John

Largest economic category of people on earth are working minimum wage or less than minimum wage jobs, or are unemployed. They maaybe have a high school degree at best, but many wont. Think Third World and Developing countries, which is majority of the world. They're stuck at their dead end jobs you and I would consider slavery. These folks don't have much knowledge or access to any form of birth control. All they see growing up is big families living in small homes. Girls get married off young. Poor people are having lots of kids now cuz up until the last ~100 years, that's just what humans did for most of our specie's history as almost everyone were also poor and had to make sure there's enough offspring that survived into adulthood and helped the family out. I guess this is just a personal preference, but if I was lower class in a developing country today (which is the average person one earth), I'm saving my ass and not creating more mouths to feed. And I think that'd make most other people happier but our historical precedence is preventing our lower class to be none the wiser.

I’m happy for you, and I can tell you’re probably a great father/husband. But you’re a full time father only because you already bagged financial security, this is a colossal challenge for majority of the world. I think it’s dishonest to preach parenthood like a righteous necessity without recognizing the luxury it takes to do it with sanity in today’s world.

Thank you for this refreshing perspective. The loud minority of good parents who shill it like missionaries are plenty. But there’s also tons of childless folks who are blissfully enjoying peace and financial security, they just dont shout about it from the mountain tops. HODL is also wealthy which makes parenting feasible without sacrificing everything about your own self.

You have to realize the Bitcoin Conference is a giant networking game to "have a seat at the table". I've attended it twice, had a great time, but realized what it is quickly. That being said, to my friends that are attending especially for work or even pleasure, please have fun, but raise your awareness and speak out when you can. At best, this event is entertainment and incredible connections with brilliant humans. And worst is what it's become, a big shiny platform for the elite class of politicians, bankers, and regulators, Bitcoin was made to rescue us from. While champions of Bitcoin and freedom are sent to PRISON for contributing to privacy by writing code, a fed that wants to ensure no one else tries that again is speaking at the main stage, you can't make this stuff up. The centralization of one big bitcoin club creates a culture of mainstream, and that's exactly how you get a controlled narrative pushed by the wrong people. This is the evolution of a big industry (Big Bitcoin?) that once was as punk and grassroots as can be. And now it's become a machine to influence where capital and attention gets directed. And it's directed at things that make that big club money, not improving Bitcoin's attributes to empower humanity. Bitcoin's social layer is proving to be our biggest weakness. Because up top, these big networks always have a self-reinforcing pressure that makes going against the grain extremely risky. It's the same evolutionary mindset of going against your tribe, the risk of being outcasted then dying off is high. Your favorite and biggest figures in Bitcoin know very well that their sponsors, conference invites, guest appearances, and investments all depend on this. None of them will callout and boycott David Bailey and the conference for what it is because of this. But it's simple. Anything anybody does that does not improve Bitcoin's decentralization, privacy, security, self-custody, and grassroots community - eventually becomes a grifter in the space to make money. Remember that Bitcoin doesn't have central servers, so reject them at the social layer like your node would in the protocol layer. We should never idolize and let the big stages get this influential. Direct your energy more to meetups, regional conferences, and projects you can see benefiting your life as a Bitcoiner.

Sorry but that’s completely empty hype. Do you think that somehow without an algorithmic feed (yet) stupid content creators won’t find stupid followers? The same exact mechanism anyone uses here to find their herd won’t magically repell bad people, unfortunately. And that’s actually why Nostr is incredibly powerful.