I know nothing & that’s.. okay?

A quick FYI, some thinking, some thanks for enlightenment & insight, and thoughts on realizing I don't know anything. Or at least, certainly not everything. Not even close.

I’m not some anonymous rebellious extremist, by the way. I’ll get around to setting up a proper LinkedIn and that sort of stuff eventually, working more within & towards an officially identifiable capacity. No, I do not use Facebook, and I’m not here for social media use in a vanity/attention-seeking sense. I’m not trying to hype, scam, be shady, none of that. Just honestly a veiled attempt at some privacy/safety/digital footprint, and a play on my real name #MyUsernameMyChoice. I’m a real person, just a noobie Australian on the internet trying to learn, and hopefully sharing something useful along the way for someone else. I also enjoy writing - or attempting to anyway. #DYOR, make up your own mind.

The aim here is to invest both financially, and in myself. This does not come without education, action, engagement, work, research, or risk. I’m not just about crypto-investment either, I have an interest in real estate investment too — having also worked in the industry previously. I’m not completely off in digital la-la land. I just think there’s potential, and clear adoption we can’t ignore.

“The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.” — Socrates

Unfortunately part of the process of learning, I have discovered, is realizing that sometimes you don’t know shit. Over a work Christmas function on the weekend I had some very surprising and insightful chats that I certainly had not expected, and was amazed to hear. I like learning, researching, reading. The multiple conversations with some truly extraordinary, unique, and frankly genius people left me thinking the rest of the night, and for days after.

I sat down to try draft posts to Medium over the weekend and found I ended up feeling everything I typed was wrong in some way or another. I fell into all of the doubt for a minute there, unsure if I should even keep a blog. I sunk myself into some research instead and tried to look for the bad where I thought there was good — to put it simply. There are some things you wish you didn’t know at times, I think. But need to know. And I’m glad I know more even now than I did a week ago.

“Everyone you meet knows something you don’t”.

I keep attempting to tell myself that finding out you’re wrong about something/a topic/someone is a humbling experience. And it needs to be, you need to listen when someone is teaching you, otherwise, you will never learn. You need to be willing to be wrong, and stop if you don’t know enough to be a productive part of discussion or progression, for that matter. You learn more by listening.

… But by the same token? Damnit, finding out there is a lot you don’t know; or you’re entirely wrong about something/someone can feel shitty, and embarrassing. Big ooft. Nonetheless, the best thing one can do I think is: Try to learn what you can and keep moving forward. Right?

One particular person, not even in the tech industry mind you but probably one of the smartest people I just barely know, had done their research and was looking into crypto investment back in 2016. He chose not to enter it, I didn’t enter it either when I heard of it. His main reasoning was “You have to be in the inner circle”. Not wrong. He knew his stuff, he had read the Whitepapers, he loves research. I’m going to blame it on the few drinks I had when I stuffed up on answering who the major stakeholder of Ethereum was when I *knew* full damn well, instead I thought of Cardano. WHY brain, WHY. Internal me: “Pls sir I swear I’m not an idiot, I know things and stuff”. Nah. Noobie. Oh well.

With another incredibly respected and intelligent colleague, he showed interest whilst I attempted to explain blockchain/web3/potential technical use models moving forward. Because that is what I’m trying to think about and look toward, too. Not just crypto investment/trading. But development, digital innovation & improvements. How might this technology be of positive use? Can it be? From the little I’ve seen so far, I think it has potential. Could be wrong, kinda don’t think I am. Some real-world use cases. Technology always moves forward.

I at least felt we had a nifty chat about this, and he seemed interested. Yay, something I can talk about with SOME semblance of knowledge (I’m new to the industry they are all in). He also brought up a very real and valid point, particularly someone of his generation and position: “For someone like me, for what I do, I don’t think I’d have much use of that”. Or something to the effect (sometimes my memory sucks, ok). I understood what he meant as well, absolutely correct. There was no rebuttal. It’s too new, too fresh, and I still have a lot to learn.

Then he got to the question of sort of monetization of the technology and ideas, and unfortunately I had to stop there. This man has experience and knowledge far greater than I do — I didn’t want to waste his time with nonsense if I can’t explain it in a realistic & applicable way. What this also said to me unfortunately is I don’t know enough about it on a technical level yet myself in terms of monetization. Feels bad, but I guess that’s okay — I can learn, right? Hm.

“If you can’t explain something clearly, you do not understand enough about it yourself”.

Multiple conversations on technology/blockchain/crypto were had that night, did not expect. And I learned a heck of a lot from all of them, honestly felt refreshing, inspiring, and informative. It has prompted me to delve further into more research, keen to learn more and make increasingly better-informed decisions. I try to be the sort of person that if I have nothing positive or useful to say, I don’t say much at all. I appreciate discussions that make me think or teach me something I didn’t know.

“You have to find your purpose” — One of my brilliant colleagues.

I admire unique, intelligent & creative people. Always have. I suppose because they have the power to make you think, amongst the power of what they can do. My colleagues also briefly touched on some questions about me, as I’m the fresh blood to the team they know little about me. And I’m pretty sure I came off naive af, but anyway. They asked me what I want. My answer was the hope of financial freedom/stability/to live/to help/to do something… more. I don’t need or want to be rich, just … stable.

Look, I don’t know yet, okay! I have ideas, I have some skills, I wanna do something, but I haven’t quite figured it all out. “Half-a-jack of all trades, master of none = me”. I don’t think I have been quite sure of where to apply myself in the past, nor thought much for myself overall if I’m terribly honest. I’m trying to think differently, now. Give me a sec.

Apparently, genuine helping +business success/financial independence rarely seem to go hand in hand(?), this is generally the sentiment I seem to get back when my first meek answer is “to help”. Don’t get me wrong, I have other ideas like perhaps some form of an online business, teaching myself to code (again), and more. The problem isn’t a lack of ideas. The problem for me seems to be the execution. Perhaps down to education, skill level, motivation, commitment, confidence, mindset, even depression — especially in the past. Y’know, just arguably the most important part of any idea/goal/bsns/anything. Probably nothing. Luckily, this can be improved. A wealth of information & education at our fingertips, how lucky we currently are.

There are things I *want* to do ‘selfishly’ as well, I’m not a total hippie, and you can’t help anyone until you help yourself. (BY THE BY, there’s a quote I found recently I quite like — “If you are looking for help, give it” — try it). Positive effects, potential help, yes great. Financial independence, living & security are definitely the primary goals let’s be real. Just hopefully done in the right way. Working, ideas, investments, savings, etc. I don’t think financial independence/freedom is a fools' errand — though it is super easy to be foolish. It should take work. But surely it’s possible. Passive income, something creative, something helpful, something I enjoy, something useful, good investments.

On a personal note too, I suppose I’ve also experienced just a tad too much instability in my life thus far for my liking, and am determined for something different. This means changes and a growth mindset. I’d like to do something positive in some small way, sure. When I say ‘selfishly’ — I more mean development & improvement. More reading, healthier habits, learning more skills, education, that sort of thing. Learning more in general, because I seriously need to.

Cliche af quote/lyric from one of my favorite songs when I was a kid, heh: “You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one”. Soz if cringe, but hey also not wrong.

All I can say is I’m not here with impossible goals, I have made profits so far in Crypto — but I don’t feel like I’m being totally silly with it, and at this stage; the money I have invested is pure profits, none of my initial investment. Though I do dollar cost average & add to my portfolio where I can, it’s also about managing your own risk. Turns out I quite like saving & investment. Who knew?

I’m here to learn, share what I learn in a hopefully positive way, educate, & maybe inform. I’m on Twitter primarily for news & development, ideas, information, positive things, and potential projects. Nothing more, nothing less. Sometimes my opinion on something, or someone, may change — if the research requires it. There are already a couple of examples I could give, but will not. I just will not promote/post them, unless relevant. I can think of an unfortunate couple of examples one needs to stay semi-relevant with, who aren’t as… fantastic as I first thought. BUT ANYWAY. “If you have nothing nice to say, don’t say anything at all”.

• Remember, I’m just some noobie on the internet in Australia. Please #DYOR, be careful out there & make up your own mind. Don’t blindly follow some public figure, entity, YouTuber, Twitter-er, etc. Look into things, read, dig.

I entered crypto trading/investing at the start of 2021. I’m still a noobie, but I know more than I did back then, and researching more almost every day. I’m interested in IT, Design & development potentials too. I have half a background in Real Estate, IT, Webdesign, Games (player of :p), and a 30-second exposure so far into the Health industry (again, I know nothing). I am gently stepping back into IT on a *personal* note — not a bad interest, skill, or hobby to have. Going back to my roots almost a bit, to re-learning things like PHP, CSS, JavaScript, Photoshop. Perhaps refresh my old photography hobby, too. The fundamentals of coding are almost like riding a bike- the understanding is still there, the language is ultimately still the same. There’s still a lot to learn & re-learn. Some things have changed, some haven’t, some things are going to. Nifty!
~ My name is Sol.