Last week some friends of mine were in town for work and called to see if I wanted to grab lunch. I've known these guys for a while. Back in 2021 both bought some bitcoin. One held and one sold. One I paid for services with bitcoin. The other lectured me on why he sold his bitcoin and why it was foolish to hold a 'stock' that was going down in value. Of course at the time, during the bear market I explained to him why I was stacking stats. Back to present time. At lunch one of my friends asked, so when is the halving supposed to be again? The other said, what? What is that? Of course I gave the TLDR answer and he continued with his lunch uninterested.
I'm sure many of you have similar stories. People who read headlines, watch a Tiktok on a topic and then act like they are "informed". Most people we encounter aren't just like this on bitcoin. They are like this on a wide array of topics. They are an inch deep and a mile wide. They know very little about a lot of things. They can hold a short conversation on many topics but have few topics they could debate. Why is this? I don't really know if it is a cultural thing here in the US. Not sure if it is global or even just a human trait.
This shallowness also applies to media. I include social media as well as corporate media. When I started my career in tech was when I first started to see it. There would be stories on "reputable" news outlets about some tech thing and they would get it dramatically wrong. Then I started paying more attention. I dug into specific topics and I discovered that "influencers" are at best limited in their knowledge and at worst paid shills prostituting themselves for money and access. At best they make honest mistakes. At worst they are deliberately manipulating the masses.
If you don't watch the news you're uninformed, if you watch the news you're misinformed
~ Denzel Washington
Many people think well, I don't fall for that stuff. I don't follow the "main stream media". I follow the alternative media. The problem with this is these new influencers are just that. Influecers. Everyone has an agenda. Everyone has something to sell. Unless you become skeptical of "experts" and require some sort of trust to develop based on experience you aren't much better off from those drones that watch the news. You just changed channels. It reminds me of the boomer-cons that think they are getting the real news from Fox because they don't have the "liberal bias". As if CNN and the other sources are just biased. Its not bias. Its an agenda paid for by their sponsors and those that hold the access to information. The state machine. I recall during the pandemic people I know started to become suspicious of the media and state shills. I thought, this is great! Maybe they are opening their eyes a bit. But no, they weren't. They were following influencers who were saying things they had zero evidence to substantiate. They people I knew were just trading one set of shills for another set.
So what is one to do? Stay skeptical. Don't go from one side to the other. They are both wrong and right on different things. Think.
Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason so few engage in it." - Henry Ford
There is not easy solution. The fact is, I can't tell you go listen/watch this person or source. They get it right. Over the years I have observed that no one gets it right all the time. Truth is, most of the time what is being discussed doesn't matter that much so you can safely tune out. Don't worry. Your friends will let you know when something "big" happens. Over time you will see that rarely do these thigs even affect you though.
If you aren't wasting time following influencers, now you have time to dive deeper into a subject area. Bitcoin, economics, growing your own food. You know, things that matter.
true|false
. Its more like a scale. My lady and I were talking about this recently and trust is like having a jar of marbles. When you get to know someone as they speak truth you add a marble. Over time the jar fills. The more full the more trust. But one lie can empty the jar. It is much easier to lose trust than gain it.