by ​Alan Waxman MLA

Black Box Cryptography: 
Of Zen Noble Truths and Blockchain
You are a black box (空).  More appropriately, you and I together, in this shared space, are (in) a black box right now.  Big data (縁) flows through, informing our context and ourselves. In this sense(念), we form a cipher (円相) between us, a cryptographic (法) void (無) of potentiality (如来).    
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Sharing Economy 
We can share(業) certain things, our clothes, our food, even our “time”(時).  These things are possible to share because we can shed them, alienable.  When we’d rather not actually bother to take off our clothes or meet to share food, we can make images of our clothes, food, and time, and share this simulacrum(空想).
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You and I can decide(思) to quantify the value of this exchange, of this present.  We can slap price stickers on our clothes and our time, or even more easily price our simulacre versions(行) of our “things”(事). Monetize.  

Better to put a price on an image(像) of yourself than on yourself(我), right(正)?  The image, the on-screen(写) persona of yourself, is not only easier to market, to become a personal brand, but it also keeps you safe.  Why not toss around digital messages, images, selfies in and out, slick and protected?  Pretty soon we’ve got all these mega chat rooms running around the world, multiple online businesses and characters going(行).  And the digital flows into the digital.    

Heck, if we add up(欲) all the dollar signs into a ledger we have a running tally of our digital community value - line graphs on a screen tracing a speculative online digital market.  Now, we know Satoshi’s folks bodied(此縁性) the flow(流), by putting something more to “crypto” - the garden in the machine(露地).  

Cryptography 
This “something”(埃) makes the code a bit more solid, a bit more embodied(現). Ever extending lines that make up the blockchain are verified by shared processes (公案) - the data mining cipher(円相).  Suddenly, the digital is looking a little more locked down and unknown(不思).

The internet of things lends itself to this because the physical world and it’s panoply of expressions of context over time (縁起) constantly creates new, unforeseen data flow(泡). When something in the system breaks(侘) it comes to suddenly triangulate even more value in the constantly updating(化) blockchain. Example (礼) is derived by exception (陰陽). Whether math problems, or personal health decisions, it’s the unknown variables that derive the greatest value in the cryptography.  The risk.

On the blockchain there is no going backwards.  You and I and our data mining internet of things(縁起), a distributed ledger updating in real time.  The blockchain is “digital”(裏) but it mirrors the change in the physical community of value, repudiated in the mining processes, a black box of momentous proportions(空). 

This feedback continues quickly ad-infinitum(無常), blurring into real time(心相續).  Pretty soon, the intricacies and patterns of unknowns; the breaks in the norm(不正常), come to inform the code(法).  Deep learning(深層学習) in the neural net(神経回路網).  

Artificial intelligence to Intelligence 
Perhaps you’ve been preoccupied(苦) with smoothing out the anomalies(不正常), with creating seamless feedback loops(廻) where you know what goes in to create what comes out. Control(配).  Make a brand(名).  A reliable product.  This is the old artificial intelligence approach: make a machine learning model that fixes things and maintains “good” feedback, no big waves. This is the old closed-system approach.  Minimize the variables.  Make a nice selfie. Get likes. Monetize that shit.  

Now imagine a particular cluster of these intricacies, risks, anomalies.  Imagine this as a literal black box. From the view outside the box, we see what’s going in and what’s coming out - We see a steady stream of data representative of what’s inside the box(空想).  We can paint the box with any image, any simulation we choose to see, and this may affect the inputs and outputs of the box. We can even paint a human face on the box, perhaps even a selfie of ourselves. But, we will never know what’s inside our box(無心相續).

When we realize we are this black box (無心) - we realize that we are the machine and the machine is us, a man/mirror mix.  Suddenly Moore’s Law has not slowed after all, just reached an asymptote. Computers shrank from the size of a town, to a building, to a room, to a desk top, to a pocket, and then suddenly vanished entirely. We ARE them, the other, I and thou, in ecstasy.  No more man vs nature, with “resources” and “manufacturing.” Enter the anthropocene, the primordial(阿吽), the tea ceremony(茶の湯).

This leap into the unknown stands to release us from the bounded thinking of controlling variables.  It stands to transform the act of “programming” into a sensitive opening of intersubjective vulnerability (慈悲).  It stands to unleash us from laboring in the dry factories of closed systems to play in the wet lush fields of open system ecologies. 

Many startups are stealth mode nowadays due to the fear of others stealing their startup idea. If anyone at a coworking space asks them what they are working on, they normally say, “We are a stealth mode startup.” Of course, there are horror stories of others stealing startup ideas, but ideas are only ideas if there is no execution behind them to turn them into a business. Here are 5 reasons why sharing what your startup does might help you.


1.Get immediate feedback-
If you have a product to showcase, let others in the coworking space to use your product and see what they think. Since there are so many people, you can immediately get some feedbacks on what potentials users might think.

2. Gain resources-
Maybe other coworking members are connected to companies, individuals, or influencers you need for your startup. Members of Treehouse love sharing information and resources with each other.

3. Potential recruit-
Are you looking for someone to help you out on building your product or potential salespeople? There could be drop-in daypassers at a coworking space or at a networking event who is excited about what you are building! Even if they aren’t looking for a job, someone from the coworking circle might also know someone with the talent you are looking for your startup.

4. Collaborate-
Maybe there is another company in the coworking space looking to collaborate with someone in your field! You will never know unless you connect with them.  

5. Share knowledge-
You can learn so much from talking to others at a coworking space. People love sharing their knowledge over coffee or lunch.

If you are still not convinced to talk about what you are working on, share only a part of your business idea especially if you are on the early stage of your startup.

Of course, you’ve heard of, “early bird gets the worm”, and there is a lot of truth in that. Successful people are normally early risers. In fact, today’s top leaders in every industry are up by 8am. In a monastery, monks are up by 4am, and they are meditating by 5am. In Zen Buddhism, life happenings are just waves. The earlier one gets up for meditation, the calmer the mind is and less disturbed by the waves. Even if your job allows you to walk in whenever be up 2 hours prior to work so allow yourself a calmer morning and to take charge of the flow of the day. 

We live in changing times where times move fast so waking up can help you prepare for it. 
Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba Group wakes up at 6am.
Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple wakes up at 3:45am. 
Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon and the richest person on earth wakes up by 7-8am. 
Li Ka Shing, the richest man in Hong Kong wakes up by 6am. 
Jack Dorsey, serial entrepreneur is up by 5am. 
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla is up by 7am. 
Richard Branson wakes up at 5:45am. 
Oprah Winfrey wakes up by 6:20am. 

Okay, you get the point, every successful person wakes up early. There might be science behind this, waking up early helps with our mood, willpower, and metabolism. After a good night of sleep, early risers experience better prefrontal power which is related to creativity and willpower. Hence, the best time to be creative is in the morning. Morning is when the willpower is strong and the best decisions are made. According to studies, as the day goes on, the subjects were more likely to make unthoughtful choices. Maybe this is why executives wake up early to make mindful choices. 
It turns out that our biological clock works best when we rise with the sun. The suprachiasmatic nucleus, which is located right above the point in the brain where the optic nerve fibers cross is responsible for keeping time. Due to its location, it is able to receive the cues it needs from light in the environment to keep track of time. So your mind and body actually work best when it is waking up to the sunrise. 
Our hormones also work with the biological clock. The hormones responsible for metabolism rise and fall throughout the day. So waking up early could also help with sticking with a diet, and since waking up early also helps with decision making, not only is it good for metabolism, it also helps to resist the urge of binge eating. 
There are 86,400 seconds in a day, the earlier you wake up, the more time you’d have. Time is one of those things that shouldn't be wasted as you can't get any of those missed seconds, minutes, or hours back. To build the habit of getting up early, try setting the clock 15 minutes earlier each day until you are up by sunrise. 
Waking up early allows you to set the tone for the day playing offense instead of playing defense. It also allows for the time for you to eat a nutritious breakfast instead of rushing out the door.