Parker Nathans

Betting My Life Savings on Crypto

Taking big risks isn’t my thing.

Working for minimum wage in High School, I managed to save $10,000 over 2 years. This meant working 20 – 25 hour weeks after school. Very hard work, but the payout payed off.

I’ve been fortunate enough to have my overhead covered (food, water, and housing) which meant I could afford not going broke.

After working so much, you might wonder why I’m betting so much on crypto-currencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum.

I won’t bore you with fundamentals because that’s not fun. Instead, let me tell you the future I predict with crypto-currency. You can draw your own conclusion whether I’m correct with my assumptions or if I’m a fucking idiot.

FUTURE PREDICTIONS:

You will never drive again. Cars will be automated to the point where driving will be a hobby instead of a necessity. These cars will drive themselves and be operated using smart contracts. The ‘Uber’ model will be used but instead of driver’s reaping the benefits, individual cars will operate and compete as their own private entities.

Governments will have to scrap their tax collecting services, or unrecognizably change them. This is because very few countries will continue to use their national currencies as payment methods. Which means that things like roads, bridges, schools etc. will be funded by private corporations or by volunteer donations from the citizens of the country.

No large conflict (sponsored by nation-states) will ever happen, as inflation and tax collecting will no longer be feasible by large governments. War will be difficult to organize for a myriad of reasons. The continued trend of global interconnectedness would make large conflicts expensive and ineffective at achieving their desired goals.

Who would benefit from such a war?

Poverty rates around the world will continue to drop significantly as money becomes easier to transfer in the absence of Governments and local restriction fees.

You might be thinking this is unrealistic, but all of these predictions are simply the continuation of global trends from last 30 years.

OKAY – So why the big bet?

If this takes over the world I’ll be rich. If it doesn’t, I’m young enough where I can keep working and make businesses and etc. Either way I learn something and keep pursuing longterm goals.

The fact is: This is an opportunity I doubt I’ll ever see again in my lifetime. The era of change this will bring excites me just to think about.

Hopefully this big bet will pay off.

Or I lose everything and wind up on the street.

Meh.

The Case For Blind Optimism

The mind has a funny way of making mountains out of molehills.

I’ve found that 70% of the problems I have on an average day are imaginary. They don’t exist. They aren’t physical. They aren’t real.

That’s not to say every difficulty can be thought away. For example; tests have to be taken and relationships have to be tended. Many problems are indeed real. All I’m suggesting is that the majority of them aren’t.

So the question becomes, “if my mind controls that much of my life, why not take the wheel and throw the bad problems overboard?”.

And when your mindset transforms from “I have all these problems and will never succeed” into “Everything is fine and I will be okay”, two things can happen. Either A.) You’ll be fine, or B.) You won’t.

But here’s the thing; If you’re totally screwed anyways, why not highlight the best case scenario? Wouldn’t that at the very least increase your rate of happiness?

On a negative mindset you expect the worst already. Any sad person knows this. So if your mindset is positive, even in the darkest of scenarios, isn’t that a better deal?

Even if you can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel, I’m 100% positive that you’re thinking can make a big difference. Life has only supported this.

The Problem With Loser Quotes

In only two weeks college starts. I thought it’s important to pickup dorm decorations and posters. And so I went shopping.

A dorm-room poster, first of all, was an absolute must. Not something too specific or meaningful – just something exciting enough not to make eyes sore.

I’m not a picky guy.

But why does every poster in the store look like it was handed out with a participation trophy? They had big posters with powerful bold fonts. Like a STOP sign but with a quote instead of a command.

Except every “motivational quote” seemed hand picked for losers. Some examples include: “Whatever Hurts You Makes You Stronger”, “Don’t Give Up! You’re Almost There…”, and my personal favorite, “It Doesn’t Matter If You Fail As Long As You Try”.

You might be wondering why I’m making fun of innocent posters. I’m making fun of them because they’re wrong.

It actually matters a lot if you fail and still try. It means something went wrong and you can augment that problem until you do better. This idea that “as long as you try, you’ll win” is total bullshit.

I don’t want to hang something that makes me second-guess myself when viewed. That totally defeats the point of a motivational poster.

Don’t get me wrong – a quote is a quote and whatever encourages motivation is good.

But personally – I prefer some clear cut quotes with lions, tigers, and other crazy dope animals surrounding it. In fact, while I’m writing this there’s a poster directly in front of me.

It say’s “FORTUNE FAVORS THE BOLD.” It has a lion on it.

Now THAT is badass.

Slow Down

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A new study revealing the fastest speaking states was just released and I call bullshit. After everything I’ve seen – I was unquestionably certain my state would take home the prize.

Unfortunately, Oregon was ranked 1st and my home state of Massachusetts was ranked 3rd. ONLY 3rd! Can you believe that?

To be honest, I’m a bit disappointed.

Non-the-less, the common speaking trend seems to be speaking faster instead of slower, and that’s a bad thing.

Don’t be fooled. You might think speaking fast would be beneficial, which on the surface makes sense. After all, we have places to be and slowing down our pace seems counter-productive.

But keep in mind, study after study show’s that speaking slowly is great. I had no idea how many benefits slow speaking had to offer.

Benefits include:

Better communication.
Stronger commands.
Deeper voice.

So even though I’m disappointed Massachusetts missed out on first place, maybe that’s a good thing.

When Democracy Doesn’t Count

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What if I said that voting accomplishes nothing?

No, not on some electoral college basis – I mean nothing, literally. Your vote might as well be trashed. It simply has no precedent for forming laws. With all that crazy talk, you might be wondering why I’m bringing this up.

Because Massachusetts House leaders plan on ignoring votes.

You see, back in November we had an election. And while obviously Hillary Clinton swept the state, the real race was Question 4 – Legalize Recreational Sale of Marijuana. Once the results were tallied, the measure won 53.6% – 46.4%.

I won’t plunge into the details of the bill because they’re unimportant. The bottom line is we voted for a 12% marijuana tax with local control over the location of pot shops. Simple.

Of coarse – not simple enough for the lawmakers who’ll work round-the-clock dismantling it.

We had a vote – but they have the say.

The first draft of the new law attached to this bill included raising the pot tax from an already high 12% to 28% (YES! 28%!) tax. In addition, the dumb voters (us, apparently) can’t be trusted to veto pot shops in our own neighborhoods. Which is why – that power will now belong to local officials, instead.

This is why people don’t vote.

US election turnout rates are abysmal compared to other countries. This is why people seldom become invested in political races or outcomes – they simply don’t have a say.

At a pivotal point in American history, we should be making democracy more inclusive to young people and everyone foreign to our democratic system. We should be opening up our gates to new people with new ideas who’re excited!

People like MA House Leaders don’t respect democracy. They should be totally ashamed of themselves.