Rewriting reality; Online identity; Crypto scams

💡Think

I had a bit of a harsh reality check this week, as I tested positive alongside a few friends. Thankfully, I’ve not been too bad and will probably be back up and running in a couple of days.

The forced isolation is both bizarre and liberating, but the time not doing anything made me realise that I don’t have many hobbies that aren’t tech-related. My hobbies are mostly my work, and this really isn’t too great.

So I guess this is where I write some sort of resolution way ahead of schedule and decide to get a hobby or something. Maybe that spoken word album isn’t too far away after all 😉

I hope you’re all keeping safe.

📷 Look

Kent, England – From my Instagram

📖 Read

❶ How venture tries and fails to rewrite reality

This article dings very loudly. It states that a lot of what we know to be true in the world of tech has been forced through by a select group of people, rather than it being a natural progression. We’re seeing this right now with the “boom” (in certain circles) or cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and communities, but this is such an incredibly niche and small group of people that it in no way reflects reality. Money talks. They talk about how Clubhouse was supposed to be the future but…when was the last time you opened it?

Read this article

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❷ The past, present, and future of online identity

How “online” are you? Given you’re reading this thing, I’m going to assume you have at least some online presence, whether that’s a Twitter, Instagram, or old time MySpace account from back in the day. The weird thing is that in the late ‘90s and early ‘00s, online privacy and identity protection was a billion dollar business – remember McAfee? – but we’ve kind of abandoned that idea now. You’re only ever one scroll away from seeing someone’s baby on social media, and most people have their full name, birthday, and interests in full public view.

Read the article

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❸ Cryptocurrencies: A necessary scam?

Oh, this is spicy. Personally, I’m still yet to get a hold of why we need all this decentralisation, but that probably says more about my privilege than anything else. This article does a handsome job of detailing just how pyramid scheme-y our industry’s obsession with wealth creation is, and links it to the Florida retail boom of the 1920s – sell before it busts!

Read this article

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Bonus round

• The best albums of 2021. Going to be honest here, I don’t know most of these artists 👴

🎧 Listen

Building your own tree – With Gumroad’s CEO

I generally love everything that Sahil Lavingia does, from his approach to building a business, to his general “I’m good at everything” persona. This podcast is with comedienne and Twitter influencer Alexis Gay. It’s mostly a hangout chat, but the way he talks about his hobbies outside of tech both links to my intro note, and also makes you think “where do you get the time!?”.

p.s. you can skip to 1:30 to get rid of the adverts. Around 7 minutes in and you can get right to the meat.

Listen to this podcast
Apple Podcasts – Spotify

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🙏 Thanks

Have a great week,
Luis Ouriach
@disco_lu

Founding member special shoutouts:

Kevin Fernandez (@kvnfz) Karl Barker George Sumpster