Good evening. My September newsletter is out. It's an update on the fiscal dominance view: https://www.lynalden.com/september-2024-newsletter/

Okay I’m going to write it, over time, for my own enjoyment. The question is whether I’ll publish it. Because I’m not an experienced fiction writer and would only publish it if it’s decent. View quoted note →

Ya’ll want Nostr Lyn to write a sci fi novel in whatever spare time she has, or get back to finance?

I’m glad that my legacy is that I wrote a whole ass book about money. Money is broken, so we need a whole ass 500 page book to explain why. View quoted note →

The professional side of me is fully focused on finance. It’s tiring, but I’m there every day. The Nostr Lyn side of me keeps broadening her timeframe and keeps getting pulled to write a science fiction or fantasy novel, at this point, with all sorts of character arcs and cultural symbolism tied in. Which is almost too long of a time preference. I wonder if a side hobby is what is needed to keep me focused on my main work. I used to have hobbies years ago, but the extreme environment of 2020-2022 kind of killed them as things went crazy and I did nothing but work. During 2023 and 2024 I explored if I should have hobbies again, but I kept focused on work, and here now I’ve determined that I should explore more. I boosted my exercise, traveled the world, and re-explored video games. But the video games didn’t stick. Re-exploring my older writing is sticking. Lately I’ve been trying to explore hobbies, to replicate a normal human. And writing weird sci fi or fantasy is what keeps me engaged.

👀 View quoted note →

I've been doing consistent long walks in the sun around my neighborhood while the weather's nice. Doing some business calls while walking, or listening to a podcast while walking. I mostly blame @Steven Lubka for getting me into this trend.

This story is wild. View quoted note →

For everyone who says they don’t work out because it’s hard to get to the gym, this is your final boss: View quoted note →

A good way to sell books, imo: View quoted note →

Of the four Pierce Brosnan Bond movies, the first one was great (Goldeneye, so good), the second one was decent (Tomorrow Never Dies actually has a lot of relevance today, as it's about the control of corporate media with misinformation, which is rather prescient for 1997), and the final two were bad. Of the five Daniel Craig Bond movies, I differ a bit from the consensus. The consensus is that the first (Casino Royale) and third (Skyfall) were great, but that the second, Quantum of Solace, was the worst and the others were okay. However, while I do think the first Craig movie (Casino Royale) was great, and Skyfall was the second best, I think Quantum of Solace as the second movie was underwhelming but not bad. It was kind of that middle-of-trilogy vibe. I rate it above the consensus. The true catastrophe of this series, which I rate below the consensus, was actually the fourth movie Spectre. Utterly awful in terms of plot, especially given Bond's greatest villain Blofeld played by Waltz, which is such a strong casting. They fucked the whole story up and it made no sense. Bond literally walked into the evil headquarters with no plan, and got captured. And then when the villain is drilling into his head to erase his memories, it just randomly didn't work, and he broke free via bad narrative. Made absolutely no sense. People were too accepting of it because they liked Waltz on screen and he distracts them from how weak his character was and how bad the plot was. And Blofeld was way too obsessive with Bond. Cool villains aren't as obsessive as that. And then the fifth one was solid and partially salvaged the catastrophe that was Spectre. Kind of mediocre like Quantum of Solace, but with a solid and surprising climax to the series, which elevated and completed it.

I’m reading my first fiction book in four years, since Rhythm of War. It’s called The Lost Metal and it came out a couple years ago but I’m behind on my fiction, since my financial work engulfed me ever since the pandemic. Both of these are like deep sequels into stories I’ve been reading for a decade from Brandon Sanderson. If anyone is interested in his universe, imo the best place to start is Mistborn.

For those that want to buy Broken Money with bitcoin, the best place is Saif House.

The Bitcoiner's Bookshop

The best bitcoin books delivered worldwide in all formats, at the best prices, with the best bitcoin & fiat checkout experience.

In addition to the ebook and audio versions, they uniquely have the cloth hardcover dusk jacket version, which is the most premium form of the physical book. It’s available in fiat there as well. And for 10+ copy wholesale orders, like for bookstores or events, whether in fiat or bitcoin, Saif House is the best option. They beat Amazon on both cost and delivery speed for wholesale. Like when I gave my Broken Money talk at Princeton University earlier this year and they handed out books, they bought those through Saif House.

What are some skills that you don’t understand at all? For me music is at the top of the list. My husband can hear a tune and then with a few tries he can play the tune on the piano. He barely had any music lessons but can somehow do that. I had guitar lessons, and my teacher tried to get me to do that, but I was terrible. So not only can’t I do it, I don’t really even know where I’d begin. The inability to even see the next step. Like if I see a pro athlete do something, I know I can’t do it, but I get the basic idea of what they did to get to that stage on kind of a step by step basis. But when someone can hear music and then just play the melody, my mind is blown.