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# TRAD-FI
- URL: https://pulpconversations.com/trad-fi/
- Published: 2025-05-15T15:41:34.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-27T21:29:58.000Z
- Description: Money-making(losing) in the middle
- Author: Vinay Gupta
- Tags: Newsletter, #Migrated-1787171093388, #Import 2026-08-19 16:25

The REAL money is made and lost at the tails. And 68%+ of society exchange debits and credits all-day on the scraps in the middle.

This is the main reason it’s taken this long for Bitcoin to go institutionally mainstream (Jan. 2024) - in sync with “career risk” inverting from “don’t recommend bitcoin” to “you must recommend a non-zero allocation to bitcoin!” 

Is this correlation or causation?

[Those in the middle](https://www.onceinaspecies.com/p/why-the-yuppie-elite-dismiss-bitcoin?ref=pulpconversations.com) (most people) place the most trust in “the system” because they have the most to lose.

Why?

Because they spend their time operating in the middle - that’s either their locus of control or programmatically assumed ignorance.

The poor may have less trust in “the system” because it has failed them in many ways.

The rich have less trust in “the system” because they think “the current guys” in power are less trustworthy than “their guys”.

Everyone else is in the middle. We trust because what other choice is there?

As [my friend Bernard](https://www.wsj.com/us-news/texas-lottery-gamblers-jackpot-win-40e3d6fb?st=qSqTXF&reflink=desktopwebshare%5Fpermalink&ref=pulpconversations.com) recently said to me, “Your objective is to build a financial wall around you.”

I think his point is that you NEED a financial wall around you to enliven your full potential.

“I would rather be poor.” - said no serious person ever.

And before you cry Mother Teresa. [Read Christopher Hitchens](https://a.co/d/hEhPHkU?ref=pulpconversations.com), which may force you to reconsider your whole perspective on what “helping the poor” even means.

A financial wall enables peace of mind. It serves as protection and it enables optionality.

Such a wall may enable you to pursue your dreams. Your ideas about saving the world no longer must remain words. You can manifest them into reality, regardless of whether others think it’s a “good / bad” idea. 

LFG! Go build your walls.