Everyone is incredibly stressed about AI. It doesn’t matter if you’re a Fortune 500 CEO or an entry-level worker. It seems like everyone is impacted by this technology and will only be more so as it progresses.

I personally feel the timelines for all of this are a bit exaggerated, and I believe that human beings will have jobs for a very long time. I just think, like with any technological innovation, there will be a great deal of change, and those who are slow to adapt will not do well.

So I want to provide people who are concerned about AI with what I feel will be the AI-proof skill stack to make you endlessly employable in an ever-changing world. And if you want to be an entrepreneur, these skills will still be equally relevant. I personally think you should try to be an entrepreneur if you’ve ever had the inclination, because it’s never been easier with the tools of AI in your hands.

The first skill is simply giving a shit. This sounds incredibly obvious, but if you’ve worked for any amount of time, you’ve come across far more people who don’t than those who do. And it’s always incredibly easy to spot almost instantaneously. If you aren’t the person who truly gives a shit about everything you touch and everything you work on, AI is only going to make you more impactfully bad at your job.

Almost unanimously, the people I see complaining about AI the most are those who are incredibly mediocre at what they do and just want to get paid for basically doing nothing. That was fine in the last era of work, especially if you were in a large company. But I personally see companies getting smaller and smaller by the day, meaning you’re going to be more important by the day. You cannot hide.

The second skill is becoming an endless learner. The people who get excited by the temporary discomfort that education creates will be big winners in this next era. Throw away the labels of what your previous job experience says you can and can’t do — those are completely out the window.

I don’t care what your degree was. I don’t care what you’ve done in the past. I care about your work ethic, your enthusiasm, and your ability to learn. And just like anything else, whatever you do a lot, you get good at.

Now you have the opportunity to learn almost endlessly. The more you do it, the faster you’ll get at it, and the more valuable you will become. I refer to AI as the anti-stuck machine because, for most people, I feel like that is the most valuable use case.

Especially if you’re a little older or not tech-native, people used to get stuck trying to learn new tools and software to get the outcome they wanted. You now have a 24/7 support staff with you that you can send screenshots to and explain your exact problem to in real time. As someone who has been paid to consult and teach these very things, I can explain firsthand how valuable that really is. Take advantage.

The third skill may be a little counterintuitive, but it’s becoming someone who can control their emotional state — be patient, calm, collected, and make rational decisions.

When the world around you is moving a mile a minute, your ability to slow things down, decompress, and see things for what they really are (rather than what the hype cycle tells you) becomes incredibly valuable.

The hype and fear around AI make for exceptional TV. I know this firsthand — my client was one of the largest AI podcasts on the planet. But understand the incentives of both these companies and the media companies covering them. Sensationalization and hyperbole are near necessities to maintain viewership and keep funding flowing.

Groupthink is a powerful thing. Just because the loudest people closest to it are saying the craziest things doesn’t necessarily mean they’re true. I do believe many of the predictions will eventually come true — I just believe the timelines are dramatically exaggerated.

So you should still be making long-term decisions in an ever-changing world. That’s becoming increasingly difficult as people simply quit because they feel like it’s already over. It’s not — but that attitude will certainly make it that way for you.

The fourth skill is one that’s already pretty prevalent among entrepreneurs, but I feel it’s becoming necessary for anyone touching any line of work. And that’s belief in yourself and in a bigger mission behind what you’re working on.

I’m certainly a dreamer — I have been since I was a child. But now, everything I always tried to convince others was possible is now absurdly true and achievable for just about anyone willing to put in the time and effort.

That means anyone with a negative attitude, or someone who’s difficult to work with or be around, becomes a cancer that can stop something great from happening. If you want to be employed, you can’t be that person.

The fifth and final skill is simply being a builder. Adopt the philosophy: “See a problem, fix a problem” in everything you touch.

You no longer have the excuse of needing to speak to a certain person or jump through endless hoops. Basically, anything you could possibly want to ask, you can get an answer to right away.

Teach yourself how to think critically. Reverse engineer your desired outcome from the problem, and you’ll become incredibly good at solving problems.

That’s really all builders are — problem solvers. They spot the problem that matters most and solve it in the most creative or efficient way possible. With these tools in your hands, you really don’t have an excuse not to learn that skill. And if you don’t, you won’t be employable.

I urge you to shift from a state of fear to a state of curiosity and excitement. I’m certain that whatever you’re doing right now isn’t exactly what you wanted to do.

I’m sure you’ve had a dream for a YouTube channel, a podcast, or a business that you didn’t start because you didn’t have the time or resources. Those are no longer valid excuses.

Go back to the drawing board. Be curious. Bet on yourself. Work hard and believe you can do anything — because you pretty much can.

It’s very easy to be negative, and negative content sells. That’s why it’s everywhere. It’s easy. But don’t fall into that trap. Seek out positive things, people, and resources, and your life can become exactly what you want it to be if you believe it can.

Happy building. Love you lots.

And I’ll see you next time.

Ben ✌️❤️

AI Disclosure

Tools Used:ChatGPT

Purpose: Proofreading/punctuation & grammar

Prompt given: Hey chat! Hope your day is great. Please edit my article for grammar, punctuation and flow. Don’t change any of the core ideas.

One of the most glaring trends of the past 40–50 years has been the decline of religion in Western society.

In the United States, Christian identification dropped from 78% in 2007 to 63% by 2022, and I believe the impact of this shift goes far beyond the church.

Religion serves multiple purposes in society. It functions not only as an explanation of the supernatural or a description of a higher power, but also as a philosophy and a moral code.

Religious leaders also serve as mentors to the youth in a community and provide guidance and structure to life beyond the home or school.

Millennials and Gen Z are much more likely to be religiously unaffiliated. In doing so, they are not only dropping religion itself, but potentially the guidance and moral code that comes with it. I fear they may be throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

The religious leader has played an important role in culture. I’ll refer to this leader as a “pastor.”

The pastor should be understood not only as a Christian clergy member, but as an archetype: a trusted, local, non-parental authority who provides moral guidance, mentorship, and meaning within a community. Historically, this role has most commonly been embodied by religious leaders, even if it has also appeared in other forms.

Just as religion serves as much more than an explanation of the supernatural, a pastor serves as much more than a translator of religious text.

According to Oxford, a pastor is defined as “a minister in charge of a Christian church or congregation.”

The word minister, when used as a verb, is defined as “to attend to the needs of (someone).”

One of the natural needs of a human being is a guide—a mentor, a confidant.

The human baby is one of the most helpless of all primates. We remain dependent on a caretaker for years, whereas some animals can survive on their own from day one.

But it is not only parents that a child needs. Once a child can take care of themselves, they still require guidance through life—guidance that a parent is not always equipped to give.

The pastor has served to minister, or “attend to the needs,” of the young in ways a parent might not always be able to. In particular, a pastor serves as a moral guide and mentor whom a child can trust with their shortcomings, insecurities, doubts, and worries—without fear of punishment or shame they may experience at home. Someone to turn to after making a mistake, or before making a major decision.

This is not to claim that pastors are flawless or universally safe. We all, unfortunately, know how these relationships too often go when abused. The point here is that the role of the pastor, when functioning properly, provides a culturally recognized space for moral guidance.

The Substitution

When we move into a world without pastors—a “post-pastor” society—the youth are missing a vital element necessary for healthy development and strong community building.

A young man or woman without a pastor or moral compass does not simply go through life without one.

He or she finds one, and whatever moral code that a pastor or religion might have otherwise provided is now sought elsewhere.

In theory, this guidance could come from philosophy, secular ethics, or other community institutions. In practice, however, these alternatives are not necessarily filling the void.

As religious participation has declined, the amount of time spent in digital spaces has risen.

Time that might once have been spent flipping pages in the Bible at church on Sunday is now spent scrolling on Instagram or TikTok.

A fellow churchgoer’s compliments are replaced with likes and reposts.

Not only are real-life interactions being replaced by digital ones, but the competition for a young person’s attention and respect has expanded to a global scale—and gravitates toward the extreme.

Social media, in particular, rewards extreme behavior. The more polarizing or crude the message, the more views, likes, and comments it receives.

Red pill alpha males, Men Going Their Own Way warriors, and OnlyFans “models” become among the most viewed figures on social media.

Not only do social media platforms promote these messages, but young people also begin to perceive the individuals creating them as “successful.” This creates the pretext that these extreme messages represent acceptable behavior and that their messengers are aspirational figures.

These digital stars then become part of pop culture, where kids go to school and discuss the messages of these new-age rockstars.

Extremism spreads from a digital playground to physical playgrounds, where its influence becomes real.

The Impact

With no shared, local, intergenerational moral code imparted by religion or a pastor to serve as a guide, we enter a post-pastor society in which the most extreme online figures become role models for the youth.

A society where attention—by any means necessary—becomes the North Star, rather than health or care for one’s neighbors and community. Where short-term thinking and individualistic hedonism are rewarded, while long-term thinking and collective empathy are punished.

Where “treat others as you wish to be treated” becomes “treat others as the crowd wants you to treat them.”

The decline of religion has not merely weakened belief in God; it has quietly removed a social role that once guided moral development. I am proposing that, in the absence of that role, digital platforms—and the extreme online figures they promote—have become the new moral leaders, with their values reinforced by algorithms that grant them “success” through the widespread dissemination of their messages.

This is my Post-Pastor Theory.

AI DISCLOSURE

Tools Used: ChatGPT
Purpose: Logical flow and proofreading/punctuation and grammar

Prompt #1: Will you check my writing for logical flaws or failures to properly connect ideas to the greater purpose of the writing.

Prompt #2: Please edit my article for grammar, punctuation and flow. Don’t change any of the core ideas.

If you believe the saying that ignorance is bliss, then it naturally follows that this “bliss” would dwindle with increased access to information.

I don’t believe this—despite the polarization and division we experience everywhere we go online. Because while social media gave us access to unlimited information, it also gave these platforms unlimited access to learn what they can exploit within us to maximize time spent on their platforms.

Most people have never really spent enough time thinking about why they do what they do or what motivates them. For the majority of people, there are a few experiences in their life, stories they tell themselves, and relationships they believe they have that shape the bulk of their reactions to anything they come across. People also struggle to grasp that the reality they’re seeing on their screen is not what everyone else is seeing. In fact, it’s far from it.

We grew up in an era where, if someone saw the news, everyone saw the same news. So even if it was bullshit, at least we all saw the same bullshit. Now, you’re being served a perfectly curated feed of content that platforms know will create reactions in you—to keep you consuming longer and push you deeper into an echo chamber.

This creates many of the social problems we see today. Empathy is incredibly low because people don’t think about this when they’re online. They don’t realize that if they are right-wing, they’ll deliberately be shown the dumbest take from the dumbest person on the left—sometimes even someone working for the right—simply because there is demand for that kind of content. And vice versa. It goes both ways.

And it doesn’t just include politics. It’s every hot-button issue on the planet. Since most people conceptually understand that they could learn anything they want, whenever they want, for free, everyone just assumes that whatever they know, they know for sure.

Empathy is at an all-time low because the experiences we shape our sense of normalcy around are dictated by algorithms that reward anomalies and polarization. People fail to realize how deep they are in their own echo chambers, remaining genuinely blind to so many things that could improve their lives.

No one is immune to this.

People don’t realize how easy it is to predict behavior and influence it when you can collect enough data points. Behavior leaves clues. That’s why any good social psychologist can make incredibly accurate predictions. We all believe we’re unique, but our behavior is remarkably predictable. Once you identify the strongest driver of a person’s personality, you can predict how they’ll respond to certain stimuli with shocking accuracy.

Social platforms take full advantage of this.

TikTok, in particular, ushered in a rapid acceleration of polarization and echo-chamber formation because it could capture data faster than any platform before it. Other platforms hadn’t fully figured out interest-based distribution, so they simply couldn’t gather enough data to build such precise profiles of who someone was, who they are now, and who they could be nudged into becoming to keep them watching longer.

Throughout my life, I’ve consistently found that people tend to become one of two things: either what they hated most—if they succumb to the pressures of life—or what they needed most when they were at their most vulnerable. The people who are shining stars, who enjoy getting up in the morning and feel passionate about their work, usually become the latter.

Unfortunately, the former is far easier to manufacture—and it guarantees time spent consuming.

TikTok also gave people an endless platform for their problems. In many ways, it incentivized having and spreading them. I’ve seen countless times that people don’t change their lives until they run out of an audience willing to give them sympathy or react to their complaints. TikTok didn’t just give them an endless audience—it gave them an income and an identity for doing so.

Problems stopped being problems. They became personalities, identities, and revenue streams.

This doesn’t happen overtly. It happens partly through human nature and partly through algorithms.

Someone dreams of becoming a creator because they see someone they follow living their dream life, and they’re exhausted by their desk job. They start creating content on the side. Nothing happens for a long time. After studying what works, they notice that the most polarizing videos consistently perform the best. So they look at their life and think about something they could say that would get a reaction.

Inevitably, it becomes their highest-performing content.

Months later, they’ve achieved their “dream life”—built around a fringe idea they were never deeply passionate about. Eventually, though, they have to become passionate about it, because their identity, lifestyle, and income now depend on those opinions.

And this goes beyond creators.

Many people will never post a video, but when everyone else is picking a team, it feels like you have to choose one too—otherwise, you’re left with none.

Over nearly 30 years on this planet, one thing I’ve consistently noticed is the increasing social cost of having an opinion. As long as that remains true, we can’t make things better. You have to forgive the flaws in others that a broken system created if you ever want that system to change.

Modern-day media literacy is the new wealth.

Those who understand that they are naturally being pushed into echo chambers are able to step back, assess the situation, and make their own choices. They can step into different echo chambers and spot the hypocrisy and absurdity of the arguments being made—often purely for views. And once you see how ridiculous one side can be, you start noticing it in the side you once defended just as fiercely.

Let’s bring back dialogue.
Let’s bring back communication.
Let’s bring back curiosity.

The only way to do that is to show others the compassion you want to receive. We were taught as kids to treat others how we want to be treated—but somewhere along the way, we forgot. Online, we don’t always feel like we’re interacting with real humans because we don’t see their faces. And sometimes, that’s true—many interactions are with bots.

Still, if we showed more grace in comment sections and approached conversations with genuine curiosity, the world could improve quickly. Our problems persist because we don’t communicate about the real issues. We’re too busy yelling about things that don’t actually matter.

The public’s ability to detect cause and effect is weak. That’s why we get pulled in countless directions that feel close to the solution but never actually solve anything.

This won’t be fixed overnight. I personally believe decentralized social media could play a major role, and building a truly decentralized platform is one of my life goals. But there are small things you can do today to dramatically improve your media literacy.

Avoid short-form content.
Life is full of nuance, and anything delivered in 60 seconds is missing something important. Your life will improve dramatically if you stop consuming short-form content entirely.

Prioritize platforms that give you choice.
I love YouTube because it’s still choice-based. I have to click a video for it to play. That luxury has been stripped away on most platforms—and even on YouTube with Shorts. Avoid those too.

Reward good behavior.
Support creators you resonate with through Patreon, memberships, or communities. Amplify thoughtful comments you see online. Many people who leave hateful comments do so because it’s the only place they’ve ever felt noticed. Even negative attention can feel better than none when someone is deeply lonely.

Be endlessly curious and never certain.
The moment you believe something with absolute certainty is the moment you stop growing and become predictable. Today, go consume content from the perspective you disagree with most. Find one thing you agree with. I promise you it exists. Then identify what feels “crazy”—and look for the equivalent craziness in your own echo chamber.

The world would improve dramatically if people did just these four things. Unfortunately, they aren’t as dopamine-heavy as doom scrolling. But if you’re serious about changing the world—and I hope we all are—take this seriously.

Be curious.
Be kind.
Be compassionate.

We’ve been given the greatest gift in human history: the internet. And we’re wasting it.

We can make this world incredible—the exact one we already live in—once we realize that we’re the ones creating the problems in the first place. We are richer than we’ve ever been.

We just haven’t realized it yet.

Have a great day, and don’t forget to subscribe to Memes and Markets.

Love ya. See ya next time.

Ben

AI DISCLOSURE

Tools Used: ChatGPT
Purpose: Proofreading/punctuation & grammar

Prompt given: Hey chat! Hope your day is great. Please edit my article for grammar, punctuation and flow. Don’t change any of the core ideas.

Hear what Circle Founder, Jeremy Allaire had to say about it:

On the surface, these sound like two separate conversations. But I’ve been a strong proponent of the idea that crypto and AI are not just related but instead are inseparable. If you actually think through where AI is going, especially in commerce, it becomes obvious that one without the other simply doesn’t work.

For AI to have real economic utility, and not just answering questions or generating content then it needs the ability to transact. If agents are going to negotiate, procure services, access APIs, buy data, rent compute, or optimize outcomes in real time, they need a native way to pay.

Humans can’t be in the loop for every micro-decision. That defeats the entire purpose of autonomous systems.

What AI needs is an autonomous, programmable, internet-native payment rail. And that’s exactly where crypto and specifically stablecoins enter the picture.

In 2025, we quietly crossed an important threshold: the emergence of standards designed specifically for agentic payments. Not “crypto payments for humans,” but payments for software acting on its own behalf.

This is what people mean when they talk about agentic commerce — a world where autonomous agents don’t just think or decide, but earn, spend, and reinvest capital.

To make this easier to visualize, imagine this in the physical world.

Think about a Tesla.

You buy it. But instead of sitting idle in your driveway, it goes out and gives rides autonomously while you’re asleep or working. It earns money on your behalf. It pays for its own charging at charging stations. It manages its own operating costs. And when you need it, you simply call it back.

That car is an agent.

Now remove the physical constraints.

A software agent doesn’t need roads, batteries, or downtime. It can be everywhere at once. It can serve thousands of users simultaneously. It can optimize itself continuously. And most importantly it can participate in an economy.

That’s the future that’s starting to take shape.

One of the most important and underappreciated developments here is Coinbase’s x402 standard.

To understand why x402 matters, you need to understand what it’s fixing.

Today, most internet payments are clunky by design:

• Subscriptions

• Credit cards

• API keys tied to monthly billing

• Humans manually approving transactions

None of this works for autonomous agents.

The HTTP 402 status code has existed since the early days of the internet. It literally means “Payment Required.” But it was never fully implemented.

x402 finally gives that idea teeth.

At a high level, x402 allows a server to say:

“You can access this resource, but only if you pay and here’s how.”

An agent makes a request. The server responds with a 402 and a payment instruction. The agent pays using a stablecoin. Access is granted.

No accounts. No subscriptions. No humans.

This turns money into a first-class internet primitive, just like HTTP, TCP/IP, or DNS.

Even more importantly, it enables machine-speed microtransactions. Agents can pay cents, fractions of cents, or dynamically priced fees in real time — something traditional payment rails simply cannot do.

On the other side of this equation is Google’s AP2 — an agentic payments framework designed to standardize how agents discover, negotiate, and execute payments with other agents and services.

If x402 answers the question “How does an agent pay for access?”, AP2 answers:

• How does an agent know what it costs?

• How does it negotiate terms?

• How does it authenticate counterparties?

• How does it execute payments programmatically and securely?

AP2 treats payments as part of agent-to-agent communication, not as an afterthought bolted onto human workflows.

In other words, it assumes a world where:

• Agents are economic actors

• Services are priced dynamically

• Transactions are continuous, not discrete

This is critical, because agentic commerce isn’t about buying one thing once. It’s about ongoing economic relationships between autonomous systems.

Coinbase announcing compatibility between x402 and Google’s AP2 is the real story.

Together, these standards do something profound:

They allow agents to earn, spend, and settle value natively over the internet using stablecoins.

When you combine:

• Autonomous intelligence (AI)

• Programmable money (stablecoins)

• Internet-native payment standards (x402 + AP2)

You get a new kind of economy.

In this world, individuals won’t just work jobs.

They’ll deploy agents.

Agents that:

• Run services

• License data

• Optimize trades

• Rent compute

• Provide niche intelligence

• Operate 24/7

Some people will build agents. Others will commission them. Others will license them.

And value will flow continuously, autonomously, and globally.

The fact that tokenization, AI, and agentic systems are dominating the conversation should tell you something.

We are laying the financial and technical rails for a legitimately “digital economy”

2026 is likely the year agents stop being demos and start showing up in real software products that normal people use.

It’s no secret that retail has left the crypto scene. But not only have they left — they left with a horrible taste in their mouths. Between meme coins and NFT mania, retail has very little understanding of what’s actually taking place in the broader shift in financial technology. And honestly, can you really blame them? There was a whole lot of extraction going on, and not a lot of education.

If you’re active at all within crypto communities, you can see that participation numbers are completely down, and the only people who remain are the true die-hard supporters of the technology.

So how does retail come back? That’s always been one of the biggest questions within the crypto community. Tom Lee & Bitmine (Ethereum Treasury Company) may have just found an answer with a $200M investment.

The saying, “crypto will become mainstream when people don’t realize they’re using crypto,” gets thrown around a lot — and for good reason. If the last major wave of technological innovation has shown us anything, it’s that people will sign up for almost anything, skim the details, and just use it — as long as it improves their lives. They don’t want to think too much about how it works. The value has to be obvious.

With the amount of money Bitmine just invested into MrBeast, to access his audience, I have to believe this was at the forefront of their decision. I think they will do everything they can to create a personal experience (my guess is a mobile game or app), promoted through media — whether that’s through videos on YouTube or a streaming platform — where people can make real money that meaningfully impacts their lives, all powered by crypto rails. It is insane how quickly something can become a norm, but that only happens with a strong spreading mechanism anchored by a great personalized consumer experience. Crypto is just waiting for its iPhone moment to break through into the mainstream, and I would guess they’re going to be the ones to try to make it happen.

Let’s dive a little deeper into what this means for everyone involved.

Bitmine operates as a crypto treasury company with a primary focus on Ethereum. This model was popularized by Michael Saylor’s company, Strategy, which structured its business primarily around accumulating Bitcoin as a treasury asset through various financial instruments.

Tom Lee is well known on Wall Street. He’s built a reputation for going against the grain, making bold assumptions, and often being right. His next massive bet is crypto — and, more specifically, Ethereum. In his view, Ethereum is a superior asset around which to build a treasury company.

Ethereum has native mechanisms that allow you to generate value simply by holding the asset, without taking on additional risk. This is baked directly into the technology. The asset itself helps the platform function, and in return, holders receive additional resources. In theory, everything you can do with a Bitcoin treasury company, you could do even more effectively with Ethereum because of this underlying design.

Pair that with Tom Lee’s thesis that Ethereum is essentially the “Wall Street blockchain,” and that Ether is the modern-day equivalent of oil in a fully digital economy, and the bet becomes clearer.

Everything is moving on-chain. Every news network repeats it. Every financial heavyweight says the same thing. Tom Lee is betting that a significant portion of this future infrastructure will be built on Ethereum — which would naturally lead to substantial appreciation in the value of Ether that Bitmine has accumulated and will continue to accumulate.

But if this is truly a blockchain for the masses — for retail — people actually need to use it. And that’s where things get difficult. To be blunt, most Web3 marketing has been pretty horrific. It’s hard to overcome a perception shaped by real experiences of people losing money.

Blockchain and crypto are superior technologies for much of our financial lives, but if no one uses them, that advantage doesn’t matter. The path to adoption is a great consumer experience — one where people don’t have to think, don’t feel friction, and don’t even realize they’re using crypto. It just makes their lives better, and the value is obvious.

And MrBeast is retail.

He leveraged the growth of YouTube and an obsessive focus on creating highly clickable, highly watchable content to become a massive media mogul — building billion-dollar brands through his connection with a mass audience.

MrBeast may not have the depth of relationship with his viewers that a podcaster like Joe Rogan has, but when you’re trying to shift the perception of the general public, there are very few people better positioned. Pair that influence with the right on-ramp — something that lets people try blockchain in a tangible, rewarding way — and you give retail a reason to re-engage and actually feel the value crypto can add to their daily lives.

Because of that, this number doesn’t feel out of bounds to me at all.

Many people are criticizing Bitmine for this partnership, arguing that the money should have been used to buy more Ethereum. But if the entire thesis depends on mainstream adoption and real usage, then spreading the message and creating demand is more important than holding a larger quantity of an asset no one is using.

Picture this: imagine trying to sell oil before engines existed. Would you rather own all the oil in the world with no cars — or have the horses?

Until the infrastructure and consumer experiences are built around this technology, none of the long-term predictions can play out. To me, this partnership makes a lot of sense — and I think it could ultimately make MrBeast one of the richest people of all time.

Time will tell. But as a social media strategist myself, I think a lot of the crypto crowd criticizing Tom Lee should give him some respect — and more importantly, some time.

But hey, maybe I’m a massive idiot. We’ll see.

Have a great day, and don’t forget to subscribe to Memes and Markets.
Love ya. See you next time.

Ben.

AI DISCLOSURE

Tools used: ChatGPT

Purpose: Proofreading/punctuation & grammar

Prompt given: Hey chat! Hope your day is great. Please edit my article for grammar, punctuation and flow. Don’t change any of the core ideas.

Well here we are. Trump seems to think that the Federal Reserve should lower interest rates. In fact, he’s made it clear that he thinks the Fed should lower interest rates even when the stock market is going up.

He points out in that clip that he believes that when there is good news then the market should go up. What he’s pointing to here is the fact that for instance CPI came in directly in alignment with expectations and Core CPI in particular came in a bit lower than the previous read, yet stock markets remained unaffected and actually slightly negative.

Stock prices reflect the present value of expected future earnings/dividends.

When interest rates are low, stocks tend to trade at higher multiples (P/E ratios expand) because lower rates reduce discount rates. A discount rate is the percentage used to convert future cash flows into their present value, reflecting the time value of money and investment risk. In practice, it is anchored to the risk-free rate (U.S. Treasury yields) plus a risk premium for owning equities.

In simpler terms, investing in stocks becomes easier to justify when investors are comparing stock returns to the return available on U.S. Treasuries, which are generally treated as the risk-free benchmark. When Treasury yields are low, the relative attractiveness of taking equity risk increases and therefore demand for stocks rises.

When rates rise (or are expected to stay higher for longer) → discount rates go up → those same future profits are worth less today → multiples contract, stocks fall.

The idea that inflation coming down should be good news for markets means that the Federal Reserve should be able to lower interest rates without the fear that lowering interest rates will lead to more investment and therefore a hotter economy and then higher inflation.

But, right now, the Fed has pointed out that the labor market is not necessarily in a lot of pain and has mentioned in the past that it is afraid that inflation has a chance to pick back up due to tariffs. So even though the market got good news today (lower Core CPI), traders have priced in an even lower chance of the Fed cutting rates at its next FOMC meeting on the CME FedWatch Tool.

Markets interpret soft-but-not-disastrous inflation as “the economy is fine without needing immediate help” which means fewer or delayed rate cuts priced in → higher-for-longer discount rates → pressure on valuations (especially growth stocks).

Now Trump is saying that such logic should not be the case and this is sending a stark warning for the investment world. Once Jerome Powell is out at the Fed (one way or another), we are likely to see interest rates come down quickly. Now what we have to keep in mind here is that the Trump administration is doing everything it can (not short of “capturing” a sovereign nation’s leader) to keep oil prices down and with this being the case there will be room for heightened levels of investment within the country without running into the problem of high inflation.

I expect that 2026 may be pointing toward a historic rise in the stock market while the U.S. also does its best to tackle the affordability issues at the same time, allowing the federal reserve to continue lowering and maintaining low interest rates while that happens. All of this could potentially lead to a further acceleration of investment throughout the economy which is exactly what the U.S. needs if it wants to keep up with China in the A.I. race.

All of this reminds me of the words and writing of Ray Dalio in his book, The Changing World Order. He highlights 5 forces that lead to the rise and fall of an empire and therefore the changing of a world order throughout history. Those 5 forces are:

1. Economic forces

2. Internal Order & Disorder

3. Geopolitical Power Shifts

4. Innovation and Technology

5. Acts of Nature & Conflict

Some of the most prominent economic forces at play today are swelling sovereign debts (debt-to-GDP ratio) around the world and rising inflation. Something that leads to rising long-term yields and an inability for governments to borrow money in the future without creating an even worse overall debt burden. With the interest on U.S. debt already swelling to significant portions of the country’s yearly budget, passing that of defense spending, the U.S. is essentially in what Ray Dalio calls a debt death spiral. This occurs when a country is compelled to borrow money to repay its debt, but only to cover the interest on that debt. But if yields are rising and the country is borrowing more to pay off old debt, then it can only get further and further into debt at even more disadvantageous rates.

When it comes to the internal disorder, the U.S. as the “dominant power” of today, has internal disorder with the democrats calling foul on the Trump administration’s moves. You also have disorder among the republicans themselves. All of this is leading to social unrest with protests in the streets in some of America’s largest cities. So far we haven’t seen anything as bad as what we saw in 2020/2021, where things turned a bit more destructive, but we have seen some outbursts of violence in these protests.

Externally, you have geopolitical conflict escalating in the western hemisphere, with U.S. President Donald Trump threatening nearly the entire region. Ok, fine, it was just Cuba, Colombia, and Mexic(an cartels). But, in all seriousness, tensions are heating up, and although it looks like this is all about the U.S. and Latin America, it seems that some of this is also an extension of the proxy wars that the U.S. has been fighting with China and Russia over the past few decades as well. With China and Russia having an interest in the Latin American region for oil and for strategic proximity to the United States, it may be that the Trump administration is signaling to that side of the world that the U.S. has control over the region. One sign of this has been China’s vocal response to the U.S. action in Venezuela, with the Chinese government calling for the release of Venezuelan President Maduro. This all also came no more than a week or so after China swarmed Taiwan with Warships and fighter jets after the signing of an $11B arms deal between the U.S. and Taiwan. China came out and said that there is no stopping the reunification of China with Taiwan. I got the message about that, I KID YOU NOT, the morning after I had made it up in my mind that I was going to Taiwan to go and study Mandarin the night prior. Well, not this year. I truly do believe that we are likely to see China make an aggressive move on Taiwan while the U.S. does the same in Latin America. This meme is a joke, but I do think it fully encapsulates what 2026 may look like regarding geopolitics.

When it comes to innovation and technology, we have AI. This technology has the potential to rapidly displace work, while technologists claim that it won’t be so bad. They say it’ll be fine we will create new jobs. But what we can potentially expect is that we get massive replacement BEFORE we get new jobs that eventually come about. But I’m no expert on any of this, and really, I think only time will tell. But this also plays into the points of the geopolitical scene, with a potential battle for Taiwan coming up. Considering that Taiwan is the place where the majority of the world’s most advanced semiconductors are made, this is not only a battle for the place that China calls its territory but also for the future of Ai.

Finally, we have acts of nature and conflict, and while we certainly cannot easily predict any sort of natural disasters, we do have to consider that almost everything above also involved conflict. Since we got absolute fireworks on nothing more than the 3rd day of the year, I do truly believe that conflict will be the theme of 2026.

With all of this said, we know that war can sometimes lead to inflationary pressure on goods with trade routes being disrupted and uncertainty around supply, but for the United States in particular, we know that the U.S. strategically gone after Venezuela for its oil reserves, which happen to be the largest in the world.

The U.S. has announced that it plans to increase oil production from the nation and that it will sell the nations oil to other countries. This could lower the price of oil and therefore, lead to a softening in inflation numbers and potentially the excuse necessary for lower short term interest rates within the U.S. If the U.S. is able to get lower short term interest rates then investment into AI and the rest of the economy can increase while the risk assets such as stocks and crypto also catch a bid with excess cash flowing to risky assets.

This could lead to a massive opportunity for risk assets in 2026. This would lead to a massive win for the Trump administration heading into midterms, where power could change hands to create a more favorable environment for the Trump administration.

All in all, I’ll find it important to keep all eyes on oil prices, short term interest rates, and long term interest rates to see if the U.S. is able to pull this off without spooking the long term bond markets to send long term yields higher on increased long term inflation expectations. But if the U.S. is actually able to execute on its plan to use Venezeulas (and others’) oil to keep inflation in check while lowering short term interest rates, then we may have a scenario where the price of stocks go up, but the price of eggs goes down.

While it’s hard for most people to remember a time before Trump dominated political headlines, he was once a longshot candidate, mocked for even running for president and given a near zero percent chance of winning by his detractors.

I wasn’t one of those people.

I had started my social media career a few years before his campaign, and I saw what most didn’t. Social media was far more powerful than the majority of the world realized. Trump was the perfect person to take advantage of these emerging platforms, which were hungry for content that kept users engaged. He had everything they needed: a recognizable name, a compelling story, and, most importantly, he was deeply polarizing.

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I predicted his victory months before it happened, much to the chagrin of my “feminist” girlfriend at the time. I didn’t make that prediction because I liked the guy. I couldn’t even vote, since I’m Canadian. I made it because I understood the environment he was operating in, and I knew he was going to win.

What most people got wrong was a fundamental misunderstanding of how these platforms function, their incentive structures, and how someone could exploit them to shape public opinion. The average user spends hours a day on these platforms, yet has little understanding of how they actually work, or how much influence they exert over people’s thoughts, beliefs, and eventually their actions.

Trump, or someone on his team, clearly saw this opportunity and fully capitalized on it. He was the perfect candidate to become the first true social media president, ushering in what I’d call the meme-ification of politics.

Polarizing figures are tailor-made for social media. You either love them or you hate them. Either way, you’re thinking about them. Paradoxically, this gives people like Trump the ability to turn their biggest critics into their biggest distributors. Ironically, the people most committed to shutting him down often end up doing the most work for him.

In a six-second attention-span world, polarization is the ultimate growth engine. Nuance is dead. Everyone has an opinion, and they’re absolutely certain they’re right, completely unaware of the echo chamber they’re operating within.

Historically, during periods of economic instability, people look for a strong leader. More often than not, that leader represents the opposite of whatever people believe led them into their current situation. This cycle has repeated throughout history. The difference today isn’t human nature. It’s the media tools available.

The world has finally woken up to the impact social media has politically, economically, and socially. But awareness of a problem doesn’t mean we won’t repeat the same mistakes.

New figureheads are emerging, and they’re running an eerily similar playbook. Once again, the same people are falling for it.

Nick Fuentes is a creator who gets labeled many things. I have no interest in labeling him. I don’t know the man personally. What I can say unequivocally is that he is extremely talented at capturing attention and keeping it. He’s a well-spoken, young white man who is unapologetic about who he is and what he believes.

And it’s resonating deeply with a large number of young men who feel ostracized from society, overlooked, written off, and given no viable alternatives.

As a young white man myself, I believe the pendulum swung too far in the other direction. Over the last decade, being a male (especially a white one) has increasingly been framed as one of the worst things you can be. I don’t even need to argue that point. Your body likely had a reaction to just reading that.

As a white man, my “privilege” is often used to invalidate my opinions entirely. I experienced this repeatedly on university campuses, classroom after classroom, where I was penalized for speaking up, questioning narratives, or challenging openly biased professors. In spaces that were supposedly designed for discussion, I was labeled simply for expressing an opinion.

What you need to understand about young men is this: most of us do not talk. Most are not like me. They won’t speak up. They won’t challenge the status quo, especially when the social cost of doing so continues to rise.

So what do they do?

They look for someone who will.

And they found that in Nick Fuentes.

You can say whatever you want about his beliefs, statements, or opinions. What you cannot deny is that he’s resonating. And just like with Trump, instead of trying to understand why this is happening, the people who despise him the most are unintentionally amplifying his message and strengthening his audience.

This dynamic exists for two reasons: self-righteousness and laziness.

Many of the people with the strongest opinions about him are clearly misinformed. They’ve never watched a full stream. They form judgments based on six-second clips. The irony is hard to miss.

One key difference between Fuentes and Trump is that Fuentes is an exceptionally articulate speaker. He makes seasoned commentators look unprepared on their own platforms, which only further validates his supporters.

Before writing this piece, I spent time actually studying his content to understand why it resonates so strongly. The answer became obvious quickly.

Where else can young men go online and behave the way they want, openly and casually, without constant policing? Nearly every other group is allowed, even encouraged, to explore identity, be messy, be silly, and figure themselves out in public. When young men do the same, they’re almost universally ridiculed.

Look at comedy movies. When was the last time we had one that was genuinely funny? I grew up loving comedies, and I can’t think of a single one from the last decade that truly landed.

The process that turns boys into men has never been polished or attractive. It is built through failure, accountability, and difficulty. From the outside, it often looks crude, childish, or unnecessary. In reality, those experiences are formative. They are how restraint is learned, confidence is earned, and self-respect is developed.

When those processes are punished or removed, the outcome is predictable. Boys do not become men. They simply grow older. The result is a generation of adults who struggle with responsibility, relationships, and self-regulation, not because they are incapable, but because they were never allowed to complete the transition into manhood.

Nick Fuentes provides many young men with something they feel they have been denied: visibility, validation, and representation, often for the first time in their lives.

None of this is me saying you should like Nick Fuentes or agree with anything he says.

What I am saying is that you should be paying attention.

If you’re going to label someone as the worst thing to ever happen, you don’t get to do that with any credibility unless you understand who they are, what they represent, and why they’re gaining traction.

It’s ironic to watch people accuse younger generations of laziness while displaying that same laziness so publicly. And everyone can see it.

Unless this changes, expect Nick Fuentes to continue growing.

And in the social media era, I wouldn’t be shocked at all to see Nick Fuentes, or someone running an almost identical playbook, become President of the United States.

Keith’s List

Think and Grow Rich – Napoleon Hill

This book is about how your mindset quietly controls everything you do. Hill studied insanely successful people and realized they all thought in a very deliberate way. The big idea isn’t magic or manifesting — it’s that if you’re clear on what you want and you actually believe it’s possible, your behavior starts lining up with that goal without you even noticing. It’s about obsession, persistence, and surrounding yourself with the right people.

Words That Work – Frank Luntz

This book makes you realize how much words are running the show. Same facts, totally different reactions depending on how you say something. Luntz shows how politicians and marketers get people to agree with ideas they might normally reject just by changing language. After reading it, you start hearing phrases differently and realizing how often opinions are being nudged rather than logically formed.

The Tao of Physics – Fritjof Capra

This one’s wild because it shows how modern physics and ancient spirituality are kind of saying the same thing. Quantum physics basically says reality isn’t solid or predictable, and Eastern philosophy has been saying that for thousands of years. The book makes you step back and think less in straight lines and more in systems, patterns, and flow — which honestly applies way beyond science.

Sapiens – Yuval Noah Harari

This book makes you question almost everything about society. The big takeaway is that humans run the world not because we’re the strongest, but because we believe in shared stories — like money, countries, and companies. None of that stuff physically exists the way trees do, but we all agree it does, so it works. It’s kind of humbling and slightly uncomfortable in the best way.

Market Mind Games – Denise Shull

If you trade or invest, this book flips the script. Instead of telling you to kill your emotions, it says your emotions are actually information. The problem isn’t feeling fear or excitement — it’s not understanding what those feelings are telling you. Shull explains why traders blow up even when they “know better,” and how self-awareness can actually become an edge.

Shut Up and Listen – Tilman Fertitta

This is like getting business advice from a blunt, no-BS billionaire. Fertitta basically says most people overcomplicate business when it really comes down to execution, cash flow, and paying attention. He talks a lot about learning the hard way, making mistakes, and staying hands-on. It’s not fancy, but it’s real.

Thinking, Fast and Slow – Daniel Kahneman

This book explains why your brain lies to you all the time — especially when money’s involved. Kahneman breaks your thinking into fast, emotional reactions and slower, logical reasoning. The problem is we rely on the fast one way too much. Once you understand the biases he talks about, you start noticing how often confidence has nothing to do with being right.

Atomic Habits – James Clear

This book is basically saying your life is the result of what you do every day, not what you plan to do. Tiny habits don’t feel important in the moment, but they stack up fast. Clear also makes a big point that if you want to change your life, you have to change how you see yourself, not just your routines. Simple ideas, insanely effective.

Managing by the Numbers – Chuck Kremer

This one’s for when you realize vibes don’t pay the bills. Kremer explains business finances in a way that actually makes sense and shows how the numbers tell the real story of what’s going on. It helps you stop guessing and start understanding where money is actually being made or lost.

The Gospel of Wealth and Other Timely Essays – Andrew Carnegie

Carnegie’s whole thing is that making money isn’t the problem — hoarding it is. He believed rich people have a responsibility to use their wealth to improve society while they’re alive. It’s interesting because you can see how early industrialists justified capitalism while also wrestling with inequality — and honestly, the debate still hasn’t changed much.

Ben’s List

The Almanack of Naval Ravikant – Eric Jorgenson

Naval is a Venture Capitalist & Philosopher with an unrivaled ability to spot trends in markets and human behavior. Eric Jorgenson took the time to summarize Naval’s tweets & thoughts to give you a guide to building the life you want in a world no one prepared you for. The key takeaway from this book is the importance of leverage and how to create it for yourself.

Propaganda – Edward Bernays

This book was written nearly 100 years ago but has never been more relevant. Edward Bernays is known as the Father of Public Relations & a pioneer of propaganda. He highlights multiple examples of how deliberate media & use of psycholigical tactics can create movements and alter behavior of the masses.

Alchemy – Rory Sutherland

Rory is well known for thinking outside of the box. He provides examples of challenging conventional “wisdom” to see opportunities most miss completely or overlook deliberately, to their own detriment.

The Alchemist – Paulo Coelho

An easy to read story full of timeless lessons on fate & following your purpose.

How to Win Friends & Influence People – Dale Carnegie

A must read for anyone who feels they could be better with people and creating meaningful relationships. Even if you feel you are great with people, this is worth reading every few years to act as a much needed reminder. Every time I re-read this, I see a near immediate improvement to my life.

The Price of Tomorrow – Jeff Booth

Jeff does a fantastic job explaining how unprecedented technological innovation is clashing with outdated economic forces to create the chaotic world we are currently navigating.

Influence – Robert Cialdini

If you are interested in the art of influence or influential psychology, this is mandatory writing. This book shows up on many top book lists and its for good reason. This book combines powerful theory with real life examples to change how you see the world & the influence you have over it.

Trust Me I’m Lying – Ryan Holiday

This book provides another example of how media can be manipulated if you understand the incentive structure of the gatekeepers. Ryan shares how he was able to manufacture press with almost no budget to market the brand he worked for at the time. Modern day media literacy is an incredibly powerful skills & Ryan shows it’s power in practice.

Becoming Supernatural – Joe Dispenza

While skeptics see this book and others by Joe Dispenza as “woo woo” this book has had some of the greatest impact on my life. Understanding the feedback loop of thought, belief & action in creating your existence, provides you with an unlock in your life to shape your reality. Come with an open mind & take the material seriously & the impact on you will be significant.

Reality Transurfing – Vadim Zeland

This book is a bit out there but in a good way. Vadim teaches you about the concept of ‘pendulums’ & how they cypher energy from people without their knowledge. Simply hearing about the concept will change how you see the world & give you the tools to develop more agency over your experience.