🍪 W40 - 🖼️ Understanding NFTs and how they will shape the future
Understanding NFTs and how they will shape the future, Digital media turned us into dopamine addicts & Why on earth would you run a marathon?
Hi,
and welcome to the 9th edition of your favourite Wednesday bite, with again some bite-sized knowledge to make you popular at dinner conversations and bar chats.
In this edition:
Understanding NFTs and how they will shape the future
Digital media turned us into dopamine addicts
Why on earth would you run a marathon?
And some additional 🍞 Crumbs & 🧠 Brain game
Happy reading.
Regards,
Steven
Btw, building an audience for this newsletter requires effort, so by sharing this newsletter you can enlighten others and help me grow. Thanks in advance for your help.
☕ Grab a coffee, take a bite 🍪
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① 🖼️ Understanding NFTs and how they will shape the future
NFTs are becoming a big thing. You might have heard that JPEGS are being sold for millions. But what are NFTs anyway?
An NFT or a non-fungible token is digital ownership of an asset that can’t be replaced by another “identical” item. Take for example a painting you only have 1 original, and all other versions of it will be copies. That is non-fungible. However, a dollar bill can be replaced with something exactly the same which makes it fungible.
So by owning an NFT, you own the rights to a unique item.
And while a painting most likely will be hidden away in a secure vault with climate control to protect it from ageing and to keep it safe from being stolen, an NFT is always tied to its owner.
In an earlier article, I mentioned that Bitcoin used more energy than Finland because of the technology behind it. And this technology behind Bitcoin is the same as for NFTs, blockchain. Every transaction that is done is verified by a network of independent devices to ensure a safe transaction. Since all transactions are captured in a ledger and can be accessed by anyone, you can’t forge ownership of an NFT.
So how will NFTs shape the future?
On today's internet, we don't get paid for the work we do with our minds. And what's more, the content we upload to proprietary apps and platforms is trapped there. These apps and platforms not only make money from our content, they control it.
NFTs are not bound to a platform, they are free, they are portable. Instead of living on a company's private servers, they live on decentralized infrastructure that is peer to peer, open and transparent.
And this is what we are moving towards with Web3, a more intelligent version of the internet, built on the principle of decentralization, a push toward individual freedom. Blockchain will fuel the decentralization and NFTs will reshape the internet with property rights baked into its code.
So what does the internet of the future look like with NFTs as its building blocks?
An internet where economic control rests in the hands of creators, not platforms. An internet where our ideas and creativity can be directly supported. An internet where information can be free, but where we get paid for the work we do with our minds.
Want to learn more about NFTs? Here’s a quick introduction and what they are about.
See also: 🔗 ₿ Bitcoin uses more energy than Finland
Source: Nick Widmer - 10 min read
Source: Ted Talk - 10min video
② 🧟 Digital media turned us into dopamine addicts
Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that sends signals from the body to the brain. It is also referred to as the “feel-good” hormone, providing pleasurable sensations, along with learning, memory, motor system function, and more. When dopamine is released in large amounts, it creates feelings of pleasure and reward, which motivates you to repeat a specific behaviour.
You can increase dopamine levels by getting enough sleep, exercising, listening to music, meditating and spending time in the sun.
But you can also increase dopamine levels by consuming digital media. You trick your brain in getting a reward by watching one more episode, checking one more TikTok video, getting a like or follower, gamble online or doing some online shopping.
And this is what Dr Anna Lembke, a world-leading expert on addiction, is seeing today, an increase in numbers of people struggling with minor addictions.
We’re forever “interrupting ourselves”, as Lembke puts it, for a quick digital hit, meaning we rarely concentrate on taxing tasks for long or get into a creative flow.
We now have an obsession with instant gratification keeping us in our limbic brain, which processes emotions, and not in our pre-frontal cortex, which is used for future planning and problem-solving and is important for personality development.
“We’re losing our capacity to delay gratification, solve problems and deal with frustration and pain in its many different forms.”
What to do about your addiction?
Get rid of distractions and quick hits. Take time to reset your brain and gain insight into how the addiction is affecting you.
Set rules for when and how to use your phone (airplane mode, not in the bedroom), or when to watch a show and for how long.
The main message is to stop hunting for pleasure all the time.
So in all, step away from quick hits to raise your dopamine, and focus on those activities that provide you with real pleasure and improve your overall health. Like, going for a run, talking to a stranger, reading a book,…
“Doing things that are hard is one of the best ways to pursue a life worth living, because the pleasure we get afterwards is more enduring.”
Source: The Guardian - 7 min read
Source: Healthline - 7 min read
③ 🏃 Why on earth would you run a marathon?
The first organized marathon was held in 1896 in Athens and involved 17 athletes. This number increased tremendously with an estimated number of marathon finishers of 1.298.725 in 2018.
But why would you commit time, energy and a lot of sweat to run 42.2km?
First, you have physical motivators.
Although running such a long distance can put a strain on your body, the preparation up to the event lead to positive health and mental wellbeing effects. You will lose weight and your cardiovascular health will improve.
Studies also found a possible relationship between improved cognitive function – and greater eye health – as a result of marathoning.
Having completed 2 marathons, I can only agree with the above, and besides being in the best shape of my life, it also provided me with a massive gain in my overall wellbeing and how I feel about myself.
And what about the psychological motivators?
This is more tied to each runner individually. Runners tend to cite three primary motivators: freedom, achievement and competition.
You do it because you like the feeling of accomplishment, you want to push yourself further than ever before or you would like to show the world that people with your “abilities” can achieve great things.
And although not the best motivator, but endurance running can help you gain in social status.
Showing you are capable of a long-distance race projects qualities of health, productivity and efficiency to others, akin to cultivating a personal brand.
Runner’s high
A common feeling of long-distance running is the so-called "runner's high", a brief, deeply relaxing state of euphoria, with extreme joy or delight.
Whatever benefit you may be looking for, go out and train. You will be so happy that you did it afterwards. And it will also help you to get rid of the negative effects linked to a day of sittings. See my previous newsletter for more on that.
One sidenote to running marathons, it doesn’t become easier the more you run them.
Liverpool runner Andy Glen already completed 176 marathons and claims that the last six miles are just as challenging as they were when he ran his first marathon.
Source: BBC - 6 min read
Revisiting the supply chain crisis article of last week, I found a nice cartoon.
🔗 🚢 How the supply chain crisis can blow the world economy off its course
🍞 Crumbs
European Parliament calls for a ban on facial recognition
A Massive Subterranean ‘Tree’ Is Moving Magma to Earth’s Surface
Lego to remove gender bias from its toys after findings of child survey
Telegram says it added 70M users while Facebook and WhatsApp were down
Google, YouTube to prohibit ads and monetization on climate denial content
Lego launched the Titanic, its biggest set ever
Google wants to use AI to time traffic lights more efficiently
Amazon is reportedly working on a smart fridge that tracks what's inside
🧠 Brain game
Who has the fastest and slowest internet in the world?
See the full list at Visual Capitalist.
Answer:
Fastest: Singapore - 262.2Mbps / Slowest: Cuba - 3.46Mbps
Questions? Feedback? Leave a comment 😉
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