Do you remember it? Do you remember when it hit you? That day, or maybe that moment, when something just clicked and suddenly the world looked different? For me it was when I was walking down a city street. I was contemplating some completely new idea and I realized that it actually felt like my brain had expanded, that my skull was literally moving outward, or maybe that my skull ceased to exist at all and that allowed my brain/mind to expand to a more natural size. I’m not trying to be hokey — it was literally a physical sensation and now I can almost call it back on demand.
I had a similar experience a long time ago after spending a long weekend in a meditation retreat. But I’m not referring to a spiritual awakening, although it has some eerie similarities.
I’m talking about my Blockchain Moment.
I met up with a best friend yesterday. It was a beautiful, sunny and warmish, late-winter day and we met on a bench in Rittenhouse Square. We’ve been meeting like for years. I consider him one of my best friends, but we only see each other a couple of times a year and usually like this. I am always amused that when we sit down somewhere together we just start talking as if we bump into each other every day.
We have talked about a lot of different things over the years, but now that I think about it, mostly about our work, schemes, future plans, etc. he’s a guy I know I can go to with any financial question. I’m a humble college teacher on a modest publicly funded salary. He’s, well, uh . . . I’ve never really been able to explain what he is. I guess you could say he’s a fintech professional.
Yesterday, after I waited for him to finish a text, reminding him that I wasn’t his wife and he could take his time before acknowledging my presence, we launched into a conversation about Blockchain and crypto and didn’t stop until we said goodbye a couple hours later. One thing we talked about in the middle was that moment.
He said it happened after about six months of study and experimentation. Suddenly he knew enough about what was actually happening that it caused a shift in his entire perception. I agreed completely. That moment I was walking along the sidewalk, I realized I was thinking differently about almost every aspect of my life.
How will I make money this year, in ten years?
Will I still be teaching in classrooms before I retire?
Maybe I won’t retire, because I might actually find excitement in work to keep going a lot longer than I’ve been accustomed to thinking!
How will my kids be learning by the time they are out of high school? Will they go to college? How will they earn money, or should I ask, what currency will they earn?
Will all this change my relationship with my wife, a fairly confirmed Luddite?
It’s rare that my physical location is the most ironic feature of my day, but there we were, talking about how upside down the world is becoming through these latest technological developments, in one of the most historic old city parks in the country. When you sit on one of the benches that line the inner circular path, beneath the ancient sycamore trees, it’s easy to imagine over-dressed men in white powdered wigs and omen in big hoop dresses carrying parasols strolling about. And some of those people, like Ben Franklin, were talking about really big ideas and the change they knew was just on the horizon. So maybe not so ironic after all. Maybe this square has always been a place where people have come to talk about the next big thing.
Image Source: Temple University Libraries
Give me a reason to use up my votes today. Tell me about your blockchain moment in the comments, or share a specific question or prediction you now have about the future.