Episode 59 - Personal Development: The Critical Point

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The Story:

Many people are content to cruise through life without thinking too deeply about things, without questioning their own motivations, focusing on personal development, formulating a long-term plan, developing a strategy and being as honest as they possibly can with the man in the mirror. Without introspection, self-analysis and self-knowledge, one can be lead down the wrong path, mislead by their culture, mass media, friends and family, dictated to about what is important without ever extending the glance beyond the veil, beyond the superficial.

As I once wrote:
“You better be really sure of who you are and what you want from yourself,
Because there’s a lot of people who’d prefer you be someone else.”

It’s no surprise that years later many people can wake up to a mid-life crisis, or worse, a death-bed crisis, realising that they’ve wasted their lives and being so far off-target, that they don’t even know how to get back to shore. The stereotype of a middle-aged man buying a sports car and dating a much younger, attractive and vapid woman is a tragic manifestation of this, the man trying to recapture his youth, while at the same time not really remembering what it means to be young, to be full of hope about making a better world, open to possibilities and having the audacity to confront established norms. A new Ferrari and a set of fake tits in your face doesn’t even qualify as a consolation prize.

What does it take to be successful? What does it mean to be successful? Who can help you be successful, and what is the real meaning of the phrase “self-reliance”? We explore these questions and more with our friend Charlie “Carlos” Selman, discussing an essay by Exosphere founder Skinner Layne, “The Critical Point”. Join us as we embark on a journey of self-exploration in the next exciting chapter of … The Paradise Paradox!

The Links:

Mastery: The Keys to Success and Long-Term Fulfillment

The Magic of Thinking Big

Think and Grow Rich: The Landmark Bestseller – Now Revised and Updated for the 21st Century

How to Win Friends & Influence People

The Guy In The Glass poem

Bahá’í Faith on Wikipedia

Plato’s cave on Wikipedia

Heraclitus on Wikipedia

Sunk cost fallacy on Wikipedia

The Critical Point by Skinner Layne

Episode 52 – The Panopticon & Your Privacy: Juan Galt

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The Story:

The Panopticon was a well-crafted piece of architecture which allowed just a couple of guards to watch an entire prison. The prisoners never knew exactly when they were being watched, but they always knew that the potential was there. Juan Galt made the case in his article “Anne Frank Had ‘Something to Hide’ and Something to Fear“, that this is a perfect analogy for the modern surveillance state, the many programs which officially exist to keep us safe from terrorism, but in fact are one of the greatest examples of mass government overreach that the world has ever seen, short of genocide.

It’s common that when you present these facts to regular people, they will say “But why does it matter? I really don’t think I’m that important that they’ll want to see my information.” Yet, when one organisation, or one agent of an organisation, has this much power, it really doesn’t matter whether you’re important or not. When someone is that powerful, they can dig up your personal information, and probably destroy your life, for a personal vendetta or even for a joke. So what can we do about this?

I had another chance to interview Juan Galt and talk about security, privacy, a few things you can do to protect yourself, and how technology will be used by regular people in the near future to evade the clutches of domineering governments.

Join us both on this next exhilarating episode of… The Paradise Paradox!

The Links:

Juan Galt’s articles on Cointelegraph

Ethereum prepares for take-off – on Cointelegraph

Anne Frank Had ‘Something to Hide’ and Something to Fear (Op-Ed) – on Cointelegraph

The Crypto Anarchist Manifesto

Neuromancer

Facebook is expanding the way it tracks your data

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Episode 50 – Ethereum & The Future: Juan Galt

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The Cash:

We really appreciate all of your contributions! Every cent and satoshi we receive lets us know that we’re doing something worthwhile, that you are entertained by our program, and that you’re starting to question what you know more and more. Please be generous. Donate to The Paradise Paradox here! Or buy some stuff on Amazon using this link.

The Story:

In 2008, an unknown, man, women or team going by the pseudonym “Satoshi Nakamoto” released some code to a cryptography mailing list, informing the small group of nerds that he had created something interesting, and say they should use it if they liked it, giving birth to the world of “cryptocurrency”. What has happened since has created a strange kind of chaos and order, and formed a foundation for a new world. People have used Bitcoin for charity, such as the organisation Bitcoin Not Bombs and Sean’s Outpost. Others have used it for profit or (what some might consider) more questionable means, such as gambling, selling drugs, firearms. Other, more nefarious agents have used it as an excuse to prosecute, destroying the lives of people such asCharlie Shrem and Ross Ulbricht.

Yet the march of progress continues. The pace of technological development is increasing so rapidly, we don’t necessarily even know how the technology is going to be used when it arrives.Bitcoin has been compared by some to the combustion engine, in terms of how it will change the way it will permeate our lives, changing the nature of every transaction it touches. And yet, thousands of clever people are scrambling to devise the next iteration, the next generation of blockchain technology that fully exploits the potential of Satoshi Nakamoto’s gift. One of those new iterations is Ethereum.

The other day The Paradise Paradox had a chance to interview Juan Galt, journalist forCointelegraph, traveller, and all-round cool guy. What kind of developments will Ethereum allow? Can we make lawyers and escrows obsolete using smart contracts? What threats and benefits do autonomous Internet economic actors present to us?

We ask all these questions and more in this exciting development of … The Paradise Paradox!

The Links:

Ethereum prepares for take-off – on Cointelegraph

Ethereum price skyrockets as Ethereum confirms launch – on Cointelegraph

Ethereum announces official launch date – on Cointelegraph

Ethereum: the World Computer

The Crypto Anarchist Manifesto

Neuromancer

Facebook is expanding the way it tracks your data

The Internet of Things is Bigger than Anyone Realised – on Wired

Attorney-General struggles to explain metadata

So you think you’re smarter than a CIA agent – analysts vs regular people

League of Legends gambling with Bitcoin

The War on Drugs is a War on People – on The Paradise Paradox

AI “MarI/O” plays Super Mario World

Non-Aggression Principle

Elon Musk & Stephen Hawking warn about autonomous killing machines

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Episode 49 – Charlie Carlos

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The Story:

A man steps off an aeroplane in a foreign country, with little more than a few bags, a few changes of clothes. This man is no stranger to foreign countries, having travelled through his own country as a child, with his belongings stuffed in the back of a Mazda MQ, and just recently has skipped from the beaches of Sri Lanka to the ghettoes of Los Angeles. An experienced traveller with all of his bridges burnt, within days he is forming sentences in the land he has just discovered. The land is Mexico, and that man’s name is “Charlie”, but in Mexico he goes by “Carlos”. This fellow is a rugged mix of academic theory studied in a university, and raw experience of life.

Now, upon arrival in Mexico, he realises that he has no safety net, as his government has decided to stop giving him money to study. Can he survive in a foreign country with nothing but a Tarzan-like grasp of the local language, his Tarzan-like stature, and his wits?

In this episode, Carlos tells us about his adventures in Australia, Sri Lanka, the USA, and his philosophical adventures, criticisms of the higher education system in Australia, and his ideas about ideas.

The Links:

Free Ross

Panel about Silk Road trial at Anarchapulco

The Fallacy of Misplaced Concreteness on Wikipedia

Akon is bringing electricity to 600 million in Africa

A Tribe Called Quest – I Left My Wallet in El Segundo

Ghanaian entrepreneur: Growth hindered by foreign aid

Thomas Sowell – The effects of welfare

Mises.org – Austrian economics, freedom and peace

Episode 48 – The French Arizonian Mexican: Taylor Alan

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The Cash:

We really appreciate all of your contributions! Every cent and satoshi we receive lets us know that we’re doing something worthwhile, that you are entertained by our program, and that you’re starting to question what you know more and more. Please be generous. Donate to The Paradise Paradox.

The Story:

Living in the USA, the media bombards you with stories telling you that you should accept immigrants, or that you should be afraid of immigrants stealing your welfare benefits. When trapped in a limited media FOX/CNN right/left propaganda paradigm, it may be difficult to overlook the fact that more and more people are deciding to leave the USA and never come back. Some of them are looking for the principles of liberty and opportunity that made America great. Some of them are increasingly concerned about political risk. And some of them just want an opportunity to break their daily routine, leave the ordinary life behind, and find what mysteries the world has to present to them.

Naturally, some of these adventurers have decided to spend some time in Magical Mexico. Kurt’s neighbour Taylor Alan is one of these gringos that decided to explore the world, if only by accident. On a month-long family trip to France, she met a charming local and decided not to leave.

In this episode, we interview Ms. Alan and find out how she managed to survive France barely speaking the language, her easy-going attitude, and how she ended up in Mexico.

Join us on another exciting, world-shattering adventure on… The Paradise Paradox!

The Links:

MiGringa Inglés on Facebook

Mexico is not a hellhole

Trump bashes Mexico in a speech

Cover image used and modified under Creative CommonsOriginal image here, by Kevin Dooley.

Episode 44 – Down at the Ashram: Link McElvenny

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We really appreciate all of your contributions! Every cent and satoshi we receive lets us know that we’re doing something worthwhile, that you are entertained by our program, and that you’re starting to question what you know more and more. Please be generous. Donate by BitCoin:182CzJUbz8xb1JZjuVm2S4YUBfd3xk2XfM

Episode 18 – Christoph Heuermann Bitnation Governance 2.0


Bitnation is the platform freeing the masses, providing access to services traditionally performed by government. The decentralised system will allow people to obtain passports, register marriages, property and businesses. Now government can be voluntary, and the blockchain does all the work of the bureaucrats.

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Please donate to show your support. BitCoin address: 182CzJUbz8xb1JZjuVm2S4YUBfd3xk2XfM

EPISODE 17 - Luke Rudkowski

Luke Rudkowksi of We Are Change and leader in the 9/11 truth movement was in Guadalajara for a few days and we got a chance to take him for the traditional Mexican drink pulque, and squeeze in this interview. Luke talks about the personal qualities it takes to be a revolutionary journalist, confronting your fears, the falsity and deception of mainstream media, climate change, Occupy Wall Street and Anarchapulco.

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