Category: Media

“Platforms for rule-breaking apps”, or what we can learn from BitTorrent about the true value of decentralization

For anyone remotely interested in internet history, BitTorrent, and cryptocurrency, I recommend reading this great 4-part essay by Simon Morris, BitTorrent’s former Chief Strategy Officer:

Part 1 – https://medium.com/@simonhmorris/why-bittorrent-mattered-bittorrent-lessons-for-crypto-1-of-4-fa3c6fcef488

Part 2 – https://medium.com/@simonhmorris/if-youre-not-breaking-rules-you-re-doing-it-wrong-bittorrent-lessons-for-crypto-2-of-4-72c68227fe69

Part 3 – https://medium.com/@simonhmorris/intent-complexity-and-the-governance-paradox-bittorrent-lessons-for-crypto-3-of-4-1d14ac390f3f

Part 4 – https://medium.com/@simonhmorris/decentralized-disruption-who-dares-wins-bittorrent-lessons-for-crypto-4-of-4-f022e8641c1a

Here are some of my favorite highlights in the series:

  • The general purpose public blockchains out there might best be understood as platforms for rule-breaking apps.
  • coordination is hard and costly especially with many paranoid participants whose interests are not necessarily obvious to you — in the world of Bittorrent this meant that changes to different parts of the Bittorrent protocol to introduce obvious win:win optimizations or attack mitigations took many months and sometimes were shelved completely.
  • While the Bittorrent ecosystem was decentralized and extremely hard to censor, BitTorrent Inc — one of the few participants with real potential influence — was highly visible and felt exposed to legal repercussions of any of its actions
  • But in practice the only way to make any large-scale governance viable is to re-centralize power in a smaller number of deciders with some number of rules around how you can become and remain a decider
  • And this is the main conclusion — decentralization may be great for disruption, but if the experience of Bittorrent is anything to go by it is not at all clear that it has a role in whatever comes next. Blockchain architectures are great for unleashing unstoppable rule-breaking mobs, but we shouldn’t mistake the rule-breakers for the winners.
  • Bittorrent could have been eradicated by state intervention, but most states chose a lighter touch approach. The same is mostly true so far for crypto-currencies, but the scope is so much greater and time will tell at what point a state actor will feel compelled to intervene
  • The ‘winners’ created in the wake of Bittorrent disruption (Spotify and Netflix) shed any semblance of decentralization — it simply wasn’t necessary any more, and actually made things harder. But their success was the result of a paradigm shift where files were abstracted away.

2019 Personal Bible – some updates and favorite excerpts

My personal bible is just a pdf doc where I save my favorite writings, notes, and thoughts. I try to read a little from it each day, and occasionally return to the original source material for that extra sauce.

Here’s the latest copy you can download.

Below are two recent additions – a fun-to-read academic essay explaining the qualities that elevate regular swimmers to the elite ranks, and excerpts from the Analects of Confucius (not as fun a read, but y’know).

All are verbatim highlights unless otherwise noted.

I’m reminded of an anecdote about how Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism differ. The three founders – Confucius, Lao Tzu, and Buddha are tasting vinegar. Confucius notes the vinegar is sour (Confucianism = sour; society has many degenerate people). Lao Tzu says the vinegar is sweet (Daoism = sweet; universe is guided by the harmony of the Dao). And Buddha thinks the vinegar is bitter (Buddhism = bitter; life is difficult, learn to detach).

Or another saying that I’ve heard is “the Chinese are Confucians at work, Daoists at leisure, and Buddhists at death.”

I wonder what the American version would be?

Happy 2019! In one month, it’ll be the Year of the Pig 🐷

***

The Mundanity of Excellence notes

The main differences between less and more elite swimmers:

1. Technique – Not only are the strokes different, they are so different that the “C” swimmer may be amazed to see how the “AAAA” swimmer looks when swimming. The appearance alone is dramatically different
2. Discipline – Diver Greg Louganis, who won two Olympic gold medals in 1984, practices only three hours each day—not a long time—divided into two or three sessions. But during each session, he tries to do every dive perfectly
3. Attitude – The very features of the sport that the “C” swimmer finds unpleasant, the top-level swimmer enjoys. What others see as boring—swimming back and forth over a black line for two hours, say—they find peaceful, even meditative, often challenging, or therapeutic. They enjoy hard practices, look forward to difficult competitions, try to set difficult goals

Athletes move up to the top ranks through qualitative jumps: noticeable changes in their techniques, discipline, and attitude, accomplished usually through a change in settings, e.g., joining a new team with a new coach, new friends, etc., who work at a higher level

Talent is often recognized after the fact – conveniently after all the skill acquisition and hard work have already been invested – …despite the physical capabilities he was born with, it took Peter several years (six by our estimate) to appear gifted. […] Most of them are said to be “natural” or “gifted” after they had already devoted a great deal of time and hard work to the field

Superlative performance is really a confluence of dozens of small skills or activities, each one learned or stumbled upon, which have been carefully drilled into habit and then are fitted together in a synthesized whole

In the pursuit of excellence, maintaining mundanity is the key psychological challenge

***

The Analects of Confucius

The superior man does not, even for the space of a single meal, act contrary to virtue. In moments of haste, he cleaves to it. In seasons of danger, he cleaves to it.

The Master said of Zi Chan that he had four of the characteristics of a superior man -in his conduct of himself, he was humble; in serving his superior, he was respectful; in nourishing the people, he was kind; in ordering the people, he was just.

There were four things from which the Master was entirely free. He had no foregone conclusions, no arbitrary predeterminations, no obstinacy, and no egoism.

The Master said, “Hold faithfulness and sincerity as first principles. Have no friends not equal to yourself. When you have faults, do not fear to abandon them.”

The Master said, “The firm, the enduring, the simple, and the modest are near to virtue.”

Some one asked about him, saying, “I suppose he has made great progress.” The Master said, “I observe that he is fond of occupying the seat of a full-grown man; I observe that he walks shoulder to shoulder with his elders. He is not one who is seeking to make progress in learning. He wishes quickly to become a man.”

Zi Gong asked, saying, “Is there one word which may serve as a rule of practice for all one’s life?” The Master said, “Is not RECIPROCITY such a word? What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.”

Confucius said, “There are three things which the superior man guards against. In youth, when the physical powers are not yet settled, he guards against lust. When he is strong and the physical powers are full of vigor, he guards against quarrelsomeness. When he is old, and the animal powers are decayed, he guards against covetousness.”

With coarse rice to eat, with water to drink, and my bended arm for a pillow – I have still joy in the midst of these things

4 great life lessons from the movie The Gladiator

The Gladiator is one of my all-time favorite movies. Yes it’s a very violent, bloody film, and yes the special fx can’t match up to today’s latest and greatest. But the grandeur of the story, the solid acting, the brilliant Hans Zimmer score, and what I appreciate more and more with each re-watch: that the movie fits in quite a few powerful lessons about leadership, values, and friendship.

So here are 4 of those lessons, with accompanying screenshots. There are some spoilers, but it’s been 2 decades since the movie was released. There should be a statute of spoiler limitations :)

1. To inspire great behavior, we can appeal to even greater forces

In the movie’s beginning fight scene, Maximus says the following to his cavalry before their critical charge:

If you find yourself alone, riding in green fields with the sun on your face, do not be troubled…for you are in Elysium, and you are already dead!

Later, he adds:

Brothers…What we do in life echoes in eternity

It reminds me of a quote from Eric Hoffer’s seminal book on how leaders create mass movements:

In their battle orders army leaders invariably remind their soldiers that the eyes of the world are on them, that their ancestors are watching them and that posterity shall hear of them. The great general knows how to conjure an audience out of the sands of the desert and the waves of the ocean. – Eric Hoffer, Mass Movements

2. At the top, it’s all about gestures and symbols

At the end of that beginning battle, two critical things happen: the Emperor Marcus Aurelius refuses his son Commodus’s hand, but then he allows Maximus to support him onto his horse. The Emperor then leans in and whispers, “So much for the glory of Rome.” He recognizes what a poor picture he paints to the assembled soldiers, as his frail dying body can barely mount the horse without the aide of a ladder and Maximus’s help.

Later in the film, after Aurelius dies, Commodus offers his hand to Maximus, demanding his loyalty. Which Maximus rejects to his peril.

3. A leader (and a civilization) should have clear values, and they should be shared and repeated

“Strength and honor” are the first values. In the movie, it’s a phrase repeated often among the Roman army as a sort of call-and-response. I was reminded of how militaries and organized religions share this in common: short, simple, powerful phrases, repeated often, and usually in the call-and-response format.

The second moment is when Commodus says the following before he “hugs” his father Marcus:

You wrote to me once, listing the 4 chief virtues. Wisdom, Justice, Fortitude, and Temperance. As I read the list, I knew I had none of them. But I have other virtues, Father. Ambition. That can be a virtue which drives us to excel…

Hearing the word “ambition” used this way, I was immediately reminded of Silicon Valley, Wall Street, Ivy League schools, and the like. I do believe that for many people that run in those circles, ambition matters above all. Sure, lip service is given to other values like integrity and respect, but what seems to matter most is growth, or the size of your bonus, or the rank of your school.

Finally, Commodus, as the movie nears its end and the walls close in, comes to a painful realization when he discovers that Maximus is actually not dead, and his lieutenants had misled him:

If they lied to me, they don’t respect me. If they don’t respect me, how can they ever love me?

4. As the Garth Brooks song goes, “I’ve got friends in low places”

One of the film’s most consistently beautiful moments is the unexpectedly strong friendship between Maximus and Juba the Namibian. It is no accident that the movie’s final scene features Juba burying two small clay idols that represent Maximus’s wife and child.

Thanks for reading this rather long essay! I hope the pictures made it worthwhile :)

Ok, ok, just one last, relevant quote from the real, historical Marcus Aurelius:

The art of life is more like the wrestler’s art than the dancer’s, in respect of this, that it should stand ready and firm to meet onsets which are sudden and unexpected

If you want to see more essays like this, email or tweet me and let me know! My time lately has been spent studying and writing about religion, but at a deeper level I’m interested in life wisdom in all its wonderful formats.

The 6 simple structures of the most enduring stories

What is also interesting is that the 6 structures below are really just 3 structures, with their exact opposites (eg, Oedipus is the exact opposite of Cinderella).

The computer scientists found that a huge percentage of stories fit into one of six relatively simple structures. They are, borrowing a chart from Reagan’s team:
1. Rags to Riches (rise)
2. Riches to Rags (fall)
3. Man in a Hole (fall, then rise)
4. Icarus (rise, then fall)
5. Cinderella (rise, then fall, then rise)
6. Oedipus (fall, then rise, then fall)

I can’t find the original source, but here are similar articles explaining the same research.

“Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders”

Goring told him that most people will go along with whatever their leaders tell them to do without question, whether it’s a democracy or fascist dictatorship.

Naively, Gilber replied, “There is one difference. In a democracy, the people have some say in the matter through their elected representatives, and in the United States only Congress can declare wars.”

But Goring only laughed and said, “Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country.”

Source here.

Reading this, I became scared for America, and I felt – for a moment – that even the so-called pacifists don’t feel peaceful anymore. They are angry, and some of them are turning to violence.

What Goring says echoes what I learned in The True Believer, which is a fantastic book about demagogues throughout history, and how they come to have the power and influence that they do.