My name is Maali Marvin. I'm a High School Teacher, a contributing writer at HackerNoon, and a Bitcoiner.
\ I grew up in Uganda in a home that had an early IBM PC running Windows 95. Plus a small library with old high school books, old books on communism, economics, and old novels that my Dad used to rent out at his movie store.
\ My early economics and sci-fi writings helped me find a stage for writing on Bitcoin, right after I got orange-pilled.
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How Did You Start Writing?I started blogging in high school, actually. Writing short romance stories where the hero saves the girl from dire circumstances. Then the two get romantically entangled.
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Blame Tobey Maguire's Spiderman. Raimi was a genius.
\ I also enjoyed reading tales of the romantic unhurriedness in the exchanges of young men and women from those English (and African) eras of old. You know. Where the boy and girl goof around and giggle together, and the boy doesn't seem to be thinking, “What should I say to get some?”. And the girl isn't like “I hope he is rich and famous somehow”.
\ With Tinder and other dating apps, that's all that happens.
\ After reading a bit of SciFi in big volumes like Dune, I soon dared tackle ideas like Homo Economicus in a long book with sporadic ideas dumps. (My claim was that humans are usually economically rational, even if it may not seem like it).
\ As I recall, that was my first real attempt at writing a book. All that writing was by hand. The good old days. I’m trying to get back to the habit, but I lost my beautiful handwriting, unfortunately.
\ However, I was also inspired to code by a school buddy called Bwire, who would impress me with his Command Line gimmicks. And my parents would throw the name Bill Gates around, so yeah.
Code.(Bwire's gimmicks eventually led me to build my first cmd programs i.e. Batch .bat files.
I remember coding The Matrix Effect.
https://www.instructables.com/Batch-Matrix-Effect/?embedable=true
\ That was cool for an almost-18-year-old.
\ Now, coding didn't attract me as strongly as word smithing. One reason, I guess, is that writing felt more empowering.
\ Given my pretty authoritarian Dad, giving up some more of my autonomy to a computer to run my code words was a step below saying what I wanted directly into another person's mental compiler.
(Also, my Dad was no dev. But he would issue commands for my mental prompt like you won't believe. Tough love.)
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:::tip Human Speech > Human Coded Speech. Imo. (More people write than code, so yeah).
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\ Anyway, the blogging-as-a-thing-I-do deal was sealed when I started my free WordPress blog site -- intelagent.wordpress.com -- back in 2017.
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How Has Technology Impacted The Way You Write?I just ruminate on my thoughts until I have some sort of original idea worth writing about. Usually, while doing the family’s laundry, or digging with a hoe in our family garden. These days, mostly while doing my own laundry.
\ All while day dreaming, say, about how a spider spins webs, but we humans have an invisible World Wide Web. Or about Bitcoin's Supply Equation. How does it encode even the coins that get lost, stolen, etc? It's all in there - If you can find it.
(Bitcoin is also a quasi-political and quasi-religious monetary technology. Which is interesting.)
\ Once in a while these days, if I want some technical forays, ChatGPT can paint me a less crude picture of my first crude picture. After that, I throw away most of what it said coz it’s regurgitating generic tropes, and I make my own special dish. Then serve my customers.
\ Less invasive on my writing process is the kitchen itself. With places like Google Docs and HackerNoon's word processing platform, which allows me to write drafts and come back to them later.
\ The power and freedom of not having to keep drafts as Word docs in formats I'm not sure of is great. Plus, I don't need to have my machine on me all the time. Anywhere, I can log into my account and continue building my story.
\ I also find it great that there are so many media resources with video, audio, games, and technology to create inspiration.
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Share About Your Journey Highlights?Highs -- I've been paid sats at every place I've published my work (3 places now). Which tells me I'm on the right path. Just gotta do more.
\ Lately though, the sats are drying up. The dry season is here, and I wasn't prepared.
\ No matter. Same plan: Double my output or my output quality every year like the transistor has done for decades under Moore's law.
\ The biggest high -- HackerNoon.
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No lie, I'm higher than I've ever been.
\ I've earned big sats at this platform. Joining HackerNoon is some sort of pivotal moment. Though I’m still trying to figure out how huge HackerNoon is.
\ Is it like emacs, by any chance? I liked that story.
https://hackernoon.com/to-emacs-or-not-to-emacs?embedable=true
\ Lows -- I'm not good enough to live off my writing, so I have to do a lot of work, it sometimes hurts (usually socially.
Stephen King was right. Don't overdo it.)
\ Also, balancing two worlds that haven't yet met makes me feel like an impostor sometimes. Like, if I were a successful writer about smartphones, I'd be fine.
\ But Bitcoin / Crypto? Scam. So they all think (They are the people I care about).
Can't wait for the big I-told-you-so in 2026.
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What’s Your Creative Process?One of my writing routines is to feel jealous (hihi, I mean inspired) or to feel like someone is not being nuanced enough on a tech topic.
\ Or if they are leaving food (crumbs, but it’s harsh out here) on the table.
\ These days, I ruminate on Michael Saylor and Sabine Hossenfelder's posts. I want to venture out into the local community, though. Get in touch with the real resource -- fellow Bitcoiners.
\ It's hard, as they haven't put out that much content for my writing type of teeth to feed on.
For it has to be within my foray, otherwise I wouldn't even know they weren't being nuanced enough.
So it's Bitcoin, Quantum Computing, Crypto, AI, and any big ideas like that.
Do not wait for a quality blog about iPhones.
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Your Favorite Memory/Article(s) to This Day?The first article to earn me some of those big bucks on here.
\ Doubly proud coz the CEO himself edited it. What a lucky day.
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How Did You Hear About HackerNoon? Share With Us About Your Experience With HackerNoon.I was taking a random stroll on the internet, looking for some reading on quantum computing, when I landed on a great read about a time-traveling quantum computer-blockchain on this part-pixelated, part-throwback green land.
\ I was a laid-off writer from BitcoinNews at that time. The rest is history, and HackerNoon is great!
\ I’m glad they work so hard handling the more opinionated tech articles of the internet, and I hope to grow into my work while here.
\ I love the second human rule, I love the originality of HackerNoon stories. I love the fact that editors are a message away in case one needs help (though they take a long time to pick up my calls. Guess HackerNoon is getting big and busy.)
\ I hope HackerNoon won't replace its human editors with AI. No matter how wild the ride gets.
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What Have You Learnt From Your Journey?I've learnt that I need to relate with humans on a productive path too, to blog well. Even if they aren't in my own lane.
\ If I were hanging out with lifers or blowing all my days in a studio trying to “somehow” create that big buck article without people I consider great in my life, I don't think I'd have kept pushing good work.
\ Bottom line - Stick with a good community.
\ For some philosophical weight behind this idea, Hegel asserts that fitting into society is generally the best path to a good life.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/ultimate-german-philosophy-happier-life-170000319.html?embedable=true
\ Aside: One of my friends dislikes Bitcoin, and I've thought of cutting him off a few times. But I don’t have anybody I'd replace him with.
\ So even as he keeps saying ‘Gerrara here’ to my attempts at orange-pilling his stubborn head, I'll keep trying. Happily. Even if it never works.
\ Yes, I know, Einstein. But this is different from that quote about the same thing and different results. I keep getting different results → more patience.
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Final ThoughtsI'm cooking a big buck here in the Kitchen. Stay Foolish, Stay Hungry.
Will be serving anytime now.
Edit: I cooked the big buck and served it a little unready (rare).
Stay tuned for another one. This one will he well done.
Cooking in the Bitcoin kitchen is my thing.
Adios.
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Check out Maali Marvin’s HackerNoon profile here, and read more of his amazing stories!https://hackernoon.com/u/maken8?embedable=true
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:::info HackerNoon Writers Spotlight is a special, exclusive interview series where HackerNoon’s Top Writers share about their writing journey on the net in this ever-evolving digital world.
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