you down a route of nihilism and reckless self-sufficiency. So what I am learning next is to do from being. And I know that is where it all comes together. https://m.primal.net/LSoh.png Kanō Tsunenobu’s “Tiger Emerging from Bamboo” (1704-1713)
Arctic Orang-Utan @arcticorangutan - 1mo
100% agree. The Tao Te Ching is a magical text nostr:note1fdm8cj23wf5l33sshwa9l74rzascxfwtxvgkpxvzv44xqztmugxsnsn36j
Conceptual fight or flight Picture two chess players, each contemplating their next move. While sitting completely still. And yet their heart rate, in a high stakes moment, can easily clock in at 160-170 bpm. If you’ve played chess, you’ve experienced this. But you need not be a chess player to be familiar with an elevated heart rate while physically still. We are the only species that is capable of taking concepts, mere ideas, so seriously that they trigger a physiological fight or flight response. For better or for worse. And we are not born this way. It is worth contemplating how we go from a bundle of potentiality to an organism so deeply immersed in concept. When we do, we realize that we can let go of concepts where they no longer serve us. https://m.primal.net/LPIi.png Ted Thai’s “Garry Kasparov” (1997-2002)
Parental renunciation of sanctimony When we become parents, and we take the job somewhat seriously, we have to renounce most of our remaining tendencies towards sanctimony. What I mean by this is that our children don’t seem to care much about what we say. They care about what we do. And it is what we do, that they eventually emulate. This should be a concern to most parents whose actions are not yet up to par, i.e. all of us. As an example my wife and I are realizing that the only way to have a chance at defeating the impending invasion of the smartphone into our daughter’s life, is to be the kind of people who don’t fill the unforgiving minute with mindless entertainment. Could there be a more beautiful invitation to finally change? https://m.primal.net/LJAZ.png Michelangelo’s “Doni Tondo (Doni Madonna)” (1507)
man, watching the shorts be squeezed above 65k will be glorious
Arctic Orang-Utan @arcticorangutan - 2mo
This was going to be a post about Bob Dylan, but as the author of this humble publication I reserve the right to completely change my mind: It is now a post about the greatest gift a serious dedication to meditation can give us: A profound sense that we will be fine, even if things don’t work out as we envision them, even if shit hits the proverbial fan. This gift, of course, is founded on the recognition that who we think we are - an ego center with a bunch of problems - is not actually us. Who we really are, our true nature, is sheltered from the storm the ego is engulfed by. Have a great start to your week. https://m.primal.net/KzAU.png Edmund Blair Leighton ”In Time of Peril” (1897)
Zero Tolerance Our most important resource is arguably our attention. And other people, but especially corporations are increasingly and violently encroaching on it. We ought to have zero tolerance in the face of this entitlement. Politeness is not the appropriate attitude towards someone who thinks they are entitled to sell you a product just because they have your number or email address or because you physically cross their path in the street. If you want to defend your attention, you’ll have to be prepared to be unpleasantly clear about it. And to learn to block out the manifold, more sub-conscious bids for it from impudent advertisers. https://m.primal.net/Kjzy.png Richard Prince’s “Untitled (cowboy)” (1989)
History coming to life Today I enjoyed a very private tour (no one else showed up) through the Met’s American Art exhibit, which, like most of the museum, is a true marvel. Growing up I enjoyed reading about history, but somehow it was always a very rational pursuit. In short, I mostly took what I read as a story or an interesting fact. I found it difficult to identify viscerally with the events, to truly put myself in the shoes of the people that experienced them. Today I’m reminded that history, at its best, makes past events come to life: Descriptions of the life of dutch settlers sharing the island of Manhattan with only 500 other pioneers from a multitude of nationalities and backgrounds, Washington’s men crossing the Delaware during a freezing cold Christmas eve, the extravagance of the Vanderbilt’s gilded age. How can one not be in awe of the fortitude, the creativity and resourcefulness, the insanity and obsession of those that came before us? https://m.primal.net/KgBz.png Emmanuel Leutze’s “Washington Crossing the Delaware” (1851)
Running nostr from 30,000 ft - the new (couple of) mile high club
The Woke Mind Virus - Part 2 In Part 1 I argued that while the social justice movement has an at least partially sound origin, its opponents are correct in characterizing it as a problem, or even a mind virus. Here I want to suggest that this virus will not be stopped by trying to argue against it or by demonizing those who spread it. Viruses only become a problem when they encounter a weak host and bad ideas only spread when they fall on fertile ground. Most radical movements in history have spread not for a lack of resistance but because they found support in a very frustrated population. This movement is no different. Many people are deeply frustrated with their overall situation and a flawed social justice movement is one of their outlets. And an increasing number of people is encountering circumstances in their daily life that are not just frustrating but traumatizing, adding fuel to the fire. This, the wounds and the trauma is what needs to be addressed. Not by giving in to every irrational and counterproductive demand. Not by arguing. But by proactively working on a new system that can hold and heal. https://m.primal.net/Kcfg.png Edward Hicks' "Peaceable Kingdom" (1832)
The woke mind virus This is not a post about how wrong the social justice movement is about everything. Unlike Jordan Peterson I think that postmodernism has merit. He who studies existence through contemplation must recognize that reality is in fact much more fluid than our culture would have us believe, that absolute truths and duality are difficult to come by and that the solid self does not hold up to scrutiny. And yet, those who have succumbed to the woke mind virus have thrown the baby of meaning out with the bath water of meta-narratives. Meaning can co-exist alongside ambiguity just like content can exist alongside emptiness. In order to exist in the world we need to engage with it as a solid self. And we need to agree to certain landscapes of meaning. Now, clinging to that solid self and being overly committed to one particular landscape is the source of many an ailment of our culture, but denying the existence of any such structure is just as harmful. Once again, we need to dance on the slackline of paradox in order to “make sense” of it. https://m.primal.net/KbDd.png William Frederick Yeames’s “And When Did You Last See Your Father?” (1878)
