In the Moment

I live in Toronto and have called this city home for nearly 2 decades. With the Raptors in the finals, the city is literally buzzing with energy. People everywhere are extra friendly and social. It makes me wonder why people are not like this all the time.

One of the most fascinating aspects of the Raptors team is their newest edition, a silent superstar who goes by the name of Kawhi Leonard. If you don’t follow basketball, many people are comparing him to Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant. What’s special about him, however, is his calm and collected manner.

I’ve been watching his interviews and there’s one common theme, and that’s “Stay in the Moment”. This interview that just came out, has at least 3 interviewers asking him how he maintains his high level of presence on and off the court. His response is simple yet informative. Check it out…

Kawhi’s ability to stay in the moment has had a noticeable impact on everyone else on the team. Listen to Kyle Lowry, as he talks about staying in the moment, being grateful and the importance of being goal oriented.

Success Principles

Lately, I’ve been on a reading frenzy. Over the past month, I’ve been reading books about artificial intelligence, quantum computing, startup innovation, business development, holacracy & remote work. The book that I’m finding to be most interesting, however, is about Principles.

In it, the author, Ray Dalio, founder of Bridgewater & Associates, the most successful hedge fund of our time, lays out his Principles about life, work, economics and investment. It’s fascinating to read about his search for truth and how radical openness has brought him closer to realizing it.

He also challenges the reader to list out his Principles. I haven’t quite completed it yet, but I’ve started jotting down some of the overall ideas and lessons that I’ve learned over my 20 year work history. I plan to deeply understand these Principles and then where possible, design algorithms parallel with my thinking to help predict the future.

Meditation is Key

I’ve been meditating on and off for more than 20 years now and it’s definitely had a profound effect on my life. Recently, I came across a book titled ‘Principles’ by Ray Dalio, I’m half way through the book and it’s absolutely fascinating.

Raymond Dalio is an American billionaire investor, hedge fund manager, and philanthropist. Dalio is the founder of investment firm Bridgewater Associates, one of the world's largest hedge funds. Bloomberg ranked him as the world's 58th wealthiest person in June 2019. 

So what does this have to do with meditation? Check out this video of him talking with Gary Vee about the importance of slipping into the void.

More Harm Than Good

The Pfizer Inoculations Do More Harm Than Good. Check out this video by the Canadian Covid Care Alliance.

This Pivotal Moment

Here’s an interesting video that Joe Rogan recently posted on his twitter feed. It beautifully describes the awkward situation that the world finds itself in at the moment. People who see the light must unite and fight back. It’s already happening. I can feel it. Can you?

Great Barrington Declaration

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The Great Barrington Declaration

The Great Barrington Declaration – As infectious disease epidemiologists and public health scientists we have grave concerns about the damaging physical and mental health impacts of the prevailing COVID-19 policies, and recommend an approach we call Focused Protection. 

Coming from both the left and right, and around the world, we have devoted our careers to protecting people. Current lockdown policies are producing devastating effects on short and long-term public health. The results (to name a few) include lower childhood vaccination rates, worsening cardiovascular disease outcomes, fewer cancer screenings and deteriorating mental health – leading to greater excess mortality in years to come, with the working class and younger members of society carrying the heaviest burden. Keeping students out of school is a grave injustice. 

Keeping these measures in place until a vaccine is available will cause irreparable damage, with the underprivileged disproportionately harmed.

Fortunately, our understanding of the virus is growing. We know that vulnerability to death from COVID-19 is more than a thousand-fold higher in the old and infirm than the young. Indeed, for children, COVID-19 is less dangerous than many other harms, including influenza. 

As immunity builds in the population, the risk of infection to all – including the vulnerable – falls. We know that all populations will eventually reach herd immunity – i.e.  the point at which the rate of new infections is stable – and that this can be assisted by (but is not dependent upon) a vaccine. Our goal should therefore be to minimize mortality and social harm until we reach herd immunity. 

The most compassionate approach that balances the risks and benefits of reaching herd immunity, is to allow those who are at minimal risk of death to live their lives normally to build up immunity to the virus through natural infection, while better protecting those who are at highest risk. We call this Focused Protection. 

Adopting measures to protect the vulnerable should be the central aim of public health responses to COVID-19. By way of example, nursing homes should use staff with acquired immunity and perform frequent testing of other staff and all visitors. Staff rotation should be minimized. Retired people living at home should have groceries and other essentials delivered to their home. When possible, they should meet family members outside rather than inside. A comprehensive and detailed list of measures, including approaches to multi-generational households, can be implemented, and is well within the scope and capability of public health professionals. 

Those who are not vulnerable should immediately be allowed to resume life as normal. Simple hygiene measures, such as hand washing and staying home when sick should be practiced by everyone to reduce the herd immunity threshold. Schools and universities should be open for in-person teaching. Extracurricular activities, such as sports, should be resumed. Young low-risk adults should work normally, rather than from home. Restaurants and other businesses should open. Arts, music, sport and other cultural activities should resume. People who are more at risk may participate if they wish, while society as a whole enjoys the protection conferred upon the vulnerable by those who have built up herd immunity.

On October 4, 2020, this declaration was authored and signed in Great Barrington, United States, by:

Dr. Martin Kulldorff, professor of medicine at Harvard University, a biostatistician, and epidemiologist with expertise in detecting and monitoring infectious disease outbreaks and vaccine safety evaluations.

Dr. Sunetra Gupta, professor at Oxford University, an epidemiologist with expertise in immunology, vaccine development, and mathematical modeling of infectious diseases.

Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, professor at Stanford University Medical School, a physician, epidemiologist, health economist, and public health policy expert focusing on infectious diseases and vulnerable populations.

SIGN THE DECLARATION

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Here are some additional video by Sunetra Gupta and Jay Bhattacharya, in my eyes, the superman and superwoman of destroying lockdowns with logic. They teach at Standford and Oxford and believe it or not, are both born in Calcutta!

Mandate Freedom!

This is a story about the Freedom Convoy and how Canadian Truckers Rule because of their courage and willingness to stand together against tyranny and for FREEDOM. I put this video together to share what’s been happening in Canada concerning the truckers. The masses are beginning to wake up and see the light. The truth shall set us free. Check this out:

We Can Do This

This whole Great Reset thing can be a bit overwhelming. It’s not enough to just be aware that something nefarious is taking place, we also need a plan of action. One of my new favourite people to follow on Twitter is LaserHodl. Nearly everything he says tends to resonate. He recently layout 10 steps you and your family can take to start the decentralized revolution.

Check out the great Marty Bent interviewing Laser Hodl as they do a play-by-play of the above list. It’s epic. You can’t afford to miss this life-saving information.

Rip 290 of @TFTC21 is live! @LaserHodl and I are here to continue our conversation about the Great Reset. Join us! https://t.co/R9RgL7HioF

— Marty Bent (@MartyBent) December 3, 2021

Mass Formation Psychosis

I recently shared a tweet about my only regret from 2021:

My only regret from 2021 is not waking up sooner from mass formation psychosis. 🤡🌎

— SunnyRay.com ☀️ (@SunnyRayShow) January 2, 2022

What is mass formation psychosis you ask? Here’s a clip or two to help fill in the gap:

I first heard the statement a few days ago on Joe Rogan’s podcast with Dr. Robert Malone:

On Joe Rogan, Dr Robert Malone suggests we are living through a mass formation psychosis.

He explains how and why this could happen, and its effects.

He draws analogy to 1920s/30s Germany “they had a highly intelligent, highly educated population, and they went barking mad” pic.twitter.com/wZpfMsyEZZ

— Mythinformed MKE (@MythinformedMKE) January 1, 2022

If you have a bit more time, I suggest checking out this video as well.

The Asch experiment explains it well...https://t.co/uEz2W38GY1

— Cryptic Crypto Crytic (@CCrytic) January 2, 2022

Speak Truth to Power

Joe Rogan is speaking truth to power. The number one podcast host in the world is taking on the establishment, head-on.

If you haven’t already done so, check out these interviews with Dr. Robert Malone, Dr. Peter A. McCullough, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Alex Berenson, Alex Jones and Bret Weinstein.

Elon, Jack & Bitcoin

Wondering what Elon Musk is saying about bitcoin?

I am a supporter of bitcoin. I was a little slow on the uptake. I think bitcoin is on the verge of getting broad acceptance by conventional finance people. - Elon Musk

What about Jack Dorsey, what’s he saying about bitcoin?

Bitcoin is resilient. Bitcoin is principled. Bitcoin is native to internet ideals. And it’s a great brand. Running #bitcoin. - Jack Dorsey

Wake Up Now

You know that something is not correct. Even if you don’t buy into conspiracy thinking, you know something is wrong in your soul.  

Things are far from ordinary. Our freedom is under assault, and almost nobody is talking about it.  Those who choose to speak out are censored.  

“The lion sleeps no more.” The first step is to openly talk about what may be going on in the world today.  

I’ve been at the forefront of bitcoin for nearly ten years and have experience challenging the powers that be.

What I’m seeing unfold in front of my eyes is nothing less than 1984. It’s scary. I get it. But if we don’t talk about it, how are we ever going to get through it?

From now on, you have my commitment to report on matters as I see them. I may make mistakes, but I’ll always tell the truth as I see it.  

It’s now or never.  

Unanswered Questions...

Dear Friends and Family,

First things first, please know that I love you. No matter what choices you make with your own body, I will continue to love and respect you. 

As in any reasonable discussion, I seek first to understand, then to be understood. 

I want to ask you a few questions about the vaccine; is that ok? 

• What is the risk for someone our age of dying from COVID?

• Is the government always right about everything?

• Have you looked at the short-term and long-term side effects of this vaccine on VAERS?

• In case something terrible happens after taking the vaccine, can you take legal action?

• Should the risk of COVID not be higher than the risks associated with the vaccine to justify taking it?

• Are you aware of how many people have died because of the vaccine?

• Why is it that the founder of mRNA, Dr. Robert Malone, goes on the internet every day and warns people about this vaccine's dangers?

• Why has a former Pfizer vice president come out publicly to claim that they fear this vaccine is a bioweapon designed for depopulation?

• Why is Israel, the country with one of the highest vaccination rates, facing some of the strictest lockdowns and most number of covid cases?

• Why have 2 of the top FDA people left the FDA in the past few weeks?

• Would you say that we're in a calm or hostile global environment?

• Did Dr. Fauci fund the Wuhan lab and the COVID virus?

• Isn't Fauci's name on the vaccine patent, and isn't that a conflict of interest?

• Remember two weeks to flatten the curve? They said we needed to do this so that we don't overwhelm the hospitals. Almost two years in, they're now firing thousands of front-line workers; why?

• If you take the vaccine, can you still get COVID? Why is that?

• If you take the vaccine, can you give others COVID? Why is that?

• Can you still require hospitalization after taking the vaccine?

• Can you still die of COVID after taking the vaccine?

• Why do you think so many people have said no to the jab?

• Is it possible that the vaccine is causing the variants?

• Has Pfizer ever been sued for doing anything wrong in the past?

• Do you know that there's a revolving door between Pfizer and FDA?

• Did you know that Pfizer primarily funds the news?

• Are there other treatments for COVID other than the vaccine that are effective?

• Even if the vaccines were 100% safe and effective, are you comfortable giving your rights over to the government and allowing them to inject you with an experimental drug at their will?

• Why have you taken two doses and now preparing to take the third booster if the vaccine is compelling? Since when did you have to take 3 or 4 vaccines a year?

• How many jabs are you willing to take every year, month, day? What's your limit? Do you have one?

• If the vaccine is so effective, and you're so protected, why are you afraid to hang out with the unvaccinated?

A good conversation starts with a good set of questions. What other questions should I be pondering on this topic? I'm always ready to debate with people on this topic. 

Just because some of us are determined to analyze the facts, please don't consider us terrible people. We're all in this together. We're also scared of what's happening in the world, and we would like some answers.

I will be creating content around my findings to each of these questions over the next few weeks. Stay tuned. Have you seen this before?

Universal Basic Income

Some facts and opinions for you to consider:

• “71% of the world’s population lives on less than $10 a day… Globally, the majority of people live on about $3 a day.” - CNN

• ” Robots will take all human jobs, and under the current economy, that’s going to be a disaster. We have to accommodate perpetual vacation for humans.” - Marshall Brain

• “If a human worker does $50,000 of work in a factory, that income is taxed,” Gates said in an interview with Quartz. “If a robot comes in to do the same thing, you’d think we’d tax the robot at a similar level.

• Elon Musk now says that universal basic income (UBI) — essentially, free cash handouts — “will be necessary over time if AI [artificial intelligence] takes over most human jobs.”... In November 2016, Musk himself told CNBC automation would lead to the need for cash handouts.”

• Dorsey told Yang, who is an advocate for universal basic income, or UBI, that such free cash payments could be a “floor” for people to stand on if they lose their income due to automation. ... And Dorsey is not alone in his predictions that artificial intelligence displace more than fast food cashiers and truck drivers.

• “We should explore ideas like universal basic income to give everyone a cushion to try new things,” says Zuckerberg, while speaking at Harvard, from which he famously dropped out. According to Zuckerberg’s remarks at Harvard, meeting your basic needs allows and encourages creativity and innovation.

So what are we going to do about it? Allow me to take you on a bit of a thought experiment.  

I drive a Tesla, and if you didn’t know, these cars practically drive themselves. In a few short years, all trucks and vehicles WILL drive themselves. How many people on earth today earn a living by going? Millions.  

So what happens when all cars begin to drive themselves? Will we tell every driver in the world to learn to program? It doesn’t sound very realistic.  

Even programmers are at risk of being replaced by AI. Suppose you consider that computers are continuing their march towards becoming more intelligent and competent (measured in # of computations per second) at an exponential rate. In that case, it’s foreseen that humans will be permanently replaceable in the next few decades by robotics and AI.    

What if everyone used the profits from automation, robotics, and artificial intelligence to accommodate humans with a perpetual vacation?

With the advancement of robotics, automation, and artificial intelligence, it is becoming self-evident to the public that some universal basic income needs to be put in place. 

But if we rely on government institutions and billionaires to help us bring together something like UBI, we may never get there. And if governments are the ones who usher in this type of future, it may not be aligned with the free markets’ will and people at large.  

What if we leveraged the core technologies behind bitcoin and robotics to build a future where society voluntarily gave back some of the profits generated by automation to every single human being in the form of a universal basic income?

Is it even possible? Furthermore, we think we must explore these types of ideas further. Leave your comments below. 

How to Hack Anxiety

This list is not in any particular order. Here are 25 ways I hack anxiety to get more productive and creative:

1. Jumping Jacks

2. Meditation

3. Be present

4. Yoga

5. Run / Swim

6. Cannabis

7. Read something inspirational

8. Spend time with family and friends

9. Turn off my phone

10. Be grateful

11. Focus on my breath

12. Listen to music

13. Give someone a hug

14. Shift my perspective

15. Create something artful

16. Build something meaningful

17. Call my mom and dad and tell them I love them

18. Recognize and appreciate that life is a gift

19. Watch MMA

20. Bullet journal

21. Roam research

22. Lift weights

23. Go for a drive

24. Wim Hoff breathing exercises

25. Pranayam breathing exercises

I’ll come back to this post and add more details to each point I’ve listed above.

Top 7 Life Hacks

So here’s a list of seven things I view as ultimate life hacks:

1. Meditation: stress out much? what if you could eliminate anxiety from your life? well, guess what? you can. it’s called meditation. I’ll keep it simple. Take one minute out of your morning and simply sit in a quiet room with your eyes closed. focus your attention on your breath. That’s it. Everytime your mind wanders away from your breath, don’t beat yourself up, that’s natural, just bring your attention right back to your breath. If you need a focal point to foucus on, place your attention on the tip of your nose.

2. Mechatronics: humans are always trying to do more with less. Robotics and mechatronics offer a highly effective way to get more done with less. I spent nearly 10 years working in this space. We have 3d printers, drones and teslas at home, we’re 100% obsessed.

3. Marijuana: it’s legal in Canada, where I live, so there’s that. Plus I think the science is overwhelming in terms of its benefits. I’ve been into cannabis for a very long time, I attribute much of my success and happiness to cannabis. It provides me with clarity and a sense of purpose. It keeps me healthy and in a state of continuous flow.

4. Marriage: this can go one of two ways. Some people get married and bring out the worst in each other. This is not good. I’ve been with my wife for nearly 10 years. We’re happily married with 2 beautiful girls. We’re incredibly happy because we’ve focused our relationship on three things: 1) respect 2) mini-missions and 3) having fun. It’s working.

5. Mother nature: do you get sunlight and fresh air on the regular? If not, you really should. It’ll help you in many ways. When you’re feeling down, get outside!

6. Music: if you’re ever feeling down, put some music on. Better yet, start singing. Even better, write your own music and release it to the world. Even if it’s just for fun. I’m absolutely nuts over good music. I feel music is so powerful. Use it for good.

7. Money: is kind of like oxygen. When you have it, you’re good. When you don’t, it feels like the end of the world. Understanding and learning about money has been one of the best ways to free myself from the struggles that many people face on a day to day basis. Money is energy. Money is bitcoin. Bitcoin is money.

Stay tuned to learn more about these life hacks on sunnyray.com.

I LOVE Bitcoin

It’s pretty simple. It gives me back time so that I’m able to do the things I genuinely love to do: spend time with family & friends, exercise, meditate, do yoga, read, write, learn, play, etc.  

That’s the real reason. You can stop reading now.  

So now, here comes the longer answer. 

How does it give us back time?  

• it’s deflationary

• it’s private

• it’s decentralized

• doesn’t have anyone point of failure, which makes it robust

• it relies on math and code

• it’s easily transferrable to anyone on planet earth

• it’s the currency that robots will use for commerce

I’m going to start sharing some other wacky ideas of mine on this blog. For example, while I believe that time is our arch-nemesis in many ways, I also think that humanity has the tools to overcome even this challenge.  

Enter bitcoin.  

Customer Success

How are innovative companies reducing churn and growing recurring revenue?

I recently read a book titled “Customer Success” and it’s amazing. I recommend it to every CEO or leader out there who is truly seeking to build a customer success-centric company.

The ‘subscription tsunami’, as outlined in this book, has disrupted the software world, and forced a focus on customers that did not exist previously. This book will help those looking to venture into this new world who are looking for some guidance on how to execute successfully in the subscription economy. Tien Tzuo, the 11th employee at SalesForce, famously once said, “In traditional businesses, the customer relationship ends with the purchase. But in a subscription business, the customer relationship begins with the purchase.” Delivering success today requires constantly checking in with the customer and adapting products and services based on their needs. Ultimately, this approach helps the company to preserve its book of business, opens up doors for additional opportunities, and creates lifelong advocates in our customers. When optimized, Customer Success is the best sales and marketing engine possible.

Customer Success is more than just the right thing to do, it is becoming a business imperative. For this reason, CS teams in many companies today are accountable for customer usage, adoption, and ultimately revenue. Our success is directly tied to that of our customers. The book goes on to explain the fundamental difference between a loyal customer because they have to be (behavioural/intellectual), and then there are customers who are loyal because they love a particular brand or product (attitudinal / emotional). As a vendor, the latter is highly preferable for many reasons: willingness to pay a higher price, less vulnerable to competition, more likely to advocate for “their” brand. There’s just a certain quality to Apple’s product, packaging, ads and presentation that set it apart. It feels almost like magic, but it clearly isn’t. Jobs figured out how to deliver attitudinal loyalty, perhaps better than anyone else.

If you’re interested in learning more about how to build a company that’s customer-success oriented, read ‘Customer Success’ by Nick Mehta, Dan Steinman and Lincoln Murphy.

The Future of Unocoin

If you’ve been following our story, you know it’s been an interesting one.

We started Unocoin with the singular mission of bringing bitcoin to billions. Nearly ten years in, and it feels like we’re just getting warmed up. Before taking a peek into the future, let’s cover some of our industry’s key highlights and developments.

We launched India’s first bitcoin platform in December 2013 with the initial goal of bridging the divide between bitcoin and India. Our platform is an easy-to-use app that enables users to buy and sell bitcoin, ethereum and other crypto assets.

Along the way, we’ve been laser-focused on bringing utility to our users and offering solutions. Solutions to pay your phone bills, systematically buy bitcoin (i.e. dollar-cost averaging), merchant payment solutions for online and offline services, auto-selling functionality to facilitate remittance, and an industry-leading API allowing businesses across India to plug into our infrastructure programmatically.

We’ve had the honour of serving nearly 2 million users. We are fortunate enough to have a group of incredibly visionary investors such as Barry Silbert, Adam Draper, Max Keiser, Simon Dixon, Tim Draper and countless others supporting our movement.

A few years ago, the central bank issued a blanket bank ban on all bitcoin businesses. Instead of running, we chose to fight this in the supreme court, and after a long legal battle, the supreme court ruled that the bank ban was unconstitutional, and our banking services have been back ever since.

Just because our banking is back, we are not ready to rest on our laurels. We’re actively imagining and re-imagining what the future could look like in a bitcoin-based world.

At the core of our service, we’ve always envisioned enabling people to trade, lend and use bitcoin. The technology to decentralize our platform didn’t exist until recently. In the past few years, there have been exciting projects that fall into the realm of Defi, or decentralized finance.

Given what happened to us in the past, we plan to learn and adapt.

Central to bitcoin’s mission has always been to decentralize money. However, to enable people to buy bitcoin, we’ve had to rely on centralized exchanges such as Unocoin (India) and Coinbase (America).

As demonstrated by our experience, a centralized model is subject to unlawful and unconstitutional banking bans. Unfortunately, that seems to be the least of our worries. In a world that appears to be moving closer and closer to one that resembles 1984, we believe that bringing Satoshi’s vision to the world of finance has never been more critical.

So what happens if the central bank comes after us again? We go to court for another two years and almost lose everything in the process? Perhaps there’s a technological solution to this challenge?

We believe that the very industry that we’ve been ushering into this world also shows us how to decentralize the very essence of finance.

Uniswap has shown that performing an exchange between two counterparties can be done decentralized without an intermediary.

Companies like WazirX have shown the world how a peer-to-peer platform similar to LocalBitcoins can be beautifully married to an order book exchange to simplify the overall user experience. They also showed that in the face of a hostile regulatory environment, peers might connect directly with one another to exchange bitcoin for fiat.

This peer-to-peer model has proven to be much more resilient towards coercive pressures, and we believe that it lays the clues for what lies ahead for Unocoin as well. However, we see several flaws with the WazirX peer-to-peer model, namely, the centralization of the escrow service and infrastructure at large. We can solve this by leveraging smart contracts on top of the bitcoin blockchain.

We’ve also seen Binance come out of nowhere and take market share in a way that no one expected, and they did this all while having their token and continually innovating on the blockchain front by launching Binance chain and the Binance Smart Chain.

Not to mention, Coinbase’s recent IPO has caught the attention of many. Unocoin’s been referred to as the Coinbase of India. It took

Coinbase 8 years to get to where they’re at. It took Binance 4. How do we accomplish something similar in 2 years?

We find ourselves at a crossroad, where we’re now considering a path forward that perhaps looks like a hybrid between Coinbase and Binance.

Knowing what we know, how do we carve out a path to leverage all of the learnings from each of these projects?

Enter, Unocoin 2.0. We will be launching Unocoin 2.0 soon, and we’d like to get your opinion on how we should proceed. We’ll be sharing a white paper very soon, so stay tuned.

Over the next few blog posts, I’ll be sharing more about our plans to open source and decentralize Unocoin. Yep, you heard it here first. This is going to take a lot of effort, and while we’ll help cast a vision that’s compelling and freedom-loving, it’ll need YOU to make it happen.

So stay tuned.

Why I 💗 Roam

I was speaking with a close friend and business partner of mine. I was excitedly telling him about notion.so and he asked if i'd heard about roam. I hadn't.

At first glance, it didn't really make a lot of sense. It didn't look as nice as notion. Nor does it have the relational databases underlying notion where you can whip up pretty tables. Thirdly, it seemed to lack basic functionality such as mobile apps and easy share-ability. Last but not least, it didn't even have a free option. It costs $15/month.

So why on earth am I even talking about this? Because I truly believe that this company is trying to change the world in a fundamentally meaningful way.

They are working on tools that help you think more clearly. When's the last time you used an app that actually helped you to think more clearly?

So what's the problem statement? Let's define it before getting too excited over here.

Almost every single piece of software that I'm aware of utilizes a hierarchical way of organizing files. One that mirrors real life - papers, folders, cabinets, etc.

This makes sense in the physical world since, well, how else would you do it? But when you think about how our brains work, or how the internet works, it's very different. They work like networks, not hierarchies.

So roam, at its core, does away with the hierarchical format that notion, google docs, word and everything else use. It embraces, in my view, a much more natural and elegant way of enabling creative thought. Bold statement, I know.

The main technical innovation behind roam is that it's essentially a note-taking app that lets you create backlinks seamlessly. This is the core innovation behind roam and it’s easy to miss. What do I mean?

So when I sit down in front of a computer first thing in the morning, the first application I pull up is roam. Roam is what I use nearly 90% of my day. It's replaced google docs, my physical bullet journal, project management software such as as trello, notion, to-doist, mind mapping software such as mindjet, customer relationship management software, evernote, apple notes, post-it notes and way more.

Roam gives me the ability to do pretty much everything I used to do on these platforms but gives me way more freedom to think and be more creative.

I'm so passionate about roam that I'll start making short youtube videos on how I'm using roamresearch.com as a bitcoin entrepreneur. In bitcoin, we're oftentimes working in unchartered territory.

The answers to the challenges we face on a day to day basis are not written in text books or there isn't any one person you can go to and just ask. It's quite a bit more complex. So for the first time in my life, I feel like I've discovered a tool that helps me to connect ALL of the important ideas in my life in one place.

After spending nearly 20 years in innovative spaces such as bitcoin and robotics, i've learned a thing or two about innovation. Innovation is simply about getting to the edge of any given field, understanding the top ideas in that space, and then identifying connections and patterns between those ideas to build something that's larger than the sum of its parts.

Sounds a bit cliche, but that's really it. So what tool helps us do that? Well, I'd argue that most pieces of software aim to help us but often fall short in many ways.

Fundamentally speaking, they are self-serving and looking to hack our psyche so that they may dish up more ads to us and make us their lemmings for all of eternity.

I digress. Back to roam. Roam does the exact opposite. Roam gives me space and structure to think freely. My mind jumps around a lot. I'm guessing many of yours do too. Why not embrace that random quality of our mind? Roam not only allows you to do this using nested and expandable bullet points but then also offers powerful search and filter tools to enable easy navigation through your own notes.

The main idea behind roam is back-linking. Inside roam, if I enter anything inside two open and closed square brackets [[ ]] then it automatically generates a new page with that topic. That page becomes an entry into a database. This is important because by making it super easy to create these bi-directional links, you're able to easily tag items that are of importance to you.

This back-linking idea seems subtle and from all of the people I've shared this software with, they often overlook this. They don't seem to get it at first glance. I highly suggest that you try and get the hang of it. Achieving stress-free productivity has never been possible like this before. Try it and leave your comments about your experience below.

note: i’m not an investor or employee at roam. i’m a paying customer. the only reason I keep going on about it is because i’m in love with it. The last time I was this excited about a project was when I first discovered bitcoin back in 2011 / 2012. This is yuge…