The algos and the social media feed rarely bring good news: it's all disaster porn, probably on purpose.
This was a beautiful exception
This Bitcoin artist, whose work is strangely more familiar to me than his name/story/personal, "came back" to social media life after six months of radio silence. I confess I hadn't realized he was gone.
But the story is fantastic:
"Freedom lies in living and experiencing the moment."
Dude went hiking... for months on end: road trip through Scandinavia (highly recommend!), cross the Alps etc.
At a certain point I lost interest in the usual Bitcoin discussions here—Bitcoiners named in the Epstein Files, endless excitement over Michael Saylor buying more Bitcoin, or hardware wallet provider issues that rightly raised questions.
Oh, PREACH. You missed the exact right six months: congrats on keeping more sanity/braincells than the rest of us.
I asked myself what the greatest long-term benefit of understanding and holding Bitcoin really is. I concluded it is about “buying back” one’s lifetime and filling that time freely—without compromises, restrictions, or outside influence.
I spent weeks and months hiking every day and sleeping in a new place in nature—whether at 2,500 meters in the Alps or at 200 meters in the marshy Swedish fjäll. That sense of aliveness is, for me, what makes professional independence and Bitcoin so desirable. Bitcoin itself is not freedom.
Bitcoin can be a powerful tool for feeling life more intensely—without the distractions, disinformation, and numbing of the senses that prevent self-determined living. These months of long-distance hiking grounded me.
Interesting—I agree with everything you’ve raised. Bitcoin gives you that financial freedom we don't have in the fiat world, but the other kind of freedom is in the mind and in enjoying those little moments; it’s like The Little Prince said: "What is essential is invisible to the eye."
Beautiful. Freedom is about time, not price. The best part of self-custody is that it can let your sats work while you’re away: staking natively on Bitcoin’s own chain, or using them as collateral without selling or handing over keys. Your stack earns, you hike. Welcome back.