Here we are for another thought-piece from Gordon. Now everyone who ever played Half Life/2/E1/2 can understand why I never had anything to say inside the game. I was too busy working on my stuff everywhere else.
Smart phones; everyone's got 'em. Ironically, most people don't seem to mind the fact that they are pretty dumb, and the last thing we use them for is to talk to other people. But, PDA is so 2001 and the other names that would be more accurate are just too long.
It doesn't help to call that device my GPS-SMS-Camera-Vid-Streamer. For some, they can just call it my "make Apple a gazillion dollars" or my "Google amplifier". There's a lot going on in that little nightmarish Orwellian freedom-snatching miracle of technology. But, ironically, we get a little freedom in trade for the ridiculousness, and I am a tech guy at heart. So, I get it, but I loath what people are willing to trade for a little addictive liking and sharing.
Not so much a rant, as some active thinking. But, the moral of the story is, the phone almost doesn't matter as a phone, and even if it did, we could easily just use the wi-fi to vid phone or stream audio to audio and stop paying for anything remotely making use of the cell towers. The latest growth in the use of so-what-if-they're-phones is for things like Apple Pay and Google Pay. On the one hand, if everyone is expected to carry around their physical ID's, their credit cards or paper fiat, and we just simply know they've got their <phones> on 'em too, then sure it is just logical that the money is in the phone already. On the other hand, a lot of us only made it this far because someone along the way taught us that you have to work hard to attain a little wealth, so spend it wisely.
I don't think 30-and-unders for the most part are being taught a single thing about money. In addition, I think it is more widely accepted, even assumed, that things should be covered for them until some time in the future when they're done figuring out what to do with their lives, and the longer a person fails to connect the challenges of earning to the value in spending, convenience is a tool for evil. Or, just a little too easy to spend on everything.
We already see it, but no one wants to talk about the inconvenient truths about (not Al Gore's, but the rest of us). Money needs to be just inconvenient enough to spend, that the person realizes it hurts a little to have less of it.
Sometimes they should bridge the gap between a regular coffee and a super-mega-frothy-creamy-moca-lottalove-alatte-frapadelic that costs 5X more.
Sometimes it shouldn't be as easy as a swipe and a smile, to put a small crater in your monthly stipend.
What's more, is if the phone-bank is that easy to extract funds out, others will find ways to make it that much easier to be the one's to relieve you of said funds, and we meet new forms of security.
Wherever there is security, there is a small price paid in freedom. Wherever there is technical freedom and ease of use, there is a loss of both.
So, just keep it in mind that the phone is certainly the next wallet, and that is not going to go away. It is not a bad thing, but it has the potential to allow really bad thinking as a result.
Crypto has the power to free people from bad decisions of the past. But, the phone as a delivery agent for crypto needs to be given a lot of thought. Whether it is magic, digital, or decentralized, it is still cold hard cash, and that comes with effort and sacrifice.
Be sure to spend it wisely.
I hope you find this a benefit. If so, TIP! :-)
Gordon Freeman Out.
For the funny stuff, go here:
https://www.publish0x.com/crypto-satire-fake-news-ripped-from-the-headlines
