I’ve crossed 100k followers. So, I want to give a heartfelt thanks to all the bots that made that possible. 😂

I read Upgrade by Blake Crouch and wasn't a big fan. The outline of the story was promising but the execution was inconsistent, in my view. I'd give it maybe a 6.5/10. It's set in the near future, with a specific event having messed everything up. A genius scientist that tried to solve world hunger by genetically modifying crops accidentally caused a global famine, killing 200 million and damaging the world economically and socially for decades in a way that it never fully recovered from. Gene editing is now forbidden, and since the technology is accessible at pretty low cost, there are police forces dedicated to surveilling for usage of it and raiding peoples' houses to prevent another catastrophe. The main character, the son of that scientist, gets infected with a disease that changes his genes and makes him superhuman mentally and physically in a world where that's outlawed. And thus his adventure begins to find out who infected him and what to do. Without giving spoilers, probably my main issue with the story was the villain. She was badass with a cool background and setup, but then her motivations didn't really make sense. And the majority of the book is about the philosophical and external conflict between the hero and this villain. Solid outline and idea, but felt rushed and not as well thought out as it could have been. Some elements felt preachy in the sense that it feels like the author set up this conflict, which didn't really need to happen, in order to make a point. By fine-tuning the plot a bit more, I think it could have been executed better and more believably and preserving the overall outline.

During interviews, I get a lot of questions about the potential for a strategic bitcoin reserve and how it may affect price. I typically answer by talking about how I tend to take the 'under' on the prospect for a bitcoin reserve. In other words, as a base case they might recategorize currently-held bitcoin, might add a bit, etc. My lesser case is that they go and actually buy a lot, which would positively affect price, sure. I then go on about how, my long-term bullishness of bitcoin is not dependent on that, and I'd rather structure my view to assume a baseline and potentially be surprised to the upside on price within a given period, rather than focus on singular bullish catalysts and then be surprised to the downside if those specific things don't materialize. That's Lyn Speak for "I find this question really boring, please stop asking me it."

We're now hitting the computational milestones expected from various charts from over a decade ago. These trends have been on track. Most of us still don't have robot vacuums since they still kind of struggle, but alas.

GN. Here's a random post to counter what we normally see in social media. In addition to being filled with filters, social media is filled with retakes. People will take a picture multiple times and then only show the best one, which provides the idea that the picture they posted represents the baseline for how that setting looks, which is generally unrealistic. It's the best shot at the best time with the best intentions. The other day I went to NYC, and went up to an office I normally go to when I'm there, which has great views of the city. This day had clearer than normal weather, and I thought, "I'll take a pic." The first one was a dumpster fire. Sun in my face making for both squinting and unflattering lighting. Hair all frizzy from just coming in from the wind at 8am (took a pic while I literally still have my coat and backpack on). Crooked glasses as the cherry on top. So I see the laughable result, go and fix my hair for like a minute, pick a different angle, and retake the pic. It's still not amazing of course, but it's way better than the first dumpster fire pic, and only like 3 minutes later. Now imagine all the people that put makeup on or filters on, and how different their pics look from their reality. Never compare your first drafts to other peoples' final drafts. It's always a mess out there.