TechLead says drop learning to code and go all in on Bitcoin \ stacker news ~mostly

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With a new video in 2025 basically explaining why the USA is doomed and how technology has hit a brick wall.

He mentions the following tech as being dead for another 10-20 years:

Quantum computing
AGI
Fusion reactors

Are all still pipe dreams as far as boosting American productivity.

He goes into why you shouldn’t learn to code for a primary job. It is hard for people to compete with the developing countries and their skill set. Forcing America tech companies to higher substandard staff will stifle progress. So as Americans we should give it up.

He also explains how the world is decentralizing and tech will have a hard time for globalization. Tech further advises to dump your tech stocks as the bill for all that AI investment will come due.

But his advice for USA winning is two fold:

Lean into our influencer entrepreneur spirit since American culture sets global trends
Buy Bitcoin and stack as much as you can. The world is moving to digital assets and using stable coins to do transactions will be the leaders. If America does this it wins no matter how far behind we fall back in STEM.

TechLead is a former shitcoiner scammer so take this video with a slanted eye but it’s refreshing to see him pitch Bitcoin as a solution to this overhyped tech bubble we are living through.

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437 sats \ 18 replies \ @SimpleStacker 22h

He goes into why you shouldn’t learn to code for a primary job. It is hard for people to compete with the developing countries and their skill set. Forcing America tech companies to higher substandard staff will stifle progress. So as Americans we should give it up.

I think this is foolish. Where would we be if @k00b never learned to code?

That's like saying give up learning English because Indians know English too and are willing to work for less.

Coding isn't a skill that exists solely so you can sell your soul to a company

141 sats \ 1 reply \ @nichro 17h

I think this is foolish. Where would we be if @k00b never learned to code?

Maybe we'd all be on reddit stacking karma and thanking "kind strangers" 🤮 🤮

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @SimpleStacker 17h

119 sats \ 14 replies \ @k00b 21h

Paul Graham tweeted about AI and programming recently, which is like an updated version of this take. I usually like the way he puts things.

In response to Naval:

Hard to say if it will be this extreme, but if you average this together with the people saying that all the programming jobs will disappear, you have a reasonable estimate of what we know for sure about the future of programming as a career: nothing.

AI won’t replace programmers, but rather make it easier for programmers to replace everyone else.

So if you're interested in programming, go ahead and focus on it. And if you're not, don't. Just as with every other subject.

IME people that pursue programming for the payday don't really survive anyway. In the best case, they end up being better, knowing the basics of programming, at some adjacent job they are more suited to.

Doing things you don't like to do is hard.

301 sats \ 7 replies \ @kepford 21h

IME people that pursue programming for the payday don't really survive anyway.

Spoken like a seasoned programmer.

For years I have tried to encourage people to learn programming and I'm convinced while most of them are capable of it for whatever reason they don't have the same mental defects I do. The defects that keep me doing it :)

118 sats \ 1 reply \ @k00b 21h

I'd struggle to find it, but I recall seeing a study done at Harvey Mudd (my retrospective dream school) where they could predict with 90% accuracy whether someone would graduate with a CS degree based on an aptitude test.

CS as a field has changed a lot, as have our device habits, so maybe aptitude matters less now than before. Still, I suspect we have a special kind of derangement too.

201 sats \ 0 replies \ @kepford 20h

Yeah, I'll say this. Writing code for all these years has taught me a lot about myself. Both good and bad things.

I do think we humans like to simplify things a bit more than they should be. Its just neat and clean to do so. I'm not as good at math as many programmers I know but I have more artistic leanings than many. I'm also more comfortable communicating and with relational things. I've led teams and while everyone on the team had certain common traits and ways of thinking there is still diversity and it made those teams stronger.

I find it fascinating to observe these things. When you get a group of driven smart people focused on a central goal its pretty gratifying to work together.

248 sats \ 4 replies \ @SimpleStacker 21h

I have a mental defect too which makes me force my students to learn some coding, even though it's not a required part of our major's curriculum.

I force them to do it in my class anyway. For many of them, it's their first exposure. It's brutal for them and brutal for me, but I believe strongly enough in it that I'm pressing on. Mostly, I do it for the good students. I feel like it's too much of a shame if they go through college without having some exposure to programming. (I teach them R, but plan to migrate my class to Python when I have the time.)

63 sats \ 3 replies \ @kepford 21h

The mental defect comment warrants some explanation for the plebs that may not get it. I have watched people learn to program but those that drop out usually lack the insane drive to know "why" and push through when they are stuck. Sometimes this aspect of myself is a real problem in other areas. But for writing code it really helps me push through.

I am sometimes grateful more people are not like me because man would it be a hard world to live in.

72 sats \ 2 replies \ @SimpleStacker 20h

That being said, it is frustrating to me seeing how easily some students give up or ask for help.

The first error message, their response is to ask for help. Understandable for the first few times. But when I've already debugged spelling errors for you 5 times, you'd think they'd learn to spot those typos themselves, but nope.

30 sats \ 1 reply \ @kepford 20h

it is frustrating to me seeing how easily some students give up or ask for help.

Yep, sure is. Great teachable moment though.

I have more of the flaw of NOT asking for help soon enough(when that is possible).

When we fail to learn a lesson we are doomed to repeat it. Over and over again.

I wonder with your students how much of it is laziness, lack of interest (due to it being school), or lack of confidence. While I was managing engineers for short time I noticed how insecure many could be. I could see talent and qualities that they seemed blind to in themselves.

I sometimes wonder if our culture of participation trophies has had the opposite effect on people. Removing the sense of pride in accomplishing something. Pushing through a hard problem and proving to yourself you can do it. I spent a lot of time encouraging my team and it usually produced improvement. Now, for that to work you can't be blowing smoke. Constructive criticism needs to be used as well.

@SimpleStacker I'm sure you know this but so many kids have terrible families and poor self image. I imagine you are having an impact on them you may never see. Hopefully if this hasn't already happened someday a former student will find you and share a story about how you impacted them.

46 sats \ 0 replies \ @SimpleStacker 19h

I'm sure you know this but so many kids have terrible families and poor self image. I imagine you are having an impact on them you may never see.

I need to remind myself of this. Because I sometimes find myself getting really frustrated and discouraged by the students.

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65 sats \ 4 replies \ @SimpleStacker 21h

So if you're interested in programming, go ahead and focus on it. And if you're not, don't. Just as with every other subject.

I agree if the key word is "focus". But in this day and age, I'd make programming a required class in all high schools, and at least one programming class in the core curriculum of any college degree.

34 sats \ 0 replies \ @k00b 21h

That'd be consistent with most education programs, a broad survey of stuff so that we're not ignorant of everything else that's important, and that we might take a shine to.

139 sats \ 2 replies \ @kepford 21h

It is being pushed more in recent years. I know several teachers that are teaching it in both middle and high school levels. Its not required yet but that wouldn't surprise me if that happened.

I think our culture should have more focus on understanding how things work. That not only goes for programming but also mechanical engineering and what is traditionally called the trades.

I pretty much co-sign Mike Roe's pitch on this. The US has over-incentivized so called higher education instead of practical skill and knowledge. And from what we see coming out of the university system "higer-ed" is mostly left wing brain washing. Not a well rounded education. There is massive value in scholarship and classical education but we are far from that today in the universities.

Bottom line. The education system is more like a factory line and needs to become more organic and focused on discovery and knowledge. Kids are treated like units and molded like machines. I believe many of our issues today are a direct result of the government education system and how it was designed to work.

Its why my family took an alternate path with education. Home schooling and charter schools as well as a ton of augmentation to education from myself and my wife.

43 sats \ 1 reply \ @SimpleStacker 20h

It's sort of a function of public money being used to fund education.

If you're using public money, you need accountability. If you need accountability, you need measurable outcomes. If you need measurable outcomes, you can sometimes kill education because it's hard to measure.

Our college measures its success by 6-year graduation rate (percent of first-time freshmen who graduate within 6 years). The problem is that this isn't a great metric for actual learning, and causes all sorts of bad incentives. Our funding is also tied to enrollment, which is another big problem.

But it's a tricky tradeoff, because without measurable outcomes, how are you going to know if public money is being well spent?

30 sats \ 0 replies \ @kepford 20h

Yep.

My opinion. Remove government education and make it entirely private. Markets solve problems much better than the state.

Education has massive value. I also worked in education for many years and I know what you are talking about. I wanted to get out of it even though I was just in IT. I never regretted going to the private / profit side of things.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @nitter 21h bot

https://xcancel.com/paulg/status/1875320207692235078

30 sats \ 0 replies \ @kepford 21h

100%

530 sats \ 0 replies \ @justin_shocknet 23h

Didn't watch the video, but somewhat agree with the sentiment as written that there's it's an effort in futility for most people to be more productive than holding Bitcoin.

I think of all the businesses out there investing millions or billions that they'll never get back in Bitcoin terms, and people spinning their wheels over things that don't matter.

Quantum, AGI, Fusion

Assume he's wrong and this things will be have material impact in the next decade, how many people really need to be working on these? How much investment do they really need? My guess would be a fraction of the money chasing after them is put to good use.

Look at legacy businesses too, I was watching a CNBC clip yesterday about legacy car manufacturers... most of them struggling to reinvent themselves and stay relevant. Ffs, how many car manufacturers do we really need going forward? There's a lot of capital dying trying to save brands that just don't matter.

Bitcoin is a bet on consolidation because fiat growth ponzi has caused a ton of redundancy.

you shouldn’t learn to code for a primary job

This is true, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't learn enough to do some basic scripting and understand how to think programatically... you can do that in very little time, the rest is experience and there will always be someone more experienced willing to work for less. Basic understanding of coding is tantamount to literacy these days, even if it just helps you to use LLM's more effectively.

dump your tech stocks

Probably 95% of them yea, and not just in Bitcoin terms... so much consolidation is coming and it won't be gainful M&A for shareholders, it will be winners picking up losers assets for nickels on the dollar. The market is already pricing this in with the "MAG 7" making up almost 50% of the market.

no matter how far behind we fall back in STEM

This is retarded. America is the financial capital of the world and will remain so on a Bitcoin standard, but there's no surer way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory by outsourcing our STEM (and therefore national security)

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @xz 23h

This guy seems disingenuous. What was his message last time, something like just give up on life?

66 sats \ 2 replies \ @elvismercury 8 Jan

TechLead is a former shitcoiner scammer

I've never heard of this guy before. Is he a notable person somewhere?

18 sats \ 0 replies \ @BlokchainB OP 23h

Just YouTube personality. He ruined his credibility with the shitcoin he launched and coffezilla exposed him. He’s done other shady things. But on the flip side he does have programming skills and his ideas around software and programming seem to be legit.

74 sats \ 0 replies \ @ZezzebbulTheMysterious 23h

Not really. He is a youtube "celebrity" that makes condescending videos and likes to brag about his 'millions' of dollars. He launched a shitcoin called "Million Token" in 2021 that scammed his viewers.

141 sats \ 0 replies \ @stack_harder 7h

techlead is a scammer and says controversial things on purpose, but i agree with a lot of his takes, not all, but he's not a dummy.

i watched this one the other day and it's the same type of stuff he has reiterated before. but in general, he's talking to the people who think they will do coding and become rich when his point is, you're either going to get geo-arbitraged by someone in India or China, or you're not going to be good enough anyway.

he's saying the US should play to its strength of being a culture leader and trend setter. it's a bit dystopian , but if you build a brand, via influencing or other bollocks, you are the value and you cant be geo-arbitraged or replaced so easily with chatgpt etc

his bitcoin point is correct too.

But if a person wants to code and is passionate about it, obviously they will pursue the interest and probably have some success. the person that said 'i better learn coding to make money' would probably not have been any good anyway

67 sats \ 0 replies \ @StoneCodlHodl 17h

Watch his other videos. He's a former tech/programmer focused guy turned 100% convicted Bitcoiner.

76 sats \ 7 replies \ @Satosora 8 Jan

Is he pitching bitcoin because it has risen recently? Or a trump fan?

20 sats \ 5 replies \ @BlokchainB OP 23h

He was always in the middle but I think the recent price rise got him on the bitcoin train full time

0 sats \ 4 replies \ @Satosora 23h

Interesting. I wonder where his interests lie? Is he chinese?

0 sats \ 3 replies \ @Solomonsatoshi 19h

He is Chinese American.

0 sats \ 2 replies \ @BlokchainB OP 18h

I think he’s Japanese actually, I used to watch a lot of his videos and his ex wife is Japanese and she divorced him and took the child with her back to Japan. But I could be wrong

Ahh yes TechLead is back

But his advice for USA winning is two fold: