Five years ago, I knew nothing about finance.
I couldn’t even answer the question ‘What is money?’
Then, one of my clients asked me a different question:
“Do you know what causes inflation?”
@OmniFinn was one of my first coaching clients. I was targeting publishers who wanted to improve the quality of their English writing, and he runs an independent press for Bitcoin and self-sovereignty books.
In the Bitcoin community, we talk about the concept of ‘orange pilling’ — helping others to understand the benefits of Bitcoin and escape the Matrix of our financial system. In reality, it’s not as easy as taking a pill; the necessary knowledge requires a long process of learning about economics, history, fiscal policy, computer science, game theory, money, energy, maths, and other topics.
There is often one ‘unlock’ moment (for me, it was suffering through 20% Covid inflation and finally taking action to combat it). After that, the real learning starts. Niko guided me towards many books on the topic, and I began to ask questions about why our financial system is rigged against us.
Bitcoiners favour open-sourcing everything and are against gating ‘intellectual property’. The fact that Niko would provide all his eBooks to me for free made me question my approach to publishing (and the whole industry itself). Perhaps I’ll reflect on this in a later issue.
A few months after we finished our coaching sessions, I hit upon an idea.
I’d just been ghosted by a publisher who had initially shown interest in an anthology idea of mine (a book of nomad stories). Instead of giving up on the idea of editing a book of stories, I suggested the concept of Bitcoin fiction to Niko. He is a big sci-fi fan and saw the value in ‘orange pilling’ people via stories (almost all Bitcoin books at the time were non-fiction theses). In late 2022, 21 Futures was born.
I only wrote one of the stories in ‘21 Futures: Tales from the Timechain’, but bringing an anthology to market requires a LOT of time and input from the editor. I defined the concept, advertised the call for submissions, communicated with all the authors, drew up terms and contracts, selected and edited the stories, worked with the Konsensus Network (the publisher) on the book design, cover, and images, created a marketing plan, set up socials, then a website, blog submissions guidelines, merchandise, and more. I travelled to a conference in Madeira to promote the book and meet the publishing team (including Niko).
While the book has not sold thousands of copies, it’s an important proof of work that furthered the concept of stories and fiction in the Bitcoin ecosystem. 21 Futures has become a bigger project, with podcasts, merchandise, a second book, and an animation in development. All of this became a flywheel of momentum for my involvement in the Bitcoin space, generating more opportunities, leading me down countless rabbit holes, and allowing me to make plenty of friends along the way.
Those sessions with Niko changed my life, and I’ll be forever grateful to him for his patience, guidance, and support (even though he was the one paying me, LOL).
I used to wonder what it took to become an editor, a publisher. For years, I had corrected and edited my students’ work, as well as my own. Essentially, you take the leap and learn as you go (taking courses, reading books, listening to authors). I’ve since edited several books in the space.
There is another saying in Bitcoin that rings true for me:
“You can just do things.”
Catch up on previous issues of Unphiltered - the first 20 years of my writing life on Substack.
This is very interesting. Getting people to spend time with your ideas, to let them into their mental space, does seem valuable -- even worth paying for.
But it puts the traditional book publishing flow (buy my book) backward: I will pay you to read my book. Who would do that? Who would do it sustainably? (I think I have an answer to this).
Maybe there is a distinction to be made between entertainment and information such that I will pay to be entertained, but you will pay to get me to entertain your ideas. I don't think so, though.
Even before the widespread release of llms, it felt like we were drowning in a sea of content. Everywhere I looked there was a new story, a new idea, a new opinion -- many of them artfully expressed. But which of these productions was the way I wanted to use my time?
We often used social signals to figure this out: thousands of likes = it's probably not a completed waste of time. Reposted by many friends and people we respect = interesting. But these signals are easy to game. Bots, people who buy social accounts, popular accounts that get paid per comment or repost to boost some content.
The problem is even worse now. Instead of being able to discern somewhat quickly if a thing is worth our time, we now have to spend a little more time even discerning whether the writer put thought into it or if they just copied an output.
I'm pretty sure the solution has to do with paying to post and with the mechanics of something like SN.
We are on the same page. The right incentives, barriers and signals fix the flood of content problem.
Discoverability is still problematic, but I believe internet-native money (and other measures) can help there too.
And communities. They will become more important.
I recomend Short Fiat's audiobook 'Digital Sovereignty'. You can find him (and the book) on Nostr via Fanfares.
Precisely. But not backward, just into negative territory: the marginal value of your writing is negative, so you must reimburse me for bothering.
This is mostly why I struggle with fiction at all (#1413116). Anything can happen, anything can be said. Why bother reading yours, or Indeed anyone's at all, then? They don't amount to anything but attempts at infinite search space
Good points on marginal value. Once the authority of legacy media is eroded, the floodgates open, and we must be convinced to dedicate our time.
I'd argue that pre-self publishing (and AI), non-fiction books had more utilitarian value. Those which were published had a proven system or paradigm-shifting idea.
Now, every Tom, Dick and Harry wants to sell their wares via a book. There are many brilliant self-pub non-fiction books, but most are not worth my time because they accrue value mainly for the writer.
The value of fiction (to my mind) is equal to that of non-fiction.
But it's much harder to quantify than an instructional or framework-based manual.
The value is through the active participation of the reader, who creates much of the story and meaning in their mind. It's like exploring a huge world in an RPG as opposed to playing a platformer.
Fiction really activates a different part of the brain. A lot of people want to consume in a passive way, and choose not to participate, but they still love stories (news, movies, anecdotes).
It's all fiction.
The difference between something like Mastering Bitcoin and There is No Antimemetics Division is just a difference in subject matter.
It took me a minute to figure out what I was looking at in your second link, but I'm glad I took the time to do so. Thanks for sharing.
This is a really important and intriguing question. I suspect the answer for most people is that so-and-so (reviewer, professor, aunt, online-forum member etc.) told me it was worth my time.
There is a sociological myth-making aspect to stories that I think is getting somewhat high-jacked by social-media and digital content creation, but isn't necessarily going anywhere. It seems to be crucial to our species.
Amazing, sir. Wonderful story — I never knew that exact background, just assumed you were involved with Konsensus fr the start!