As someone who is a fellow time and Bitcoin enthusiast, the premise of this book immediately resonated. I was lucky enough to read an advanced copy, and the thesis, examples, and interwoven personal stories did not disappoint. This has shot straight to the top of my most valued works about Bitcoin.
The amount of time, thinking and distillation for the framing of our troubles is heartening. The author has transformed deep scientific learning (accurately summarizing notable works on time) and spirituality (his own personal journey) into a sound-time sound-money thesis so engaging, I read the book in under a week.
The book creates new frameworks and presentations of our time-obsessed Western society: the Chronometric Cube, ChronusOS, the Great Returning, Lantern Keepers. These ideas distil mechanical time's impact on our health, work, money, family, and long-term thinking.
The thing I liked most about the book is that it doesn't preach action ('Take these 10 steps and WIN at life!'). Nor does it propose Bitcoin as the solution with its new form of time. The book summarises our journey in time throughout and builds towards a conclusion that is positive, hopeful, and showing that Bitcoin is a mini-reset and a new beginning.
The only negative I can find is the cover. As much as the author warns against the dangers of exponentially speeding AI-processes, the cover seems hastily made and does not capture the brilliance of the ideas within. It would be such a shame if this affected potential readers' perception of the book.
Overall, this book is fascinating, poignant, and is something I will display on my bookshelf with pride (when I get a physical copy). If you value your time, invest some of it in reading this book!
Interesting review. It makes me curious about this book -- which is saying something because I generally eschew bitcoin books.
Cover art is such a weird thing. People (including me) certainly do judge books by their covers, and yet most of us kinda know that we shouldn't. Don't know what to do with that.
A cover is a more valid signal of a book's quality than ever. If self-pub authors are willing to invest in decent cover art(I know people who have paid over $3,500), it shows they will invest in editing, marketing, and are more likely to have invested more time and effort in the writing. Writers rarely design good covers themselves. Publishers and designers have much more data on what audiences respond to and buy.
It's frustrating when authors have put in the work, invested in editing and used a free subscription to DallE to generate a cover.
We often talk about Bitcoin as money, but we don't talk enough about how it reshapes our relationship with time itself.