Jack Chong

Quirky science, trendy thoughts and hidden connections

2023: Year of the Techno-dialectics

(Rough notes) The American response to TikTok is a watershed moment of conflict between international tech elites, national bureaucrats, and national politicians keen to stir up narratives for ideological purposes. We already had the TikTok moment when Libra failed. Libra was the coup d'etat of the West Coast against the

An Unreal Primer on Real World Assets (RWAs)

From the outside, blockchain and cryptocurrencies are synonymous. From the inside, crypto does not mean 'blockchain'. While crypto is a high-volatility speculative digital asset, blockchain is simply a type of backend software that can be applied to different verticals. One of those emerging use cases is financial services. It turns

Revitalize the decadent West: Announcing HomeDAO and the Oxford Crypto Village

Revitalize the decadent West: Announcing HomeDAO and the Oxford Crypto Village

Entrepreneurs build our world. Modern Western institutions fail them. This is why we are launching a global hacker house movement with HomeDAO.

Winter is coming

The best time for wealth creation is coming. Some call it winter, I call it the winter before spring.

The Three Tokenomics Problems and a Productivity-Linked Tokenomics Design

I just wrote a draft paper about: 1) The Three Tokenomics Problems 2) an attempt to mitigate them with a Productivity-Linked Tokenomics Design Here's [https://twitter.com/jackchong_jc/status/1509304372605431808] a short Twitter thread. Here's [https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4071089] the full text on

Open Future and Fixed Past

Open Future and Fixed Past

How open is our future and why is our past fixed?

Some updates on DeFi

In case you haven't noticed, I have gone all-in web3. I think some boomers used to call it 'crypto' Some updates on the content I made on Twitter: * How Inflation-betting works [https://twitter.com/jackchong_jc/status/1495916405778264068?s=20&t=xFpBTAhaon5fpMc6ZmTWXw] * Why [https://twitter.com/jackchong_jc/status/1502322219975946242?

Build myths around alumni founders

Build myths around alumni founders

European universities need to build founding myths around alumni startup founders. No myths, no aspirations, no inspirations for our next generation.

From token-gate to contract-gate

From token-gate to contract-gate

I am hosting a crypto dinner at the RICH hacker house in Oxford [https://www.jack-chong.com/blog/a-manifesto-to-build-the-rich-house/]. However, the noise:signal ratio here is terrible [https://www.jack-chong.com/blog/a-manifesto-to-build-the-rich-house/#rich-as-counter-culture-to-oxford] . What should I do to make sure that everyone is actually actively building in Web3, rather

On Digital Cash: historiography and ontology of money

On Digital Cash: historiography and ontology of money

Indulgences about Ideas Invent Technology, Web3 is a Deleuzian Control Society, and Value as Data

Adventurers, Imperialism and Hong Kong

Adventurers, Imperialism and Hong Kong

A book review of China Bound: John Swire & Sons and Its World Amazon.co.uk [https://www.amazon.co.uk/History-Swire-Robert-Bickers/dp/1472949943]John Swire [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swire#History]The Swire Group is everywhere in Hong Kong: the airline Cathay Pacific, the property development Taikoo Shing, Food

A Manifesto to Build the first RICH House

A Manifesto to Build the first RICH House

The first hacker house for young founders in the UK Welcome to the first hacker house in Oxford. From HBO: Silicon Valley [https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/emmys-silicon-valley-set-visit-799421/] We write this manifesto to publicly announce that we have started a co-living house for aspiring Rebellious Intellectually Curious Hustlers (RICH)

An Investigation into the Passage of Time

An Investigation into the Passage of Time

A philosophical inquiry on phenomenology, ontology, and epistemology; 1st Prize in University of Sheffield Philosophy Essay Prize 2018

From The Great Man to The Great Founder Theory: Bezos, Musk, and Systrom

From The Great Man to The Great Founder Theory: Bezos, Musk, and Systrom

A meditation on agency, historiography, and inevitability For the best reading experience, please read this on my website on a browser so that you can use the table of contents 1. A meditation on agency, historiography, and inevitability [https://www.jack-chong.com/blog/the-great-founder-theory-musk-bezos-and-instagram/#a-meditation-on-agency-historiography-and-inevitability] 2. Prelogue: The Great Man

Minimal Viable Lifestyle (MVL)

MVL, take risks, and enjoy the ride For the past few months, I have considered dropping out. A less risky option is to take a gap year. Unfortunately, I have only got one more year of university left. So I succumbed to the sunk cost fallacy [https://www.behavioraleconomics.com/

Can life survive till the end of universe?

Can life survive till the end of universe?

How life can “cheat” its way out of the heat death of the universe

2021, Zoom out and be a digital monk

2021, Zoom out and be a digital monk

Clean your room, put your phone away and reclaim your identity

10 lessons I’ve learnt in 2020 as a 20-year-old

10 lessons I’ve learnt in 2020 as a 20-year-old

Lesson #1: stay childish forever. Never grow up.

Why Pret’s subscription model is great consumers but terrible for business

Why Pret’s subscription model is great consumers but terrible for business

Pret’s move to copy SaaS model to the commoditised drinks business will only drive a race to bottom. Expect a subscription-price war.

Follow these 10 rules and live a life not giving a fuck in your 20's

Follow these 10 rules and live a life not giving a fuck in your 20's

A guide for college students, or really, anyone in your 20’s to be live a fruitful life

There’s no Social Dilemma, only the Metaverse Dilemma

There’s no Social Dilemma, only the Metaverse Dilemma

Surveillance capitalism IS the future. As we spend more time online, there’s NO escape from it.

Turn your Zoom calls into John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight with Mmhmm

Turn your Zoom calls into John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight with Mmhmm

Developed by Evernote founder, will Mmhmm be Zoomed? And how to avoid its doom?

The clock is ticking for Tiktok

The clock is ticking for Tiktok

6 Questions for Microsoft if it wants TikTok

Superhuman is not enough for productivity. Here’s why

Superhuman is not enough for productivity. Here’s why

I don’t want to constantly switch between Figma, Slack, Notion, Jira, Asana etc.. and I don’t want to get bombarded by email notifications…