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Daily discussion threads 2025-01-23
13d • timdaub.eth •

gm, this is the new daily thread. What's on your mind? I woke up this morning, checked the apps and so on, and I just felt a lack of dopamine. Somehow I got hooked on all the news, all the new developments over the last few days, and I love reading new things, learning stuff, etc. But this morning it seemed that there wasn't much new going on.
Been looking into ETHIreland just now. It's an interesting one. It seems to be a rather unknown event in the crypto space, but Ireland offers many benefits as a host for a conference: - Dublin is small and cozy, you can go around easily - There are great pubs and restaurants everywhere - Ryanair flys there so it has cheap connections from all over Europe - Fish n chips - Everyone speaks English - You can go on a vacation afterwards It is, ofc, not lost on me that I have mostly talked about the personal benefits, not what it can offer for working there lol
Re: dopamine, I had some reflections about it yesterday. I was in the subway, looking at my phone's screen and all consumer apps I check regularly: Kiwi, Interface, Coingecko, Telegram, Messenger, Instagram, Warpcast, X and so on. What striked me is that all of them are sources of dopamine for me. I often open them without even thinking about the utility, and my trigger is more like "I'm bored" than "I have a job to be done that I can only accomplish with this particular app". And although all of them provide dopamine, there are different flavors of it. Some apps give a few strong hits, some apps give many weaker hits, some apps attack you with all these hits at once, some are more balanced. It reminds me of different types of weed where some is more relaxing, some is more energizing, and so on. And since dopamine is not an external thing you smoke, sniff or drink, it's easy to forget that you can overdose it, too.
Yes, for sure dopamine. I have made one page of my phone crypto native and I must say it looks great. Hope people next to me in the subway notice when they glance my screen and think what this weird apps ;) [insert screenshot] btw I recently changed Coingecko to Crypto Pro since I found out in their terms they were selling my data to 300+ vendors and I could not stop them. Crypto Pro does not collect your personal data or use any user tracking or analytics solutions. https://cryptopro.app/
ETH Ireland is also on my list for the above reasons, and add to that, I know at least two amazing people in crypto who live there. Regarding dopamine hits - since installing screenzen, which asks me if this is important before I open any of those quick hit apps - I've used them much less when I was bored and just found other things to do. Often I think with the stuff you do offline the dopamine doesn't come as fast. For example, when you sit down to read an interesting book or play an instrument, there is an initial phase you wonder, should I continue? Before it actually starts being fun, or at least interesting enough to keep going. And then a few days later, after stuffing your brain, things suddenly come together, and you go: wow. I had it happen to me that one week after reading a book, I had a revelation what the plot actually was about while randomly walking home around outdoors, I assume this stuff doesn't happen if there's no room for it to.
Thanks for recommending ScreenZen - I used Freedom for years because I could block apps on my phone and laptop at the same time, but having this "Is it important?" question before opening the app seems like a great improvement. Good points about the nature of offline dopamine - you kind of have to work for it to come, it doesn't come that easily. It reminds me of the classic WBW essay "Why procrastinators procrastinate?" and the metaphor with the monkey: https://waitbutwhy.com/2013/10/why-procrastinators-procrastinate.html
> For example, when you sit down to read an interesting book or play an instrument, there is an initial phase you wonder, should I continue? Yeah this happens to me a whole lot. These days I mostly read because I'm chasing an idea or information. > I assume this stuff doesn't happen if there's no room for it to. That's precisely what's happening in my life haha. When I was freelancing I had tons of free time to also explore stuff because there'd be weeks without work when a client hadn't fully committed to contracting me yet. I have to say those were some pretty nice aspects of freelancing that I miss as a founder. Because when you're a founder then essentially it's 24/7 and you're working for your own bank account, career etc. As a founder, I've noticed that you have to be conscious of your dopamine levels much more because if you're seeking the dopamine hits within work, it can create a dangerous frustration loop that potentially demotivates you even more. E.g. with Kiwi we're currently somewhere in the "Trough of Sorrow," we're building, doing stuff, etc., but there's no traction, we have to grind through it, keep trying shit. So while it means a lot of work, it also means recognizing that the lack of fulfilment from feeling successful must be substituted with other things, e.g. by "giving yourself something nice," e.g. getting a nice coffee in the morning etc. Or, I guess, as Mac mentioned, by being more conscious how you spend your dopamine reserves?
Cynthia Lummis said on X: "Stay tuned for 10am" and then on Polymarket: https://polymarket.com/event/will-trump-create-a-national-bitcoin-reserve-in-his-first-100-days?tid=1737644440590 Bitcoin reserve chance jumped by 10% afterwards
https://polymarket.com/event/us-national-bitcoin-reserve-in-2025 This one jumped even more
Btw does anyone know a prediction market for BOJ rate hikes? Polymarket doesn‘t have it…
I hope artcoin finally fix it :) you can preview Kiwi member Pierre Pauze’s “Tinder of Art” here and give feedback https://warpcast.com/pierrepauze/0xdc60535a
lol the Americans have chosen chaos (Trump launching a memecoin, still no clear guardrails), we have officially legalized them with MiCa. What if that‘ll make us actually win for once?
There might be an announcement soon https://cryptobriefing.com/bitcoin-reserve-strategy-us-treasury/