Optimizing your Memory Bank

Happy Friday Bitcoiners,

I know a Bitcoin millionaire who's completely miserable (let's call him "Vitalik" for arguments sake 😉).

He's got private jet money, yet he's the poorest person I know. While his wealth grows, his quality of life shrinks - volatile relationships, paid companionship, and substances that would make the infamous ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ look tame.

Compare him to my Bitcoin pleb friend with (“only”) 0.5 BTC who never stops smiling. Great girlfriend, constant travel, can't shut up about Bitcoin. One has wealth on a screen. The other has wealth in his memory bank.

The human brain can store 2.5 petabytes of information. But what’s less appreciateed is that unlike every asset you'll ever own - including Bitcoin - memories actually appreciate over time.

This week we dive into 👇

• Why your memory bank is the ultimate appreciating asset

• The paradox of which experiences actually make you happier

• How to convert Bitcoin into memories that compound forever

Let's hop in⚡

1) Understanding Your Personal Memory Bank

Your memory bank is essentially the ultimate decentralized ledger. No government can tax it, no thief can steal it, and no financial market crash can devalue it. It operates on “proof-of-experience” rather than Bitcoin’s “proof-of-work'“.

The human brain's storage capacity is staggering. Those 2.5 petabytes I mentioned earlier? That's roughly 2,500,000 gigabytes. To put that in perspective, if your brain were storing the Bitcoin blockchain, it could hold over 4,000 complete copies of every transaction ever made since genesis block.

Yet most of us treat this incredible asset like we're running out of space, choosing to fill it with forgettable materialistic purchases instead of ever lasting experiences.

Research from the University of Texas proves this isn't just philosophical nonsense. When researchers tracked 2,635 adults in real-time, they found that people who spent money on experiences were consistently happier than those who bought material goods - regardless of price.

Think about the brutal simplicity of this: memories of experiences tend to increase in value over time - even if the experience doesn't last long. A concert may only last a few hours. Meanwhile, physical stuff tends to last longer (gadgets, jewelry, toys), but the value usually decreases over time.

We've got it completely backwards. We’ve been taught to optimize for physical things that last but depreciate in value, instead of unique, emotional moments that appreciate over time.

That first Bitcoin you bought at $1,000? The memory of that decision, the research that went into it, the conviction it took to hold through the volatility - that memory is something that’ll not only help you protect your future wealth, but also increase your future conviction and happiness as the strength of the memory grow.

2) The Remembering Self vs. The Experiencing Self

Daniel Kahneman identified a fundamental conflict in how we process life: we have an "experiencing self" that lives in the present and a "remembering self" that keeps score.

And here's the kicker - they often disagree.

Your experiencing self lives about 3 seconds at a time. Your remembering self doesn't care about duration; it cares about peaks and endings.

I learned this firsthand on two oversees trips over the last decade.

Trip #1: A 4-day business trip with my dad, mostly spent in stuffy, hot cars with broken AC while he negotiated deals. Except we capped it off with bungee jumping off Victoria Falls at the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Trip #2: A 12-day family vacation in Mauritius. We shopped, lounged on the beach, played volleyball and tennis. Pure relaxation.

My experiencing self loved Mauritius. Twelve days of comfort versus four days of discomfort - no contest. But ask me today which trip matters more? That bungee jump off Victoria Falls is one of the best memories of my life. Something I wouldn't trade for a million beach vacations.

The remembering self doesn't care that the Mauritius resort had perfect weather. It cares about the story, the peaks, the moments of genuine surprise or terror or triumph. This is why buying experiences beats buying things - they're optimized for the self that actually determines your life satisfaction: the one that remembers.

There's a dark side though. Rose-colored glasses are real. That terrible investment might become "a valuable learning experience" in memory. But this means we need to be conscious about what we're actually optimizing for.

3) Bitcoin as Time, and Time as Memory Fuel

So how does this tie in with Bitcoin?

Well, this is where most investment advice ends. But for Bitcoiners, it's where the real strategy begins.

Bitcoin is crystallized time - your hours of work converted into something that won't be diluted by some central banker's printing press. And time (when properly deployed) is the raw material of memory.

There's also something about Bitcoin that naturally promotes stoicism. Maybe it's surviving those 80% drawdowns. But Bitcoin teaches you to zoom out, to think in decades rather than days. This long-term perspective is exactly what you need to optimize for memories rather than moments.

Here's where the stark difference between Bitcoiners and “crypto bro’s” becomes obvious. Visit any crypto conference and you'll see the "success stories" - guys with Lambos, rented mansions, and Instagram models who charge by the hour.

Meanwhile, the real Bitcoin wealthy? They're buying farms to feed their families clean food, teaching their kids practical skills, driving 10-year-old trucks that actually work. One is building memories, the other is renting experiences.

The crypto bros think retirement means a bigger yacht. Bitcoiners know it means having enough time to watch your grandkids grow up.

I'm not suggesting you sell all your Bitcoin to go backpacking through Europe. I'm saying there's no point in dying with a million Bitcoin if you never converted any of that stored time back into lived experience.

The guy who HODLs until he's 80 and then dies rich but memory-poor isn't a success story - he's a cautionary tale.

As we’ve covered in 'Understanding Your Circle of Competence', know what game you're playing. Stack sats to buy future units of time. Then use that time to create memories that no market crash can destroy.

Key Takeaway

Your memory bank is the only asset that appreciates forever. Physical possessions depreciate, but memories compound infinitely over time.

The richest person isn't who has the most Bitcoin - it's who has the richest collection of memories and knows when to trade one for the other.

In a world obsessed with accumulation, the edge goes to those who convert assets into experiences.

One life. Limited time. Unlimited memories.

Stay humble,

@Publius256