The Waiting Game

Family dinner. First time all of us are together in the yearr.

"Just one sec" my brother says for the third time in 10 mins with his phone out (again!).

I catch myself asking: How many times do I do the same thing?

So I check, and just this morning I had scrolled through 80+ Instagram reels (gaining zero value from watching them).

Then I check Bitcoin’s price and it’s down 30% from it’s all time high.

Fortunately, I feel nothing. No panic. Just calm.

The end of the year does this to people. You notice things. You realize what matters.

Bitcoin preaches what family teaches: Be present. Stop refreshing. Wait.

This Sunday in Bitcoin Wisdom, we run through why holding Bitcoin is harder than scrolling Instagram and why that's exactly what makes it work.

Why is waiting so hard? Because your brain is wired to hate it.

Two psychological forces are fighting against you: loss aversion and hyperbolic discounting. Understanding these forces is the first step to beating them.

In 1972, Stanford put a marshmallow in front of 4-year-olds.

The deal? Wait 15 minutes, and then get a second marshmallow.

Most kids couldn't wait. The kids who did? Better SAT scores, higher income, better life outcomes.

Delayed gratification isn't just about marshmallows. It's about everything.

Psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky discovered: Losses feel roughly 2x worse than equivalent gains feel good.

This is loss aversion. Losing $1,000 hurts more than gaining $1,000 feels good. Your brain treats losses as threats to survival.

In Bitcoin terms: BTC at $88,000 after hitting $126,000 feels like "losing" even if you bought at $50,000.

Hyperbolic Discounting is another force: We overvalue immediate rewards versus future rewards. $1,000 today feels better than $10,000 in 5 years. Selling at $88K to "lock in gains" feels better than waiting for $250K+.

Your brain (and my brain, apparently) both prefer rapid fire 30-second dopamine hits over building long term value. We prefer selling at $88,000 to stop our current pain rather than giving our BTC investments time to run their due course.

We're all losing the same battle: Instant gratification versus delayed gratification.

But Bitcoin makes it impossible to cheat.

The Stoics knew this 2,000 years ago. Seneca wrote:

Bitcoin is Stoicism training. And right now, the market is testing you.

Bitcoin at $88K (down from it’s $126K peak) and the Fear & Greed Index @ ~20/100 ("Extreme Fear") for the last month or so.

Pretty stark contrast with Citi Bank who predicts we’re back at $143K in less than a year.

The point is that your brain wants relief NOW (not in 12 months time), and every time you check your portfolio you trigger real psychological pain via loss aversion.

Think about how different dopamine systems work:

Instagram and TikTok give you instant gratification that leads to emptiness. You scroll for an hour and get zero value. The dopamine hit lasts 30 seconds, then you need another. It's an endless loop.

YOLO investing operates the same way. Buy the latest sh*tcoin. Sell when it dips 10% and move on to chase the next pump. You're constantly moving, constantly feeling in control. But five years later? You're broke.

Bitcoin stoicism is the opposite. Cold storage forces patience. You can't panic sell what takes 24 hours to access. The system removes your ability to act on impulse, and that constraint becomes your superpower.

The irony? Doing nothing with Bitcoin builds generational wealth. Doing everything with trading destroys it.

We're not chasing "number go up" for the dopamine.

We're chasing because Bitcoin offers freedom from unfair fiat debasement of our wealth and ultimately also our time.

We're chasing generational wealth for sovereignty to live a happy life, not Lambos to show off to our colleagues.

And all of that requires one thing waiting.

As we’ve said in this newsletter before, the goal isn't to get rich quick, but to get free slowly.

Additional feedback: What instant gratification habit are you trying to break? Hit “reply” to this mail and let me know (the most unique answer gets 2,100 sats and retweeted by @BitcoinNewsCom 😉).

It's Christmas week. Family time reminds you what actually matters. Not your portfolio. The people at the table.

Here's a few recommended strategies on how to best survive the coming holidays ahead:

Can't check portfolio every 5 minutes if the app isn't on your phone.

Same logic as Instagram: Remove the trigger.

Don't want to delete completely? Use something like Brick: a physical device that blocks access to specific apps for set time periods. You still get your fix, but it tells you when to stop.

My rule: Check my portfolio 1x / day (if you’re like me checking multiple times a day this is actually harder than it sounds).

The compulsion to check diminishes when you can't act on it immediately.

This time of year does something. Family gatherings. Year-end reviews. We step back. We get perspective.

Ask yourself: What actually matters?

The red number on your screen, or the people across the table? The next reel, or tasting your food? The urgent email, or being present?

Bitcoin forces the same discipline family teaches: Be here. Stop refreshing. Wait.

Not for the flex. Not for validation. For sovereignty. For freedom. For the people who matter.

We're all addicted to instant gratification. Bitcoin is the antidote. It forces you to wait. And waiting is the hardest work there is.

Three truths you can takeaway after reading this:

This Christmas, I’d encourage you to put down your phone, sit with your family,

and remember what you're hodling for.

Your marshmallow is waiting. Don't eat it yet.

- @Publius

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