Operation Saylor - Episode 18/120

Hi again and welcome to another episode of the Operation Saylor. This is update number 18, corresponding to December 2023.

If you are reading this for first time, you might want to check Episode 1, where my plan and details are explained. That will get you in context.

Hello again and welcome to another episode of Operation Saylor.

This has been a rather slow month and I don't really have any mind-blowing ideas to discuss with you. One of the factors guilty of this is that my brain has been strongly kidnapped by Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, and I'm pretty much using all of my leisure time to devour it. I'm roughly at 40% of it, and you can't even imagine how much am I enjoying it. (Warning: I might drop very subtle and light spoilers).

I would guess that, for many normies, the book would be rather boring. I think the reason it tickles us bitcoiners is our intellectual obsessions with individualism, sovereignty, the fight of man against the collective, economics, etc. It's really humbling to realize how the struggles we are facing are old. I guess it's also hopeful that we now have such powerful tools like cryptography and Bitcoin. Dagny Taggard and Hank Rearden could have used them.

The act of reading this book gives me a feeling which I don't think I've ever experienced before with any other book: it makes me feel understood. As a human being, in some kind of spiritual plane. As I go through the pages, I can't help but smile when I see characters so dramatically fitting my values and villains so accurately mimicking the evil people of my reality. The struggles of the main characters fill so well with the struggles of Bitcoiners, and their rebellious nature is the same I see when I'm surrounded my maxis who are regularly breaking the law in favour of freedom and righteousness. For example, when I read the chapter where Wyatt laughs as he chooses to burn his oil fields rather than giving them up to the collectivist looters, I couldn't help imagining that's exactly what @Darthcoin would do in that same situation. Somehow, as I read, I can feel Ayn Rand looking down on me from heaven, with a warm smile on her face, finding adorable how a modern day rebel is getting some spiritual serenity and warmth by going through her pages. A good friend of mine says our monkey brains are not really wired to always be in a contrarian position towards the rest of the other monkeys around us. That being the perma rebel takes a toll on you. Falling through the Bitcoin rabbit hole has led me to become a contrarian on pretty much all aspects of life with respect to pretty much everyone around me. This book, somehow, feels like the much-needed hug of a likeminded stranger. A hug that allows me to relax for a minute and feel appreciated precisely for all these values and ideas that make the rest of the world point at me in disgust. It's a similar feeling to what I experience in Bitcoin meetups, but much stronger, and somehow, much deeper.

The book is also having another fun effect: it's making me place people in two classes as I go through my day. It's an overly simplistic way of looking at the world and people, I know. But now, as I go on with the errands of my life and I observe other people, I think to myself: this one is a virtuous, freedom fighting, dignified producer. This other one is a miserable, coward and soulless looter.

For example, I meet a young woman who has started a business, is working hard, taking risks and sacrificing herself to build a great company that provides a great service, only earning through the value she provides to others. And it's almost as if I could see a golden glow coming out of her. I feel a strong bond, a feeling of kinship and camaraderie of sorts towards her. I respect her and her presence lifts me up.

Then I meet another man, a public servant in his fifties. He has lived for almost thirty years working for the state, completely parallel to any kind of free, private market. He doesn't give a damn about the work he does, and as a professional, he's probably completely useless. Outdated, unmotivated, he has the level of relevant skills and knowledge of a 15 years old without his energy, motivation and hunger. He rants endlessly about how he finds the conditions of his employment miserable and thinks he deserves more. But he lacks the spine to fix it by leaving his current job and going to the market to find a better one, which is what any decent person that loves itself should do. He's counting the days to retire and start earning a pension to be able to pay for his bacon without moving a finger ever again. He is fully aware of how the pension system of the commie european country he lives in is completely unsustainable and admits this knowledge openly. Regardless, he decides to play ostrich. Either awaiting the next generation to be completely overburdened with the titanic task of sustaining him and his boomer gang, or simply choosing to not face the fact that the pension ponzi will collapse and he will fall into poverty. As I see him, I feel a strong repulsion. No golden glow for this one, but rather a strong stink. Even if he's friendly towards me, I still can't help but feel that his way of life is a spit in my face. Something completely indecent. I want to leave the room ASAP.

This way of looking at people scares me a bit. But it also feels right. Would the western world be in the shithole situation it is today if the mainstream morality would openly despise people who don't truly contribute to society? Shouldn't we strongly praise the innovators, the risk-takers, the hard workers?

This book is long, but I'll probably finish it before the next episode of Operation Saylor. I can't wait to find out who John Galt is.

To finish up, I'll leave you with a link to Francisco D'Anconia's speech on money. If you haven't read the book, and going through this passage doesn't grow some urge inside of you to pick it up, I don't know what will. As always, thanks for reading and see you around next month.