Read_929 - Bitcoin, Stoicism, and Our Relationship With Time

Jan 27, 2026

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"Imagine the Stanford marshmallow experiment in reverse. Instead of getting a second marshmallow for waiting, the children are told that every fifteen minutes they wait, the marshmallow in front of them will shrink one tiny bite at a time, until nothing remains. Naturally, they eat their marshmallow immediately, not out of impatience or hunger, but common sense. That's exactly how our money works today."

~ Connor Dolan

What if the real cost of our broken money isn't just inflation – but the slow erosion of your ability to even imagine a future worth building toward?

This episode explores the surprising connection between Bitcoin, Stoicism, and the question we're all really asking: how should I be spending my time? From the marshmallow experiment in reverse to debt as invisible strings, we dig into why sound money might be the ultimate productivity hack – and why fiat is designed to keep you dependent, distracted, and disconnected from the life you actually want.

Check out the original article: Bitcoin, Stoicism, and Our Relationship With Time (Link: https://x.com/conhodlan/status/2011485978037203351)

References from the episode

The Bitcoin Standard by Saifedean Ammous – the book that opened Connor's eyes (and mine) to what money actually is (Link: https://saifedean.com/tbs)
The Daily Stoic podcast by Ryan Holiday – short, digestible episodes on Stoic philosophy (Link: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-daily-stoic/id1430315931)
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius – the classic starting point if you want to dive into Stoicism (Link: https://classics.mit.edu/Antoninus/meditations.html)
Alex Gladstein's piece Structural Adjustment – a deep look at how the IMF and World Bank use debt as a tool of control (Link: https://bitcoinmagazine.com/culture/imf-world-bank-repress-poor-countries)

Host Links

⁠Guy on Nostr ⁠(Link: http://tinyurl.com/2xc96ney)
⁠Guy on X ⁠(Link: https://twitter.com/theguyswann)
Guy on Instagram (Link: https://www.instagram.com/theguyswann)
Guy on TikTok (Link: https://www.tiktok.com/@theguyswann)
Guy on YouTube (Link: https://www.youtube.com/@theguyswann)
⁠Bitcoin Audible on X⁠ (Link: https://twitter.com/BitcoinAudible)
The Guy Swann Network Broadcast Room on Keet (Link: https://tinyurl.com/3na6v839)

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