Alex Wittenberg

Economic models for tokenized communities should be viewed through the lens creating value for the community rather than capturing value from the customer.

Philosophers have been worrying about distraction at least since the time of the ancient Greeks, who saw it less as a matter of external interruptions and more as a question of character—a systematic inner failure to use one’s time on what one claimed to value the most. Their reason for treating distraction so seriously was straightforward, and it’... See more

The most effective way to sap distraction of its power is just to stop expecting things to be otherwise—to accept that this unpleasantness is simply what it feels like for finite humans to commit ourselves to the kinds of demanding and valuable tasks that force us to confront our limited control over how our lives unfold.

Back in the 1980s, the Oxford psychologists Michael Argyle and Monika Henderson wrote a seminal paper titled “The Rules of Friendship.” Its six takeaways are obvious, but what the hell, they’re worth restating: In the most stable friendships, people tend to stand up for each other in each other’s absence; trust and confide in each other; support ea... See more

Except that these safety mechanisms are just band-aids that try to cover up deteriorating work conditions. They throw to the real question here: Exactly why are so many truckers getting drowsy on the job? 

In the past few decades, child care has been the fastest-growing component of housework. Since the 1980s, American parents—and particularly college-educated mothers and fathers—have nearly doubled the amount of time they spend raising, teaching, driving, and helping their kids. The economist Valerie Ramey chalks it up to a “rug rat race” led by mid... See more

In this situation, making a choice—picking one item from the menu—far from representing some kind of defeat, becomes an affirmation. It’s a positive commitment to spend a given portion of time doing this instead of that—actually, instead of an infinite number of other “thats”—because this, you’ve decided, is what counts the most right now. In other... See more

What happens to the markets if the US Dollar somehow loses its status as the global reserve currency? The climate change threat isn’t going away any time soon. Will a further run up in the financial markets create such extreme wealth disparity that it causes violent unrest? Will governments tax investment gains, or even stifle innovation, in order ... See more

Given their use of a token as the primary means of coordination, they are not tied to any communications tool or social media platform. They are independent of centralized infrastructure.