Category: Podcast

Meditation on self-love

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The Story: Give yourself the gift of tenderness

It’s common to hear people talk poorly of themsevles, getting frustrated at themselves when they make a mistake, even saying things like “I’m a horrible person.” When you hear someone speak that way about themselves, you can deduce, unfortunately, that it’s only the tip of the iceberg. They probably say much nastier things about themselves within the privacy of their own minds. Most people wouldn’t tolerate a person who hung on their shoulder, poison dripping into their ear, and most would never say such things about their friends, instead encouraging them, comforting them and uplifting them. Let’s always be such a friend to ourselves.

In this short episode, Kurt describes a meditation on self-love, imagining your love for an innocent child and then turning that love back on yourself, in order to give the gifts of compassion, kindness and tenderness.

The Eps:

Receive the universe’s gifts – Episode 187

Down at the ashram with Link McElvenny – Episode 44

The Cash:

If you enjoy our posts, please become a patron on Patreon, or have a look at The Paradise Paradox’s page on Steemit where you can join, earn money, and upvote our posts to help support the show! You can also find a lot of additional content which is not posted on this site, with Kurt’s posts on Steemit.

We really appreciate all of your contributions! Every cent and satoshi we receive lets us know that we’re doing something worthwhile, that you are entertained by our program, and that you’re starting to question what you know more and more. Please be generous. Donate to The Paradise Paradox. Or buy some stuff on Amazon using this link. Or buy some of our great T-shirts here.

The Episode:

To download the audio, right click and press “save as”.

Remember to subscribe on iTunes or subscribe on Pocket Casts.

If you enjoyed the episode, don’t keep it a secret! Feel free to share it on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Reddit, or your office bathroom wall.

Crypto Crash January 2018 – Episode 188

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The Story: Bitcoin drops! Let’s prepare for the next bull run

Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency market in general took a huge hit in mid January 2018, with the total market cap dropping from around $750 B to under $450 B. This happens periodically, as the young market sees new media attention and new money flooding in from hobby investors and big institutions.

If you haven’t seen this kind of crash before, if you’re new to the market, this type of thing can seem very alarming, and it might have caught you off guard. For others, this is just part of the natural cycle of an emerging market where high volatility is expected. While newbies feel stick to their stomach watching the Bitcoin rollercoaster, experienced speculators watch calmly and take advantage of the bargain basement prices.

In this episode, Kurt explains the signals to look for next time when the market is getting overbought, including the general sentiment on social media, people getting sucked up in the mania and getting agitated at any criticism. Kurt also explains how this time presents an opportunity, where media attention will likely drift away from the crypto market, allowing prices to consolidate, forming a foundation for the next bull run.

How can you turn this crisis into an opportunity, and how can you learn from it? These questions and more are answered in this bone-rattling, price-exploding, price-imploding episode of … The Paradise Paradox!

The Eps:

Bitcoin over 9000 – Time to take profits! Episode 184

The Cash:

If you enjoy our posts, please become a patron on Patreon, or have a look at The Paradise Paradox’s page on Steemit where you can join, earn money, and upvote our posts to help support the show! You can also find a lot of additional content which is not posted on this site, with Kurt’s posts on Steemit.
We really appreciate all of your contributions! Every cent and satoshi we receive lets us know that we’re doing something worthwhile, that you are entertained by our program, and that you’re starting to question what you know more and more. Please be generous. Donate to The Paradise Paradox. Or buy some stuff on Amazon using this link. Or buy some of our great T-shirts here.

The Episode:

To download the audio, right click and press “save as”.
Remember to subscribe on iTunes or subscribe on Pocket Casts.
If you enjoyed the episode, don’t keep it a secret! Feel free to share it on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Reddit, or your office bathroom wall.

Receive the Universe’s Gifts – Episode 187

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The Story: Being open to new opportunities

Some people seem to have all the luck – being able to travel the world, getting money, attracting romantic partners. And sometimes it really is luck – just a genetic accident or having the good fortune of being born in the right place. Many times, it’s not just luck, but an awareness of their surroundings, a willingness to try new things, and a mentality of readiness for opportunity.

In this world, it’s possible to make all kinds of connections, find all kinds of people, help them reach their goals, and allow them to help you reach yours. However, these gifts generally don’t come in the way you expect them. If you ever catch yourself saying things like “I could never do that…” or “I hate money” you may be putting up blocks in your life that prevent you from reaching abundance.

In this episode, Kurt explains his perspective on how sometimes, “luck” is actually the result of awareness, open-mindedness and preparedness. He explains how being open to love in different forms can help you be more fulfilled, how the next level of wisdom will always appear bizarre to you, and practising mindfulness meditation can bring you to new plateaux of prosperity. Join me on another heart-breaking, hair-raising, life-giving episode of… The Paradise Paradox!

The Eps:

The electricity of your intentions: Gela Amini – Episode 172

A life without precedent: Gela Amini – Episode 174

Value is everywhere – Episode 170

The Links:

Rich Dad, Poor Dad

Psyched Substance on YouTube

Swim on YouTube

Double Your Dating

Practising the Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle audiobook

Read ’em and Reap by Joe Navarro

Revolver (2007) movie

The Cash:

If you enjoy our posts, please become a patron on Patreon, or have a look at The Paradise Paradox’s page on Steemit where you can join, earn money, and upvote our posts to help support the show! You can also find a lot of additional content which is not posted on this site, with Kurt’s posts on Steemit.

We really appreciate all of your contributions! Every cent and satoshi we receive lets us know that we’re doing something worthwhile, that you are entertained by our program, and that you’re starting to question what you know more and more. Please be generous. Donate to The Paradise Paradox. Or buy some stuff on Amazon using this link. Or buy some of our great T-shirts here.

The Episode:

To download the audio, right click and press “save as”.

Remember to subscribe on iTunes or subscribe on Pocket Casts.

If you enjoyed the episode, don’t keep it a secret! Feel free to share it on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Reddit, or your office bathroom wall.

Sex workers in South East Asia: Fun, games & exploitation

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The Story: Strange experiences with prostitutes in Asia

You walk down Changkat Road in Kuala Lumpur, and you see a group of lovely Khmer and Vietnamese women on the side of the street. Whether you try to avoid them or try to escape them, they will get near you, asking “Massas? You wan’ massas?” and if you give them half a chance, they will tell you how much they want you, and whisper offers of certain services.

You keep walking, and make it to the bars, with chairs and tables in the street. A beautiful Ugandan woman reaches out her hand and says “Hey baby!” You might wish she were just being friendly, but experience tells you otherwise, and her glare signals that she’s thinking more about your wallet than your character.

For some of these women, they might enjoy their jobs and be paid well, receiving money from tourists willing to have a good time. For others, they might have been charmed into it by foreign men of low moral fibre, promising work as a waitress or a dancer in fine Malaysia, only to find a job of a different nature, with the worst boss of their lives.

Join Kurt on a trip through Thailand, Cambodia and Malaysia as he comes across an alienating world of beauty, risk and debauchery in the next episode of… The Paradise Paradox!

The Eps:

Crazy, weird & wonderful Thailand – Episode 182

A dirty postcard from Colombia – Episode 112

The Links:

Title photo credit on Pixabay – Klaus Haussmann (NSFW)

The Cash:

If you enjoy our posts, please become a patron on Patreon, or have a look at The Paradise Paradox’s page on Steemit where you can join, earn money, and upvote our posts to help support the show! You can also find a lot of additional content which is not posted on this site, with Kurt’s posts on Steemit.

We really appreciate all of your contributions! Every cent and satoshi we receive lets us know that we’re doing something worthwhile, that you are entertained by our program, and that you’re starting to question what you know more and more. Please be generous. Donate to The Paradise Paradox. Or buy some stuff on Amazon using this link. Or buy some of our great T-shirts here.

The Episode:

To download the audio, right click and press “save as”.

Remember to subscribe on iTunes or subscribe on Pocket Casts.

If you enjoyed the episode, don’t keep it a secret! Feel free to share it on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Reddit, or your office bathroom wall.

Don’t Get Goxxed – Bitfinex, Bittrex & Coinbase

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The Story: Stay safe from counterparty risk

A lot of money is flowing into the digital currency market, and certain exchanges such as Bitfinex, Bittrex and Coinbase are having a hard time keeping up with all the orders.

Bitfinex has quickly implemented deposit fees for deposits under $1,000, and withdrawal minimums of $250 or more. They’ve also increased the confirmations required for deposits, for example, Dash deposits now require 9 confirmations instead of 6, and sometimes even when the 9 confirmations are reached, the funds are still not available. Withdrawals can now take 24 hours to process – a long time to sit and sweat wondering if your money will ever come out.

Perhaps these are just symptoms of a market expanding, with infrastructure not fit to deal with increasing demand. However, it’s possible that they’re indications of greater problems. When it comes to money, it doesn’t hurt to be careful.

The Cash:

If you enjoy our posts, please become a patron on Patreon, or have a look at The Paradise Paradox’s page on Steemit where you can join, earn money, and upvote our posts to help support the show! You can also find a lot of additional content which is not posted on this site, with Kurt’s posts on Steemit.

We really appreciate all of your contributions! Every cent and satoshi we receive lets us know that we’re doing something worthwhile, that you are entertained by our program, and that you’re starting to question what you know more and more. Please be generous. Donate to The Paradise Paradox. Or buy some stuff on Amazon using this link. Or buy some of our great T-shirts here.

The Episode:

To download the audio, right click and press “save as”.

Remember to subscribe on iTunes or subscribe on Pocket Casts.

If you enjoyed the episode, don’t keep it a secret! Feel free to share it on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Reddit, or your office bathroom wall.

Bitcoin’s Path To Ruin – Episode 185

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The Story: Is Bitcoin destined for failure?

If you got into Bitcoin early, it was probably because you saw the long-term potential of a platform that could disrupt the banking and central banking industries, holding governments accountable and limiting their power. You were probably a starry-eyed idealist who believed that real change was possible, by changing the systems that we all use, and hopefully, those stars have not yet left your eyes. If you got in more recently, you might hold the somewhat less principled position of “We’re all getting rich off this Internet nerd money!”

If you’re the second kind of speculator, you might fold as soon as times get tough, your position torn out easily like the shallow roots of a clover. If you’re the first kind, you might persist even when things are looking bad, because you knew that you had very good reasons to enter the market in the beginning.

Conditions have changed for Bitcoin, with high transaction fees from $1-$3, which rule out the microtransactions, small transactions and use for developing nations which idealists once believed made it unique. According to Mike Hearn, the Bitcoin developer who quit in January 2016, there are people on the team who don’t believe in the fanciful visions of its creator, and never saw it as anything more than a potential platform for large settlements. Hearn declared the experiment over, a statement that was easy to overlook for many, considering how often Bitcoin has been pronounced lost.

The team remains prudent and risk-averse, which makes sense for a multi-billion dollar project, but it also means the programmers on the team who are excellent are not free to innovate, which makes Hearn’s departure seem much more sensible in retrospect. With transactions that can take hours and fees 100x its competitors, the project is already years behind. In today’s world where invention and innovation are common, playing it safe can be a death sentence.

In this episode, Kurt presents the case that the Bitcoin experiment is on the path to ruin, likely being sustained by all the points in its favour, such as brand recognition and network effect, but eventually falling further into inutility, and likely causing misery for many. Join me on this value-investing tail of hope, disillusionment and suspense in the next episode of … The Paradise Paradox!

The Eps:

Infiltrators: Bitcoin paranoid – Episode 162

The Links:

The resolution of the Bitcoin experiment – Mike Hearn

Video format wars – Wikipedia

I looked into SegWit, and here’s what I saw – Nathan Hourt a.k.a. Modprobe

Dilbert comic – Catching up

The Cash:

If you enjoy our posts, please become a patron on Patreon, or have a look at The Paradise Paradox’s page on Steemit where you can join, earn money, and upvote our posts to help support the show! You can also find a lot of additional content which is not posted on this site, with Kurt’s posts on Steemit.

We really appreciate all of your contributions! Every cent and satoshi we receive lets us know that we’re doing something worthwhile, that you are entertained by our program, and that you’re starting to question what you know more and more. Please be generous. Donate to The Paradise Paradox. Or buy some stuff on Amazon using this link. Or buy some of our great T-shirts here.

The Episode:

To download the audio, right click and press “save as”.

Remember to subscribe on iTunes or subscribe on Pocket Casts.

If you enjoyed the episode, don’t keep it a secret! Feel free to share it on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Reddit, or your office bathroom wall.

Bitcoin over 9000: Lock in profits! – Episode 184

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The Story: Why to sell cryptocurrency when the price is exploding

Bitcoin is over $9000 USD and people are going bananas. In cryptocurrency discussion groups, there are rumours that mass adoption is finally taking hold, that everyone’s grandma is buying BTC, or even that the dollar is crashing against Bitcoin. Meanwhile, using cryptocurrency remains more difficult than programming a VCR, and addresses continue to look like computer errors. Mainstream interest has piqued, but as long as the user experience remains poor, mass adoption is unlikely.

Nevertheless, people in the community are going crazy over the rise in price. It’s tempting to believe it will go up forever, a mistake many have made in markets and paid dearly for it. The longer the mania over the price continues, the more likely a correction – but nobody can say exactly when, how, or how much.

As many have made small (or large) fortunes in this market, and people are so hyped, that’s a sign that now is the time to be prudent, and to consider how much of your net worth you really want to have sitting in volatile space age Internet nerd money. Times like these can be good to put some money into more stable assets, such as cash, or perhaps precious metals. Selling small amounts at a time means you can be adaptive to changing market conditions – remaining open to selling more if the price keeps going up, and having the chance to buy if the price slips.

Life is about risk management. You can’t make the perfect move, but you can be flexible enough to prepare for different scenarios, and you certainly can be humble enough to see the possibility of different scenarios. Nobody knows how high Bitcoin or other cryptos will go, and nobody knows when it will crash. Accounting for the lack of knowledge is the beginning of wisdom.

Disclaimer: Nothing in this article or video is intended to be financial advice. I don’t want to tell you what to do with your money and I don’t know what you should do with your money.

The Eps:

Bitcoin, Dash and digital currency for beginners – Episode 181

Infiltrators: Bitcoin Paranoid – Episode 162

Dash vs Bitcoin: which will achieve mass adoption first? – Episode 154

The Cash:

If you enjoy our posts, please become a patron on Patreon, or have a look at The Paradise Paradox’s page on Steemit where you can join, earn money, and upvote our posts to help support the show! You can also find a lot of additional content which is not posted on this site, with Kurt’s posts on Steemit.

We really appreciate all of your contributions! Every cent and satoshi we receive lets us know that we’re doing something worthwhile, that you are entertained by our program, and that you’re starting to question what you know more and more. Please be generous. Donate to The Paradise Paradox. Or buy some stuff on Amazon using this link. Or buy some of our great T-shirts here.

The Episode:

To download the audio, right click and press “save as”.

Remember to subscribe on iTunes or subscribe on Pocket Casts.

If you enjoyed the episode, don’t keep it a secret! Feel free to share it on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Reddit, or your office bathroom wall.

Compassion in arguments: A lesson for political nuts – Episode 183

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Seeing others’ humanity for greater communication

Many fools have wasted many hours arguing with people on the Internet, myself included. If you are passionate about politics, or some other controversial subject, you’ve probably got yourself into some awkward conversations. If you’re a real hard case, you might have even incited such conversations on purpose. For arguers, those interactions are enjoyable, an exercise in intellect or rhetoric. For others, they’re emotionally taxing, and can even end friendships. When a discussion becomes an argument, you start to view the people you’re talking to as objects, and that’s especially common on the Internet, when you can’t see their faces.

It’s truly a shame when people stop being friends because of a disagreement over politics, dividing ourselves, removing the possibility of human connection in favour of an abstraction, or even a politician whom you’ll never meet. We can always make the decision to see the humanity in people, recognising their consciousness even in moments of disagreement.

In customer service, you learn to handle people even when they’re emotional, and many of the lessons of customer service can apply in our everyday communications – seeking to understand before seeking to be understood, paraphrasing to confirm comprehension, apologising more than is normally expected, finding common ground with our fellow humans, and being grateful for friendly interactions.

In this episode, Kurt describes how feeling compassion during your arguments can quickly transform them into discussions, discovering more about the perspectives of others, and using understanding to be more persuasive. Join us in another heart-opening episode of… The Paradise Paradox!

The Eps:

People are more important than ideas – Episode 177

The Cash:

If you enjoy our posts, please become a patron on Patreon, or have a look at The Paradise Paradox’s page on Steemit where you can join, earn money, and upvote our posts to help support the show! You can also find a lot of additional content which is not posted on this site, with Kurt’s posts on Steemit.

We really appreciate all of your contributions! Every cent and satoshi we receive lets us know that we’re doing something worthwhile, that you are entertained by our program, and that you’re starting to question what you know more and more. Please be generous. Donate to The Paradise Paradox. Or buy some stuff on Amazon using this link. Or buy some of our great T-shirts here.

The Episode:

To download the audio, right click and press “save as”.

Remember to subscribe on iTunes or subscribe on Pocket Casts.

If you enjoyed the episode, don’t keep it a secret! Feel free to share it on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Reddit, or your office bathroom wall.

Crazy, weird and wonderful Thailand

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The Story: Delicious food and beautiful ladyboys in the Kingdom of Thailand

Depending on what type of person you are, you might know Thailand for its beautiful Buddhist temples, its tasty food, ladyboys, ping-pong shows, or just its happy, humble people. And it’s true, Thailand has all these things and more.

In this episode, Kurt explains a traveller’s perspective on Thailand, the pad thai and basil stir-fries, the gorgeous and prolific sex workers, the ubiquitous transgender women, and the Thai people’s love for the late king, his majesty Rama IX. Kurt also talks about south east Asians fascination with sugary drinks, and some tips on how to spot a shill.

Join us on the next pad krapow scarfing episode of … The Paradise Paradox!

The Eps:

Christoph Heuermann – Bitnation is Governance 2.0

The Cash:

If you enjoy our posts, please become a patron on Patreon, or have a look at The Paradise Paradox’s page on Steemit where you can join, earn money, and upvote our posts to help support the show! You can also find a lot of additional content which is not posted on this site, with Kurt’s posts on Steemit.

We really appreciate all of your contributions! Every cent and satoshi we receive lets us know that we’re doing something worthwhile, that you are entertained by our program, and that you’re starting to question what you know more and more. Please be generous. Donate to The Paradise Paradox. Or buy some stuff on Amazon using this link. Or buy some of our great T-shirts here.

The Episode:

To download the audio, right click and press “save as”.

Remember to subscribe on iTunes or subscribe on Pocket Casts.

If you enjoyed the episode, don’t keep it a secret! Feel free to share it on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Reddit, or your office bathroom wall.