Monthly Archives: January 2023

A Gym for the ‘Next Third’

Events

I don’t know how it happened, but I got old.

I stretched the term middle-aged as long as I could.

When I was young, I figured 50 was old. My reasoning? If the average life span is around 75 years, and you divided it into thirds (young, middle-aged, and old) then ‘old’ would start at 50.

Then I turned 50. I felt great, so I recalculated.

Instead, I based my calculation on a nice long, active life of 90 years old. Dividing that into thirds, I’d be old at 60.

Any way you cut it now, I’m old, particularly since I just turned 62 and am eligible for Social Security.

The interesting thing is that our gym got old along with me!

Continue reading A Gym for the ‘Next Third’ →

Bitcoin… Nah

Events, Ron's Blog

I rarely raised my hand in Engineering School. Never wanted to look stupid among my peers.

It took a few decades before I felt worthy of sharing my opinion in groups of smart people. Then when I got into my 50’s I really didn’t give a shit any more what people thought. If I had a question in a group setting, I asked it. If I had a point to make, I’d make it.

The benefit I quickly realized was how much I would learn by opening my mouth. If someone thought differently and spoke up, I’d get another perspective. Sometimes I would get supportive comments which were reinforcing.

Feelings of inadequacy surface like a Freshman in College when I start talking about Bitcoin, though. Many very smart people I respect support it. They think it’s the future of money and currency.

Among such great minds and with me having so little understanding or mental capacity, I really should keep my thoughts to myself and spare looking like a doofus.

Nah.

What I see as Bitcoin’s advantages over our current ‘fiat’ currency – the dollar:

  • Bitcoin cannot be produced “out of thin air” like the Treasury and the Federal Reserve Bank do with the dollar. It needs to be “mined” electronically which takes energy.
  • Bitcoin is open sourced which means no one controls it. It was created and let run loose in the wild. Governments and Central Banks can’t track it nor control it.
  • Bitcoin is electronic. Can’t get any easier to store wealth than that. No more stuffing mattresses with cash or hiding gold in the basement.

So why don’t I fawn all over Bitcoin?

Continue reading Bitcoin… Nah →