Fundamentals. @Fundamentals21m
Book: https://zeuspay.com/btc-for-institutions
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AverageGary
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In this episode, we dive into the challenges of keeping up with podcast production and the importance of discourse in understanding different perspectives. We reflect on the emotional roller coaster of attending the BPI summit, where the irrefutable truth of cryptographic math and its role in a peaceful revolution were discussed. The conversation also touches on the significance of meeting highly motivated individuals in the Bitcoin space and the impact of laws on the development of this technology.
We explore the complexities of linear algebra and its applications in machine learning, discussing the concept of vector spaces and the challenges of mastering this mathematical field. The episode delves into the idea of a standard basis in nature and how Bitcoin represents a return to such a basis. We also consider the role of open-source software in creating systems that resist corruption and the importance of perseverance in overcoming difficult subjects like math. The discussion concludes with reflections on the nature of learning and the motivation to push through challenging topics.
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Unknown:
Stop.
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And we're back. We're back. We I don't even need to back. Yeah. We're back. We are we're we're in a bit of a lag because, like I was saying to you earlier, I still haven't posted the last episode we did. So I'm fun falling a little behind. My 40 HPW
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shambles
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and grinds. My 40 HPW of making podcasts is starting to catch up with me a little bit.
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That's fair. That's fair.
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But we will post it. The last episode we did was part two of Dahlias, and, we don't wanna deprive the world of our conversation around that. But, I will say jumping right in here, right? Jumping right in. Remember when, I feel we did an episode. I think I was gonna I almost called it Gary needs therapy, but I called it the therapy episode. Yeah. You did need therapy. It was like and it wasn't about this, but it was just like, this was tipping this was just tipping things over the edge for you.
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But therapy is, therapy. Right? Like, what what does that mean? And I think it just it's discourse. We're humans. We need discourse. And we need discourse with people that understand us, understand our perspectives, but are not solely in the same, echo chamber that we are in so much so that there's no friction.
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You know what I mean? But you're looking good right now, man. You look like you don't need therapy. You look really you look terrific. Thank you. Thank you. Smile is popping. You got it all going, man.
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It sure I mean, it feels like it. It's, it was yeah. Last week was an emotional roller coaster. I had the BPI summit.
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I I got my my The BPI summit made you emotional?
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No. No. I mean, yes. Like, emotion like, positive vibes. Like, just anybody that's been to a Bitcoin event with We're moved by the capital gains accept exemptions
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that were being, suggested. No. That was that was not it. That was I have to remember what podcast I'm doing. Okay. This isn't like we're this isn't the fuck everybody podcast. Right? This is just this is just motivating the math. I gotta remember that.
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But it was it was just being around, you know, high highly convicted, high intelligence, highly motivated people that are billing in the space.
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Soon to be convicted.
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Soon to be convicted. Not if we can get some laws passed. Right? That was the whole thing was, talking about laws and all that. But the, I I I can't tell you how many times I talked about the irrefutable truth of cryptographic math and, like, just verbatim to anybody willing to listen. You know? They're like, oh, you know, what are you doing here? Blah blah blah. I'm like, well, you know, Bitcoin veterans, but, like, let me tell you about this irrefutable irrefutable cryptographic math that is underpinning a peaceful revolution, that is changing the world without most people being aware of it.
I met hyper intelligent people, that you know, some of them were definitely shitcoiners. Mhmm. A lot of veterans. I was there representing Bitcoin veterans as, like, the chief petty officer of Bitcoin veterans. But yeah. So, like, touch point for all the Set c three p o? That is yeah. If you've seen the the noster change in profile pic, that is, you know, CPO BB, b v, which in the navy, there's, like, context there. In the navy, you have, like, the the MCPON, m c p o n, which is the master chief petty officer of the navy. Right? So I have adopted the moniker of CPO b v, the chief petty officer of Bitcoin veterans.
And so
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it and I needed a picture for that. Right? Because Sorry. My wife just walked in, like, we're not doing anything here. She's walked right in. I was like, she's always welcome. Grab her get get her headphones and grab a mic, and let's I should the next time, dude, she's not allowed in unless she just joins us. You know? She's like, we are accountable right now. W? We're accountable. We are, like, accountable to what we say is gonna be heard, and people are gonna shit on us or praise us. Sorry. So, you know, your experience at BPI like, I it's making me real realize, first of all, you're the only podcast I do who, you have a job.
Yeah. That, like, when you wage slave. Let's be clear. Yeah. Where I have, my time is dictated by another. That I think that's what But the big yeah. But this like, the numb that's the number one downside of a job. The number two downside is that you're like, the people you spend your time with all day long are probably not of the best caliber, and you realize it when you go to, like, a conference and you meet fucking smart people. Dude, even when I was working in TradFi, when I used to go to the banking conferences, and these banks are not geniuses, but they do possess some people, many that were of a much higher caliber than where I was working. It was always it always felt good to, like, remind yourself, like, oh, dude. You know, there's actually some awesome fucking people, and every but I I will say BPI people I've met at a BPI are cool. I've always enjoyed talking to them, you know, building relationships with them. Yeah.
So it you know, whether you like that someone spends their time trying to convince the government to let you, you know, to let us Yeah. Do whatever. But these are good people. And, yeah, I can I get why you got I get why you're energized?
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Well, and the the message that I took was, no matter what the government decides to do, there are irrefutable truths that are occurring in Yes. Largely in the Bitcoin space that underpin this whole thing that, you know, again, it's the whole opt in or opt out. There's no it's like a binary thing. You're either, like, for this or you're against this, and it's a voluntary thing. You don't have to be for this. You don't have to be a part of everything. But there are, again, like, mathematical truths, whether that's the math of cryptography or the math of the NGU or the math of the growing number of people that are understanding the benefits
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and and the I don't think math of NGU is is an irrefutable truth, but that's just personal issue I have.
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But the the 21,000,000 cap is. Right? Yes. That is 21,000,000 cap. Well, is it irrefutable?
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It's, I think, one of the reasons why we're here doing this podcast is because it may not be. Like, it's possible that it's, like, it could be attacked in way in a way that Yes. Attacks our own ability to reason with ourselves. Like, if we can be gaslit, then that can be
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that can be, What are your thoughts on quantum speaking of gaslighting? Because I I I met plenty of folks that that was, like, a topic du jour of people. Yeah. I'm super unimpressed, I would say. I'm super super unimpressed
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with the fad, frankly. I mean, it's is it is one day, like, we're gonna have to deal with this probably? Is it is it soon? Probably not. And is it is it, like, an existential issue? Is it worth the time and energy that people have, like, I feel like it's just an industry to argue against it Right. That is unwarranted. I'm not you know? And I feel like I I guess the reason I like the quantum exists is I can identify who is super triggered by it, and I can be like, yeah. Okay. You're one of these people that gets wrapped up in fads. And Well, and I you know what I mean? In-depth conversation
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about the, quote, unquote, threat of quantum, right, with this this veteran, former special operations guy that's now, like, doing some quantum thing. And we had in-depth conversations about address types and hash resistance, and, I I highlighted check template verify and check signal stack and stuff, and we were talking about the different signature types and the trade offs and all that stuff. And that was probably the deep one of the deepest technical discussions that I had at the whole event. Mhmm. And it was it was fantastic. I also had a number of, like, spiritual discussions at the event, and other people with similar conclusions around this whole, you you know, this this mathematical thing that we're encountering here, this this language that we're encountering here that gives Bitcoin and the other kind of thing that we're using. Sorry. I need to pause for a second. Sorry.
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Okay. We're back. Yeah. Sorry about that pause.
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Where were we? What's the beef with math?
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Alright. So I now that we've covered, you're looking good, and it's good. You know, this is like you can't have both hands. On the roller coaster. Right? That was the peak. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Was,
[00:09:05] Unknown:
I had a I had a local friend die, a older guy. Oh, yeah. Sorry. I mean Sorry. He used to run, like, audio and RF engineering for NPR, ran a local radio station, and just as one of those guys you met him and just, like, he just oozed,
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generosity, kindness. Fuck, dude. I'm sorry.
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Sorry. It was just unexpected, and it's like I come back from this this, awesome event. And then Friday, you know, find out that a a close friend I'll never see again. Oh, dude. I'm really, really sorry to hear that, dude.
[00:09:34] Unknown:
Yeah. Life is precious. Fuck, dude. Wow. What's what's the beef with Matt? What's your beef with Matt? I'm glad. So look. I'm glad you're back. We because we can't have two parents be sick at the same time. Right? So I'm now sick. And that and I I I think this is good for the just motivating the math. You guys know, like, I I spend time every day probably, you know, two, three, four hours a day studying. Mhmm. And, I'd mentioned a couple episodes ago that I was finishing up a couple of books. I was finishing up some number theory and abstract algebra.
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Yeah.
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And I was going to now move on, and I was, like, looking for what I should do. And I decide so I got in I I did the, cryptography textbook with Stinson and forgot the other author, but, started with that. Yeah. Actually struggled with it a good bit. Stinson and Peterson. Cryptography theory. Stinson and Peterson. Yeah. So struggle with some things there. Not making me hate anything or or anything, but that, but then I also picked up linear algebra, which is really making me hate math right now. Why? What about So linear I thought that linear I thought that doing two years of abstract algebra would be, like, I would have nothing but beautiful insights studying linear algebra. What is linear algebra? It's just basically, it's the study of something called vector spaces. And if you guys remember, like, groups and rings. Mhmm.
Vector space is very much like a ring. Meaning, it's it's like a it's it has all the, properties, like, where it preserves addition, scaler and scaler multiplication. Okay. And so, like, it has closure under scaler multiplication and addition. That's what, like, a linear combination would be something that either does addition or scalar multiplication Okay. Of a variable. So, if I had, like, x two x plus five is a linear combination of x where I just either add something to it, I or two x plus y. I could either add a variable to it or I multiply it by an actual number. Okay. And a vector space has a zero. Right? It has the zero element.
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Okay.
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And it has so and, you know, it might have a solution. It may or may not be invertible. Right? It may or may not have an inverse. That that's the main like, I think the main difference with a field, a field that definitely has the inverse. Right? Whereas the vector space doesn't necessarily doesn't necessarily have an someone's gonna correct me. I know I'm not getting all this right. But basically, the op this object called the vector space is really the subject of linear algebra.
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Okay.
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So vector space is to linear algebra as groups, rings, and fields are to abstract algebra. It's a very specific thing, but it's also the most used, most powerful, most, you know, most universally thought about. Yeah. You know? It's so you'll see it in so many fields, physics and, you know, all you see it in abstract algebra too. Boy You really see you see it everywhere.
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This makes me think of, vectorizing data Yep. For adding as context to, like, an LLM.
[00:13:12] Unknown:
It's exactly it's you are using linear algebra to vectorize. Yes. That's what vectorizing actually so vector a vector is an object that, there's a structure called a matrix. I know everyone's heard a term the matrix, but, like, there's a structure called a matrix, which is a bunch of rows and columns.
[00:13:35] Unknown:
Yeah. We're fine. You've seen these. Right? Dimensional matrix of any x or y. Right? So you could have, like, a three by three matrix or a x y y matrix.
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Yep. So vectors are nothing more than every column is a vector. Vector is a line with a arrowhead on it. But, well, no. Vector is a line that has direct it hasn't it has direction and magnitude. Okay. K? So, like, imagine a Cartesian columns. Well, yeah, absolutely. This is so I would say probably the primary reason today, linear algebra is so populated in math program you know, in in colleges is because people are now learning, its applications to machine learning where Yep. Are now, like, just Yep. Enormous. Right?
Yeah. So the the word vectorizing is absolutely literal for when it comes to data. Right? You're basically taking a well, like a you would call it a field in a database. Right? Yeah. Not a mathematical field, but, like, what in a database, like, a SQL database, you would call it a field. But it's just a vector. One it's like one column of data. Like, one column of numbers. Sorry?
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One aspect of something.
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Right. But it's a column of numbers. Yeah. Yeah. Right? It's what you have. And whether it's, you know, a billion numbers or 10 numbers, it's a it's one column. Okay. Right? And so linear algebra basically is you have, you know, linear combinations of columns would or with vectors make column spaces.
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Okay.
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Okay. And a matrix is just a structure. Like, remember to have we talked about here how, like, literally a decimal number. Like, take any decimal number, 5,762 is a structure. It's actually a polynomial. It you know, it's a linear combination called 10 to the, you know, 10 to the x Right. Plus Yeah. 10 to the x times x. It can be broken down into an equation. Right? So, like, I forgot the number I said already, but let's just say there's one one thousand two hundred and thirty four. Right? That's four plus three times 10 to the one plus two times 10 to the two plus one times 10 to the three. It's a polynomial.
So every number is a polynomial structure. Right? And matrix is another structure. It's another way of looking. It's just another way of structuring a bunch of numbers in a way that makes in a way that could make sense. Okay. And, it's turns out it's just really powerful because it's so applied. It's had a lot of different eyes on it and a lot of different things have been discovered. There's a lot of terminology and language. And to the newcomer, I'm not exactly a newcomer. Like, I've been studying using linear algebra my whole career. I studied in college. But, like, you study it in college and you you learn about things called, like, eigenvectors, and that's a scary name, but it's actually a simple concept.
And it's almost like motivating the math needs its own branch just for linear algebra because there's so much scary names for things because they're named by
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branch right now?
[00:16:49] Unknown:
Yeah. They're they were discovered by Germans. So there's the name of these scary names after these German you know? So everything's names are eigenvector. Scary. Yes. Eigenfactors and eigenvalues. What the fuck is that? It's like, oh, actually, no. It's a very simple concept. Right. But a lot there's a lot of terminology. And so to the newcomer, it is just it's overwhelming. And especially if you're used to being a winner, it's very humbling to have to now it's like you're just being beaten on every day with Right. You know, you're going through because linear algebra is really it seems really simple. Like, lin what's more simple than a linear combination of something? But then you go try proving these theorems. It's very tedious.
It's very tedious when all you, like, all you know is that it's fine like, the dimension is finite, but you don't still don't know. You know, it could be any number, but it has to be finite. It's, like, super important. Mhmm. And so I I have one insight I do wanna share here that I think is coming out of this that is really it's like germane, which I guess is a German term. I'm gonna assume, right? Is Germaine a German term? Okay. Yeah. You know, so in linear algebra, okay, you have this concept called, like, linear independence. So you what you have is, say, a system of equations.
Say, x plus two y equals zero, three x plus y equals zero. And then, you know, in seventh grade, you learn how to solve that system. You say you find those are two lines, and they intersect when they intersect when you find an x y that satisfies both of those equations. Right? That's when they that's where they they cross at the one point that is the sign is like the same for both lines. Right? So solving how to solve systems of equations is a big part of linear algebra. It's also a big part of its use in machine learning. And, you know, you have, like, a matrix a and a vector x and a vector y Okay. Where y, say, is your result and x is something you're trying to predict.
Is so you have, like, a data you have a data set of predictions and a data set of actual answers, and then you wanna come up with a some input into there that some machine type, some transformation, some function that says, oh, I can actually transform I can it's a predictive function that's gonna transform this vector x into this vector y. Right? Okay. And how good is that prediction gonna be? And that that's what you that's what a lot of people use linear algebra. Okay? And this trans this, machine, this function, right, usually represented by a matrix.
And, so you have this thing called let's keep it in two dimensions. Right? If you just have, like, a it's called standard basis, which is, one one column is one zero and the other column is zero one. And so one one like the first number is your x term and the second number is your y term, right? So you can have like one zero is your x axis, basically. Because that is you have you have your x point at one, right, and your y at zero. And then one zero one is your y everything standardized to one unit. Right? Zero one would be your y axis. Okay? This is making me This is like xoring
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things. Like,
[00:20:28] Unknown:
Yeah. Well, that that that you're so yeah. And that's you're definitely gonna see that here. Right? So adding adding vectors is not different it's not that different from adding points on an elliptic curve. Same idea. Okay.
[00:20:47] Unknown:
K. Points on an elliptic curve are land in the same matrix the same finite matrix that's been defined for the vector space? Is that is that the right wording? Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Alright.
[00:21:00] Unknown:
Okay. So what you have is this basis, a standard basis. Like, the one zero zero one is a standard basis. And the when you take linear algebra, like, let's say your freshman year in college or something like that, it's not called linear algebra. It's called matrices. You're just learning the mechanics. You're you're learning how to add, subtract, divide, multiply in this in these in these structures. Advanced linear algebra then gets into more these algebraic abstract concepts, and it gets where you see you said see, in in the elementary sense, everything is standard. You don't think of it's it's sort of like when you learn algebra in seventh grade, you don't think about group or ring. You don't think about how it could be generalized. Okay. Yeah.
So when we think about algebra in general, everything is using a standard basis. K? And you don't even know there's a standard basis. You don't even know there's anything called a standard basis. You just you're just doing it. Okay? I mean, is there is this analogous to, like, a base 10 as our accounting system that we use? Like That's right. Like, imagine not even knowing there's anything called the base 10. Your life wouldn't change. Right? Many people don't. So here's my I don't know. It's it may I call it a big insight, but it really is probably just some think, boy, loser stepping stone to a real insight.
Okay. But let me let me give it to you. K. Okay. And, again, my what's you understand my fears? You understand what we talked about? How 21,000,000 maybe isn't a hard math. Maybe. Right? So what happened is I think that we had a monetary system that operated on a standard basis when we were on, say, when we were on hard money standard. Okay. We operated on a standard basis, but we didn't have that language. We didn't know what that meant. We just lived our life and it worked. Right? Right. Which is like what like, when you live in a world driven by engineers, not mathematicians,
[00:22:55] Unknown:
right, everything just works and no one cares why. Right? Things work. Engineers are looking for problems to solve. It doesn't matter. I was,
[00:23:04] Unknown:
I had my my daughter's teacher from Waldorf School was over our house last week. She moved to Mexico, and she came back. It's funny how why she she came back There's because of a banking debacle had to come back and, like, be in person to, like, do some of course. Right? Right. But, anyway, she was just, like, telling us so she lives in this this, like, area where all the houses are elevated. And so, like, the town squares at the the base. And so, like, if you wanna get any like, if you wanna get a refrigerator up in your house, you literally have to, like, pull you know, some there's, like, a little town that has, like, a pulley system. You know, it's just like there's literally no no power, like, that's moving. There's nothing, assisting these processes.
And it's just, like, sort of Wow. Generations of engineering engineers who Yeah. Just know how to make it all, you know, make that all work. And there's no dis but, like, they don't have distinctions of what they're doing. They just know things work. And so Yep. We go back we go back a long way with the monetary system that when it's hard, I would say it runs on a standard basis. And the way they figured out how to co opt that and steal from us without changing the qualities of that money is by changing the basis. Mhmm.
Right? And nobody knows. Right? Nobody knows that we're now operating under a different basis.
[00:24:41] Unknown:
Right.
[00:24:43] Unknown:
Not nobody knows, but, like, most people just don't know. And then the ones that do know, like, we there's, like, there's nothing we can do about it. Yep. Right? Until something you know, until Bitcoin was created. Right? There really was no not even a thing you could do about it other than to say well played.
[00:25:00] Unknown:
Yeah.
[00:25:02] Unknown:
Right? Yep. So, anyway, I don't know. That was, like, a fun thing a fun thing. But, like, the way I'm thinking about, like, why does this matter? Like, we it's like we we need to you know, we're trying to return to a standard basis. But I guess Everything we see is wrong because we think it's under a standard basis, but it's not. So everything we see is is distorted.
[00:25:30] Unknown:
Yeah. It's like the fish not knowing it's wet.
[00:25:34] Unknown:
Correct. That's right. Yeah. So, like right. We're not supposed to know any of this. Like, we're not supposed to know what a basis is. We're not supposed to know what money is necessarily. What do you mean when you say supposed to know? What do you mean? Like I guess, like, we're supposed to just live and try to make you know? Mhmm. The need to typically, when you have to distinguish these things, it's not it's not good news. So, like, you know, I I talk about some of these things all the time. Like, nope. There was no nobody was, like, overweight before you knew what a calorie was. And you would think that, oh, well, now we're smarter. We know what a calorie is. We should we should now right the ship and improve everything, but it just gets worse. Right? I think the knowledge of the calories actually has a lot to do with, obesity.
[00:26:28] Unknown:
Well, it it it creates a false, like, it's a false metric to measure by. Right? Calories in calories out is, like, if you wanna get down to, like, just absolute fundamentals, it's like, okay. Yes. Calories in calories out determines the weight, but the quality of the calories is, like, arguably more important because it's not just the caloric intake. It's the substance and the nutritious density of those calories. And, sure, you can live on, you know, 2,000 calories of just starch, but the quality is not gonna be great because you need more than just starch.
[00:27:06] Unknown:
Right. So the point being, I actually think that thinking you know what a calorie is is actually been is actually a determining factor of why we have the obesity problem.
[00:27:20] Unknown:
I think it would be more of thinking, you know,
[00:27:24] Unknown:
the implications. You think you know something that yes. Yes. It's because it's to say, it's not what you know. It's not what you don't know that gets you. It's what you think you know, and it just ain't so. Okay. Next example. Next example, cholesterol. Right? Before we knew a cholesterol before we knew what that word was, there was no heart disease.
[00:27:42] Unknown:
Right.
[00:27:43] Unknown:
And I think we have heart disease because we know we think we know what cholesterol is. And I go back to Tim Russert, who people listening to this don't know the fuck he was, but he was, like, he was, a journalist. And, he was very famous, like, in the nineties or super famous, like, Sunday show journalist. Okay. And he was considered to be the healthiest guy on the planet because he had a little very, very low cholesterol, like, one twenty. And famously, he died first heart attack. He got a heart attack and died immediately.
[00:28:18] Unknown:
Interesting.
[00:28:20] Unknown:
And, you know, it's like, oh, you know, it turns out it's not something you want to make as low as possible. Yeah. It turns out. But, like, the fact that everyone thinks they know what this is, it's not a coincidence that that we have the problem. Right? Yeah. That this this distinction of something that really was never necessary to think we knew to begin with, this distinction of it has actually caused the problem. Right? Right. I'm sure I could do a better job of explaining why. Okay. Oh, well, okay. Well, now we have medications that try to lower it that actually destroy people's health. Right? Well, and it's Like these statin drugs and things like that. It's the misaligned incentives. Right? So, like, if you can find this this standard basis that is,
[00:29:04] Unknown:
profitable that you can use and whatever to whatever as a means to whatever end you want. And if those ends are not necessarily aligned with the good of humanity, right, like, you can you can falsely come to the assumption that, hey. This is the correct basis to to base on, like and it's working. Right? We have the quote, unquote ways we have the engineered ways to make it quote, unquote work. But over time, like, time is the great equalizer. Right? The standard basis of everything should be in nature.
[00:29:37] Unknown:
And, you know, until 02/2009, Bitcoin nothing there was nothing there was no standard basis in nature, I would say. And I think Bitcoin is in nature. Yeah. It's like you know, it is now. It was put in nature. Right? Yeah. It doesn't grow out of the ground, but it was put into the world as something now that part of the world that happens automatically. When I say in nature, I mean not controlled by not controlled by man. Right. Right? Controlled outside of our control. So, you know, the answer to obesity and heart disease, those answers are in nature. Like, you go out, you have the you know, you go out in the sun, you go out you can find the standard basis of sunlight, find the standard basis of electromagnetism, the standard basis of water. Right.
And the standard basis of how we all those things are free because they're in nature. And this these standard bases is what you're what we're kind of looking for. But doesn't mean it had to exist a billion years ago because like I said, Bitcoin, that's why it's such a great exception, and it really make requires us to be on our toes mentally that not you know, just because something is invented does not mean it's not in nature. Maybe the the the better question is, is it nature's better question is is are we is there a standard basis? Okay. Because there didn't exist a standard basis for money.
And, you know, knowing what money is is not has only allowed people to corrupt it even more. It's just it's a so anytime so it's like when when we find ourselves with something that never needed to be distinguished to begin with, but once it was, it actually made the problem worse. The answer is, well, we wanna find the standard basis of this thing. And I think, you know, arguably, Satoshi and his predecessors figure this out and
[00:31:30] Unknown:
tried and tried and tried and find finally, you know, the standard basis was created and put and put in Well, even saying put into nature. Even saying that Bitcoin is a standard basis, though, I think, like, you you could even reduce that even farther to the math that underpins Bitcoin. Right? Because it's not like, Bitcoin is a man manifestation of these various cryptographic principles in a combination that gives us this ultrasound money.
[00:31:54] Unknown:
But it's how it propagates in nature through humans is why it works. Mhmm. That's what and that's what makes it sort you know what I mean? It's like, and, you know, a bit you know, 30,000 shit coins are proof as to why its properties aren't necessarily the reason it becomes a standard basis. It's more of its implementation through the decentralized population. And their insistence on those property, on the on these specific properties, right, it's everyone's sort of conscious choice and action to uphold, right? That's what makes it in nature.
Right? A phenom like a sort of a natural phenomena.
[00:32:40] Unknown:
What and it just makes me think of just, like, economics is a natural phenomena. It's human action. Right? It's the people making the choices and determining either directly or indirectly what their standard basis is.
[00:32:54] Unknown:
Yes. And so distinguishing things the the reason why these distinctions made made these systems worse is because people do have a tendency to wanna play God. Yeah. Yeah. Right? And, you know, we get reminded by God that, Yeah. You know what? You wanna play God with calories? Have fun with everyone being fat fucks. You wanna play God with fucking cholesterol? Have fun with everyone fucking having heart disease. Treated depleted
[00:33:28] Unknown:
children is what you end up with.
[00:33:31] Unknown:
Yeah. You wanna play God with vaccines, have fun with autoimmune disease all over the fucking world. You wanna play God with all this shit, dude. It's it's and that's why so, like, the answer is easily if you just reverse engineer all that, it's like, okay. Well, okay. What are the standard basis answers for all these things? Well so that you you go back you go back to nature, and sometimes these things don't exist in nature. Right? Those are great targets for tyrants. If I was a tyrant, I would say, okay. Yeah. What kind of coop and where the answer is not in nature. Right? Yeah. So money was great for a long time until until it wasn't. Right? Until, like, inevitable that somebody will create something.
[00:34:10] Unknown:
Well, in the natural standard basis is what made money great again. Right? Like, it's the it's returned to to nature, and this is the whole Yeah. Like, I feel like this is, like, an expounding on the name of, like, put your phone down, go touch grass. Right? Like, just go go contemplate. Go think go return to what is the natural ordering of things, and and how can we tie this new realm of digital cyberspace to like, how can you tie the ephemeral to the real
[00:34:40] Unknown:
or the physical rather? Maybe not the real. And to get even more specific with it, like, take, you know, take Bitcoin. So government tries to play God and attack it. They do KYC, and they, you know, really try to co opt it. And then something like samurai comes up and then works and opposes it. Doesn't fix it, but it definitely puts a, you know, it puts a it's a major major thorn in the side, and the government tries to wipe that out. And then, like, you know, a couple you know, now we have the Ashigaru guys back. It's like well, open source software is like, in it open source software is what I you know, this is something that I really am remiss. I mentioned this in the Rock Paper Bitcoin episode. I'm really remiss that I missed this in my book. I missed
[00:35:27] Unknown:
The code of open source?
[00:35:29] Unknown:
Well, I I spend a lot of time explaining. I'm trying to really, what I do in my book is try to explain to normies who run companies why Bitcoin is valuable. Mhmm. And it starts a lot with on the at the individual level, why do people, you know, why is Bitcoin never going away? Why is it gonna why will it win? Why why do people value it? And I missed the fact that I missed the open source piece of this, that it's so it's like and I think what we're talking about right now really finally hits it where it's like, you know, open source software can become something that's in nature. That's like a standard basis in nature.
And it's a it's a lesson learned. Stop. You can't stop it. Yes, it can't be stopped. And it's just a little example. I feel like the samurai slash ashigaru, call it a weed, right? You can't stop it. You just can't stop you know, you can try to weed you can try to weed these fuckers, but, you know, it's open source software, and, you know, like, it's only a matter of time. You know, maybe Craig Raw doesn't wanna integrate it in the Sparrow because he he's maybe he feels sketchy about
[00:36:44] Unknown:
getting Ashigaru Ashigaru in the Sparrow. Nobody wants to be locked in a cage.
[00:36:48] Unknown:
But the what I'm saying is somebody is can anyone can go to the GitHub and do it. Yeah. And, eventually, we'll probably be here a year from now when we we say, oh my god. Guess what? There's a version of Sparrow now that integrates Ashlagore, which is how a lot of people did samurai. So my point is just it's really about really about open source software. It was is a way to create something in nature Mhmm. That but people have to adopt it and it puts so and it it creates a standard basis for things that have been corrupted. Yeah. It's a so but and it's very hard. You can't play God. No one person can just say, you know what? I'm creating open source software. I'm gonna put something in nature. Right?
30,000 people have tried to do this with, all coins. It it needs to be genuinely adopted, and it needs to be an idea whose time has come that it's going to get, like, open source software without a lot of attention, a lot of eyes, and a lot of testing isn't gonna be worth much. Right? Yeah. But after the fact, it's basically in nature and incredibly powerful. It's essentially like proof of work. It's essentially right? It's essentially a proof of work consensus. Right? It's you can't undo it. Like, you hit a point where it can't be undone. It's per like, it's permanently in nature.
[00:38:09] Unknown:
The this this is the irrefutable cryptographic math that I was referring to when talking about the BPI stuff. Because, like, I I talked about samurai wallet developers. I was like, listen. We have developers in jail for writing open source software that they never touched. Like, these and I also made sure to elaborate, like, the the, ancient law framework that we have around, like, the Bank Secrecy Act and all this other stuff is just bullshit, and it stands in blatant face of of reality. Interesting. Yeah. Yeah. I know the like, the thing I lobbied for, the thing I spoke the most about was a section in some law thing that's like, it's in this market structure bill. Right? So, like, it's called the Clarity Act, and it's all the shitcoiner, stablecoiner people that wanna do whatever. But there's a key component in there that basically exempts noncustodial software providers from falling under the Bank Secrecy Act because they can't practically comply with it even if they wanted to because of the very nature of the service that they're running.
And my elaboration is like, hey. Don't throw the guy in the don't throw the the maker of the hammer in jail because somebody bought a hammer and went and hit somebody else with it. Right? And Mhmm. And the hammer is gonna exist regardless. Like, no. Somebody else is gonna make the hammer.
[00:39:25] Unknown:
You can't stop a hammer.
[00:39:28] Unknown:
No. You can only try to You can't
[00:39:32] Unknown:
try to prohibit it. Right? And then Try to make a you can't touch this MC Hammer joke there. Just there was nothing there. I'm too young. Sorry.
[00:39:42] Unknown:
I did hear that song in the Dodge Stratus that my mom drove around once upon a time, but the,
[00:39:49] Unknown:
yeah. That song re re resurrected Rick James. Yeah. That and then the Chappelle show. You know? It's just like that that cycle.
[00:40:00] Unknown:
I love the Chappelle show. Yeah. I I I look forward. I haven't listened to the Ashigaru website, But, I mean, since they launched, it's been something on my radar. And the crazy I I threw out a crazy idea actually at one of the, you know, the the events, after the fact where you get around with all the people that are building in the space and talking. I'm like, hey. Listen. Here's a crazy crazy idea. The the idea is you spin up an Ashigarh or Whirlpool. You label it as a white hat. You know? Hey. We protect you from the dark web. Right? Or you could you could market it however you want. Like, we protect you from cybercriminals or or whatever by offering you privacy for your digital money.
Right? Like, if you want privacy for your Bitcoin, there's nothing morally wrong with that. And so why wouldn't it be a legitimate white hat white hat business that is offering these services with the marketing of, hey. Protect yourself from cyber criminals. Use our insert white labeled name of Ashigaru Whirlpool.
[00:40:59] Unknown:
Yeah. Or yeah. Or should we let every or just everyone just does it? Or would just or or just or, you know, you know what the government could do? They could just abolish KYC and wipe it all up wipe it all off. This would all go away. I also Would all go none of this but all of these little biological systems would go away. Yeah. Because all these biological systems are a response to the to the first big threat to to the beehive, which was KYC. Right? Yeah. And these idiots don't understand how damaging and how dangerous and how nefarious KYC really is. Do, and they understand There's no power it offers them. I don't think they really understood the idea of honeypots, and I don't think they've understood any like, I don't think it was the you know?
[00:41:52] Unknown:
Maybe I am naive. Not. Right? Like, because the digital age didn't exist when these laws were crafted. And that's that was one of the assertions is, like, there's a new paradigm now.
[00:42:02] Unknown:
But even when what was the year that, like, Coinbase had to start KYC ing people? Like Yeah. I don't know. 2020 or 2021. Right. I don't I don't like, even at that point in time, I don't think they were thinking, hey. Great. These exchanges will create honeypots of data that will get hacked. And, I don't think they were thinking that far ahead. I don't think they knew how what I'm saying is they I think they grossly I'm not now if they did know, I don't think it would change anything. I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that they had these people do these things, and they play god without having any idea of the repercussions. But we knew and so, you know, of course, enough Bitcoiners understood this threat that they created samurai and, you know, before being totally co opted with Sabi.
[00:42:51] Unknown:
Well, it's not even Bitcoiners. Right? It's the cypherpunks.
[00:42:54] Unknown:
Like, it's the Right. We've become we've become the post block size word, I guess, has sort of been filtered into Bitcoiners. But, well, in this case So yeah. So my so, that this is all this is thirty minutes to say I have I hate math right now. Yeah. Like, I truly am choking every like, I have to really will myself through these several hours. And then it's those little insights that I get that I, like, just got to talk about that make it all worth it. But this is part of the journey, and I still do it. I'm a glutton for punishment because I you know Well, my daughter's about to take advanced linear algebra this fall, and we were gonna spend the summer working on it. And it's just, ugh, it's just destroying me. But, like, I I I feel like linear algebra to it then.
It's so important that it can't you know, like, I can't just I can't just
[00:43:50] Unknown:
abdicate it. You know? It's like, what what have you ever done that was worth doing that wasn't difficult? Right? Like, there's
[00:43:58] Unknown:
Just podcast. No. Just kidding. This podcast is this is the hardest one, dude. This one is, like, the heart of all the podcasts that I do. Right? This one's gotta be the hardest.
[00:44:07] Unknown:
Well, and this one will pass. Like, the the And it will. Yeah. Resistance of linear algebra will pass because it's the forming of new neural pathways in your brain. Right? Like, it's it is a change. Like, you're you're you are catalyzing yourself to change. You're catalyzing yourself to change to understand something that is going to be worth it, and that's, like, that's the
[00:44:29] Unknown:
I underestimated I think, like, when I dove into the math rabbit hole, I got lucky with abstract algebra because I think I'm just suited for it or or it's super or it's easy. I don't know the answer. It's either easy or I'm suited for it. But, like, now that I've gotten into something that's genuinely, like, it's just, like, difficult for me.
[00:44:50] Unknown:
Well, I mean, and this is a it's an eco check. And that's probably why it's so hard for you to be completely on it. Like, you you you know you're good at what you do. And so getting up here and talking about this thing that you hate because of these griefs that you have with it, that's, like, that's part of the ego death.
[00:45:10] Unknown:
Yeah. I it's more yeah. It's capitulating and accepting it. I mean, I still like, the I the thing that I struggle with is I'm like, why the fuck am I even doing this? It's like, what I'm not you know? It's not my fault. Right to build. You have a math again. Right. Right. So, like, that's the that's the question, right, that ends up it's like, the fuck am I doing this? Why don't I just stop? But I don't. And so why is that? Why do I why am I struggling with it as opposed to just stopping and enjoying my life? Right? And I think that that's that's more that's a that's a more interesting question. Right? That's a much more math academy without linear algebra. Right? Like you stated before, it is it's a prolific thing
[00:45:48] Unknown:
that has broad implications
[00:45:51] Unknown:
across several domains. Yeah. I could Yeah. You have to. I could I could find enough PhDs that know this that, you know, like, I know linear I know linear algebra enough to do, to build machine learning code. You know? Like, it's not, like, it's not like I'm figuring it. Then. What like, what's the motivation? Well, because now that now I see because I because this hump I do feel like getting over this hump. There's I I'm too curious about what my life will be like and what my abilities will be if I were to get over this hump. I'm now like, I can't I can't ignore that curiosity.
I'm a fucked up person.
[00:46:35] Unknown:
No. I don't think so.
[00:46:37] Unknown:
I mean I feel like I I have this idea that every like like that everything, like, everything is I how I should think is that, I'm not actually strong enough to really build this thing, and I have to get through these things to build the strength to do that. But how I actually think is, like, oh, oh, this is a juicy Jedi skill that I feel I can't ignore. Like, my life will change if I learn if I really become good at linear algebra and no longer suffering with it, imagine all the other things I'll be able to do. And that's just how my brain works, and I'm twisted, but that's what gets me going.
[00:47:16] Unknown:
Or you could take a different perspective on it, and you've identified, a chink in the plan that you will need help with. Right? Like, that's that like, no no man is an island sort of thing.
[00:47:31] Unknown:
Well, there's, like, five other there's, dude, there's, like, five other things that require, like, three year rabbit holes for me to master. Fucking analysis Right. Real analysis, complex analysis. There's things there's also, like, I don't have my whole life. I have to actually be a little discerning about what I'm gonna choose to tackle because, you know, I'm getting to a point where I don't have the rest of my life to just sit and try to master this. It's but then the way to think about it is I but I still have to wake up tomorrow and hit it and hit something.
[00:48:03] Unknown:
Yeah. So like something, though. Right? Like This is the life. Domains then. This is the life I've chosen,
[00:48:09] Unknown:
right, where I do where my mornings up until eight, 9AM is about tackling this, and it's about right? And and about being that person.
[00:48:21] Unknown:
Well, and if this a if this is a labor, though. Right? Like, if it is a labor so much so that you you're saying you you hate math, you hate doing this specific type of math.
[00:48:30] Unknown:
I hate math right now. I don't hate math. I hate this.
[00:48:34] Unknown:
What? Build in the reprieve. Like, what go start down another rabbit hole. Those whatever those other ones you just mentioned, the analysis stuff,
[00:48:44] Unknown:
just Well, I on that. That's what this is. This is a break from from the cryptography textbook. And now it's like, oh, shit, dude. So you need a break from the break? In fact, yeah. And, I mean, analysis was something I dove into hard last year. Okay. And I I I went through two textbooks, and I'm like, alright. I gotta get back to abstract algebra. See, linear algebra is just another part of that. For me, part of the abstract algebra stack. Anyhow, yeah. I mean, it is what it is. Like, the the the answer is don't fight it. Don't quit and be okay not liking it. And because I think that's what it takes to be these to upgrade yourself in math. You you know, if it were easy, everyone would do it, and we wouldn't need to do this.
Yeah. And if I'm, like, really if I really want, everyone to upgrade themselves in math, you know, I have to I've gotta be the one to suffer so that, you know, I understand it. I I intimately understand the suffering, and it's okay.
[00:49:54] Unknown:
Must do it. If you must do it, then do it tired.
[00:49:59] Unknown:
Right? Like, if it must be done, then there's no other Should've ended the podcast on that one. If you must do it, do it tired.
[00:50:06] Unknown:
Yeah.
[00:50:07] Unknown:
We It's nothing to fix. You know, it's not something that it needs to be fixed. It's literally just the reality it's a reality to acknowledge, and I wanted to share here because that's what we're all interested in, and this is part of the journey. Just is. Right?
[00:50:24] Unknown:
And it's the I my mind goes to fitness because it's like the first time you get under a squat bar, you're not throwing on two twenty five and repping it out. Right? Like, it's a Yep. You you have to build to it. You still show up.
[00:50:39] Unknown:
And showing up is the hardest part. Then that could be the that could be where we close. What do you think? Do you have anything else you wanna cover? No. Alright. Cool.
[00:50:50] Unknown:
Stop. Where is my mind? Where is my mind? Where is my mind? My
Stop.
[00:00:25] Unknown:
And we're back. We're back. We I don't even need to back. Yeah. We're back. We are we're we're in a bit of a lag because, like I was saying to you earlier, I still haven't posted the last episode we did. So I'm fun falling a little behind. My 40 HPW
[00:00:42] Unknown:
shambles
[00:00:43] Unknown:
and grinds. My 40 HPW of making podcasts is starting to catch up with me a little bit.
[00:00:49] Unknown:
That's fair. That's fair.
[00:00:51] Unknown:
But we will post it. The last episode we did was part two of Dahlias, and, we don't wanna deprive the world of our conversation around that. But, I will say jumping right in here, right? Jumping right in. Remember when, I feel we did an episode. I think I was gonna I almost called it Gary needs therapy, but I called it the therapy episode. Yeah. You did need therapy. It was like and it wasn't about this, but it was just like, this was tipping this was just tipping things over the edge for you.
[00:01:26] Unknown:
But therapy is, therapy. Right? Like, what what does that mean? And I think it just it's discourse. We're humans. We need discourse. And we need discourse with people that understand us, understand our perspectives, but are not solely in the same, echo chamber that we are in so much so that there's no friction.
[00:01:47] Unknown:
You know what I mean? But you're looking good right now, man. You look like you don't need therapy. You look really you look terrific. Thank you. Thank you. Smile is popping. You got it all going, man.
[00:02:00] Unknown:
It sure I mean, it feels like it. It's, it was yeah. Last week was an emotional roller coaster. I had the BPI summit.
[00:02:07] Unknown:
I I got my my The BPI summit made you emotional?
[00:02:11] Unknown:
No. No. I mean, yes. Like, emotion like, positive vibes. Like, just anybody that's been to a Bitcoin event with We're moved by the capital gains accept exemptions
[00:02:21] Unknown:
that were being, suggested. No. That was that was not it. That was I have to remember what podcast I'm doing. Okay. This isn't like we're this isn't the fuck everybody podcast. Right? This is just this is just motivating the math. I gotta remember that.
[00:02:36] Unknown:
But it was it was just being around, you know, high highly convicted, high intelligence, highly motivated people that are billing in the space.
[00:02:46] Unknown:
Soon to be convicted.
[00:02:48] Unknown:
Soon to be convicted. Not if we can get some laws passed. Right? That was the whole thing was, talking about laws and all that. But the, I I I can't tell you how many times I talked about the irrefutable truth of cryptographic math and, like, just verbatim to anybody willing to listen. You know? They're like, oh, you know, what are you doing here? Blah blah blah. I'm like, well, you know, Bitcoin veterans, but, like, let me tell you about this irrefutable irrefutable cryptographic math that is underpinning a peaceful revolution, that is changing the world without most people being aware of it.
I met hyper intelligent people, that you know, some of them were definitely shitcoiners. Mhmm. A lot of veterans. I was there representing Bitcoin veterans as, like, the chief petty officer of Bitcoin veterans. But yeah. So, like, touch point for all the Set c three p o? That is yeah. If you've seen the the noster change in profile pic, that is, you know, CPO BB, b v, which in the navy, there's, like, context there. In the navy, you have, like, the the MCPON, m c p o n, which is the master chief petty officer of the navy. Right? So I have adopted the moniker of CPO b v, the chief petty officer of Bitcoin veterans.
And so
[00:04:08] Unknown:
it and I needed a picture for that. Right? Because Sorry. My wife just walked in, like, we're not doing anything here. She's walked right in. I was like, she's always welcome. Grab her get get her headphones and grab a mic, and let's I should the next time, dude, she's not allowed in unless she just joins us. You know? She's like, we are accountable right now. W? We're accountable. We are, like, accountable to what we say is gonna be heard, and people are gonna shit on us or praise us. Sorry. So, you know, your experience at BPI like, I it's making me real realize, first of all, you're the only podcast I do who, you have a job.
Yeah. That, like, when you wage slave. Let's be clear. Yeah. Where I have, my time is dictated by another. That I think that's what But the big yeah. But this like, the numb that's the number one downside of a job. The number two downside is that you're like, the people you spend your time with all day long are probably not of the best caliber, and you realize it when you go to, like, a conference and you meet fucking smart people. Dude, even when I was working in TradFi, when I used to go to the banking conferences, and these banks are not geniuses, but they do possess some people, many that were of a much higher caliber than where I was working. It was always it always felt good to, like, remind yourself, like, oh, dude. You know, there's actually some awesome fucking people, and every but I I will say BPI people I've met at a BPI are cool. I've always enjoyed talking to them, you know, building relationships with them. Yeah.
So it you know, whether you like that someone spends their time trying to convince the government to let you, you know, to let us Yeah. Do whatever. But these are good people. And, yeah, I can I get why you got I get why you're energized?
[00:05:55] Unknown:
Well, and the the message that I took was, no matter what the government decides to do, there are irrefutable truths that are occurring in Yes. Largely in the Bitcoin space that underpin this whole thing that, you know, again, it's the whole opt in or opt out. There's no it's like a binary thing. You're either, like, for this or you're against this, and it's a voluntary thing. You don't have to be for this. You don't have to be a part of everything. But there are, again, like, mathematical truths, whether that's the math of cryptography or the math of the NGU or the math of the growing number of people that are understanding the benefits
[00:06:32] Unknown:
and and the I don't think math of NGU is is an irrefutable truth, but that's just personal issue I have.
[00:06:40] Unknown:
But the the 21,000,000 cap is. Right? Yes. That is 21,000,000 cap. Well, is it irrefutable?
[00:06:46] Unknown:
It's, I think, one of the reasons why we're here doing this podcast is because it may not be. Like, it's possible that it's, like, it could be attacked in way in a way that Yes. Attacks our own ability to reason with ourselves. Like, if we can be gaslit, then that can be
[00:07:06] Unknown:
that can be, What are your thoughts on quantum speaking of gaslighting? Because I I I met plenty of folks that that was, like, a topic du jour of people. Yeah. I'm super unimpressed, I would say. I'm super super unimpressed
[00:07:19] Unknown:
with the fad, frankly. I mean, it's is it is one day, like, we're gonna have to deal with this probably? Is it is it soon? Probably not. And is it is it, like, an existential issue? Is it worth the time and energy that people have, like, I feel like it's just an industry to argue against it Right. That is unwarranted. I'm not you know? And I feel like I I guess the reason I like the quantum exists is I can identify who is super triggered by it, and I can be like, yeah. Okay. You're one of these people that gets wrapped up in fads. And Well, and I you know what I mean? In-depth conversation
[00:07:58] Unknown:
about the, quote, unquote, threat of quantum, right, with this this veteran, former special operations guy that's now, like, doing some quantum thing. And we had in-depth conversations about address types and hash resistance, and, I I highlighted check template verify and check signal stack and stuff, and we were talking about the different signature types and the trade offs and all that stuff. And that was probably the deep one of the deepest technical discussions that I had at the whole event. Mhmm. And it was it was fantastic. I also had a number of, like, spiritual discussions at the event, and other people with similar conclusions around this whole, you you know, this this mathematical thing that we're encountering here, this this language that we're encountering here that gives Bitcoin and the other kind of thing that we're using. Sorry. I need to pause for a second. Sorry.
[00:08:48] Unknown:
Okay. We're back. Yeah. Sorry about that pause.
[00:08:52] Unknown:
Where were we? What's the beef with math?
[00:08:55] Unknown:
Alright. So I now that we've covered, you're looking good, and it's good. You know, this is like you can't have both hands. On the roller coaster. Right? That was the peak. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Was,
[00:09:05] Unknown:
I had a I had a local friend die, a older guy. Oh, yeah. Sorry. I mean Sorry. He used to run, like, audio and RF engineering for NPR, ran a local radio station, and just as one of those guys you met him and just, like, he just oozed,
[00:09:19] Unknown:
generosity, kindness. Fuck, dude. I'm sorry.
[00:09:22] Unknown:
Sorry. It was just unexpected, and it's like I come back from this this, awesome event. And then Friday, you know, find out that a a close friend I'll never see again. Oh, dude. I'm really, really sorry to hear that, dude.
[00:09:34] Unknown:
Yeah. Life is precious. Fuck, dude. Wow. What's what's the beef with Matt? What's your beef with Matt? I'm glad. So look. I'm glad you're back. We because we can't have two parents be sick at the same time. Right? So I'm now sick. And that and I I I think this is good for the just motivating the math. You guys know, like, I I spend time every day probably, you know, two, three, four hours a day studying. Mhmm. And, I'd mentioned a couple episodes ago that I was finishing up a couple of books. I was finishing up some number theory and abstract algebra.
[00:10:16] Unknown:
Yeah.
[00:10:17] Unknown:
And I was going to now move on, and I was, like, looking for what I should do. And I decide so I got in I I did the, cryptography textbook with Stinson and forgot the other author, but, started with that. Yeah. Actually struggled with it a good bit. Stinson and Peterson. Cryptography theory. Stinson and Peterson. Yeah. So struggle with some things there. Not making me hate anything or or anything, but that, but then I also picked up linear algebra, which is really making me hate math right now. Why? What about So linear I thought that linear I thought that doing two years of abstract algebra would be, like, I would have nothing but beautiful insights studying linear algebra. What is linear algebra? It's just basically, it's the study of something called vector spaces. And if you guys remember, like, groups and rings. Mhmm.
Vector space is very much like a ring. Meaning, it's it's like a it's it has all the, properties, like, where it preserves addition, scaler and scaler multiplication. Okay. And so, like, it has closure under scaler multiplication and addition. That's what, like, a linear combination would be something that either does addition or scalar multiplication Okay. Of a variable. So, if I had, like, x two x plus five is a linear combination of x where I just either add something to it, I or two x plus y. I could either add a variable to it or I multiply it by an actual number. Okay. And a vector space has a zero. Right? It has the zero element.
[00:12:06] Unknown:
Okay.
[00:12:07] Unknown:
And it has so and, you know, it might have a solution. It may or may not be invertible. Right? It may or may not have an inverse. That that's the main like, I think the main difference with a field, a field that definitely has the inverse. Right? Whereas the vector space doesn't necessarily doesn't necessarily have an someone's gonna correct me. I know I'm not getting all this right. But basically, the op this object called the vector space is really the subject of linear algebra.
[00:12:38] Unknown:
Okay.
[00:12:39] Unknown:
So vector space is to linear algebra as groups, rings, and fields are to abstract algebra. It's a very specific thing, but it's also the most used, most powerful, most, you know, most universally thought about. Yeah. You know? It's so you'll see it in so many fields, physics and, you know, all you see it in abstract algebra too. Boy You really see you see it everywhere.
[00:13:05] Unknown:
This makes me think of, vectorizing data Yep. For adding as context to, like, an LLM.
[00:13:12] Unknown:
It's exactly it's you are using linear algebra to vectorize. Yes. That's what vectorizing actually so vector a vector is an object that, there's a structure called a matrix. I know everyone's heard a term the matrix, but, like, there's a structure called a matrix, which is a bunch of rows and columns.
[00:13:35] Unknown:
Yeah. We're fine. You've seen these. Right? Dimensional matrix of any x or y. Right? So you could have, like, a three by three matrix or a x y y matrix.
[00:13:44] Unknown:
Yep. So vectors are nothing more than every column is a vector. Vector is a line with a arrowhead on it. But, well, no. Vector is a line that has direct it hasn't it has direction and magnitude. Okay. K? So, like, imagine a Cartesian columns. Well, yeah, absolutely. This is so I would say probably the primary reason today, linear algebra is so populated in math program you know, in in colleges is because people are now learning, its applications to machine learning where Yep. Are now, like, just Yep. Enormous. Right?
Yeah. So the the word vectorizing is absolutely literal for when it comes to data. Right? You're basically taking a well, like a you would call it a field in a database. Right? Yeah. Not a mathematical field, but, like, what in a database, like, a SQL database, you would call it a field. But it's just a vector. One it's like one column of data. Like, one column of numbers. Sorry?
[00:14:46] Unknown:
One aspect of something.
[00:14:49] Unknown:
Right. But it's a column of numbers. Yeah. Yeah. Right? It's what you have. And whether it's, you know, a billion numbers or 10 numbers, it's a it's one column. Okay. Right? And so linear algebra basically is you have, you know, linear combinations of columns would or with vectors make column spaces.
[00:15:11] Unknown:
Okay.
[00:15:12] Unknown:
Okay. And a matrix is just a structure. Like, remember to have we talked about here how, like, literally a decimal number. Like, take any decimal number, 5,762 is a structure. It's actually a polynomial. It you know, it's a linear combination called 10 to the, you know, 10 to the x Right. Plus Yeah. 10 to the x times x. It can be broken down into an equation. Right? So, like, I forgot the number I said already, but let's just say there's one one thousand two hundred and thirty four. Right? That's four plus three times 10 to the one plus two times 10 to the two plus one times 10 to the three. It's a polynomial.
So every number is a polynomial structure. Right? And matrix is another structure. It's another way of looking. It's just another way of structuring a bunch of numbers in a way that makes in a way that could make sense. Okay. And, it's turns out it's just really powerful because it's so applied. It's had a lot of different eyes on it and a lot of different things have been discovered. There's a lot of terminology and language. And to the newcomer, I'm not exactly a newcomer. Like, I've been studying using linear algebra my whole career. I studied in college. But, like, you study it in college and you you learn about things called, like, eigenvectors, and that's a scary name, but it's actually a simple concept.
And it's almost like motivating the math needs its own branch just for linear algebra because there's so much scary names for things because they're named by
[00:16:47] Unknown:
branch right now?
[00:16:49] Unknown:
Yeah. They're they were discovered by Germans. So there's the name of these scary names after these German you know? So everything's names are eigenvector. Scary. Yes. Eigenfactors and eigenvalues. What the fuck is that? It's like, oh, actually, no. It's a very simple concept. Right. But a lot there's a lot of terminology. And so to the newcomer, it is just it's overwhelming. And especially if you're used to being a winner, it's very humbling to have to now it's like you're just being beaten on every day with Right. You know, you're going through because linear algebra is really it seems really simple. Like, lin what's more simple than a linear combination of something? But then you go try proving these theorems. It's very tedious.
It's very tedious when all you, like, all you know is that it's fine like, the dimension is finite, but you don't still don't know. You know, it could be any number, but it has to be finite. It's, like, super important. Mhmm. And so I I have one insight I do wanna share here that I think is coming out of this that is really it's like germane, which I guess is a German term. I'm gonna assume, right? Is Germaine a German term? Okay. Yeah. You know, so in linear algebra, okay, you have this concept called, like, linear independence. So you what you have is, say, a system of equations.
Say, x plus two y equals zero, three x plus y equals zero. And then, you know, in seventh grade, you learn how to solve that system. You say you find those are two lines, and they intersect when they intersect when you find an x y that satisfies both of those equations. Right? That's when they that's where they they cross at the one point that is the sign is like the same for both lines. Right? So solving how to solve systems of equations is a big part of linear algebra. It's also a big part of its use in machine learning. And, you know, you have, like, a matrix a and a vector x and a vector y Okay. Where y, say, is your result and x is something you're trying to predict.
Is so you have, like, a data you have a data set of predictions and a data set of actual answers, and then you wanna come up with a some input into there that some machine type, some transformation, some function that says, oh, I can actually transform I can it's a predictive function that's gonna transform this vector x into this vector y. Right? Okay. And how good is that prediction gonna be? And that that's what you that's what a lot of people use linear algebra. Okay? And this trans this, machine, this function, right, usually represented by a matrix.
And, so you have this thing called let's keep it in two dimensions. Right? If you just have, like, a it's called standard basis, which is, one one column is one zero and the other column is zero one. And so one one like the first number is your x term and the second number is your y term, right? So you can have like one zero is your x axis, basically. Because that is you have you have your x point at one, right, and your y at zero. And then one zero one is your y everything standardized to one unit. Right? Zero one would be your y axis. Okay? This is making me This is like xoring
[00:20:27] Unknown:
things. Like,
[00:20:28] Unknown:
Yeah. Well, that that that you're so yeah. And that's you're definitely gonna see that here. Right? So adding adding vectors is not different it's not that different from adding points on an elliptic curve. Same idea. Okay.
[00:20:47] Unknown:
K. Points on an elliptic curve are land in the same matrix the same finite matrix that's been defined for the vector space? Is that is that the right wording? Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Alright.
[00:21:00] Unknown:
Okay. So what you have is this basis, a standard basis. Like, the one zero zero one is a standard basis. And the when you take linear algebra, like, let's say your freshman year in college or something like that, it's not called linear algebra. It's called matrices. You're just learning the mechanics. You're you're learning how to add, subtract, divide, multiply in this in these in these structures. Advanced linear algebra then gets into more these algebraic abstract concepts, and it gets where you see you said see, in in the elementary sense, everything is standard. You don't think of it's it's sort of like when you learn algebra in seventh grade, you don't think about group or ring. You don't think about how it could be generalized. Okay. Yeah.
So when we think about algebra in general, everything is using a standard basis. K? And you don't even know there's a standard basis. You don't even know there's anything called a standard basis. You just you're just doing it. Okay? I mean, is there is this analogous to, like, a base 10 as our accounting system that we use? Like That's right. Like, imagine not even knowing there's anything called the base 10. Your life wouldn't change. Right? Many people don't. So here's my I don't know. It's it may I call it a big insight, but it really is probably just some think, boy, loser stepping stone to a real insight.
Okay. But let me let me give it to you. K. Okay. And, again, my what's you understand my fears? You understand what we talked about? How 21,000,000 maybe isn't a hard math. Maybe. Right? So what happened is I think that we had a monetary system that operated on a standard basis when we were on, say, when we were on hard money standard. Okay. We operated on a standard basis, but we didn't have that language. We didn't know what that meant. We just lived our life and it worked. Right? Right. Which is like what like, when you live in a world driven by engineers, not mathematicians,
[00:22:55] Unknown:
right, everything just works and no one cares why. Right? Things work. Engineers are looking for problems to solve. It doesn't matter. I was,
[00:23:04] Unknown:
I had my my daughter's teacher from Waldorf School was over our house last week. She moved to Mexico, and she came back. It's funny how why she she came back There's because of a banking debacle had to come back and, like, be in person to, like, do some of course. Right? Right. But, anyway, she was just, like, telling us so she lives in this this, like, area where all the houses are elevated. And so, like, the town squares at the the base. And so, like, if you wanna get any like, if you wanna get a refrigerator up in your house, you literally have to, like, pull you know, some there's, like, a little town that has, like, a pulley system. You know, it's just like there's literally no no power, like, that's moving. There's nothing, assisting these processes.
And it's just, like, sort of Wow. Generations of engineering engineers who Yeah. Just know how to make it all, you know, make that all work. And there's no dis but, like, they don't have distinctions of what they're doing. They just know things work. And so Yep. We go back we go back a long way with the monetary system that when it's hard, I would say it runs on a standard basis. And the way they figured out how to co opt that and steal from us without changing the qualities of that money is by changing the basis. Mhmm.
Right? And nobody knows. Right? Nobody knows that we're now operating under a different basis.
[00:24:41] Unknown:
Right.
[00:24:43] Unknown:
Not nobody knows, but, like, most people just don't know. And then the ones that do know, like, we there's, like, there's nothing we can do about it. Yep. Right? Until something you know, until Bitcoin was created. Right? There really was no not even a thing you could do about it other than to say well played.
[00:25:00] Unknown:
Yeah.
[00:25:02] Unknown:
Right? Yep. So, anyway, I don't know. That was, like, a fun thing a fun thing. But, like, the way I'm thinking about, like, why does this matter? Like, we it's like we we need to you know, we're trying to return to a standard basis. But I guess Everything we see is wrong because we think it's under a standard basis, but it's not. So everything we see is is distorted.
[00:25:30] Unknown:
Yeah. It's like the fish not knowing it's wet.
[00:25:34] Unknown:
Correct. That's right. Yeah. So, like right. We're not supposed to know any of this. Like, we're not supposed to know what a basis is. We're not supposed to know what money is necessarily. What do you mean when you say supposed to know? What do you mean? Like I guess, like, we're supposed to just live and try to make you know? Mhmm. The need to typically, when you have to distinguish these things, it's not it's not good news. So, like, you know, I I talk about some of these things all the time. Like, nope. There was no nobody was, like, overweight before you knew what a calorie was. And you would think that, oh, well, now we're smarter. We know what a calorie is. We should we should now right the ship and improve everything, but it just gets worse. Right? I think the knowledge of the calories actually has a lot to do with, obesity.
[00:26:28] Unknown:
Well, it it it creates a false, like, it's a false metric to measure by. Right? Calories in calories out is, like, if you wanna get down to, like, just absolute fundamentals, it's like, okay. Yes. Calories in calories out determines the weight, but the quality of the calories is, like, arguably more important because it's not just the caloric intake. It's the substance and the nutritious density of those calories. And, sure, you can live on, you know, 2,000 calories of just starch, but the quality is not gonna be great because you need more than just starch.
[00:27:06] Unknown:
Right. So the point being, I actually think that thinking you know what a calorie is is actually been is actually a determining factor of why we have the obesity problem.
[00:27:20] Unknown:
I think it would be more of thinking, you know,
[00:27:24] Unknown:
the implications. You think you know something that yes. Yes. It's because it's to say, it's not what you know. It's not what you don't know that gets you. It's what you think you know, and it just ain't so. Okay. Next example. Next example, cholesterol. Right? Before we knew a cholesterol before we knew what that word was, there was no heart disease.
[00:27:42] Unknown:
Right.
[00:27:43] Unknown:
And I think we have heart disease because we know we think we know what cholesterol is. And I go back to Tim Russert, who people listening to this don't know the fuck he was, but he was, like, he was, a journalist. And, he was very famous, like, in the nineties or super famous, like, Sunday show journalist. Okay. And he was considered to be the healthiest guy on the planet because he had a little very, very low cholesterol, like, one twenty. And famously, he died first heart attack. He got a heart attack and died immediately.
[00:28:18] Unknown:
Interesting.
[00:28:20] Unknown:
And, you know, it's like, oh, you know, it turns out it's not something you want to make as low as possible. Yeah. It turns out. But, like, the fact that everyone thinks they know what this is, it's not a coincidence that that we have the problem. Right? Yeah. That this this distinction of something that really was never necessary to think we knew to begin with, this distinction of it has actually caused the problem. Right? Right. I'm sure I could do a better job of explaining why. Okay. Oh, well, okay. Well, now we have medications that try to lower it that actually destroy people's health. Right? Well, and it's Like these statin drugs and things like that. It's the misaligned incentives. Right? So, like, if you can find this this standard basis that is,
[00:29:04] Unknown:
profitable that you can use and whatever to whatever as a means to whatever end you want. And if those ends are not necessarily aligned with the good of humanity, right, like, you can you can falsely come to the assumption that, hey. This is the correct basis to to base on, like and it's working. Right? We have the quote, unquote ways we have the engineered ways to make it quote, unquote work. But over time, like, time is the great equalizer. Right? The standard basis of everything should be in nature.
[00:29:37] Unknown:
And, you know, until 02/2009, Bitcoin nothing there was nothing there was no standard basis in nature, I would say. And I think Bitcoin is in nature. Yeah. It's like you know, it is now. It was put in nature. Right? Yeah. It doesn't grow out of the ground, but it was put into the world as something now that part of the world that happens automatically. When I say in nature, I mean not controlled by not controlled by man. Right. Right? Controlled outside of our control. So, you know, the answer to obesity and heart disease, those answers are in nature. Like, you go out, you have the you know, you go out in the sun, you go out you can find the standard basis of sunlight, find the standard basis of electromagnetism, the standard basis of water. Right.
And the standard basis of how we all those things are free because they're in nature. And this these standard bases is what you're what we're kind of looking for. But doesn't mean it had to exist a billion years ago because like I said, Bitcoin, that's why it's such a great exception, and it really make requires us to be on our toes mentally that not you know, just because something is invented does not mean it's not in nature. Maybe the the the better question is, is it nature's better question is is are we is there a standard basis? Okay. Because there didn't exist a standard basis for money.
And, you know, knowing what money is is not has only allowed people to corrupt it even more. It's just it's a so anytime so it's like when when we find ourselves with something that never needed to be distinguished to begin with, but once it was, it actually made the problem worse. The answer is, well, we wanna find the standard basis of this thing. And I think, you know, arguably, Satoshi and his predecessors figure this out and
[00:31:30] Unknown:
tried and tried and tried and find finally, you know, the standard basis was created and put and put in Well, even saying put into nature. Even saying that Bitcoin is a standard basis, though, I think, like, you you could even reduce that even farther to the math that underpins Bitcoin. Right? Because it's not like, Bitcoin is a man manifestation of these various cryptographic principles in a combination that gives us this ultrasound money.
[00:31:54] Unknown:
But it's how it propagates in nature through humans is why it works. Mhmm. That's what and that's what makes it sort you know what I mean? It's like, and, you know, a bit you know, 30,000 shit coins are proof as to why its properties aren't necessarily the reason it becomes a standard basis. It's more of its implementation through the decentralized population. And their insistence on those property, on the on these specific properties, right, it's everyone's sort of conscious choice and action to uphold, right? That's what makes it in nature.
Right? A phenom like a sort of a natural phenomena.
[00:32:40] Unknown:
What and it just makes me think of just, like, economics is a natural phenomena. It's human action. Right? It's the people making the choices and determining either directly or indirectly what their standard basis is.
[00:32:54] Unknown:
Yes. And so distinguishing things the the reason why these distinctions made made these systems worse is because people do have a tendency to wanna play God. Yeah. Yeah. Right? And, you know, we get reminded by God that, Yeah. You know what? You wanna play God with calories? Have fun with everyone being fat fucks. You wanna play God with fucking cholesterol? Have fun with everyone fucking having heart disease. Treated depleted
[00:33:28] Unknown:
children is what you end up with.
[00:33:31] Unknown:
Yeah. You wanna play God with vaccines, have fun with autoimmune disease all over the fucking world. You wanna play God with all this shit, dude. It's it's and that's why so, like, the answer is easily if you just reverse engineer all that, it's like, okay. Well, okay. What are the standard basis answers for all these things? Well so that you you go back you go back to nature, and sometimes these things don't exist in nature. Right? Those are great targets for tyrants. If I was a tyrant, I would say, okay. Yeah. What kind of coop and where the answer is not in nature. Right? Yeah. So money was great for a long time until until it wasn't. Right? Until, like, inevitable that somebody will create something.
[00:34:10] Unknown:
Well, in the natural standard basis is what made money great again. Right? Like, it's the it's returned to to nature, and this is the whole Yeah. Like, I feel like this is, like, an expounding on the name of, like, put your phone down, go touch grass. Right? Like, just go go contemplate. Go think go return to what is the natural ordering of things, and and how can we tie this new realm of digital cyberspace to like, how can you tie the ephemeral to the real
[00:34:40] Unknown:
or the physical rather? Maybe not the real. And to get even more specific with it, like, take, you know, take Bitcoin. So government tries to play God and attack it. They do KYC, and they, you know, really try to co opt it. And then something like samurai comes up and then works and opposes it. Doesn't fix it, but it definitely puts a, you know, it puts a it's a major major thorn in the side, and the government tries to wipe that out. And then, like, you know, a couple you know, now we have the Ashigaru guys back. It's like well, open source software is like, in it open source software is what I you know, this is something that I really am remiss. I mentioned this in the Rock Paper Bitcoin episode. I'm really remiss that I missed this in my book. I missed
[00:35:27] Unknown:
The code of open source?
[00:35:29] Unknown:
Well, I I spend a lot of time explaining. I'm trying to really, what I do in my book is try to explain to normies who run companies why Bitcoin is valuable. Mhmm. And it starts a lot with on the at the individual level, why do people, you know, why is Bitcoin never going away? Why is it gonna why will it win? Why why do people value it? And I missed the fact that I missed the open source piece of this, that it's so it's like and I think what we're talking about right now really finally hits it where it's like, you know, open source software can become something that's in nature. That's like a standard basis in nature.
And it's a it's a lesson learned. Stop. You can't stop it. Yes, it can't be stopped. And it's just a little example. I feel like the samurai slash ashigaru, call it a weed, right? You can't stop it. You just can't stop you know, you can try to weed you can try to weed these fuckers, but, you know, it's open source software, and, you know, like, it's only a matter of time. You know, maybe Craig Raw doesn't wanna integrate it in the Sparrow because he he's maybe he feels sketchy about
[00:36:44] Unknown:
getting Ashigaru Ashigaru in the Sparrow. Nobody wants to be locked in a cage.
[00:36:48] Unknown:
But the what I'm saying is somebody is can anyone can go to the GitHub and do it. Yeah. And, eventually, we'll probably be here a year from now when we we say, oh my god. Guess what? There's a version of Sparrow now that integrates Ashlagore, which is how a lot of people did samurai. So my point is just it's really about really about open source software. It was is a way to create something in nature Mhmm. That but people have to adopt it and it puts so and it it creates a standard basis for things that have been corrupted. Yeah. It's a so but and it's very hard. You can't play God. No one person can just say, you know what? I'm creating open source software. I'm gonna put something in nature. Right?
30,000 people have tried to do this with, all coins. It it needs to be genuinely adopted, and it needs to be an idea whose time has come that it's going to get, like, open source software without a lot of attention, a lot of eyes, and a lot of testing isn't gonna be worth much. Right? Yeah. But after the fact, it's basically in nature and incredibly powerful. It's essentially like proof of work. It's essentially right? It's essentially a proof of work consensus. Right? It's you can't undo it. Like, you hit a point where it can't be undone. It's per like, it's permanently in nature.
[00:38:09] Unknown:
The this this is the irrefutable cryptographic math that I was referring to when talking about the BPI stuff. Because, like, I I talked about samurai wallet developers. I was like, listen. We have developers in jail for writing open source software that they never touched. Like, these and I also made sure to elaborate, like, the the, ancient law framework that we have around, like, the Bank Secrecy Act and all this other stuff is just bullshit, and it stands in blatant face of of reality. Interesting. Yeah. Yeah. I know the like, the thing I lobbied for, the thing I spoke the most about was a section in some law thing that's like, it's in this market structure bill. Right? So, like, it's called the Clarity Act, and it's all the shitcoiner, stablecoiner people that wanna do whatever. But there's a key component in there that basically exempts noncustodial software providers from falling under the Bank Secrecy Act because they can't practically comply with it even if they wanted to because of the very nature of the service that they're running.
And my elaboration is like, hey. Don't throw the guy in the don't throw the the maker of the hammer in jail because somebody bought a hammer and went and hit somebody else with it. Right? And Mhmm. And the hammer is gonna exist regardless. Like, no. Somebody else is gonna make the hammer.
[00:39:25] Unknown:
You can't stop a hammer.
[00:39:28] Unknown:
No. You can only try to You can't
[00:39:32] Unknown:
try to prohibit it. Right? And then Try to make a you can't touch this MC Hammer joke there. Just there was nothing there. I'm too young. Sorry.
[00:39:42] Unknown:
I did hear that song in the Dodge Stratus that my mom drove around once upon a time, but the,
[00:39:49] Unknown:
yeah. That song re re resurrected Rick James. Yeah. That and then the Chappelle show. You know? It's just like that that cycle.
[00:40:00] Unknown:
I love the Chappelle show. Yeah. I I I look forward. I haven't listened to the Ashigaru website, But, I mean, since they launched, it's been something on my radar. And the crazy I I threw out a crazy idea actually at one of the, you know, the the events, after the fact where you get around with all the people that are building in the space and talking. I'm like, hey. Listen. Here's a crazy crazy idea. The the idea is you spin up an Ashigarh or Whirlpool. You label it as a white hat. You know? Hey. We protect you from the dark web. Right? Or you could you could market it however you want. Like, we protect you from cybercriminals or or whatever by offering you privacy for your digital money.
Right? Like, if you want privacy for your Bitcoin, there's nothing morally wrong with that. And so why wouldn't it be a legitimate white hat white hat business that is offering these services with the marketing of, hey. Protect yourself from cyber criminals. Use our insert white labeled name of Ashigaru Whirlpool.
[00:40:59] Unknown:
Yeah. Or yeah. Or should we let every or just everyone just does it? Or would just or or just or, you know, you know what the government could do? They could just abolish KYC and wipe it all up wipe it all off. This would all go away. I also Would all go none of this but all of these little biological systems would go away. Yeah. Because all these biological systems are a response to the to the first big threat to to the beehive, which was KYC. Right? Yeah. And these idiots don't understand how damaging and how dangerous and how nefarious KYC really is. Do, and they understand There's no power it offers them. I don't think they really understood the idea of honeypots, and I don't think they've understood any like, I don't think it was the you know?
[00:41:52] Unknown:
Maybe I am naive. Not. Right? Like, because the digital age didn't exist when these laws were crafted. And that's that was one of the assertions is, like, there's a new paradigm now.
[00:42:02] Unknown:
But even when what was the year that, like, Coinbase had to start KYC ing people? Like Yeah. I don't know. 2020 or 2021. Right. I don't I don't like, even at that point in time, I don't think they were thinking, hey. Great. These exchanges will create honeypots of data that will get hacked. And, I don't think they were thinking that far ahead. I don't think they knew how what I'm saying is they I think they grossly I'm not now if they did know, I don't think it would change anything. I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that they had these people do these things, and they play god without having any idea of the repercussions. But we knew and so, you know, of course, enough Bitcoiners understood this threat that they created samurai and, you know, before being totally co opted with Sabi.
[00:42:51] Unknown:
Well, it's not even Bitcoiners. Right? It's the cypherpunks.
[00:42:54] Unknown:
Like, it's the Right. We've become we've become the post block size word, I guess, has sort of been filtered into Bitcoiners. But, well, in this case So yeah. So my so, that this is all this is thirty minutes to say I have I hate math right now. Yeah. Like, I truly am choking every like, I have to really will myself through these several hours. And then it's those little insights that I get that I, like, just got to talk about that make it all worth it. But this is part of the journey, and I still do it. I'm a glutton for punishment because I you know Well, my daughter's about to take advanced linear algebra this fall, and we were gonna spend the summer working on it. And it's just, ugh, it's just destroying me. But, like, I I I feel like linear algebra to it then.
It's so important that it can't you know, like, I can't just I can't just
[00:43:50] Unknown:
abdicate it. You know? It's like, what what have you ever done that was worth doing that wasn't difficult? Right? Like, there's
[00:43:58] Unknown:
Just podcast. No. Just kidding. This podcast is this is the hardest one, dude. This one is, like, the heart of all the podcasts that I do. Right? This one's gotta be the hardest.
[00:44:07] Unknown:
Well, and this one will pass. Like, the the And it will. Yeah. Resistance of linear algebra will pass because it's the forming of new neural pathways in your brain. Right? Like, it's it is a change. Like, you're you're you are catalyzing yourself to change. You're catalyzing yourself to change to understand something that is going to be worth it, and that's, like, that's the
[00:44:29] Unknown:
I underestimated I think, like, when I dove into the math rabbit hole, I got lucky with abstract algebra because I think I'm just suited for it or or it's super or it's easy. I don't know the answer. It's either easy or I'm suited for it. But, like, now that I've gotten into something that's genuinely, like, it's just, like, difficult for me.
[00:44:50] Unknown:
Well, I mean, and this is a it's an eco check. And that's probably why it's so hard for you to be completely on it. Like, you you you know you're good at what you do. And so getting up here and talking about this thing that you hate because of these griefs that you have with it, that's, like, that's part of the ego death.
[00:45:10] Unknown:
Yeah. I it's more yeah. It's capitulating and accepting it. I mean, I still like, the I the thing that I struggle with is I'm like, why the fuck am I even doing this? It's like, what I'm not you know? It's not my fault. Right to build. You have a math again. Right. Right. So, like, that's the that's the question, right, that ends up it's like, the fuck am I doing this? Why don't I just stop? But I don't. And so why is that? Why do I why am I struggling with it as opposed to just stopping and enjoying my life? Right? And I think that that's that's more that's a that's a more interesting question. Right? That's a much more math academy without linear algebra. Right? Like you stated before, it is it's a prolific thing
[00:45:48] Unknown:
that has broad implications
[00:45:51] Unknown:
across several domains. Yeah. I could Yeah. You have to. I could I could find enough PhDs that know this that, you know, like, I know linear I know linear algebra enough to do, to build machine learning code. You know? Like, it's not, like, it's not like I'm figuring it. Then. What like, what's the motivation? Well, because now that now I see because I because this hump I do feel like getting over this hump. There's I I'm too curious about what my life will be like and what my abilities will be if I were to get over this hump. I'm now like, I can't I can't ignore that curiosity.
I'm a fucked up person.
[00:46:35] Unknown:
No. I don't think so.
[00:46:37] Unknown:
I mean I feel like I I have this idea that every like like that everything, like, everything is I how I should think is that, I'm not actually strong enough to really build this thing, and I have to get through these things to build the strength to do that. But how I actually think is, like, oh, oh, this is a juicy Jedi skill that I feel I can't ignore. Like, my life will change if I learn if I really become good at linear algebra and no longer suffering with it, imagine all the other things I'll be able to do. And that's just how my brain works, and I'm twisted, but that's what gets me going.
[00:47:16] Unknown:
Or you could take a different perspective on it, and you've identified, a chink in the plan that you will need help with. Right? Like, that's that like, no no man is an island sort of thing.
[00:47:31] Unknown:
Well, there's, like, five other there's, dude, there's, like, five other things that require, like, three year rabbit holes for me to master. Fucking analysis Right. Real analysis, complex analysis. There's things there's also, like, I don't have my whole life. I have to actually be a little discerning about what I'm gonna choose to tackle because, you know, I'm getting to a point where I don't have the rest of my life to just sit and try to master this. It's but then the way to think about it is I but I still have to wake up tomorrow and hit it and hit something.
[00:48:03] Unknown:
Yeah. So like something, though. Right? Like This is the life. Domains then. This is the life I've chosen,
[00:48:09] Unknown:
right, where I do where my mornings up until eight, 9AM is about tackling this, and it's about right? And and about being that person.
[00:48:21] Unknown:
Well, and if this a if this is a labor, though. Right? Like, if it is a labor so much so that you you're saying you you hate math, you hate doing this specific type of math.
[00:48:30] Unknown:
I hate math right now. I don't hate math. I hate this.
[00:48:34] Unknown:
What? Build in the reprieve. Like, what go start down another rabbit hole. Those whatever those other ones you just mentioned, the analysis stuff,
[00:48:44] Unknown:
just Well, I on that. That's what this is. This is a break from from the cryptography textbook. And now it's like, oh, shit, dude. So you need a break from the break? In fact, yeah. And, I mean, analysis was something I dove into hard last year. Okay. And I I I went through two textbooks, and I'm like, alright. I gotta get back to abstract algebra. See, linear algebra is just another part of that. For me, part of the abstract algebra stack. Anyhow, yeah. I mean, it is what it is. Like, the the the answer is don't fight it. Don't quit and be okay not liking it. And because I think that's what it takes to be these to upgrade yourself in math. You you know, if it were easy, everyone would do it, and we wouldn't need to do this.
Yeah. And if I'm, like, really if I really want, everyone to upgrade themselves in math, you know, I have to I've gotta be the one to suffer so that, you know, I understand it. I I intimately understand the suffering, and it's okay.
[00:49:54] Unknown:
Must do it. If you must do it, then do it tired.
[00:49:59] Unknown:
Right? Like, if it must be done, then there's no other Should've ended the podcast on that one. If you must do it, do it tired.
[00:50:06] Unknown:
Yeah.
[00:50:07] Unknown:
We It's nothing to fix. You know, it's not something that it needs to be fixed. It's literally just the reality it's a reality to acknowledge, and I wanted to share here because that's what we're all interested in, and this is part of the journey. Just is. Right?
[00:50:24] Unknown:
And it's the I my mind goes to fitness because it's like the first time you get under a squat bar, you're not throwing on two twenty five and repping it out. Right? Like, it's a Yep. You you have to build to it. You still show up.
[00:50:39] Unknown:
And showing up is the hardest part. Then that could be the that could be where we close. What do you think? Do you have anything else you wanna cover? No. Alright. Cool.
[00:50:50] Unknown:
Stop. Where is my mind? Where is my mind? Where is my mind? My
