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All I Really Need to Know I Learned on Twitter

I’ve been scrolling through the hundreds of tweets I’ve bookmarked over the last few years, and I felt compelled to share a few.

For as much of a cesspool of human emotion Twitter can be, it’s also a great tool for the intellectually curious - if you know how to curate a decent feed. (Jesus, I sounded like someone who writes on the internet there. Terrible.)

Plus, I often notice the dynamic touched in the following tweet play out time and time again.

Austen Allred @Austen

It’s becoming a recurring theme. Newspaper: “Nobody saw this coming!” Me: “…except for my entire Twitter feed, incessantly, for the past several months.”

Without Twitter, I’m not sure I would have found sharp minds like those of Preston Pysh and Balaji Srinivasan.

Such minds have made me feel more secure in being an autodidact - and they’ve done an excellent job in pointing out the increasing price of not being a self-motivated learner who likes to learn outside of the traditional higher ed. system.

Preston Pysh @PrestonPysh

Meanwhile, nearly everything you want to learn is online for free. God, I can't wait to see the education empire disrupted.

Balaji Srinivasan @balajis

Both @jack and @CathieDWood are right in different ways. Everything technology disrupts will see prices fall. Everything the state subsidizes will see prices rise. Like the graph below, but even more extreme.

Cathie Wood @CathieDWood

Now we believe that three sources of deflation will overcome the supply chain-induced inflation that is wreaking havoc on the global economy. Two sources are secular, or long term, and one is cyclical. Technologically enabled innovation is deflationary and the most potent source.

I’ve also learned on Twitter that the stock market is an illusion.

Most people think they are getting richer, but in reality the US Federal Reserve is just debasing the denominator - that is reducing the value of the US Dollar.

ck (Going To Bitcoin Amsterdam) @ck_SNARKs

If you take the S&P500 growth and divide by the Feds Balance Sheet growth it really puts things into perspective… H/t:@sebbunney

Holger Zschaepitz @Schuldensuehner

Just to put things into perspective: The S&P 500 may have hit a new ATH today, but if you put the index in relation to the Fed's balance sheet, it is trading at the same level as in 2008, so equities have traded sideways since 2008, basically counteracting balance sheet expansion

And I’ve learned via Twitter some of the effects of the US abandoning the gold standard 51 years ago.

Pomp 🌪 @APompliano

The world changed forever 50 years ago today. #wtfhappenedin1971

wtfhappenedin1971.comWTF Happened In 1971?Visit the post for more.

Lastly, certain voices on Twitter have taught me that popular narratives around race and political tribalism don’t always hold water and/or are currently changing.

No 🔑 No 🧀 @bitcoinzay

“Black Americans don’t need to be told to wait, research more. We need a sense of urgency” - Me on #Bitcoin Throwback clip on @CNBC Guess what the topic was? You guessed it. Volatility. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. 😂

No 🔑 No 🧀 @bitcoinzay

White liberals who think they are defending the “marginalized” or “under represented” i.e. black people need to realize their are plenty of strong black people who can think for themselves We don’t need you #Bitcoin is just the start

Bloomberg @business

Young Black Americans are embracing crypto to counter a distrust in stock markets and financial institutions

trib.alBloomberg - Are you a robot?

Lyn Alden @LynAldenContact

People are often too simple with their framing. For example, "Republican=freedom", "Democrats=control". But is that the way it really is? Biden just pardoned all sorts of marijuana charges. Why didn't Trump do that? He could have, but chose not to.

Lyn Alden @LynAldenContact

@Koty_Auditore @colemaktypo Many republicans have advocated to ban sodomy or interracial marriage. They want government to be in the bedroom of adults. Same for marijuana and such. This is why I also have trouble supporting Republicans. They are too in favor of big government for my taste.

Balaji Srinivasan @balajis

The Realigning From red-vs-blue to orange-vs-green. Decentralized network vs centralized state. Internationalists and capitalists vs nationalists and socialists. The cloud vs the land. And Bitcoin vs the dollar.

And I’ve found it genuinely flattering to have my writing recognized on Twitter by one of the many people on the platform from whom I’ve learned so much - someone who also happens to be the Chief Strategy Officer for the Human Rights Foundation.

Alex Gladstein 🌋 ⚡ @gladstein

Bitcoin is a store of *values* Great framing and nice piece by @frankcorva nasdaq.com/articles/bitco…

It was quite an honor to be a part of the conversation on this level.

So, that’s all for today. This was just a bit of a brain defragging edition of the newsletter.

Actually, one last thought: Keep in mind that if you do use Twitter as a tool, what you’re exposed to on the platform is best used as a jumping off point.

It’s important to dive deeper on your own, to read books and articles on the topics touched on in tweets. Then, you have to apply what you learn to either your approach to investing or whatever area of your life or yourself that you are trying to better.

The information on Twitter is like a self-help book. Most people just read self-help books, get some sort of short-term high, and don’t really apply anything they learned from them to their lives. The trick is in applying what you learn and being willing keep trying even as you make mistakes and fail in the process.

Okay, that’s really all for today.

Hope you’re all enjoying your weekend!

Best,

Frank

Twitter: @frankcorva

Balaji Srinivasan @balajis

Many founders aren’t hiring from Harvard. They’re hiring from Twitter.

Shane Parrish @ShaneAParrish

I have learned more on Twitter than in any classroom.