Someone is reminding me there are other things to focus on besides bitcoin's fiat exchange rate ....

Clown world 🤡🌎 is entertaining, yes, but often painful. I'm making a "2024 Top 21" list of events that have made this year historic. Regardless how exciting or painful, I'm focusing this list on freedom tech, money, bitcoin . Appreciate everyone's input 🙏

Sharing an epiphany and good news: My wife @Tali | Orange Hatter and I were talking this morning about the holidays and the importance of multiple generations spending time together. Then I shared with her some feedback from @Classicaldad⚡️ about a discount I shared a couple days ago. We had one of those moments we both realized something simultaneously. We should not wait until Black Friday to announce deals on our games. After all, by then people will have missed an opportunity for fellowship by playing them over Thanksgiving. So, we're going pull forward 21% off deals to today. You can get Hodl Up and all other games in time for Thanksgiving and a long weekend with family and friends. The discount code is "FELLOWSHIP". You apply it at checkout on site www.freemarketkids.com. This discount applies to our existing games including the high-end, low-time-preference version of Hodl Up. For those who don't know our games, we have a Bitcoin game (Hodl Up), a Lightning game (Channel Up), a seed phrase game (BIP39), and a pricing game (Is That The Best You Can Do?).

Hey, nostriches. Sometimes reading notes/posts of others traveling the world to attend conferences makes me feel like there's this inside club. This isn't completely fair because there are those who genuinely share connections with like-valued people. Authentic connections are really bullish. They're awesome. It's when people just brag about their fancy travels that I'm turned off. I say all of that up front because my experience in El Salvador last week falls into the bullish, wonderful people bucket. It started with the Mi Primer Bitcoin "Unconference" event that was full of bitcoin-educators. This was followed by two days of Adopting Bitcoin. The venue was different but the attendees were all high-signal bitcoiners. To everyone who helped organize these I'm so grateful. Thank you! To everyone I got to hang out with, it was an honor. I love spending time with bitcoiners. To everyone who could not attend, we missed you and hope you can join next year. Cheers!

As more people learn about Bitcoin, more will understand what proof-of-work really means. I created a 21% off code for our POW apparel. In the spirit of scarcity, this code is limited to 5 people. First come, first serve. The code is "871114", the block height when I set this up yesterday. URL is www.freemarketkids.com.

Read "Dumbing Us Down" on return trip from Adopting Bitcoin. It's been on my list for a long time and I regret not reading it earlier. This is a must-read for parents and future parents.

As we wrap up the last month and half of this insane year, this is the absolutely best gift for a bitcoiner. It's the best bitcoin game ever. It's the highest quality edition ever. Get it for yourself and just ask your significant other to wrap it. In the spirit of scarcity, I created ONLY ONE coupon code so whoever uses it first, gets it. The code is "871112". That's the current block height as I set this up. It's 21% off which at the current exchange rate is just over 57,000 sats. Cheers!

Just saying GM ... Updates from Adopting Bitcoin coming soon as well as some very cool deals for bitcoin gifts for the holidays. Cheers & Happy Hodling!

Had the cool opportunity to see Congressman Massie while wearing my own copy of the debt badge. Pretty funny moment ... Thought I'd share ...

End the FED. End the ED.

I have always respected those who take action over those who yell at clouds. I'm guilty of doing too much of the latter and too little of the former. Today, though, I visited our Country Clerk to introduce her to the case study SimpleProof and Immutable Democracy. Thank you, Carlos @Simple Proof ,for leading the way in Guatemala. It's late in this election cycle to make changes but it's fulfilling to start the process. We have follow ups post-election. We all do. Carlos has been a bunch of different podcasts so I know I'm missing some people but tagging those I recall quickly @preston @TFTC @Guy Swann @Daniel Prince @ODELL @Tali | Orange Hatter @Bitcoin Veterans Apologies to anyone I missed ... Cheers!

We (Free Market Kids) have played the low-time-preference collector's version of HODL UP at Bit Block Boom and many other Bitcoin events. It really has a casino feel to it.

Homeschoolers speak your language ...

In free markets (i.e., no zombies), companies evaluate how well they invest capital by measuring profitability.  The military measures readiness, i.e., how capable the people, equipment, tactics, etc. are of executing the mission. Fiat education measures grades, test scores and, above all else, spending. If we applied first-principled thinking to education, what should we be measuring?

Grade inflation in our education system reminds me of CPI manipulation. The metric itself is prone to manipulation and it really doesn't mean anything any way since grades are not indicative of future success. Putting those factors aside for the moment, the timing of the grade inflation is also funny. This chart from a website called gradeinflation.com should really go on the WTFhappenedin1971 website.

Continue the image journal ... Here's the second image ...

Playing with AI while I'm working on a new article. This almost becomes an image journal documenting my writer's journey Here's what I got today:

Put on your game theory hat.  If someone benefits from an uneducated citizenry in terms of power, prestige or wealth, what actions would they take with the educational system?  Who benefits from dumber voters and what are their incentives? Today’s education system is yielding the exact results it was designed for.  In the words of John Taylor Gatto, it is designed to dumb us down. Self-custody education = #homeschool

I'm working on a new project related to education. Somehow the greatest country on earth, with all types of advantages, opportunities and resources is getting worse.  Not just a little worse, horrifically worse.  Talking with Bitcoiners about this is easy. They understand self-custody education = homeschooling before I even finish saying the words out loud. They also understand the role fiat money continues to play in the undermining of our school systems. This new project is focused on those who are not yet maxis. In fact, they may not even be Bitcoiners yet. One part of my framework is vectors which are more than just a coordinates. They have direction and magnitude.  The framework is valuable, even for non-engineering types.  For example, when someone reports that inflation is x%, this is a position.  It does not communicate the whole story.  Monetary inflation is not static.  It is more helpful to understand which direction it is heading.  It is increasing.  In fact, it is accelerating.    The vector of homeschooling is increasing over the last several decades and not just because of COVID, which exposing the truth of the sad state of education spectacularly. However, while this trend may feel new, it is more like a pendulum swinging through its cycle.  Zoom out 100 years or 200 years and we see homeschooling was once our dominant method.  Fears from administrators that homeschooling undermines children, the country, or some political agenda are baseless.  The United States excelled in terms of human prosperity when schooling was decentralized.  Our decline in education as we have become more centralized is alarming.

My thoughts going into this event were unfounded. Amplify 2024 was absolutely bitcoin-centered. The event had about 120+ people and was hosted by the Ohio Blockchain Council. The focus was energy and mining. Shout out to Andrew Burchwell who organized it. If you can travel to the midwest next year, I recommend attending. We plan to be there.