All in The Why I... Series

Why I Wrote Down the Rabbit Hole

If you're a fan of this blog, you no doubt are familiar with my first non-fiction book, Down the Rabbit Hole: Your Guide to Crypto Literacy in the Digital Age. In this entry to my Why I… series, I want to share some casual thoughts about why I wrote this book.

I explained this a little bit in the book to help explain why I am interested in the space.

I explained why a bit in the opening chapter:

“As I fell down the crypto rabbit hole in early 2021, I discovered a calling. It was to help onboard the average person to this new digital frontier. I’m compelled to equip as many people as possible with the foundational knowledge, skills, and behaviors that will become increasingly necessary to be digitally literate. I’ve built a career helping people succeed as their work underwent a digital transformation and overcome technical challenges inherent in working with computers, complicated software, and complex networks. When I ask myself, “What do I want to build in this industry?” the answer is a learning program and community to help teach how to use this technology properly.

My first step toward that goal is The Guide.”

“What a joy it is to be on an incompleteable path.” - Henry Shukman, Sanbo Zen Master

I actually want to write about my zen practice. But I feel like setting the stage with meditation more generally is a better place to begin.

The world is afire, literally and metaphorically. It’s been almost 20 years since suddenly everyone had smart phones. We started opening and refreshing feeds—no, waterfalls—of problems, tasks, and agendas. Priorities set by companies, organizations, influencers, bots. This technology added hundreds of new voices to our daily experience. Embedded in dopamine, streaming constantly. Directly to you, 24/7.

So, you’re telling me we already got this damn monkey mind that won’t shut up, that fills us with suffering well enough…and now we’re injecting doomscrolling into the mix?

Of course people need meditation. We need it more than ever.

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