BC LIFE
Saved by @zmbnski

1/ So here is a thread on how I turned $32,000 into $1.2m and back to pretty much zero (once taxes are paid).

Just note, I am not bitter or salty in any way at all, the last 2 years have been an amazing ride - travelled the world, been wealthy, been poor.

 2/ Dec '16, my advertising agency folded, I had a little bit of money left and I put $32k into Bitcoin and Ether. As it started to go up I diversified into everything, Monero, Dash, this that, any crap - even Ripplecoin. Everything just kept going up.
3/ By March I think I had around $300k and $500k by the summer. I used to take 25% out but towards the end of the summer I got greedy and put it all back in and by December it was $1.2m.
4/ Thinking I was an absolute genius I decided to start a bunch of businesses. As silly as it sounds I had this goal of making $5m as I wanted to buy Bedford Town Football Club and get them in the league, and as Crypto was going up forever I needed 6 months.
5/ So:
- Trading (income 1)
- Podcast (income 2)
- Mining (income 3)
- Mining pool (income 4)
- Consulting (income 5)

Yes - all of the above as a one-man army :)
6/ As the market started to crash I just ignored it, kept thinking it would come back, it crashed like 4 times in 2017. But it didn't.

Mining is what busted me most:
- 70 S9s
- 70 DragonMints

The above with setup was like $300k.
7/ Mining made money for one month, broke even for a month and has consistently lost since. Problem is I have been stuck in data centre contracts paying a fixed 18 cents fee.

Each month digging into my BTC to pay the bills. Finally paying $19k to release from the contract.
8/ Mining is still losing money but not as much. I am though so close to liquidating it and accepting it as a failure (which will probably be the bottom).

Basically paying losses each month with a slowly dwindling balance of BTC.
9/ At my peak I had around 150BTC but trading shit coins I was losing BTC while gaining $. When I finally realised this I was down to around 80BTC. But this has been dropping in value as some of the coins I have been holding have collapsed.
10/ So basically greed and over ambition have destroyed what could have been life-changing money. After I pay my tax bill pretty much all is gone.

The good news - I have the podcast which is now generating an income, something a little more reliable
11/ I have sold most of the remaining BTC as an insurance for if the podcast has a bad month. I'm a Dad and I have to be responsible for my children.

I don't want any donations or sympathy. Sure I regret stuff but I am happy with how it has all played out.
12/ If there is another bull run and you make a bunch of cash then remember to take profits. Don't overstretch yourself.

People say don't invest what you can't afford to lose, well don't keep in Crypto profits which will change your life.
13/ Anyway, anyone who says I am trying to pump my bags with BTC, well those bags are tiny. BTC could go to $100k and my life won't materially change.

It is one of the reasons I have sympathy for maximalism, all these tokens and coins really are silly.
14/ I am sure I am not the only one with a story like this. If you want to do anything, just support the podcast, even a review on iTunes helps. That is my entire focus now.

Viva la Bitcoin!
Edit: forgot one thing. Conserving capital is so important. When my balance was high I went crazy: new clothes, first class flights, giving money away to family, charity, laughed at $25k lost on Confido... the list is endless :)
Edit 2: If you are not cut out for trading (like me), I wrote a thread on tools which can help you create your own business or a side gig.
https://t.co/svz7sQS9Yy
Edit 3 (last one): a few DMs creeping in with people in similar positions. All I will say is that in the last 5 years I have lost a marriage (after 3 months), lost my Mum (cancer) and nearly died from a drug overdose. Rich or broke, the money made little difference to happiness.

More from Life

Rick Rubin
Rick Rubin
@RickRubin
https://t.co/Cotah6eeRa
LIFE
Shaan Puri
Shaan Puri
@ShaanVP
If you wanna level up - the fastest hack is to hangout with people who are ALREADY at that level.

The beauty of twitter is that you can hang with anyone.

The problem is ppl follow the wrong accounts. It's noisy as f*ck.

Here's 27 people you should follow (and why)👇

If you hang with smart, interesting, successful people - you will start to think & talk that way too.

We are monkeys that copy what we see. You can fight it, or use that to your advantage by surrounding yourself with people who you want to become more like.

Group 1: Smart, Rich, & Don't Give a F*ck (no filter)

@chamath - was early FB, has big balls, bet early on Bitcoin & SPACs

@rabois - kind of a dick but he's clearly smart

@balajis - this guy is from the future, and has come back in time to tell us what's going to happen

BTW - I'm recommending people who are:

* smart
* say interesting things
* successful (not just talkers)

Plenty of people are 2 of 3.

You need ALL 3 to make the list

Group 2: Business Buyers - they see the $$$s of 100s of businesses a year.

@awilkinson - built a $200M+ empire of internet businesses

@BrentBeshore - same as^, but non internet (unsexy) biz (eg. swimming pool repair, port-a-potty rentals)

@XavierHelgesen - he does both
LIFE , FOLLOW LIST
Advertisement
Naval
Naval
@naval
How to Get Rich (without getting lucky):

Seek wealth, not money or status. Wealth is having assets that earn while you sleep. Money is how we transfer time and wealth. Status is your place in the social hierarchy.

Understand that ethical wealth creation is possible. If you secretly despise wealth, it will elude you.

Ignore people playing status games. They gain status by attacking people playing wealth creation games.

You’re not going to get rich renting out your time. You must own equity - a piece of a business - to gain your financial freedom.
LIFE , STARTUPS
Nicholas Clairmont
Nicholas Clairmont
@NickClairmont1
Stick with me for a story about how the logic of lockdowns can turn into something really sinister.

It begins with a Golden Retriever named Neesha

Neesha and her little pup sibling Harley were lost on an hike, taking in the outdoor air in the Wicklow Mountains.


If you've never been to Ireland, you should understand that these are 1) right near the city where most of the country lives and 2) the most beautiful thing you've ever seen


The dogs had bolted, and the owners had only ben able to find Harley. They thought Neesha was dead. But miraculously, two doctors on a hike in Wicklow found Neesha almost two full weeks later


She lost a third of her body weight, but now she is at home, snuggled up and warm with her family.
LIFE
a raconteur of repute
a raconteur of repute
@JohannesTEvans
thread of NPCs / side characters

blanket permission to use these as prompts for art or fiction, to snaffle them for #ttrpg campaigns, etc, go right ahead! i might use them myself too, in future works!

ship captain who's bound to their ship and can't step a foot off it onto land or another boat - they can swim a little in the surrounding waters, but that's it

mermaid who makes a magical trade for legs on the exact same day their human lover makes a magical trade for gills

faerie divorce lawyer who gets called onto assist with a human friend's legal troubles

the opposition vastly underestimates the lawyer's ability to run rings around contractual obligation

group of brownies who recently have taken up residence in the warmest place in a human's house - the cabinet their games console is in
LIFE

You May Also Like

Maker Weekly
Maker Weekly
@makerweekly
#24hrstartup recap and analysis

What a weekend celebrating makers looks like.

A thread

👇Read on

Let's start with a crazy view of what @ProductHunt looked like on Sunday

Download image and upload

A top 7 with:
https://t.co/6gBjO6jXtB @Booligoosh
https://t.co/fwfKbQha57 @stephsmithio
https://t.co/LsSRNV9Jrf @anthilemoon
https://t.co/Fts7T8Un5M @J_Tabansi
Spotify Ctrl @shahroozme
https://t.co/37EoJAXEeG @kossnocorp
https://t.co/fMawYGlnro

If you want some top picks, see @deadcoder0904's thread,

We were going to have a go at doing this, but he nailed it.

It also comes with voting links 🖐so go do your


Over the following days the 24hr startup crew had more than their fair share of launches

Lots of variety: web, bots, extensions and even native apps

eg. @jordibruin with
MAKERS
DHH
DHH
@dhh
Facebook may well be exceptionally nasty and it’s leadership particularly deceitful, but the whole enterprise is the natural conclusion to an ad-powered social network. Ever greater surveillance, hyper targeting, and engagement baiting is what the basic incentives demand.

Facebook cannot change course. The best they can do is keep dishing out empty apologies, commit to inconsequential adjustments to its algorithms, and spend more money on positive PR and negative projection. The rot is at the core of its very being.

This is why we, consumers and citizens, must make the change for Facebook. Antitrust forcing a breakup of the business, and consumer revolt driving #DeleteFacebook. Zuckerberg will never conclude that what he built has become such a net negative for the world on his own.

That’s why its so tragic that WhatsApp sold out to Facebook in particular. Finally a challenger that had a different model and different ethics. But few would say no to $19B, which is why we need antitrust enforcers to do it for them.
TECH
Advertisement
Neil S W Murray
Neil S W Murray
@neilswmurray
1) Looking back on my "career" with @TheNordicWeb over the last 5 years, in retrospect it's easy for me to join up the dots and make sense of the journey:

#cphftw #sthlmtech #helyes 🇩🇰🇫🇮🇮🇸🇳🇴🇸🇪

2)

- Join & start community initiatives to meet people
- Learn from these people about how special the Nordic tech scene is
- Share this with the world through The Nordic Web
- Realise the real value is in the data, particularly in building network
- Use network to raise a fund

3) In fact, it looks all very strategic, but the reality is anything but.

My lack of vision and goals during this 5 year period was _criminal_

Any movement from one step to the next was never pre-planned and was instinctive, or worse, accidental.

4) While I am embarrassed to think of my headless chicken self, there's also part of me that thinks that none of this would have turned out where it did if I had of been deliberate and strategic about this.

5) In fact, I think my genuine love for the Nordics and the ecosystem is the MAIN reason to explain how I raised my fund & managed to move from step to step.

My story is a good example of how passion can be more powerful than strategy in the early stage of an idea/company.
TECH
Day1JTrumpet
Day1JTrumpet
@Day1Trumpet
... continue part two
POLITICS , ALL
Seth Abramson
Seth Abramson
@SethAbramson
(EXCERPT) Here are the first excerpts to be published from my forthcoming 450-page, 1,650-endnote book PROOF OF COLLUSION. More excerpts will be released each Monday until the book's November 13 release. I hope you'll RETWEET and consider preordering here: https://t.co/ZJsnHcVwGi


2/ Each of the 14 chapters in the book is divided into three sections: Summary, Facts, and Annotated History. Summary and Facts sections are present tense; Annotated Histories are past tense. Endnote numerals follow sentences, with the endnotes themselves at the back of the book.

3/ There are zero tweets from this feed in the book. The book is written in the style of a government report, chronologically ordered. The timeframe covered by the book begins in 1987 (Chapter 1) and quickly moves to a month-by-month analysis of Trump's campaign from June '15 on.

4/ The book's 1,650 endnotes comprise about 2,000 total citations. The number of media outlets cited in the book is in the hundreds, and includes reliable media institutions from around the world. The number of people discussed is so large that we'll have to put the Index online.

5/ This book is the public record of the public investigation into Trump-Russia collusion. That means it's composed of the best investigative reporting done on this topic—including any leaks directly from Congressional and DOJ/FBI sources that were later published in major media.
ALL