Hi there I have been asked about Bitcoin by so many friends lately, its getting tiresome to explain myself over and over again, I mean its great that they are interested and keen (I suppose the price going up causes the interest! lol) but seriously would be great if I could just point them to a resource of some sort and say "hey go there and learn about it", would save so much time and energy. Like a video resource or portal or some sort of playlist?
Great question.
I try and show my friends 'how to fish' rather than giving them my catch. One of the most crucial things is to learn how to actually find relevant information for yourself and filter out the garbage out there.
Undoubtedly only a small % of the population will become proficient at this but that's normal and critical thinking is of utmost importance. If you can't think for yourself and make your own informed decisions then you are never responsible for any of your actions.
I teach by example, that seems to work best for me.
For instance, when friends drop by they usually treat me like a technical dictionary and expect me to answer any kind of question related to IT: from coding to blockchain to economics and beyond. I don't know everything, although I am a designer, a coder and a crypto enthusiast. What I do know is how to search for the right answer. This kind of reliance on others is part of the problem in my opinion. If you always depend on someone else to bring you food then you will never be able to provide for yourself when the time comes.
So what I do is open up a search engine and start typing some relevant keywords in it. Then go through the search results one by one and analyze them, quickly skipping through the irrelevant spammy content. Then I get back to them in a couple of seconds or minutes with the answer. They are an observer to this 'process'. I repeat this whenever circumstances allow. After a decent sample size I found a few of my friends doing the same thing and that was indicative of the effect my transparency had on these individuals. It works, but it takes time and it depends on each person. You can't make anyone do, think or understand anything with sheer force. They have to want to do it for themselves.
Knowing that I can't change anyone but myself helped me a lot and made my life less stressful and frankly easy and more fun!
Having said all that, you can still share some nuggets of information when needed, but make sure you do not overwhelm the person with 20 links, 5 books and 8 video playlists. That's not helpful at all in my experience.
What I do like to do is just share one video, one name of a person I respect in the space and maybe one website that is easy to go through.
If they
really are "interested and keen" as you stated, then they will certainly be successful in finding the right teacher or resource for them. Just give them a little nudge, nothing more. There is no burden on you unless
you accept being their teacher. You will find the whole experience more powerful when your friends that can now do their own research come back to you with new stuff they thought of, relevant information and debate your position with valid arguments. That makes me happy: I'm not the teacher anymore, I'm part of a 'team' where people can actually have a healthy debate, as opposed to a boring monologue/seminar type of thing.
Anyway, good luck!
All true, I really appreciate the effort that's gone into writing this reply. Thing is, you can't be everything to everyone, I am happy to point people in the right direction and I do ultimately want people to get on board, its to everyones benefit but at the same time its just not practical to be mentoring or guiding everyone, its a big reponsibility and who says I am right anyway? I prefer to refer them to an existing resource and once they are fully immersed and still sitting with the same or even more enthusiasm I am happy to add value at that point. (sort of lets see who comes out the other side type approach?)
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