billfeng

Yea but what makes the bitcoin delivery network any better than a bank's delivery network, unless you take into account of the fact that it's decentralized? Banks deliver money all the time.

Isn't the intrinsic value of Bitcoin the fact that it is decentralized and that no government or other entity has direct control over it?

Sure it's cryptographically secure, but what is the difference between that and a regular bank using encryption on their money transfer network?

I think the reason it's hard to say whether or not Bitcoin is worthwhile is that there has never been a decentralized currency at this scale before, and for all we know, unless it can serve some kind of purpose that a regular currency issued by a country cannot serve, it's not that useful. This is why Bitcoin is used a lot by people from countries were their own currency is struggling.

But with the central banks of many first-world countries printing money uncontrollably, some even bringing about negative interest rates, many fear the collapse of large economies in the near future. If that happens, Bitcoin will be a way to store your wealth and prevent all your money from becoming worthless pieces of paper.

Other ways of doing the same would be buying gold or some other form of valuable goods and storing it in your house or have someone else store it for you somewhere, but obviously the fact that Bitcoin is digital makes it a much easier to use and viable option.

But, we don't know if that will ever happen. Bitcoin itself also has so many problems. It's also arbitrary as to which digital currency to use since there are so many to invest in, some more popular than others, some have evolved to fix problems with previous versions, so it's really hard to say if all of this will amount to something useful.

Great article. An effective engineer needs to know how to work with non-engineers. Unless, you're on a team composed of purely engineers and don't need to interact with non-engineers. But even then, it's a good skill to hone for potential career changes in the future.

I don't think there's anything wrong with wanting to be liked by others or wanting affirmation, or even performing for your friends. We are social creatures and we live in groups and communities so of course we want to be liked by others. The problem is where it leads you. There are also loads of artists and creatives who didn't realize how amazing their works are until one day they decided to post it onto the internet and many strangers were amazed by what they made. Their fan base then goes on to encourage and affirm what the artists do and because of that they were able to reach new heights and break limits they never would have been able to on their own.

I think the real question is, who are you without this medium? Are you still the same person? The artist who was encouraged by the responses of strangers can continue to do his or her work without the medium. The affirmation has helped them but it's not something they rely on.

In contrast if you find yourself craving it so much that without it you are anxious and suffering, then you have a problem. If the concert kids you mentioned were enjoying the concerts anyways, dancing and cheering all the way through on snapchat or not, then it wouldn't be worrying at all.

This is really the same for anything that's potentially addictive. Can you live without it? Do you goto lengths that are otherwise uncomfortable to you to acquire it?

Yes, snapchat has made it easier for us to fake ourselves, but only in the same way the internet has made it easier for us to look at pornography, and the industrial revolution has made it easier for us to have access to alcohol and cigarettes. I think in time this will pass too, just like all the other harmful things we could indulge in, as people have self-control and are smart enough to eventually realize that being our authentic selves bring about the most happiness.