LIVE AMA THREAD 🧡 🧵

High level updates will be posted here 👍🏼

Alex says acceleration in AUM and users is the highest it has ever been 🔥

A special mention for the 24 hour community call setup by @dollarcostcrypt @Crypto_Flippin and @1trillionCEL from Zach. Alex attended and appreciates the effort from you guys!

Alex shows the “Channel of Dreams” created by @Crypto_Flippin 🔥

Pretty sure that name was created when @Crypto_Flippin and I were running together earlier in the year 🙌🏼

Alex confirms that Cardano #ADA will be added to Celsius wallet in Q2 of 2021 👍🏼

"How to Crush Your Biggest Goals in 2021" #podcast
https://t.co/NDq0IV6kd3
Well worth a listen (8mins-57mins for juicy bits).

Six pillars in thread below 👇
~~
#SelfImprovement #Success #Entrepreneur #EntrepreneurLife

1. Mental toughness, grit. 2021 is gonna be harder than 2020.

2. Maximising what you get out of your time. Being productive.

3. Associate with people who have accomplished what you are trying to accomplish. This requires learning new social skills.

4. Self confidence. (The opposite of self-limiting)

I ran across a quote a long time ago, and it's stuck with me:

“Never, ever, think about something else when you should be thinking about the power of incentives.”
— Charlie Munger


This talk is both in transcript form and there's a YouTube audio of it as well.

I like this quote from Munger:

"I think I’ve been in the top 5% of my age cohort all my life in understanding the power of incentives, and all my life I’ve underestimated it. And never a year passes, but I get some surprise that pushes my limit a little farther."

So now, like a mad monkey who has just discovered the hammer, I will now go around using this tool of incentives and perverse incentives on everything. Maybe I'll get lucky and hit a few actual nails.

At root, I think the riots at the capitol are the result of a synergy of perverse incentives in politics, mass media, and social media, and they all contribute to a perfect storm of dysfunction. Maybe this is obvious to everyone, and I'm just catching up. But whatever. Here goes.

The #PremierLeagueOfBondThemes table as we enter Matchday 5. OHMSS has been treated shamefully so far, but surely it will chalk up its first win against Another Way to Die (you should have at least tried to find some rhymes for Quantum of Solace you cowards!) Vote below...

#PremierLeagueOfBondThemes Matchday 5

#PremierLeagueOfBondThemes Matchday 5

#PremierLeagueOfBondThemes Matchday 5

#PremierLeagueOfBondThemes Matchday 5

Something that would help our field, it seems to me, is to separate the Music Director position from the Principal Conductor position at orchestras. If nothing else, you'd get a wider range of musical tastes/interests at the top, which would serve the institutions well.

I've also seen too many situations where big/biggish-name conductors shoot down an idea that has the backing of their orchestras' creative staff, because it's just not of personal interest to them. Conductor ego is a substantial source of regressive energy in classical music.

We have a *major* resource problem in the field of new music. There's not enough $ to go around, and definitely not enough to make the field truly open and accessible. In that light, we need to be strategic about targeting the spaces where new resources could come to the table.

I've long been critical of orchestras, but I've never said we should tear them down. Far from it. Orchestras are central arts organizations with access to community resources of all kinds, including but not limited to $. That's why they have to become true leaders in the field.

Do you know how hard it is for a new music organization to develop the kind of resource base that an orchestra has? A few have come close, but it's practically impossible, especially now, with so much arts funding having dried up and no new apparent boom on the horizon from tech$

1. Three years ago, I set out to write a book to understand what happened to the world, America, and myself as the undertow of history pulled us into the currents of nationalism and authoritarianism – and what we should do about it. I hope you’ll read it:

2. I travelled the world to learn the stories of individuals – dissidents, opposition figures, and young people making sense of it all. I found that the same things were happening everywhere in ways that let me understand better what’s happening in America.

3. I talked to Russians like Alexei Navalny, who told me his story and what motivates him to risk his life for a Russia that isn’t corrupt, that speaks to the grievances that Russians feel in their bones without enriching a cabal that has hijacked Russian identity.

4. I met with Hungarians who described how Viktor Orban transformed himself from an anti-Communist liberal to a far right autocrat, who pursued a playbook that is eerily similar to what the Republican Party has done in the US over the last decade. And what they’re doing about it.

5. I met with Hong Kong protesters and young people whose movement should be heard as a courageous and innovative warning about the future of technology-fueled totalitarianism encroaching on their city, identity, and the wider world. And learned how people are wrestling with that

Now that the year is actually at the end and I have seen almost all the movies (haha not even close), I will list my favorites in no particular order in a thread no one will care about but me. But first, @letterboxd says there are 22,519 films released in the 2020s. Yikes. 1/?

#1 @MinariMovie by @A24 which is genuinely a movie I have thought about regularly since I saw it in January. Wider release in 2021 and do not sleep on this one. Gorgeous Korean American Arkansas farmer story of building a new future and generational gap. 😍🥰

#2 @nomadlandfilm by Chloe Zhao which is a sweeping hybrid film of the new American west and the death of the American dream. @Criterion needs to go ahead and collect. 3/?

#3 @americanutopia by Spike Lee brought us the reminder of music, theater, audiences, joy at a time when we needed it most. Oh David Byrne. Thank you.

#4 David Attenborough's A Life on Our Planet reminds us that Earth is a gorgeous place we are screwing up pretty royally. Cinematography alone worth a watch.

Son of Perdition (a prophetic poem in a thread)

He thought himself Perfecta, But his perfidy makes me sick. His lack of grace is brazen, he perfumes all his tricks. But we perceive the stink which permeates his tongue, his hypocrisy is perjury, his own perdition he has sung...

His performance is a wonder but positive he’s not. No paragon of virtue, in his lies we’d all be caught. It’s power he lusts after, he sold his soul to do so well. He’s the biggest liar, at the gates of Hell. He purchased himself mirrors to perpetuate the con...

He purloined all the light and claimed it as his dawn. But my purview is the better, I have a higher throne. Though he’s the prince of darkness, no kingdom shall he own. His purlieu is perdition. Usurper-moon defeat! He tried to block the light of love and steal the power seat...

He thought himself invincible, the light he gave so fair, but his light was only the light the Sun/Son did share. Happy too to share it, The light that is God’s face but he’d rather occult Him, And bring God’s word disgrace...

He’d prescribe eternal darkness to all he perceives as peril, his Babylon is fallen, his pursuers now are feral. All shall see his true form and the true light shall prevail, from the light he shall be stricken and from disgrace there’s no avail...

Looking for reading material to help you stay comfy & warm on this frigid January day? Well, it’s easy as another #ScholarSunday morning thread of public scholarly work from the last week! #twitterstorians

Great @benbarber96 interview of @AngieMaxwell1 for @facingsouth on countering the “Long Southern

& an equally vital @FAIRmediawatch interview w/@KeriLeighMerrit on the Lost

& one more excellent interview, @nhannahjones w/@VelshiMSNBC on Mike Pompeo’s departing attacks on multicultural

wrote a couple wonderful pieces this week. This one for @madebyhistory on Warnock’s victory & Black

28 Recommended Books That Will Improve Your Writing And Freelance Business Right Now:

📖 On Writing by Stephen King

Stephen King’s classic will appeal even to those who avoid King’s renowned horror-packed tales. In this book, King discusses how he came to be the writer we know today.

📖 The Writing Life by Annie Dillard

Annie writes about how hard it is to write and how sometimes it is necessary to destroy paragraphs, phrases and words to re-form them as something even better.

📖 Word Work: Surviving and Thriving as a Writer by Bruce Holland Rogers

Word Work is packed with practical advice for overcoming procrastination, finding happiness in writing and even conquering writer’s block. It also covers how to handle rejection and success.

📖 Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott

Bird by Bird is an essential part of any writer’s toolbox. In this work, Lamott shares herself and her craft with readers, including anecdotes that tie the pieces together into all-around great writing.

OK. I'm about to read the #1776Report. I'll see you in Hell.

When a student's essay starts with a word jumble that says absolutely nothing, I know I'm about to have a bad time.

Our purpose is to provide easily regurgitated propaganda that prevents any need for critical thinking.

Hit 'em right off the bat with the positivist bullshit! Any competent historian will smell it on the first page.

Just read the words! You don't need to know the context. In fact, we'd strongly prefer if you never placed any historical facts into context.