Welcome back to the Stove Top weekly newsletter. As usual, each edition has a few brief stories and finishes with a mix of interesting links, hot takes, and good reads.

Enjoy.

Get Into Crypto ASAP

If you haven’t heard the news, crypto is back. It never actually left of course, but now that prices are going up, people are starting to pay attention again.

Personally, I never left crypto. I love the field and have deep conviction in its potential for good. The money is just a nice side effect. But, for the majority of people involved with the coin, the money comes first, second, and third. And who can blame them?

Last year, when I was first getting into crypto, I wrote The Last Chance: Why Young People Are Into Crypto. The TLDR of that article was:

• The path to wealth our parents followed is obsolete due to rising costs and rising competition.

• The only traditional career paths that could lead to wealth are finance and STEM. Many people aren’t good at or interested in STEM, and finance is an absolutely miserable existence.

• So, if you want to get rich, you’re going to need another way. One way is gambling. But getting rich off gambling is really hard.

• The other way is investing. But traditional investing takes too long to work.

• Enter the mix of gambling and investing that is crypto (and something like WSB).

• This is why something like crypto is so popular. It’s a pushback against a system many young people believe is rigged against them.

Since then, the only thing that I’ve really changed my mind about is that I do believe that you can also get rich by starting a business, but that was more of an oversight on my part than a whole new belief. Otherwise, it seems my views have become basically consensus. Just look at Coinbase’s new ad.

If anything I’d double down and say it is even more important for young people to either get into crypto or start a business. When I wrote that, I had no idea that AI was coming so soon. You think AI can’t take your job if you’re in finance or a coder? Please. An AI can do all the bitch work you do for Goldman faster and better than you ever could.

Now’s the time to get ahead while you still can.

The Republicans Are So Boring

I’ve talked a fair amount in the past about the Republican’s problems keeping up with the times, but Jesus man the last Republican debate brought things to a new low. I don’t know what else to say other than these guys (and girl) are so damn boring.

And I don’t mean boring as not entertaining to watch, because watching four grown adults vying to be the leader of the free world treat a nationally televised debate like a barber shop is definitely entertaining. I mean boring in offering nothing new to offer policy-wise.

Vivek made some interesting points about sick care, the mental health crisis, and crypto, but the dude is otherwise batshit crazy. DeSantis earned some points with me for saying he’d kill a CBDC on day one, but that’s about the only cool thing he said. Nobody else said anything interesting. If you paused the TV after every question and asked yourself “what would Reagan say?”, you would pretty much be able to guess every answer.

Nobody is worse at this than Nikki Haley. You could teleport her back to 2013, 2003, 1993, or 1983 and her agenda would fit right in. She never says anything new or inventive. Just the basic conservative dogma over and over and over again. I know I’m repeating myself, but it’s just so damn boring.

That basic conservative dogma is sometimes fine, I guess. Limited government is generally good. But I want to hear more. I want to hear how you’re going to solve the issues of the future. I want to hear your positions on:

• AI

• Dollar primacy

• Climate change

• Nuclear/Renewables

• The inability of the military to build shit and recruit people

• Our inability to build shit in general

• Our dogshit food system

• The falling birth and marriage rate

• Surveillance

• Censorship

• Skilled immigration

• Mental health, especially among young people

• And whatever else I’m forgetting

Not culture war bullshit or “projecting strength to Xi”. Everyone wants to do that, man. Say something original for once! Or, at the very least, offer some damn specifics.

Not that any of this matters as long as Trump is breathing, but it’s just unbelievable that in almost 2024 we can go a whole debate without a discussion on climate change, AI, or nuclear. Seriously, what are we doing here?

If these 4 and Trump are the best the Republicans can do, then damn, the future does not look bright.

Mexico’s Unfair Rep

I’m writing this on a flight back from Mexico. It’s my third time visiting this year, and I’ve had a great time all 3 times. That might come as a surprise to some of you considering Mexico’s rep, and I’ll admit it, in January I would’ve been skeptical too. All you hear about Mexico is how dangerous it is. And that’s not just from people in the states. I had people in Costa Rica actively lobby me not to go because of the alleged danger.

That has absolutely not been my experience, and I’ve been to all-night cartel-run raves, walked to the bus stop in Cancun at 4am, and been all around Mexico City, all while not speaking a lick of Spanish. Never once have I felt in danger any more than I do in Philly,. If anything, the SEPTA at night is much scarier than Mexico. If you don’t believe me, hop on the L at 11 and see for yourself.

At least for me, Mexico has been a great country with some of the friendliest people I’ve ever met. So, the fact that Mexico has gotten such a bad rep makes me think of two things.

First is how much more often bad news is broadcasted than good news. “Man goes to Mexico, has a great time, and comes back safely” is a “boring” story. “Family gets massacred by cartel in Cancun” is an “exciting” story. If it bleeds, it leads, as they say. The problem is that this makes people think Mexico is a slaughterhouse, when in reality 99,998 of every 100,000 people who visit are just fine.

The second is how influential people’s personal experiences are in shaping their worldviews. Morgan Housel once said that your personal experiences make up maybe 0.000000001% of what’s happened in the world, but maybe 80% of how you think the world works. That really couldn’t be more true. You see a news story, or you hear something from a friend, or God forbid, something bad happens to you, and all of a sudden a country where 99% of visitors are just fine is branded as Hell on Earth.

Don’t listen to the narratives. If you have a semblance of street smarts and stay clear of places where you’re not supposed to be, the odds are overwhelmingly in your favor to return home safely from Mexico.

Don’t let misguided fear steer you away from such an amazing place.

Extras

• Private messaging app Signal is having financial difficulties. 

• Turns out giving people lump sums of cash is usually better than giving them monthly payments. This makes sense. Money now is more valuable than money in the future.

• There’s a bipartisan Senate bill out that would kill the TSA’s facial recognition program. Yes, yes, YES.

• Reminder that the rich and powerful run things. 

• Renewables now account for 40% of the world’s power.

• If you want to watch porn in the UK then be prepared to have your face scanned.

• China is turning totalitarianism into a game.

• Green card applicants are about to be surveilled like they are a terrorist.

• AI is going to usher in an era of mass spying.

• Governments are using your push notifications to spy on you.

• Let’s get back to building infrastructure.

• If you’re a nation that isn’t investing in cybersecurity, you’re leaving a whole lot up to fate.

• Republicans are blocking federal chip funding. Guys, what the hell are you doing?

• More parental supervision might not be a good thing.

• The police think Meta introducing end-to-end encryption means they won’t be able to protect kids anymore. This is, of course, a joke.

Until next time, ✌️

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