deep fun

i learned something simple and unsettling the other day while i was out walking with my daughters. there is shallow fun and there is deep fun. i told my eight- and eleven-year-old about this as we walked through the neighborhood, and they got it instantly. it is funny how kids remember the exact truths that adults spend their whole lives trying to forget. kids haven't been programmed by the algorithm yet to think that "busy" is the same thing as "important."

shallow fun is easy. it is the ice cream cone, the quick movie, the mindless swipe, and the infinite scroll. it feels great for a fleeting moment. but then it leaves you with a sugar crash and that hollow sense that you just traded an hour of your life for absolutely nothing that lasts. it is the fast food of human experience. it is fun in the moment, but it doesn't feed the soul.

deep fun is a completely different animal. deep fun is the math puzzle that makes your brain spark and smoke before you finally find the answer. it is the long run that hurts like hell for the first three miles before it actually starts to help. it is the habit that isn't glamorous at all—the one that feels like a chore—but eventually changes the entire trajectory of your life. deep fun is the kind of joy that compounds while shallow fun just fades into the background noise of your week.

bitcoin works the exact same way. most people enter the space looking for shallow fun. they want the shiny adrenaline of speculation, the "moon" shots, and the overnight riches. but that isn't where the real juice is. the real "deep fun" of bitcoin is the slow, disciplined choice to protect your time, your sovereignty, and your future. it is doing something today that might not pay off for ten years because you actually honor the hours you traded to earn that money. it is the satisfaction of knowing you are building a fortress while everyone else is playing in the sand.

unocoin was built on this exact principle of deep fun. we showed up early in 2013 and we stayed through the years when it felt like we were building rails for a train that might never arrive. we spent our days removing friction inch by inch so that millions of people could eventually participate in a fairer system. it wasn't particularly exciting in the moment... honestly, a lot of it was exhausting. but it is incredibly transformational in hindsight. we chose the hard path because we knew it was the only one that led somewhere worth going.

deep fun is parenting. it is building a business from nothing. it is saving when you want to spend. it is learning a new skill that makes you feel stupid for a month. it is lifting your own weight until you are stronger than you were yesterday. it is the work that feels like work until the moment it suddenly becomes freedom.

shallow fun is easy to find, but deep fun has to be earned. only one of them actually shapes who you become as a person. my kids still remember why deep fun matters... do you?