The singular for spaghetti is spaghetto

…sounds like a troubled side of town in Italy.

Before Smartphones

Some lines from this brilliant Substack post.

…I did not take photos of myself, was not filtered, and had no idea what I looked like as a bunny rabbit, puppy, or unicorn.

…I had no idea how many steps I’d walked or stairs I’d climbed…

…I read cereal boxes while eating breakfast and shampoo bottles while sitting on the toilet…

…Quizzes were just for students and I did not know which ice cream flavor matched my personality, who should play my BFF in a movie of my life…

Racing Glaciers

Bubble gum music usually boosts artists into stardom, it’s catchy, engineered to hit the dopamine spots.

Indie bands hit different though.

Advice is a form of nostalgia. It’s someone’s attempt to synthesise their experiences, not an accurate statement about how the world works.

Water is Life

These hydropanels use the power of the sun to extract an endless volume of clean drinking water from the air.

Underground Power

London’s underground network (the tube) uses around 1.6TWh a year to function.

The strong winds felt on platforms and around stations is caused by the piston effect. It’s generated by the trains pushing air forward through the tunnels, and the drawing of air down into the tunnels through draught-relief shafts.

Here’s what I’m thinking – There’s a crap ton of fans noticeable in stations, is it possible to adapt them to act like micro wind turbines? It could harness the wind to power stations as it’s generated and revert to traditional means when fan-created power loses momentum – like a hybrid car. This way we wouldn’t need to worry about batteries just yet.

Even 1% of energy derived from this method would be a staggering improvement.

Growing Underground uses hydroponic systems and LEDs to grow crops pesticide-free using 100% renewable energy. They grow salads 33 metres below the pavements of Clapham, London, drastically reducing transportation emissions.

I didn’t wear sunglasses till I hit mid-20s, thinking it was only for celebrities.

Also, I don’t trust people who wear shades indoors.

Value

Value is deeply subjective and stems from the mind, even if economists believe value is derived from a production process.

Cars are homogenous in most regards: the tech, the ability to transport, the aesthetics. But given the choice between a Mercedes and a Peugeot, which would you choose? And why?

You are accepted to a university with the best lecturers for your chosen discipline, a diverse social scene, on a campus most fitting for you…. you also get accepted to Oxford. Which would you instinctively choose?

Much of what we do is decided by whether other people value it.

Lightning Protocol

Lightning is underrated. I’m not sure how many people know it can be piggybacked to create decentralised applications like Signal or a VPN. Programmable money means the payment rails are data rails. Data flowing through pipes of money.

For example, Sphinx uses Lightning’s rails to send text messages free from censorship or corporate oversight. Using three of the last four words has grown to feel dangerous, as if you have something to hide. However, you’re anti-censorship if you agree Twitter shouldn’t be blocked in whole countries (e.g. Nigeria, China). You’re probably anti-corporate oversight if you’re against unfettered mining and monetisation of your data.

If Lightning stimulates layer 3 protocols, there’s potential to build tools that make today’s internet easier. Imagine not needing to give away your email, kicking off a lifetime of spam and tracking, to access sites. What if a micropayment provided you with access going forward, like a token at a fairground, but one that belongs to you forever. What if a micropayment incentivises paywalls to step aside, detracting less users and boosting traffic for creators.

If I hadn’t mentioned it, would you know this was about Bitcoin, and what it enables?