thomas

If the last ten years have taught me anything, it’s the importance of patience and thoughtfulness in decision making.

I used to hold a double-digit stack of BTC, and sold them all in 2015 in protest of both the project’s technical direction (small blocks, Segwit, Lightning, etc.) and abusive straying from its cypherpunk roots (censorship, Blockstream’s capture, etc).

In hindsight, it was an expensive mistake, because the upside of hodling (now I the millions of dollars) was at least two orders of magnitudes greater than the downside (tens of thousands). I wish I had read Antifragile and learned to navigate asymmetrical bets sooner.

Not long after, I also resigned in protest of being passed for Partner promotion at a Big Four, against the advice of my peers. I eventually made it at a different firm, but I took a needlessly circuitous route to get there. 1/3

PhD in aviation ∩ climate science | Aviator, diver, ETH maxi, nexialist | Host of /diving /ethfinance /eth-staker /geopolitics /science /singapore /thomas

This is chocked full of life learning, though it would be hard to just comprehend the lesson learnt without fully going through the experience. That saying I admire the principles you held steadfast to.

Velocity in action and decision making is highly valued these days (Agile methodology, Zuckerberg’s motto “move fast and break things”, etc.).

Yet what struck me the most working with a former boss and mentor of mine was how he kept postponing dealing with potential issues in a non-procrastinating way. He would often say things Iike “let’s wait and see”, “we’ll cross that bridge when we get there”, etc.

Now that I’m in his shoes / his role, I’ve come to appreciate the value of Falkland’s law: unless you *must* make a decision, don’t make one. Prioritize patience and information gathering over making unnecessary decisions.

Not only does it keep your options open for later, it also avoids you having to change your mind and confuse people with new directions.

But more notably, I’ve often noticed that problems I was anticipating just… vanished before they could even materialize. The environment, priorities, resources available, constraints, etc had changed enough in the meantime.

Thanks! I now realize my post is a subconscious continuation of something I wrote a couple of months ago:

thugkitten.eth. Interested in crypto/ web3 & love of life, lost kitties and ecological preservation. Currently a flâneur captivated by frontier Tech. 

That is a great cast too. I also tend to think the game at a strategic level is often times very different at the tactical level. The best minds tend to be able to switch between a checker game Vs a chess game fluidly and some times non-action or non-decision may not seem to make sense at first tactically but is in fact the right approach strategically. Again, these type of wisdom are not taught at school but experienced or passed down by great mentors .

Thanks! I now realize my post is a subconscious continuation of something I wrote a couple of months ago:

https://warpcast.com/aviationdoctor.eth/0x4b5469cb