An interesting task popped up on my to-do list this morning. Not important for the story, but some may recognize that this is OmniFocus. I’ve been using it with great success for more than a decade and cannot recommend it highly enough for anyone who has to juggle between work, family, and — and this is what tipped me to using it but probably won’t apply to you — the massive amounts of paperwork needed for US immigration.
It was one year ago yesterday, then, that during a buisiness trip to California, over drinks and appetizers, I was subjected to an hour-long tirade about the evils of fiat currency and the brilliance of digital gold that is bitcoin, and why would I want to miss out on the future of finance?
This was from two friends, both half a decade or so younger than me, who hadn’t previously met but quickly found common ground in their love of decentralized finance and Tesla stock.
I held my ground and tried to explain — as well as I could after a few beers — that I wasn’t much of a gambler, and that even if I was I would rather have gambled somewhere that has free drinks and livelier entertainment. I told them to read the Incerto. One of them had the books but hadn’t gotten around to reading them, and disliked Taleb on principle. We agreed to disagree, and parted ways with this task dictated on my phone.
And here we are today.
They are both fine, or so I’ve been told, because they sold everything at just the right time. My task is therefore complete, although I didn’t have to wait a full year to check it off. The value then, after all, was the same as it is now, which is to say exactly zero.