Can You Bite Before You’re Bit? What’s the Implication?

Sometimes I think tech has devolved us, possibly even impeding our future evolution—or maybe worse, imperiling our very existence. OK, my readers know I can get hyperbolic at times…not to mention cynical (coming next)…so stay with me.

For example, let’s take a current and relevant story: the ongoing meltdown of the system that was going to replace gold, banks, diamonds, financial institutions, and instruments—basically anything related to money, currency, and financial transactions.?

No…I’m not talking about sneakers or bad digital NFT art, although related. No, I’m focused on Bitcoin, the scarcely available digital currency free of control and oversight, mined not from the ground but the ether with, ironically, similar environmentally destructive outcomes.?

The de-evolution? Simple. Our ancestors used to bite into coins and the like to make sure they were in fact gold or silver and not just some base metal painted or otherwise doctored.?

And here we are, a product with a hint of that same biting ritual in its name, and many have allowed the hype and DIGIBABBLE to sweep them along. Dear reader, people have been wiped out…not Elon, of course, or any of the CEOs of the “mining” and related companies…just ordinary folk. People looking to make up for not having the opportunity to invest in Amazon’s IPO, for example, or to have seed money in current Unicorns…many of whom have tanked, but again, not before the “money” took its money, leaving the rest staring at an empty wallet. So it goes.?

I did promise cynicism.?

Survival once dictated that we approach everything with caution. Not to impede progress, as some would have, but rather to facilitate and catalyze it.?

Bottom line. Throughout history, if we all got eaten or lost our capital, there was nothing left…so smart caution did in fact generate and induce smart progress.?

Some have posited that too much “free” money is chasing too few qualified opportunities—meaning that we don’t need caution or smart thinking…just speed to market.?

Maybe.?

My view is that like our forbearers, we are still searching; looking for what’s next? and will change our world; what will make a difference. But unlike them, we are not biting the coin…we have allowed it to bite us. And therein lies the difference.??

What lesson do I learn from this all?

• Bite the coin – don’t just blindly jump into every new hype and declaration of digital or other messianism. Be critical. Cynical. If you have money to burn, and it's yours, by all means, jump all in. but if you don’t, and if you have fiscal accountability for a business, take a moment to think; plan; test before you “risk it on one turn of pitch and toss, and lose.” Just Google or Bing (you know the drill) to get a sense of how much is at stake right now... and how many CMOs insisted that $’s were already old and done.

#bitethecoin should inspire us all to explore and build.?

Bottom line…remember…BITE, don’t get BIT.

What’s your view?