12 | Focus is a Superpower
The war for our attention, freedom of speech and the history of Bitcoin's beginning
Good morning,
Countless distractions surround us. They’re at war with one another, fighting for our attention. Notifications are their soldiers and algorithms their generals. The smartphone has thrown fuel over a small ember of ADHD. It’s made focusing difficult. Can you focus on one task, uninterrupted, for more than one hour? If you can, I’m impressed. Glancing at your smartphone counts, even if you don’t unlock it. I’m talking about pure focus on one task and one task only.
It’s tough. And it’s why achieving that level of focus is the most important skill in the 21st century.
So how do we combat it? Fight back against these distractions?
One way is to remove the digital junk food from our digital houses. I use an app that blocks websites for a period of time on my computer. My phone is left in another room. Forcing myself in this manner seems extreme, but I know myself, and I know I lack the discipline otherwise. So I have to take the extreme route.
It isn’t easy currently, but another technique I use is changing my environment. When I was at university, I’d do an hour or two of work in one location and move. That walk to my next destination would be a good break. And then I’d sit down at my new location and get back to work. Often I’d start working very early; I can’t work late into the night, so the mornings are the best time for me to work. (The only problem is I’d often end up in Starbucks, and spend A LOT on coffee).
I previously asked the question “how do we combat it?” This is how I combat it. I know myself, and I know these techniques work for me. They may work for you, but only you know that. If you struggle to focus, take time to reflect and ask yourself how you can fix it. You might need to remove or add stimuli. There may be a certain time of day you work best.
Whatever it is, keep trying until you find what works best for you.
🧠 What I’ve been learning this week 🧠
This has been a mammoth week in modern history. A consequential week that will be in the history books. The President of the United States has been banned from Twitter. An apparent violation of freedom of speech*. So, I’ve decided to research the history of freedom of speech.
There are two different schools of thought around free speech:
Isegoria - Equal speech in public for all, everybody has the right to speak
Parrhesia - You may say what you want, to who you want and how you want
In Ancient Greece, isegoria was common in the political sphere. Parrhesia, in the arts. Neither would give freedom from persecution, despite how well reasoned the argument was.
The ‘well reasoned’ part becomes crucial for how free speech is seen today. And explains the fracture between Europe and America’s interpretation.
European philosophers believed that ‘free speech’ was about intelligent debate. Free speech would require reasoning. Evangelicals were often parrhesiastic in their debate. They would say whatever they like, with or without any reasoning. And so to avoid persecution they fled to the New World. To a project called America. A project in life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. A place where the first amendment made to its constitution fused both isegoria and parrhesia together.
Well-reasoned debate being necessary to free speech is why for Europe, it has been easier to criminalise hate speech. Culturally, this is why in Europe we’re often more accepting of ‘de-platforming’ when it concerns hate speech. But in America, the debate ravages on because of that aforementioned fusion. And it will keep continuing to do so.
*It isn’t a violation - freedom of speech protects you from government persecution. A company can de-platform whoever it likes. Free markets, who’d have thunk it?
📚 What I’ve been reading this week 📚
Bitcoin Billionaires by Ben Mezrich documents the journey of the Winklevoss twins. Remember them? The twins who were screwed over by Mark Zuckerberg as shown in the Social Network (based on a book also written by Mezrich). Right after the lawsuit finished, the Winklevii jumped on the Bitcoin bandwagon and became evangelists for the cryptocurrency.
This book details the duelling ideologies amongst early adopters. Libertarians wanting Bitcoin free from government intervention versus pragmatists who wanted to work with regulators to create unintrusive law.
While the war still rages on with the recently published FinCEN regulation, the Winklevii made themselves very rich. Each roughly is worth over a $1b, and with the recent Bitcoin bull run, it is probably a lot more.
👀 Recommendations 👀
Starbucks would rather you buy a cheap and simple drink in the morning. This post breaks down how, due to potential queue abandonment in the mornings, Starbucks doesn’t want to be spending time making drinks. Instead, they incentivise you to come back later to get the more expensive, and longer to make, drinks
Continuing with the debate around the president’s suspension from Twitter, Balaji Srinivasan has what I believe is the best take:
This is all much bigger than US politics. It is a matter of national security for India, Israel, and every other country to maintain a sovereign communications channel for their leaders to reach their people directly. The world cannot be ruled by American corporations.By their conduct, Facebook and Twitter are doing more to light the fires of Digital Atmanirbhar Bharat than any policy paper could have. https://t.co/c24nl6Bmy2Rajeev Mantri @RMantriEvery sovereign needs its own basic internet infrastructure: hosting, payments, anti-DDOS. Over the long term, crypto is the obvious choice for the 80% of the world population that is neither American nor Chinese, as well as large swaths of both Americans & Chinese.This is now going to happen. China is already US-independent when it comes to communication & payments infrastructure. India, Israel, Russia are obvious candidates to go techno-autarkic next. Then perhaps the EU, South Korea, Japan, Brazil. Crypto is the demilitarized zone.A possible future. Every country capable of doing so builds its own national apps and digital currency, used by allies in its sphere of influence. Decentralized technologies then fill the gap, as the platforms that can be used across major borders. https://t.co/bNNg1qilRPbalajis.com @balajis
That’s all for this week.
Thank you very much for reading. If you’ve not yet subscribed, enter your email below to have Monday Moy-ning Musings arrive in your inbox every Monday morning.