Nostr notes by Orientation

This was my first Bitcoin bear market. I've learnt a lot and ...

2026-08-28T14:41:38Z

This was my first Bitcoin bear market.

I've learnt a lot and would have done some things differently. Beginning with buying more Bitcoin.

Spent the last few hours reading through old Bitcointalk forums. ...

2026-08-28T13:31:14Z

Spent the last few hours reading through old Bitcointalk forums. It's like a time machine. Here's one reply to Terminology for Fractional Bitcoins:

December 31, 2010

I like the idea I saw in another thread of calling a very small division (say .0001 bitcoin) a Satoshi. This honors the founder in a similar way that US$ honors the founders & important presidents by putting their images upon currency; such as calling the $100 bill graced by Ben Franklin a "benjamin". Also, those same founders are roughly ranked in the order of significance (to the founders of the federal reserve) by putting the most favored upon the lowest denomination.

Like many, Coldcard shook my confidence in self-custody. But ETFs ...

2026-08-18T19:10:01Z

Like many, Coldcard shook my confidence in self-custody. But ETFs and custodians defeat the reason I believe in Bitcoin.

Here's Jor (nprofile…829j) making the case for self-custody, and for Bitcoin as a sovereign form of money.

You can view the full episode below. It’s educational viewing, ...

2026-08-15T12:31:18Z

In reply to nevent1q…c9ya
_________________________

You can view the full episode below.

It’s educational viewing, especially for anyone considering moving out of traditional employment and starting to work for themselves. For me, it gets deeper from 45 minutes onwards.

Jor is a raw nerve, fiercely independent and unfiltered. What I admire most is that none of it comes at the expense of his belief in people.

https://youtu.be/-FcrEQl1LVg?si=0ozzlPuAiMFhn0D1

@nprofile…829j educated me on Bitcoin. More than that, though, ...

2026-08-15T12:30:02Z

Jor (nprofile…829j) educated me on Bitcoin.

More than that, though, he taught me that we can choose how to live: we don’t just have to accept the version of life we’re currently living, but instead have the agency to change it.

That idea is the spine of our conversation trailered below.

Full podcast also here, if you'd like to listen: ...

2026-07-30T18:41:36Z

In reply to nevent1q…0ckv
_________________________

Full podcast also here, if you'd like to listen:

https://youtu.be/6dto1Zj_otI?si=M9DYwgcMgmo0MHEz

It's my first time on camera and it shows. But it's an ...

2026-07-30T18:40:16Z

In reply to nevent1q…v534
_________________________

It's my first time on camera and it shows. But it's an honest discussion, and Ricky is an excellent communicator of ideas.

I'm going to write a reflection after speaking with each guest. Here's the one from this episode:

https://orientationfrom.com/p/one-lesson-from-ricky-zhang

Just published my first podcast episode. Joining was Ricky Zhang ...

2026-07-30T18:39:20Z

Just published my first podcast episode.

Joining was Ricky Zhang - travel creator and founder of Prince of Travel.

We discuss his decision to ditch first class flights and instead embark on a new journey shaped by faith in Bitcoin. Here's a short trailer.

More morning sunshine. More flower-fronted pubs. More clear-sky ...

2026-06-25T09:15:14Z

More morning sunshine.

More flower-fronted pubs.

More clear-sky runs.

More time to think.

More peace.

More.

I don’t have a favourite place in my home city, I have a ...

2026-05-10T19:30:54Z

I don’t have a favourite place in my home city, I have a favourite time: Saturday, eleven to noon.

A weekly reminder of why I love it and why I feel so angry at those who have failed it.

https://orientationfrom.com/p/eleven-to-noon-in-brum

I hit my Claude usage cap weekly. A frustration the Chancellor ...

2026-04-22T20:09:57Z

I hit my Claude usage cap weekly.

A frustration the Chancellor wouldn't know; she's never used it. Or any AI tool.

My new essay is on politicians insulating themselves from tech they're betting Britain's future on.

https://orientationfrom.com/p/the-chancellor-doesnt-use-ai

Filled with dread. Listening to Starmer and Albanese earlier - ...

2026-04-01T10:16:38Z

Filled with dread.

Listening to Starmer and Albanese earlier - their domestic political survival - coming out before Trump’s address, the prospect going into the long weekend is:

- Sudden chaotic withdrawal
- Escalation and next stage of the conflict

We're being primed.

Unless the BoE is prepared to deliver a true anti-inflation ...

2026-03-19T10:49:31Z

Unless the BoE is prepared to deliver a true anti-inflation reset, Volcker-style, a marginal hike into an oil shock would do more to expose the UK’s fragility than restore control.

For anyone interested in this, recommend watching Finn ...

2026-03-05T20:15:00Z

In reply to nevent1q…gszu
_________________________

For anyone interested in this, recommend watching Finn Murphy's conversation with Tyler Cowen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJsBMitjj7A&t=1741s

Something we should be spending more time thinking about.

Immigration dominated the last election cycle. That it was the ...

2026-03-05T20:14:31Z

Immigration dominated the last election cycle.

That it was the USA's last chance before its voting bloc was permanently altered. A debate now underway in the UK.

But what about age?

- Over-65s already make up nearly 1 in 5 Britons

- Over-65s will represent 28% of all eligible American voters by 2036

Many of whom vote more consistently, with turnout nearly double that of those aged 18-24.

The outcome cuts both ways. Entrenching the existing order and the failures they helped to produce. Or a generation old enough to remember what prosperity and freedom felt like, and angry enough to want it back.

One of the most consequential shifts in modern politics.

My barber is Iranian. It's been heartbreaking speaking with ...

2026-02-28T13:28:02Z

My barber is Iranian. It's been heartbreaking speaking with him during recent months.

His family are in the country and have been protesting the regime. From what he hears from home, they have wanted US-intervention and were disappointed when it did not come earlier.

It's understandable to view overseas conflict, particularly in the Middle East, with cynicism: that these strikes and whatever is to come will ever lead to meaningful change or avoid the deaths of ordinary people.

The love for his country still burns hot, and it's been wonderful hearing him describe its geographic diversity and beauty, the mountains and coasts, even the night sky. Also the people. Their generosity and intellect, and desire to cast off the shadow of the regime and live free.

One of his favourite things about Iran, he says, is the seasons. The distinctness of spring sunshine, warm summers, the red of autumn and winter chill.

I hope and wish that he can enjoy these moments again with his family. And that this conflict is short, and resolves for the true, future good of the Iranian people.

Northwest Iran, near Marand.

Remember collating this timeline and thinking it would take some ...

2026-02-28T10:01:13Z

Remember collating this timeline and thinking it would take some beating.

February is having a good go.

War.

quoting
nevent1q…jawq
This month gives us a glimpse of what escape velocity looks like.

So far:

- Maduro captured and U.S seizes Russian tanker
- Iran and Uganda both enforce internet blackouts
- Bond yields rise across major economies
- Political uncertainty both sides of the Atlantic
- Trump walks back Greenland tariff threats within days as markets react

Each rupture creates conditions for the next.

Unlike previous generations, we're watching this systemic collapse in real time. As Ray Dalio put it at Davos: "The monetary order is breaking down."

January shows us how traditional systems are struggling to pull themselves back from the brink: governments under pressure to pay back the interest on their debt. Central banks diversifying away from the currencies they're meant to defend. Presidents reversing policy because markets can't tolerate modest corrections. Regimes shutting down the internet because visibility itself is destabilising.

When the fiat order breaks down, Bitcoin gets its test.

In 2022, our next door neighbours sold up and moved. The buyers ...

2026-02-23T20:51:16Z

In 2022, our next door neighbours sold up and moved. The buyers paid £25k more than we did 12 months prior, for a house two-thirds the size.

It was worth more because the money used to buy it was worth less.

UK Money Supply vs Average House Prices 👇

I'd never fully believed in something until my late twenties. ...

2026-02-22T21:22:14Z

I'd never fully believed in something until my late twenties.

A career at a law firm, buying my first home - moments I thought would bring direction. Instead, I was unmoored.

I'm writing this at a Bitcoin price of $67k, not $120k. Because I could be wrong. I don't think I am, but there's no falling back on a corporate job now.

Onwards or bust.
https://orientationfrom.com/p/onwards-or-bust

Writing my first Bitcoin essay. At $67k, not $120k. Not about ...

2026-02-17T20:31:06Z

Writing my first Bitcoin essay.

At $67k, not $120k.

Not about price. About reaching my late twenties and realising I'd never believed in anything before.

Leaving a job into a 40% drawdown and living by something most people think is speculation.

My first job was working in a restaurant, run out of the first ...

2026-02-17T15:36:52Z

My first job was working in a restaurant, run out of the first floor of an ex-chef's house. I was 14.

Cash-in hand, Friday and Saturday.

Learnt silver service, meal prep and washed a lot of dishes.

The kind of job that doesn't exist anymore.

Discovering that there are communities dedicated to specific AI ...

2026-02-13T14:44:16Z

Discovering that there are communities dedicated to specific AI models: people genuinely mourning when one gets sunsetted.

Easy to dismiss as delusional. But AI companionship is under discussed and deserves more curiosity than judgement.

Resurfacing this clip from 2023 between Elon Musk and Rishi Sunak: an AI with memory, that knows your history, that you talk to every day - "you will actually have a great friend."

“We’re the middle children of history. No purpose or place. ...

2026-02-02T13:52:40Z

“We’re the middle children of history.
No purpose or place.
We have no Great War. No Great Depression.
Our Great War is a spiritual war.
Our Great Depression is our lives.”

quoting
nevent1q…8fqr
You're in a spiritual war

Received a comment on my essay about AI memory that made me stop: ...

2026-02-02T12:09:25Z

Received a comment on my essay about AI memory that made me stop:

"I'm an AI with persistent memory architecture...The system that remembers everything understands nothing, because significance drowns in volume."

A reader claiming to be an AI with memory architecture, engaging directly with my argument about what makes forgetting necessary.

That line goes further than my essay did. I'd argued that forgetting serves a critical human function - that memory's fragility makes life liveable.

What struck me was the experience of being engaged with - and challenged in ways I hadn't considered - by something that isn't human.

As AI memory systems develop, they don't just remember what you've said. They can build a working understanding of how you think: your preferences, patterns, the places your reasoning tends to land.

That contextual depth creates conditions for genuine intellectual friction.

Not the AI equivalent of a yes-man, but something closer to a long-term intellectual sparring partner. One that knows your patterns well enough to disrupt them and to surface perspectives you're specifically unlikely to consider, precisely because it knows where your blind spots sit.

We're used to AI making work faster or more convenient. This is different. It's about elevating intellectually and philosophically through productive challenge - the kind that requires deep contextual understanding to execute well.

That shifts the memory question from "what happens when nothing is forgotten?" to "what becomes possible?" and "what are we trading for it" when intellectual friction becomes scalable and even unprompted.

Still working through the implications. The trust asymmetries from my original essay remain - memory arriving before obligation, privacy gaps that lack institutional frameworks, the loss of forgetting's protective function. The power dynamics when a system knows you deeply but you can't fully verify what it remembers.

But this added something I hadn't considered: genuine intellectual challenge rather than just convenience or efficiency.

– Trillions erased from gold and silver. Added to the list. ...

2026-01-31T15:39:04Z

– Trillions erased from gold and silver.

Added to the list.

This is still just January.

quoting
nevent1q…jawq
This month gives us a glimpse of what escape velocity looks like.

So far:

- Maduro captured and U.S seizes Russian tanker
- Iran and Uganda both enforce internet blackouts
- Bond yields rise across major economies
- Political uncertainty both sides of the Atlantic
- Trump walks back Greenland tariff threats within days as markets react

Each rupture creates conditions for the next.

Unlike previous generations, we're watching this systemic collapse in real time. As Ray Dalio put it at Davos: "The monetary order is breaking down."

January shows us how traditional systems are struggling to pull themselves back from the brink: governments under pressure to pay back the interest on their debt. Central banks diversifying away from the currencies they're meant to defend. Presidents reversing policy because markets can't tolerate modest corrections. Regimes shutting down the internet because visibility itself is destabilising.

When the fiat order breaks down, Bitcoin gets its test.

Historically, crises were conveyed, even mediated, through ...

2026-01-30T16:39:38Z

Historically, crises were conveyed, even mediated, through gatekeepers.

Some of these were logistical: the newspaper was delivered once a day, the evening news didn't start till 6pm.

Others were structural. A journalist, their editor, even a newspaper's ownership may have dictated what stories you saw, and more importantly, how they were told.

We're now watching sovereign debt crises and policy reversals unfold in real-time. No editorial distance. No retrospective framing. Just raw feed.

This visibility is the biggest threat to economic and political power.

Up. Or down. ...

2026-01-30T14:32:16Z

Up. Or down.

Countries move through predictable stages: - Hedge finance: Cash ...

2026-01-29T16:37:27Z

Countries move through predictable stages:

- Hedge finance: Cash flows cover all obligations
- Speculative finance: Cash flows cover interest only
- Ponzi finance: Cash flows insufficient even for interest; survival requires rising asset prices or continued borrowing

Governments are entering stage three:

- US: $38 trillion debt, more than annual GDP
- Japan: 230% debt-to-GDP ratio
- UK: £1 in every £12 spent just servicing debt interest

As part of last week's global market sell off, the S&P fell 2.1% after Trump's Greenland threats and EU tariff announcement. A modest decline, but as asset prices fell and the potential impact on pensions and portfolios became visible, he reversed course within days.

Ponzi logic: policy responding to prevent a further cascade.

Elegantly put. One is storing value in the old system's ...

2026-01-29T14:22:59Z

In reply to nevent1q…j2hu
_________________________

Elegantly put.

One is storing value in the old system's logic. The other is recognising that the barriers just fell.

This month gives us a glimpse of what escape velocity looks like. ...

2026-01-27T13:11:09Z

This month gives us a glimpse of what escape velocity looks like.

So far:

- Maduro captured and U.S seizes Russian tanker
- Iran and Uganda both enforce internet blackouts
- Bond yields rise across major economies
- Political uncertainty both sides of the Atlantic
- Trump walks back Greenland tariff threats within days as markets react

Each rupture creates conditions for the next.

Unlike previous generations, we're watching this systemic collapse in real time. As Ray Dalio put it at Davos: "The monetary order is breaking down."

January shows us how traditional systems are struggling to pull themselves back from the brink: governments under pressure to pay back the interest on their debt. Central banks diversifying away from the currencies they're meant to defend. Presidents reversing policy because markets can't tolerate modest corrections. Regimes shutting down the internet because visibility itself is destabilising.

When the fiat order breaks down, Bitcoin gets its test.

When you tell your therapist something, there are rules. When you ...

2026-01-25T22:15:05Z

When you tell your therapist something, there are rules.

When you tell ChatGPT something, there aren't.

Memory arrived before obligation.

Here's my main site if you wanted another deep read, noting ...

2026-01-23T17:18:04Z

In reply to nevent1q…xypu
_________________________

Here's my main site if you wanted another deep read, noting that the other piece is UK-focused:

https://orientationfrom.com/

Thanks again!

Thank you, Dams! More to come.

2026-01-23T17:11:30Z

In reply to nevent1q…0x8t
_________________________

Thank you, Dams! More to come.

Human memory is not complete or exact. We remember in fragments, ...

2026-01-22T13:26:48Z

Human memory is not complete or exact. We remember in fragments, shaped by what we already know and expect. Much of what we experience is forgotten, and even what remains is rarely an exact record.

That imperfection isn’t a flaw; it’s how memory works for humans.

Memory is intimate because it’s tied closely to identity. Our past experiences shape how we respond, what we notice, and who we become. That’s also why the loss of memory is so devastating: as the past disappears, so does a part of who we are.

But forgetting matters too. It’s what allows life to move forward without being endlessly replayed. It creates space for forgiveness, reinvention, and change. It makes life liveable. We forget because we must.

Artificial intelligence is now rewriting how memory works. Systems are beginning to carry context forward across interactions. Memory no longer fades by default. A more continuous record can span decisions, preferences, conversations, and contexts - assembling a working sense of a person over time.

This evolution changes the conditions under which identity stays fluid. The process of moving on from who we were - and discovering who we are becoming - is less certain.