Chop wood, carry water.
43 karma · joined February 6, 2020
Eli K. P. William is a Canadian sci-fi novelist, game writer, and translator based in Japan. In 2015 he published his first sci-fi novel, Cash Crash Jubilee, the first book in his “Jubilee Cycle” trilogy.
Most recently, Eli translated The Traveling Tree: Lessons from a Nomadic Life, a book by photographer Hoshino Michio.
[Other ways to listen.](https://www.thetransformationofvalue.com/episodes/sci-fi-eco...)
We talk about the nuanced reality of nuclear energy, its history and the current political, economic, and regulatory challenges globally, as well as the outlook for nuclear reactor technology and energy abundance more broadly.
While both approaches aim to escape the “rat race,” FITS redefines the pursuit of financial independence through the lens of Bitcoin, focusing on sovereignty over one’s time with a unique perspective towards wealth, work, and life.
We had a great talk about the FITS concept, exploring some of the technical aspects, as well as some of the challenges inherent in the traditional FIRE approach which is built on the premise of the ongoing growth of the stock market and ultimately is not truely independent because the state can always come and turn off or confiscate your retirement fund – Something they can’t do with Bitcoin.
We discuss the book, which gives an excellent overview of what Bitcoin mining is and the operational considerations, as well as fascinating case studies of the different business models and types of mining operations.
Alongside this we discuss energy and the electrical grid more broadly as well as how to communicate Bitcoin mining and the importance of maintaining the grid and producing energy for human flourishing.
We discuss the long term outlook for Japan as it moves towards renewable energy more broadly and the challenges with the existing infrastructure network and how the innovation of Bitcoin mining can help with this.
Kenji also share his background in nuclear energy and we talk about strategies for communicating the Bitcoin mining story to the public.
We have collaborated again to add a new city. This time we revisit Kyoto, a city that means different things for both of us and I think that comes through especially in the subtle soundscape that SJF has created.
We used the howler.js Web Audio library which has proven to be very versatile: https://github.com/goldfire/howler.js
There is something special about that first night wandering around an unfamiliar city and we wanted to capture that essence, but during lockdown that all came to a stop. Back in 2019 we both had the opportunity to travel through some incredible places and it was those moments that inspired much of our work. We wanted to make something that people could listen / watch while working from home to bring back a little bit of that feeling.
We used the howler.js Web Audio library which proved to be very versatile: https://github.com/goldfire/howler.js
I started doing one day offsite, and then totally remote. We built an understanding around communication and clarity (video calls > voice calls > slack > email) and the whole team had a strong vision around what needed to happen week to week.
I imagine it must be easier to turn an onsite job into a remote job instead of trying to find something remote from day one, maybe someone else has some thoughts on this?