hmichellerose on Nostr: Pretty much every Bitcoiner I know has a story about losing funds. I’m unaffected ...

Pretty much every Bitcoiner I know has a story about losing funds. I’m unaffected by this latest disaster, but I’ve lost funds in other mishaps. We all have.

If this one affects you, I want to tell you that money really isn’t all that important. Which may sound insane when you’re staring at a zero balance with that pit in your stomach. And it’s also a strange thing for a Bitcoiner, with a degree in economics, to say. But, more accurately, I want to tell you that the accumulation of personal wealth is not very relevant to living a good or happy life.

Now how money functions, the type of money that the world uses, that is very impactful. I don’t work in Bitcoin to stack sats, or build a citadel, or to drive a lambo, I do this work to separate money from state, to remove a giant concentration of power from the world. And having meaningful work in my life does make me a happier person.

Where you spend your time and energy is wildly important, but wealth, the accumulation of stuff, is a different beast entirely. If this one affects you, I want to shake you and yell at you… WEALTH DOES NOT MAKE YOU A BETTER OR HAPPIER PERSON. Please believe me, I checked! ...a few times.

I’ve been lucky enough to have seen this issue from many different angles. I grew up in a household that had some wild swings in income. One year a trailer in Florida, one year a month long vacation in Europe. I’ve lived in a roach filled studio apartment on the wrong side of town, and in a house so big you might get lost. I’ve lived among the poors and partied with the super wealthy. One time my ex won the lottery and then fell into a depression. True story. I’ve got some experience with this one!

So many of us grew up with the belief that money is how you measure personal value and worth. That understanding is deep in our bones. I believed that for a long time and I fought really hard to ‘get into the room’, and then hated it there. Getting out of poverty will make you happy, but from there the more you climb that ladder, the more you find yourself in rooms filled with people absolutely desperate to prove themselves via money. People who have lost their soul. That is not winning.

The accumulation of wealth is not an interesting or valuable goal in life. You can’t take the money with you. You can’t take the Twitter follower count with you. You can’t take the perfectly decorated giant house with you.

You do take your story with you. And your story just got a wild new chapter. Welcome to the club.