Exploring the possibility space

I got this great domain years ago, and am finally doing something with it. The possibility space is all the futures available to us, that branch out like our future light cone. I’ve sat on this domain for so long because there were so many possibilities for what to do with it that I found it hard to commit to a single one. But not making a choice is also a choice. So I’ve decided to make it a blog, and see where writing takes me.

What we choose to do here and now defines the future set of possibilities. As choices are made, path dependency sets in and what once was a possibility becomes a counterfactual.

I see path dependency everywhere, and it terrifies me. There is nothing more appealing than endless potential, eternal youth, all options open forever. I contain multitudes. But the reality is that what we did yesterday determines what we can do today, and what we choose to do today sets the scope of what’s achievable tomorrow.

In my professional life, I’ve worked as a cryptocurrency developer, and I built a social networking app. My interests include things I’ve worked on, like decentralization and privacy tech, but extend to other fields I will probably never touch professionally. I’d like to spend more time exploring some of the things I find interesting that I will probably never work on.

Being in quarantine has made me want to try harder to meet people online, and that requires getting over the self-consciousness of thinking in public. So my new goal is to think deeply, share lightly.

From my favorite poem as a teenager:

Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)

– Walt Whitman