The next decade is so exciting:

I’m a positive person by nature. I smile every day. I genuinely enjoy meeting new people. My life is awesome. I’m super grateful for everything I have.

Yet a lot of what I’ve written about in the past month has been negative, particularly against America. I don’t think America is all that bad. But it’s terrible for the average person. If you’re rich, young and healthy, fantastic place to live. If you’re not any of those things, you have to deal with so much bureaucracy. The healthcare system is a disaster, especially for older people. The public education system is terrible, especially compared to the rest of the world. Local economies are dying as the world shifts to the technological age. There are big sections of the US that want to live in the old world.

Sorry. That’s not how evolution works. You need to evolve with the times otherwise you will suffer. Right now I think America could be in for some serious suffering as a whole in the next decade, unless their government institutes the right policies going forward. Saw today that Georgia approved a voter suppression bill that’s disgusting. It keeps the GOP in power. Voter suppression is designed to stop black people from voting. Everyone in American politics knows this. The GOP wins by getting less people to vote in elections, especially people of colour. Man it’s just so screwed up.

Yet I’m so excited for the rest of the world. For all the people coming online in the next decade. We’re going to be able to discover smart people all around the world who have understood the Internet better than most. They’re not going to be from specific countries but from everywhere. This is what crypto is creating and the direction the world is heading. Decentralization of everything. Is currency going to be decentralized?

This is basically the argument for Bitcoin. I don’t know how I feel about Bitcoin these days because when I initially learned about it, I was a fan. I’m still a big proponent and think as part of any portfolio strategy, having at least some exposure to bitcoin is necessary.

Do I think it’s going to completely replace FIAT currency? Not in the next few decades. Governments will not give up control of money supply. The counter argument is what if enough people start using it? But if governments control if people can and can’t use it, it doesn’t matter. Bitcoin will never be adopted by everyone.

It’s nice to have these paradoxes in your head at the same time. Bitcoin is a great digital asset and everyone should have at least a small allocation to it. But it could become obsolete if major governments decide to completely ban it. It’s unlikely that happens given the institutions and companies getting involved with Bitcoin in the US (Square, Paypal, Tesla, the banks, etc.), so I think it’s unlikely to happen in the West. What if China and India ban it going forward? Will it hold its value?

Right now Bitcoin holds value because enough people believe it holds value. It’s digital gold. But there’s no tangible thing that you own. Having digital assets assumes the place you live has the Internet. What if governments decide to turn this off and you can only use their local currency? Then what? You’re pretty screwed if you can’t access your Bitcoin. Obviously this is a doomsday scenario that I don’t think will happen, but Bitcoin is not as full proof as the Twitter crypto people will have you think. It’s like a ponzi scheme where as long as they can get enough people to buy it, they’ll make more money.

Look at their incentives. Like Anthony Pompliano. He’s probably a great guy but man he never stops talking about Bitcoin. Alright dude, we get it. You like Bitcoin. He’s said he has 80—90% of his investable assets in Bitcoin so obviously he’s going to keep talking about how great it is. If Bitcoin goes up in price, he makes more money. Obviously he’s going to discredit the FIAT monetary system if he’s built up a huge asset base in Bitcoin. Guys like him make me hesitant to keep buying Bitcoin because it’s like a ponzi scheme, and he might be at the head of it.

Watch what people do, not what they say.

That being said, I know super smart people like Naval, Balajis, Chamath and many others have some invested into Bitcoin. They understand its power, but they also know that it could drop significantly depending on government intervention. I loved Ray Dalio’s thoughts about it because he takes a long term view from multiple different angles. His conclusion that you should put money in it in which it could lose 80% of its value is probably right. It’s probably not going to outright disappear but depending on regulation by major governments, it’s still a highly volatile asset. Long term will it hold some value? Yes but who knows how much. It doesn’t have the centuries’ history like gold, so you can’t think it’s going to replace gold anytime soon.

This is just one component of the future that is exciting. Another one is the NFT space and the creator economy. Slowly the world is shifting into creators. Kids nowadays in western countries want to be Youtubers/vloggers instead of more traditional jobs. This is either scary or exciting depending on how you look at it. Exciting because it means kids want to create. But scary because it means kids are becoming so hooked in social media that they never want to leave it. Social media and producing content is a tough job. You have to be doing it for decades and I’m unsure kids today understand the struggle and hardship that it takes to make it big. They’re not going to be successful in the near term because it takes so long to build something.

Yes you could get lucky and blow up short term, but that’s such a rarity. You can’t bank on that. You have to do the work. You have to show up every day, even when you don’t want to. You have to have resilience. You can’t quit. You have to do it over and over again, even when you suck at it. I don’t know if most kids today have those genes in them. Life is so much easier for them than it was for our parents or grandparents when they grew up as kids.

Was thinking about this the other day, when was the last time you saw a 10 year old kid on his own in a big city? I can’t remember the last time. We live in a society where we’re so scared that he/she is going to get kidnapped or can’t handle the world. But by over-parenting these kids, you’re not preparing them for the real world.

In my opinion, helicopter parents are doing a disservice to their kids. Is everyone special? Yes in that they have their own DNA and are a 1 of 1. But because you lose at a sport or event or get a bad mark on a test doesn’t mean you’re great. It means you suck. It means other people are better than you. It’s a competition. It’s ruthless. You aren’t owed anything.

Kids these days feel entitled. Entitled to have things given to them. Damn will they be in for a rude awakening when they get into the real world. The world doesn’t care about your feelings or you. You have to find your own way. But certain parents are over-parenting their kids and trying to be in every part of their life. Read this article in the Atlantic titled ‘Private Schools Have Become Truly Obscene’ and it’s so fascinating. Some parents are ruining their kids. They’re not preparing them for the real world. For the grind and the struggle of showing up every day.

Some rich people think they’re better than the rest of the world and they’re teaching their kids the same thing. If they’re assholes and not taught to be good people who work hard, they’re going to suffer down the road. That’s what this article was talking about basically in that private school parents are making the schools insufferable breeding grounds where kids are suffering the consequences. It’s great while the kid is young to try and solve all their problems with money, but money doesn’t solve all your problems. It solves all your money problems but if kids are brought up in this entitled environment where they see their parents fighting their battles, they’re in for a rude awakening in the real world. They’re going to fall behind.

The winners in the next generation are going to be the fighters. The strugglers. Those who know what it’s like to work on something for decades and then eventually hit it big. The people who fail over and over again. Those who are risk takers that step outside of their comfort zone. The world will not be for those who are entitled. They’re going to get trampled on. Resilience, grit, and dealing with failure. Those are major skills that all kids should learn.

The cool thing though about the future is more success stories are going to be people from all over the world who didn’t have money. They just had the Internet and are able to build something huge. They’re able to use and leverage the power of the Internet to create the life they want.

It’s super exciting. The creator economy is also just getting started. More and more creators are figuring out how to turn themselves into businesses. This never really existed before. Even for me, I’ve thought about a book, podcast, paid newsletter, paid content library, and paid Clubhouse rooms. A lot of these things never existed before. Yet now you can commoditize yourself. You can become a mega brand by being yourself. Joe Rogan, Tim Ferris, and the Youtube creators are building themselves into globally recognizable brands because of the Internet.

We’re just at the beginning.

Even though I’ve talked a lot about the doom and gloom on a macro and historical level in America, the future as a whole is so bright for the world.

I’m so excited for this next decade.