Malmqky

The best way to approach it is to be humble and realize you don’t understand it yourself, even if you think you do. Much less anyone else. This is all incredibly complex and why free market is so much better than planned economy, etc. Once you have a couple decades of experience under your belt, you realize this is stuff that’s all been talked about/people have lived through before. History doesn’t repeat, but it rhymes. Hedge accordingly, and always inverse, especially your own beliefs and assumptions. Like you said, so many people don’t understand the risk, don’t acknowledge they have blind spots, and essentially recklessly gamble. Flip side of the coin is a lot of people think they do understand the risks, and miss out on bull markets. 2011ish and 2018ish being recent examples.

Can you elaborate? Are you saying most people just don't understand how it works? I feel like p2p network stuff is literally due diligence 101 for understanding blockchain/crypto. Just want to make sure I'm not missing anything/overlooking anything myself.

CSU

I respect you for changing your mind. I agree there are some fundamental problems with investing in China - mainly the US (look what happened to citizens who owned Russian stocks). With that said, why did you exit completely? I would have thought you'd be inclined to take keep them as 0.5% positions or so. With sizing like that it's "easy" to hold for decades, and who knows what can happen in that time period..

Why do you think ETH has these three characteristics, and why do you think this is the first time in history an asset possesses these characteristics? Because I reject both of the above statements.

Thanks for bringing this to my attention. My charitable giving for this year will be through Kiva to people in developing countries running small businesses as well (in addition to local giving ofc) Interesting note on women-owned businesses as well, I will look into this.

What is the coincidence? Steve Jobs died a year after Satoshi was last active? Am I missing something? Not sure why this would imply Jobs is Satoshi. But never say never..

I do agree with this. Multiplayer, open-world pokemon would be interested for example. I will take what Nintendo puts out over a half-finished, micro-transaction heavy, no soul game any day though.

Thanks for clarifying. I could see a reality where a bunch of smaller countries adopt it ala El Salvador and it snowballs from there. Especially with the US weaponizing the USD. It would be interesting to see the US/Chinese response to that. Both countries would be very against it happening, and both countries like to meddle in foreign affairs...

Switch 2 is an iterative version of the Switch. Everything I wanted in it - backwards compatibility, better specs, not OLED so one can be released later, better joysticks, etc. all seem to be happening. I don't have sales projections, but I think it's a safe bet it won't flop like the Wii-U,etc. Add in continued transition to digital sales, the growing player base, continued monetization of IP (movies, parks, Pokemon even), I think it's a low, low risk situation with good reward. EDIT: Also Yen is cheap.

Still Nintendo. Everything else I like needs a longer timeframe than one year.

Bitcoin actually. I'm just skeptical of it ever being a government approved/endorsed currency on the scale of being a reserve currency.

One thing I've always wondered is will the US/some other government create a virtual currency? Why use Bitcoin - something they can't control?

Bought some $T for myself and more for my mother. Anyone know why it's down 4% today? Couldn't find a single thing...

Personally I’m opposed but let people do what they want if they only hurt themselves. If I can scalp some shares at 3am because some idiot is trading at that time without limits, oh well. Guess it just benefits me.

Now this is the question isn't it? Who do you want to lead? Someone who doesn't want to, someone who is a philosopher and a solider and an artist all in one. I take your point though. There are worse choices than Elon and Vivek, and both not being career politicians is a plus. Ron Paul and Bernie Sanders required to work together if both were younger and actually aligned on wanting to get it done might not be terrible..but again, they're both career politicians. If I have to give a real answer - committee of citizens randomly selected similar to jury duty. Probably even more unrealistic than the government creating a department to cut their own spending though.

Ha! I hope you're right regarding checks and balances. Anyways I decided to look up DOGE on wikipedia: "Department of Government Efficiency[a] (DOGE[b]) refers to a planned United States presidential advisory commission announced by president-elect Donald Trump in preparation for his second term as U.S. president. It will be led by billionaire businessmen Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. Despite its name, DOGE is not intended to function as a federal executive department, the creation of which would require the approval of the U.S. Congress; instead, it will serve as an advisory body making recommendations on streamlining the U.S. federal government and reducing inefficiency.[4]" Aren't presidential advisory commissions essentially glorified think tanks? Clearly I need to do some research here. But I still am very skeptical if DOGE will ever exist/function like people think it will.

I agree the "movement" itself is solid. I agree our government spends way too much. I would be in favor of massive cuts. I wouldn't be opposed to the IRS being demolished even. Let me be clear - I agree with most of what Elon and Vivek say and claim to want to do in essence. I'm just skeptical of them, their motives, and if anything they're saying is realistic or will happen. Chiefly DOGE - you just can't create a government department with a snap of your fingers. Especially one that's goal is to lay off thousands/cut billions of spending.

Most people are idiots, myself included...but I don't think this is a valid argument. Tesla and SpaceX both EXIST. DOGE doesn't even exist. Remember when Elon said he was taking Tesla private? Or when the cybertruck could drive under the ocean? I think the best way to play DOGE is by assuming it won't ever exist and instead trade based off that. EDIT: IF the department is created it'll probably be successful. But Elon is an immigrant who was here for years illegally. I don't think our government is going to completely ignore that.

Elon is too dishonest But that's how politicians are and that's what he is these days. I hated a lot on his Twitter deal, but buying influence like he did might be worth the funds he paid. I still don't think Elon/Vivek have any authority and not sure why people think DOGE is something that's actually going to exist. @whatstheofficerproblem thoughts on legitimacy of DOGE and if any of this cost cutting is even possible?

True contrarian idea. I want to throw-up even considering investing in the sector. Probably the best idea in the thread because I hate it

@Blake Hampton Exactly this. If you're looking to start buying local businesses....well, if you accidentally buy a job, how are you going to have time to buy/run more local businesses? As an investor, ideally you want a business where you can be more hands off/have the time to buy more businesses. Being an investor and operator is a very different thing. I don't think there's anything wrong innately with a pizza business. I just used it as an example as I've come across opportunities to buy a local joint at less than 1x owner earnings. But, it'd require me putting in 60+ hours working there or finding unicorn managers.

I have little experience when it comes to this - I just got lucky during/right after covid and got approached with some good opportunities. Everything was an in my network kind of thing. I live in a smaller Midwest city - besides folks from Chicago there's not competition like coastal cities experience and deals can be found much easier imo. 2-3x earnings probably have dried up since Covid except for things like pizza joints which obviously are not what you want as an investor.

Bought parents some $T.

IF you have the capital, it’s better to look at local businesses once you get below ~$25m imo. Often you can find people looking to sell GOOD businesses for 2-3x earnings, and they aren’t even necessarily the type of business where you’re buying a job. stock market is better for slightly “larger” micro caps.