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@ High Heel King
2025-01-27 17:44:53
How many people have you successfully orange-pilled? What's your success rate? I'm going to guess it's way worse than you wish it was. I'd like to share 3 different stories from people I've talked to about Bitcoin and the varying degrees of "success" in each of them. Maybe you can relate to one (or all) of them...\
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**Bob (Person 1)**
This first person we will call Bob. Ironically, Bob was stacking sats long before I ever took an interest in Bitcoin. He's a pretty financially savvy person, loves history, and is a bit of a prepper. Bob views Bitcoin as a nice-to-have and certainly understands the NGU math that comes with a fixed supply asset and money printing; unfortunately, that's largely where his interest ends. He's not stacking anymore and doesn't seem moved to ever resume, despite his understanding of how fragile our financial system is. If/when hyper-bitcoinization happens, he's "got enough". \
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I've been able to get him out of shitcoins entirely and he seems content hodling, which is a pretty big win in my book. At the same time, it can be disheartening to see someone sitting near the edge of the rabbit hole and parking the bus right there...\
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**Alice (Person 2)**
Person 2 will be Alice. This person is much more motivated by social topics than economical ones, which always made me approach our Bitcoin conversations in a unique way. She inspired me to see through a different lens than I was normally comfortable with, which ultimately expanded my own interest in how Bitcoin, both as a money and a network, could positively impact people all over the world.
Alice, in my observation, grew to appreciate the way I saw Bitcoin. She understood the Cantillon Effect, fractional reserve lending, why censorship resistance is important, etc. Hell, she even managed to (sorta) orange-pill someone else! She was effectively as orange-pilled as one could get *without actually owning sats.* \
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Through our many talks about money and personal finance, she greatly leveled up her game compared to when we first met. She now uses budgeting software, has a high-yield savings account, an investment account, and is building credit. For some reason though, she never got the desire to start stacking sats...
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**Mary (Person 3)**
Mary is the least financially-literate of our 3 persons of interest. Just not wired that way at all. She's never had dedicated savings or tracked her spending. Getting her to set up direct deposit at her place of employment was a daunting task. \
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Saving and investing have never been part of her vocabulary either. A few days ago, however, she asked if I could help her begin this process. For someone taking that first big step, I felt like stacking sats would be a bit daunting. We talked about automatically sending X% to a high-yield savings account. When we got to "investing" though, something interesting happened: she said she would rather start buying Bitcoin because "nobody can take it from me, right?" This was fascinating to me, as I had never heard a normal person express concerns about a bank actually not having their money (despite how many people I have told this to, including Alice and Bob). We agreed on the same X% into Bitcoin as into her HYS. Starting with her next paycheck, *Mary will officially begin stacking sats*.
If I had to make a chart of all the people in my life and rate how likely they'd be to adopt Bitcoin, Mary would be near the bottom. After so many failed attempts, I still don't quite understand how this specific case ended up being my first success in getting someone to enter the rabbit hole. We'll see how far she ends up going, but I am committed to helping her with every step.
**Conclusion**
So, what have I taken away from these 3 example cases? For starters, I learned that orange-pilling can take more than one form: Bob got rid of shitcoins and committed to hodling, but won't stack any more; Alice groks the problems Bitcoin will fix, but won't stack at all; Mary hardly even knows about Bitcoin, yet she understands the importance of having control over her own savings enough to take the leap. Each one of these examples has helped me refine my approach to orange-pilling, while also teaching me that it is no science. It's as much a choice and a willingness on their end as it is how you approach the conversation. You cannot force someone to take the pill or jump down the hole. Just stay humble and keep stacking sats. Cheers!