dissertation_01

Fortune is like a poet who creates all manner of roles. Some people are shipwrecks, some are poor, some are exiles, some are illustrious, others are obscure. A good man will find a way to play well the role assigned to him, whatever it happens to be.

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But do not look for luxury when matters stand opposed. Be like sailors attending to the wind and other conditions. If the conditions are favorable, make use of them otherwise hold off." - Teles the Cynic

There’s a particular phrase that gamer culture came up with to insult intensely earnest players: "sweaty tryhards." Does that mean everyone else isn’t trying? Maybe they aren’t, maybe they’re just here for fun. It could also be that trying too hard is actually self-defeating. The nature of crypto art means that if we really embrace the world of crypto that it overlaps, we end up reading a lot of tweets and articles from traders. If there’s anything that seemed evident in the last year or so, it’s that the people trying day in and day out to outsmart the market and turn insane profits mostly didn’t.

Some people trying to just tuck money away that other people could manage also lost an awful lot. More than one centralized exchange collapsed and deleted an awful lot of currencies labeled "stable." Could it be that the people who will actually walk away from this market with a grin will be the ones who just leaned into the wind, waited for a favorable current, were willing to be obscure until their moment came? Nothing feels more off-putting than an artist desperate for attention, nothing undermines the quality of the art faster than the clawing and grasping of the art being an afterthought for some other personal goal. Perhaps playing the role fortune wrote as best you can is the most winsome thing you can do.