A STRANGE GAME. THE ONLY WINNING MOVE IS NOT TO PLAY.

That line from Joshua / WOPR from the climax of "Wargames" has saved me so much grief and wasted time.

I sat out cryptocurrency, NFTs, and now genAI because of those words.

I know my personality and my tendency to zone into hyperfocus when latching onto a "cool" new toy. All three of those technologies were obviously being hyped. I decided to "wait and see" and it was all hype, no real substance. I would have spent so much time and mental energy; I could have fallen victim to the sunk cost fallacy and become a zealot.

Each one was more exploitative than the one before. The more I learned about them, the happier I was that I didn't jump on the train. Money laundering, environmental damage, power use, intellectual theft, relying on near slave labor, attacking creativity, encouraging greed. The underlying technology might be neat or useful but the people with billions of dollars invested in these technologies are not good people. They should not rewarded.

They know that quote. They have to; they are all geeks at heart.

They saw the movie. They know they are releasing something as potentially devastating as nuclear war.

They know that.

But they think they are smarter and better.

They think they are the ones who will "win" the unwinnable scenario.

Capitalism, the ultimate unwinnable scenario, reinforces that belief.

But we are all losing.