Me neither, and it's tough to figure out. My current thinking is that trust is something that emerges from shared dependency and repeatable behavior. Perhaps frequency of interaction and degree of necessity might be inputs to a framework?

Nice post. I've spent some time thinking about this over the last months. While trustless money is definitely something the world desperately needs, and a requirement as life moves more and more online, I feel like many people in this space get a little too carried away trying to eliminate trust entirely.

Trust is a necessity with regard to physical locality. Ones spouse, ones family, ones friends and neighbors. Trust is fundamental to intimacy and sexuality -- to relationships, to humanity. We are not going to do away with the need to trust and be vulnerable, but we can develop trustless tools to mitigate it where we don't have the means to build trust organically.

This viewpoint originally came up for me when trying to figure out how ecash and Fedimints could figure into Bitcoin philosophy for me.

Trust is a fundamental part of the human experience - we aren't going to do away with it, but we can mitigate the need for it where appropriate.

100% -- very well put. I almost included #29,

The chain analogy strikes me as similar to what you're getting at. Although, chain links are slightly more gross units of measure than nanoseconds ;)

Thanks for the comment!

Whoa! Top post, what a pleasant surprise. Thank you @siggy47. I just posted Book 12, the last post for this series on Meditations. Thanks for all the support and encouragement.

I suppose that includes a leather wallet in the back pocket, too?

This was exactly my reflection too

Seized.

When I read this passage, my imagination jumped to the Romans of the time witnessing the dramatic acts of faith displayed by the Christians under persecution. Submitting to death and even preaching forgiveness instead of refusing to denounce their faith. It must have been quite shocking to witness, and certainly contributed to the propagation of Christianity.

I didn't think about Egypt, or much politically for that matter. Thanks for zooming out and sharing.

Right or wrong, for me the point is that popular beliefs are more imaginary than real and subject to dissolution when the populus changes its mind.

All good, friend. I hope your enjoying the book and/or the posts.

I'm happy you're reading and enjoying. :D

I agree, it's easier and more approachable to relate with some age and experience. Love that quote from King Solomon, thanks!

I'm inclined to agree with you. Marcus holds himself in Meditations to an insanely high standard of integrity. The ideal he emanates is intimidating. At the end of the day, all we can do is do our best, accepting our humanity along with all the feelings that go with it, as you say, while challenging ourselves to continually improve as new opportunities arise. Sometimes the hyper-rationality can come across as overly analytical and judgmental.

I would also like to grab a beer with Shameless Sensei someday :p

Thanks for the encouragement. I guess it's less of a chore after I get started.

It's not exactly repetitive because Marcus is reinforcing the same principles from unique angles. While this is helpful to read and meditate on, it's a challenge to find unique commentary on.

Yeah, I agree -- his dissatisfaction with the station of Emperor of Rome was a stand-out for me in Book 8 as well.

Thanks for the mention and all you do to support the territory.