In the past ~5 years I've learned SO, SO much about the human mind, and nervous system, and psychology, and how we operate, epigenetics, and neuroplasticity, etc. and it just blows my mind how uncommon this knowledge is.

Just 5 years ago I was a very educated and intelligent person and yet was walking around all day utterly ignorant of how my own mind functions. Wild.

It bums me out how psychology and therapy are demonised. Y'all we are so ignorant. We really need to be leaning into these tools a lot more rather than shaming them.

In case you forgot... you control nothing. You can scheme and influence but in the end you don't stand a chance at actually controlling anything besides yourself.

So if you want a more loving world, you should be more loving. If you want a more educated world, you should be more educated. If you want a more violent world, you should be more violent. etc, etc.

Agentic payments are so hot right now 🔥 You’ve probably heard of L402 or x402, but what are they?

I’ll explain, but first, the internet! Back in the early 90s the HTTP protocol was being built, and with that came some error codes, 404 page not found being the most famous. 💅 But, reserved for future use, is a very forgotten error code, 402 payment required. This error code has sat waiting, for decades, for its moment to shine. And now, finally, we have money truly built for online commerce, Bitcoin + Lightning ⚡

And of course agents will choose to work with money designed for them. Agents don’t have identities, they can’t open bank accounts. They aren’t so great at filling out forms on a website, but they excel at using APIs! They can crunch numbers way faster than we can and they don’t want to sit around waiting on third parties to verify payments and grant access. L402s were designed for them!

So what is an L402?

It’s an access token that includes proof of payment. An agent shows up to an API endpoint looking for some data. The service returns a token with a Lightning invoice. The agent pays that invoice, receives the preimage as proof of payment and adds that preimage to the token, making an L402. The agent then returns to the server to access the data in that API endpoint presenting the L402 to get instant access. But wait, there’s more. As this is a bearer token, an agent can also attenuate that token and sell it, or pass it along to sub-agents, etc. Lots of options. No identity needed, no need for the server to hold on to user data.

This is a protocol created by Lightning Labs in 2020.

And how does this relate to x402?

You can think of it like this, L402 is a bearer token while x402 is a process. An agent shows up to an API endpoint looking for some data. The service returns a 402 error code along with instructions for various payment methods. An agent makes a payment and a facilitator service monitors the blockchain to check for confirmations, returning data to the server when a transaction is settled. The server can now grant the agent access to the data in that API endpoint.

This is a protocol created by Coinbase in 2025.

x402 focuses more on the broader crypto ecosystem while L402 focuses on Lightning. L402 tokens were built specifically for Lightning payments but it’s theoretically possible to use L402s inside of the x402 process.

There are of course so many more details here. If you’d like to dig in checkout the links below 👇

It’s one of the most consistently difficult things in my life, how on earth can someone hold the reality that this could all end at any moment, at the same time as they engage in long term planning?

Car accident, WW3 nuclear blast, stroke, etc. you just never know. And you then have to hold that knowledge while planning your kids education, deciding if now is the right time to refinance your home, making a 5 year career plan… like I just don’t think the human mind can really do that.

So in a lot of ways, you just gotta say fuck it and go for it knowing that you and everyone you know will die, but just live anyway.

It really bothers me when people say that men are protectors, not because I don’t want them to be, but because most aren’t.

I’m speaking in broad generalities here, and certainly there are exceptions, but generally, this is how it goes...

A woman spots a threat in her world, she goes to a man who is in a ‘protector’ position, a father, a brother, a husband, etc. She tells him what her concerns are. The ‘protector’ dismisses her concerns as hysteria. “You’re being paranoid”, “I’ve not seen him do that!”, “Not all men!”, “don’t be such a feminist.” And so she receives no protection. Instead she needs to arrange and manage her own protection. She forms alliances with other women. They text each other when they know they will be in the company of men they don’t feel safe with. They have code words. They share their location. They keep their phone near them waiting to go find and pick up their friend if needed. They help scheme on how to gather evidence. They are the shoulder to cry on when protection attempts have failed. And they are the support group when deciding how to manage an assault. And still, the ‘protectors’, don’t even believe them, let alone join any effort to protect.

Gents, if you consider yourself a protector, if that is something you wish to be, I love that, I support that. Just please fucking do it! Please actually do the protecting. The women are exhausted with doing all the protecting. They could use your help!