Hey there,
Welcome to the latest edition of Weekly Crystallizations, a weekly newsletter where I highlight tweets (and occasional Telegram messages) from people making sense of what’s going on in the world today!
Personal update
Greetings. I’m going to try and post my “Ritual Notes” (my notes on psychedelic ceremonies) online from now on. I started two weeks ago with my Mushroom Ritual Notes, which got a warm response. The only reason for me not to do so is out of fear, and it happens to be precisely the type of fear I’m committed to vanquishing within myself. With that, I’d like to share my Ritual Notes of a little Santo Daime ritual my partner, a guest of ours and I did this weekend.
What I've been reading
"The Climate Emergency Fund covers the activists’ expenses and even pays modest salaries to key figures. There has been much press discussion about whether the penalties for blocking traffic should be increased, but it seems to me that the far more pressing question, is why American non-profits funded by oil money are paying climate activists to disrupt traffic and demand speed limit and transit policy changes in Germany in the first place; and how it is remotely acceptable or even legal for them to do this. "
The Courage to be Disliked by Ichiro Kishimi (on Adlerian psychology)
“All problems are interpersonal relationship problems.”
“In Adlerian psychology the concept of "lifestyle" is something you choose for yourself, in contrast with the more conventional concept of personality which is deemed static.”
“People fail to change out of a lack of courage”
FTX collapse
One of the biggest crypto exchanges collapsed due in part because they were overly leveraged. This seems like a good summary of recent events.
There had been a growing rift between the founder, SBF, and more decentralized-minded members of the crypto community. SBF had been lobbying for some pretty decentralization-unfriendly legislation.
SBF’s story is reminiscent of traditional, centralized, overly leveraged finance.
How shady were SBF’s dealings really? GencoCapital helps us stretch our imagination (quite possibly further than necessary).
Russo-Ukrainian Conflict
It seems the US has finally decided to talk with Russia again. I think this is because the Ukrainian hand is getting increasingly weaker and this is drawing the US to the negotiation table.
Russia retreats from Kherson. Big Serge argues that the Russian retreat happened in absence of any Ukrainian pressure and with the Russians getting nearly all their equipment out.
It seems like a sizeable portion of Kherson is happy with Russia’s retreat.
Tech
China is in a race to the bottom of the brainstem for Western youth, without exposing their own youth to Western mind viruses.
Crypto
COVID-19
Geo-politics
Finance
AI
Hard to believe these are AI renditions.
Misc
This is a big reason why I do this newsletter 👇