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The classic admonition - “all your wealth is ill gotten and all mine is hard-won”. I’m not filthy rich but I made decent money off crypto because I spent a hug

The classic admonition - “all your wealth is ill gotten and all mine is hard-won”. I’m not filthy rich but I made decent money off crypto because I spent a huge amount of my adolescent life with my face buried in Mises and Keynes and Milton. Money fascinates me, and not in a Scrooge McDuck sort of way. I’ll never understand someone who is fascinated by complex systems like computers but has no interest in economics. Here’s a rough break for you: I also worked my ass off legitimately. Drug dealers didn’t “get lucky”. What an ugly assertion, honestly. “If only I had been stupider” is a vicious lie to tell yourself.

toomuchtodo 5y ago
Crypto holders quite literally got lucky, no different than if they had bought the “right” pogs, beanie babies, or some other collectible where there was irrational exuberance. Papering over that luck with “I’m a scholar of economics” doesn’t attribute said success to skill or education, it’s rationalizing an outcome. Accept the good fortune for what it was.
- erulabs 5y ago
  Well, not so fast, considering the entire philosophy of the first economist I mentioned is that "irrational exuberance" doesn't exist and is exclusively used as a way of judging other peoples actions for the purposes of social engineering. "I wouldn't have bought stupid beanie babies", or to the other reply to my comment "I wouldn't have bought drugs" and therefore if someone else did what you would not have, it is condemnable or irrational. I firmly disagree. That attitude is great for puritanical culture shaping, but really bad for just about everything else. You can believe bitcoin has no value, and that is _exactly as valid_ as me believing that it does.
uejfiweun 5y ago
I'm talking specifically for my own experience, with people I know. If reading economic theory is really the thing that persuaded you to buy crypto, then all the power to you, I am just unaware of a single real-life example of anyone I know doing the same. The crypto "investors" I know don't really have any valuable skills or knowledge, they just bought BTC at a lucky time and now spend all day tweeting about it. And look, drug dealers may have worked hard or whatever to build their businesses, but dealing drugs is a scummy move, and the fact that making a scummy move in 2013 now suddenly pays off in 2021 seems like the definition of "getting lucky" to me.
- tata71 5y ago
  > I am just unaware of a single real-life example of anyone I know doing the same Expand/diversify your network (and maybe your portfolio!).

toomuchtodo 5y ago

Crypto holders quite literally got lucky, no different than if they had bought the “right” pogs, beanie babies, or some other collectible where there was irrational exuberance. Papering over that luck with “I’m a scholar of economics” doesn’t attribute said success to skill or education, it’s rationalizing an outcome. Accept the good fortune for what it was.

erulabs 5y ago
Well, not so fast, considering the entire philosophy of the first economist I mentioned is that "irrational exuberance" doesn't exist and is exclusively used as a way of judging other peoples actions for the purposes of social engineering. "I wouldn't have bought stupid beanie babies", or to the other reply to my comment "I wouldn't have bought drugs" and therefore if someone else did what you would not have, it is condemnable or irrational. I firmly disagree. That attitude is great for puritanical culture shaping, but really bad for just about everything else. You can believe bitcoin has no value, and that is _exactly as valid_ as me believing that it does.

uejfiweun 5y ago

I'm talking specifically for my own experience, with people I know. If reading economic theory is really the thing that persuaded you to buy crypto, then all the power to you, I am just unaware of a single real-life example of anyone I know doing the same. The crypto "investors" I know don't really have any valuable skills or knowledge, they just bought BTC at a lucky time and now spend all day tweeting about it. And look, drug dealers may have worked hard or whatever to build their businesses, but dealing drugs is a scummy move, and the fact that making a scummy move in 2013 now suddenly pays off in 2021 seems like the definition of "getting lucky" to me.

tata71 5y ago
> I am just unaware of a single real-life example of anyone I know doing the same Expand/diversify your network (and maybe your portfolio!).