Every year in the US, over 400 billion dollar$ are transmitted in the form of gift cards to friends and family. Home Depot, Starbucks, PlayStation. Gift cards are dumb because points stuck on a gift card loses value over time and the recipient feels compelled to spend it at this one specific place even when they can’t find anything worthwhile to buy. But gift cards feel more personal than cash because it creates the perception that the gift is more personal, catered to the recipient’s personality. How do you send a gift card with more flexible ways to spend it? I think the answer is programmatic money. Money that is fungible but also customizable. Imagine a PlayStation branded bitcoin. This does not exist today, and it sounds super dumb, as dumb as gift cards themselves. First we must be dumb before we can get smart.

Most of my stress doesn’t come from work itself — it comes from trying to do everything else at the same time. Life feels calmer when I stop multitasking my entire existence and focus on just one thing. #destress #overwhelmed #minimalism #mindfulness