177: Going Beyond Story Points

Bitcoin as a international hedge, bulletproofing your career and making story points obsolete by focusing on business value

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Unrelated: Global Hedge Against Uncertainty

Bitcoin is a type of digital currency that is decentralized and uses cryptography to secure financial transactions. It was created in 2009 by an unknown individual or group named Satoshi Nakamoto. Bitcoin operates as an electronic payment system that relies on cryptographic proof rather than trust, allowing parties to transact without needing a trusted third party.

As a distributed software, Bitcoin enables the transfer of value using a currency protected from unexpected inflation. It achieves this by automating the functions of a modern central bank and decentralizing them among thousands of network members. This ensures that the rules governing Bitcoin are predictable and unalterable without a global consensus. Additionally, Bitcoin is the first digital artifact that provides an immutable record of transactions, ensuring true digital immutability.

Unlike Ponzi Schemes, Bitcoin is decentralized and lacks a central authority controlling it. The regulations governing Bitcoin are complex, making altering them difficult. Thus, owning more Bitcoin does not grant an individual more significant control over the network. While Bitcoin is leaderless, it is not a Pyramid Scheme. In a Pyramid Scheme, participants make money by recruiting new participants. Yet, anyone can plug in a miner and start earning Bitcoin for their work without permission from existing participants. The US Dollar is more related to a Pyramid Scheme than Bitcoin. The US Dollar is controlled, and a particular set of privileged participants has easy access to new money and its yield. Participation in the "US Dollar Network" requires buying in from existing participants. As new participants enter, the control and financial returns of the privileged participants grow. Transactions can't be irreversible because financial institutions must be involved in resolving disputes. To prevent fraud, transactions can be designed to be difficult to undo, and safeguards can be put in place to protect buyers. 

Bitcoin's technology is much more efficient than our traditional financial infrastructure. It's cost-effective to send Bitcoin globally, with lower fees than other services. Additionally, it's faster as traditional services can take several days to complete transactions. As we move towards an online world, it makes sense that our money follows suit.

Bitcoin has a worldwide supply of 21 million and is immune to manipulation. No country owns Bitcoin, and physical borders do not limit it. Furthermore, Bitcoin allows users to have complete control over their transactions. Due to its qualities, Bitcoin is viewed as digital gold and a hedge against global uncertainty. As it becomes less correlated with traditional investments, it's becoming a popular choice.

The Internet's commerce depends on financial institutions acting as trusted third parties to process electronic payments. Although this system is functional for most transactions, it still has weaknesses due to its trust-based model. For instance, mediation costs increase transaction costs, which limits the smallest practical transaction size and reduces the possibility of small casual transactions. Additionally, there is a loss of ability to make non-reversible payments for non-reversible services, which incurs a broader cost.

[^]: The Bitcoin Standard: The Decentralized Alternative to Central Banking

Off Topic: Future-Proofing Your Career

When navigating changes in your career, it's important to remember that you are not bound to a specific job or company. Your loyalty should be to express your Life's Tasks to the fullest. Patience is crucial to mastery, especially when facing weaknesses or inclinations that may hold you back. Please don't compare yourself to others or envy their supposed gifts, as this can be a curse that leads to a lack of diligence and focus. Practical knowledge is the key to long-term success. 

Avoid trying too hard to prove yourself during your apprenticeship and get attention. Instead, focus on observing the rules and procedures of your environment. This includes profound observation, acquiring new skills, and experimenting to find what works. Pay attention to power dynamics within the group and who controls communication. Knowing your environment well will help you avoid costly mistakes and navigate them. This means studying your field's technology, group dynamics, economics, and lifeblood. Learning different skills is also crucial, but only if they align with your interests. Your brain needs time to immerse itself in a field to develop complex skills and unleash creativity. Focus on gaining practical knowledge in the early stages of your career and look to admire and imitate those you consider mentors.

Masters use intuition, which springs from intense rational focus, to guide their reasoning. Consciousness has always been meant to connect us to reality; the ultimate distinction is between ourselves and the world.

Mastery is not based on genius or talent; it requires time and intense focus on a particular field of knowledge. Connecting with your environment is the brain's most primitive and powerful form of mastery. It's essential to look beyond what's immediately in front of you and think ahead. Mastery isn't about genetics or luck; it's about pursuing your natural inclinations and following your deep desire. As a skill becomes automatic, you gain the mental capacity to observe yourself while practicing. This boosts your confidence and fluency, giving you a sense of power. The future of science lies not in specialization but in combining knowledge from various fields. Those who learn more skills and combine them are the ones who will succeed in the future. Learning must be valued above all else, as it sets the stage for creative expansion and eventual financial success. To avoid stagnation, practice resistance and seek to mingle with different types of people. Keeping an open mind, even when we know something, is essential for progress. 

[^]: Mastery

Current Work: Going Beyond Story Points

Valuable initiatives produce an observable change in someone's way of working. Capturing a behavior change makes a story measurable from a business perspective, always opening up a good discussion. Often, the short description of a story leaves a lot of ambiguity about the scope of the change. Even when it is being discussed face to face, it may only be plain to the full implications of taking on the story. If you have a big chunk of work, identify underlying assumptions and think about the easiest way of proving or disproving them. Design experiments around those assumptions and turn them into user stories. Measuring progress in a Software Engineering team happens in many different ways. The industry's most common way to measure progress is through story points. Story points measure effort, not time. Focusing too much on time will make the team focus on low-value stories to complete the sprint. This is misleading, of course, because the main focus of a delivery team should always be business value. Working software is the only proof of progress, not any burnout chart. 

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