{"id":37532,"date":"2026-01-20T18:29:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T18:29:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.duck9.com\/blog\/?p=37532"},"modified":"2026-01-20T14:29:45","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T18:29:45","slug":"jagged-orange-pills-larry-chiang-via-fernando-nikol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.duck9.com\/blog\/jagged-orange-pills-larry-chiang-via-fernando-nikol\/","title":{"rendered":"Jagged Orange Pills\u2026 Larry Chiang via Fernando Nikol"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Orange Pill Isn\u2019t Comfortable, But Staying Asleep Costs More<\/div>\n
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Unedited by Larry Chiang <\/div>\n
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Most people never really question money. <\/div>\n
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They earn it, spend it, save a little, repeat. The system works fine until it doesn\u2019t\u2014and by then the damage is already priced in.<\/div>\n
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The orange pill is the moment you see that inflation isn\u2019t a bug, it\u2019s the feature. Central banks create currency faster than the economy produces real value. Early recipients (usually institutions and already-wealthy individuals) get to spend the new money before prices adjust. Everyone else pays later through higher costs. That transfer happens every cycle, quietly, by design.<\/div>\n
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Schools don\u2019t teach this because the curriculum is funded by the same system it would have to critique. Textbooks stop at \u201cfractional reserve banking is efficient\u201d and rarely mention Cantillon effects or historical hard-money periods. Media rarely challenges it either; most financial outlets are bankrolled by the exact players who benefit from loose policy.<\/div>\n
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It compounds across generations. Parents teach kids to \u201cget a good job and save,\u201d which worked better when money held value longer. Grandparents remember when a house cost three years of income instead of ten. The baseline keeps shifting, but the advice stays the same.<\/div>\n
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Bitcoin changes the math. Fixed supply. No emergency minting. No political override. It\u2019s not perfect\u2014it\u2019s volatile, it\u2019s slow for coffee, custody matters\u2014but it\u2019s the first widely accessible asset in decades that can\u2019t be diluted at someone else\u2019s discretion. That property alone makes it threatening to any institution whose business model relies on controlling the unit of account.<\/div>\n
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Once you internalize that, the next question is practical: what do you actually do?<\/div>\n
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You can stay angry about the game, or you can play a different one. Most people who take the orange pill end up doing some combination of:<\/div>\n
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– Reducing exposure to depreciating cash  <\/div>\n
– Acquiring scarce assets (bitcoin being the obvious one for many)  <\/div>\n
– Building skills that pay in the new economy  <\/div>\n
– Learning how money and credit actually work so they stop leaking value unintentionally  <\/div>\n
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The credit side is especially brutal. A single charge-off or long delinquency can follow you seven years, while the same debt gets resold multiple times for profit. The system punishes individuals far more than it punishes institutions.<\/div>\n
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So yeah, the orange pill isn\u2019t fun. It makes you see breakage everywhere. But once you see it, pretending otherwise just feels like lying to yourself.<\/div>\n
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If you want to go deeper on any piece\u2014bitcoin mechanics, credit repair tactics, historical parallels, whatever\u2014hit me. No posturing, just the points.<\/div>\n
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What direction do you want to take it from here?<\/div>\n

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Fernando Nikoli\u0107 🇦🇷 🟠<\/a><\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u2066\u202a@basedlayer\u202c\u2069<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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The orange pill is a process of betrayal when you think about it <\/p>\n

First you learn that inflation is intentional and you feel betrayed by the system<\/p>\n

Then you learn that the education system never taught you this on purpose and you feel betrayed by school<\/p>\n

Then you learn that the pic.x.com\/PGLoNm7Q1C<\/span><\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

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1\/20\/26, 7:40\u202fAM<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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Chapter 1 to Chapter 14\u2019s an \u201cEaster Egg\u201d at <\/span>#ch1 to #ch14. Including #ch2 which\u2019s chapter 2 at my house in Napa California<\/span><\/div>\n

http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ejeIz4EhoJ0<\/span><\/p>\n


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On 09-09-39, “What They Will NEVER Teach You at Stanford Business School” debuts at 300 w 44th St at New York Fashion Week’s front row
http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=QXIaNZi3mHQ<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

What A Super Model Can Teach a Harvard MBA About Credit www.slideshare.net\/larrychiang\/what-a-super-model-can-teach-a-harvard-mba-about-credit<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

American Express hosts me mentoring you about FICO scores at New York Fashion Week
t.co\/inxTmZAj<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

My video boils down 20,000 hours and moves you to the right on the entrepreneur bell curve 
http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=eudADPfTWiE<\/span>
<\/span>***********<\/span><\/div>\n

Steve Jobs Texted me on 650-283-8008 in the same way that Mr Jobs called Bill Hewlett <\/span>https:\/\/x.com\/superSaiyanSkai\/status\/1941392367304761636\/video\/1<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n


<\/span><\/div>\n
Larry Chiang<\/span><\/div>\n
Fund of Founders<\/div>\n
Founding Stanford EIR<\/div>\n
@duck9 alum, Deeply Understood Capital Credit Chinese Knowledge 9<\/div>\n
Solo Founder Uber API<\/div>\n
650-566-9600 Office<\/div>\n
650-566-9696 Direct<\/div>\n
Cell: 415-720-8500 <\/div>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

650-283-8008 (cell)<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n
Editor of the widely syndicated “What They Don’t Teach at School”
whattheydontteachyouatstanfordbusinessschool.com\/blog<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

CNN Video Channel: ireport.cnn.com\/people\/larrychiang<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Read my last 10 X posts at www.X.com\/LarryChiang<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Author of #WTDTYASBS a NY Times Bestseller released 09-09-09 at #NYFW on a runway under the tents
whattheydontteachyouatstanfordbusinessschool.com\/blog\/?s=Ny+times+bestseller<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

www.fastcompany.com\/embed\/c0d4562ea2049<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

52 Cards. Two Jokers. What They DO Teach You at Stanford Engineering
http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=vDBY0GkI3-g<\/span><\/p>\n

Emergency swings and cutting deals as an 9 year old
http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=OFGY7v9C4G0<\/span><\/p>\n

Hunter Pence shared thoughts before winning WORLD SERIES’ Game #7
http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=usu0luYy9pw<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Orange Pill Isn\u2019t Comfortable, But Staying Asleep Costs More Unedited by Larry Chiang  Most people never really question money.  They earn it, spend it, save a little, repeat. The system works fine until it doesn\u2019t\u2014and by then the damage is already priced in. The orange pill is the moment you see that inflation isn\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.duck9.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.duck9.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.duck9.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.duck9.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.duck9.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.duck9.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37532\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.duck9.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.duck9.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.duck9.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}