#779 Seek Out Alternative Viewpoints This Year

This episode is a little different than the usual podcast format. There is no guest. Instead, I will share a couple of thoughts I have around a specific topic. This week is is Hereticon, a conference centered around individuals and topics that are usually deemed off limits by the general public. We live in a society that demonizes heretics and critical thinkers who dare to go outside the lines. Instead of attempting to censor these people, I challenge you to seek out alternative viewpoints this year. Listen to the discourse and allow yourself to be a free thinker in a fast changing world. ======================= LMAX Digital - the market-leading solution for institutional crypto trading & custodial services - offers clients a regulated, transparent and secure trading environment, together with the deepest pool of crypto liquidity. LMAX Digital is also a primary price discovery venue, streaming real-time market data to the industry’s leading analytics platforms. LMAX Digital - secure, liquid, trusted. Learn more at LMAXdigital.com/pomp ======================= Compass Mining is the world's first online marketplace for bitcoin mining hardware and hosting. Compass was founded with the goal of making it easy for everyone to mine bitcoin. Visit compassmining.io to start mining bitcoin today! ======================= Crypto is all about democratization and freedom of choice. But many companies limit their offerings to centralized trading products. The crypto companies leading the pack in terms of innovation are those that extend access to the industry's cutting-edge products and services — bridging CeFi and DeFi. If you're searching for a platform that reflects crypto's promise of a more open and less restrictive financial future, look no further than OKEx. On OKEx now you can easily switch over to the new DeFi mode, connect OKEx's bespoke Web 3.0 wallet via browser extension and start exploring opportunities at the bleeding edge of crypto. From the DeFi Dashboard, you can monitor your portfolio of self-custodied assets across a range of blockchain networks and generate passive income from yield-farming with top DeFi protocols. In the NFT Marketplace, you can participate in exclusive drops and trade nonfungible tokens without secondary market fees. Meanwhile, the GameFi section is your portal to the latest and greatest in play-to-earn and blockchain gaming. Venture to the forefront of crypto innovation and connect with OKEx DeFi today. =======================

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:02Anthony Pompliano?

  What's up everyone, this is Anthony Pompliano. Most of you know me as Pomp. You're listening to the Pomp Podcast, simply the best podcast out there. Now let's kick this thing off. Today's episode is a little bit different. I'm simply gonna just talk, no interview, and share a couple of thoughts that I have around seeking out alternative viewpoints. But before we get into this episode, I want to quickly talk about our sponsors. First up is LMAX Digital, the number one institutional crypto exchange. They offer clients the deepest pool of crypto liquidity on the planet, underscored by 100% uptime track record through volatility spikes. They leverage LMAX Group's liquidity relationships and ultra-low latency technology. LMAX Digital is the market-leading solution for institutional crypto trading and custodial services. If you've never heard of LMAX Digital, it's

• 0:45Anthony Pompliano?

  probably because you're not an institution. They have no retail, only institutions. They feature a central limit order book streaming spot Bitcoin, Ether, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash, all paired with US Dollars, Euro, and Yen. LMAX Digital, they're secure, they're liquid, and they're trusted. Learn more at LMAXdigital.com/pomp. Again, LMAXdigital.com/pomp. Next up is Compass Mining. Compass Mining is the world's largest marketplace for mining hardware and hosting. With Compass, everyone can mine Bitcoin. Their team makes it easy to start mining wherever you want, at home or in one of their 23 hosting facilities around the world. Through the Compass marketplace, retail miners can access mining hardware

• 1:28Anthony Pompliano?

  with similar prices and purchase plans as the world's largest mining companies. Compass miners own their machines, they choose whatever mining pool they want, and they mine directly to their own wallets. Miners who don't want to host their machines can order ASICS directly to their doorstep. Simple and low-cost hosting agreements, coupled with best-in-class customer service, are the reasons why Compass is the simplest and most popular way to mine Bitcoin. Start mining your own Bitcoin today by visiting compassmining.io. Again, compassmining.io. Go check them out and let me know what you think. Last but not least are my friends over at OKX. Crypto is all about democratization and freedom of choice, but many companies limit their offerings to centralized trading products.

• 2:13Anthony Pompliano?

  The crypto companies leading the pack in terms of innovation are those that extend access to the industry's cutting-edge products and services, bridging C-Fi and DeFi. If you're searching for a platform that reflects crypto's promise of a more open and less restrictive financial future, look no further than OKX. On OKX now, you can easily switch over to the new DeFi mode. Connect OKX's bespoke Web3 wallet via browser extension and start exploring opportunities at the bleeding edge of crypto. From the DeFi dashboard, you can monitor your portfolio of self-custodied assets across a range of blockchain networks and generate passive income from yield farming with top DeFi protocols. In the NFT marketplace, you can participate in exclusive drops and trade non-fungible tokens without secondary market fees.

• 2:57Anthony Pompliano?

  Meanwhile, the GameFi section is your portal to the latest and greatest in play-to-earn and blockchain gaming. Venture to the forefront of crypto innovation and connect with OKX DeFi today. Again, go check them out at OKX. That's where you can find OKX DeFi. All right, let's get into this episode. I hope you guys enjoy this one.

• 3:16Speaker 01

  Anthony Pompliano runs Pomp Investments. All views of him and the guests on his podcast are solely their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of Pomp Investments. You should not treat any opinion expressed by Pomp or his guests as a specific inducement to make a particular investment or follow a particular strategy, but only as an expression of his personal opinion. This podcast is for informational purposes only.

• 3:39Anthony Pompliano?

  Hey, everyone. This week, I'll be attending Hereticon, a conference that promises thought crimes and encourages the discussion of various topics deemed off-limits by the general public. The organizers, Founders Fund, described the importance of this conference with the following passage. They said, quote, "We believe dissent is essential to the progressive march of human civilization. We believe there's more in science, technology, and business to discover, that it must be discovered, and that in order to make such discovery, we must learn to engage with new, if even sometimes unpopular, ideas." So let's have a conversation, end quote. It seems like a fairly straightforward idea, right? Well, not so fast. The team at Founders Fund did a great job explaining that history is created by heretics, but the modern heretics are lambasted for their views.

• 4:23Anthony Pompliano?

  In the initial Hereticon announcement, the team wrote, quote, "From Galileo to Jesus Christ, heretical thinkers have been met with hostility, even death, and vindicated by posterity. That ideological outcasts have shaped the world is an observation so often made it would be bereft of interest were the actions of our society not so entirely at odds with the wisdom of the point. Troublemakers are essential to mankind's progress, and so we must protect them. But while our culture is fascinated by the righteousness of our historical heretics, it is obsessed with the destruction of the heretics among us today." Since I read that phrase, quote, "Obsessed with the destruction of the heretics among

• 5:05Anthony Pompliano?

  us today," end quote, I can't stop thinking about it. You see this playing out in economics, public health, politics, legal, and various other aspects of our society. There is a mainstream narrative that is accepted by the majority. If you dare stray from that narrative, cancel culture will come after you with a vengeance. We officially live in a society where there are certain topics that are not permitted to be discussed without the threat of losing your job, your reputation, and your relationships. Even worse, the pursuit of alternative ideas is heavily discouraged by the media, the school system, and your peers. Thankfully, the modern-day heretics are willing to risk their reputations and livelihood to pursue new ideas, better solutions, and a different way of thinking and doing.

• 5:49Anthony Pompliano?

  They aren't always right. In fact, sometimes they are incredibly wrong and stupid. But sometimes, and it seems to be happening at an accelerating pace, the heretics are the catalyst that pushes our society forward in a meaningful way. A challenge for each of you, the listener, is to focus on seeking out more alternative viewpoints during 2022. It doesn't have to be the crazy conspiracy theory that your drunk uncle spews each holiday season, but can instead be a different way of looking at economics, space, longevity, public health, politics, or many other topics. These alternative views may be off-putting at first, especially if they violate a previous framework you had for the world. But maybe those off-putting views are just the ones that you should be paying attention to.

• 6:32Anthony Pompliano?

  Take the story of Ignaz Semmelweis, a Hungarian doctor who worked at the Vienna General Hospital between 1844 and 1848 as an example. He was one of the first proponents of having people wash their hands to prevent the transmission of germs, but he was largely ridiculed and ignored when he first conceived of the idea. The simple alternative view that Dr. Semmelweis had almost 200 years ago is now ingrained in every human's mind since childhood. The heretic created the standard. Whether we wash our hands or not is probably one of the least controversial ideas that could be debated then and now. So what would be more controversial? Maybe whether humans should edit the DNA of unborn children in order to increase intelligence of the population?

• 7:17Anthony Pompliano?

  Or if it is a net positive for society to have thousands of guns 3D-printed by anonymous people throughout the country? How about legalizing psychedelics or creating a pathway for every human to live forever? These are just a few of the topics that will be discussed this week, but there are many more, even more heretical ones as well. The fact that a conference that promises to present alternative viewpoints is so controversial probably tells us everything we need to know about the current state of discourse in society. I'm excited to hang with the heretics this week. I hope that you enjoyed this episode, and I can't wait to do more of them.