In this week’s issue:

• Touch Grass When Something Feels Hard But It’s Not (you’ve just never done it before)

• Hodl Me Tender: 🔥 Web3, Crypto + AI Jobs of the Week

Hodl Me Tender: 🔥 Web3 + AI Jobs of the Week

Looking for your next move in (or into) web3, crypto, or AI? Here are some fire openings for this week, all remote, all posted in the past four days:

• Risk Labs needs a Community Manager (ask them for more 💰!)

• They (Risk Labs) is looking for a Frontend Lead 🔥

• Ethereum Foundation needs a DeFi Specialist to join their team 🔥💰

• Logos needs a Campaign Director

• BOB is looking for a Social Media & Content Manager

• Ether.fi is on the hunt for a Product Designer (hybrid w/ relocation) 

• Every wants to find a Social Media Person 🔥

• BitMEX needs a KOL Growth Marketer (Europe) —is it you?

• CoinLedger is looking for a Software Engineer 🔥

• Want to be the Senior Product Manager at Risk Labs ? Get it. 🔥💰

Want to see your company's job listed here? Reply to this email and lmk.

In mid-February of this year, on a whim and as an experiment and because they’re cute, I bought $40 worth of Pengu, the Pudgy Penguins’ memecoin. Fast forward to the end of July and that $40 is now $160. A 300% increase. This, as I know from reading and watching and absorbing, is what memecoins do—dip and rip, over and over again.

As another experiment, I decided to sell half my Pengu and use the $80 profit to buy three (new to me) coins, as well as set up two (new to me) things: a limit buy order and a limit sell order using Coinbase Advanced.

Smart or not, here’s how my experiment turned into a baby trading strategy:

When Pengu hit what felt like peak momentum, I made a deliberate choice: sell half, lock in profits, let the rest ride. Classic risk management, even if I had to ask Chat "what does taking profits actually mean" at least three times.

In selling, I turned $40 worth of penguin coins into $80 of actual USDC—a clean 2x that suddenly made this whole crypto thing feel less like gambling and more like... strategy?

Instead of sitting on those gains like a responsible adult, I asked Chat if and how I should reinvest them. After some back and forth, that $80 went into three different coins—Ethena, Turbo, and Degen—because diversification, baby. (Or because I've developed a shopping addiction but for cryptocurrencies. Both can be true.)

The advanced mode revelation (or: just because something appears confusing doesn’t mean it is)

Because Chat mentioned Coinbase’s “Advanced Mode”—which “provides tools like interactive charts, order books, and a lower-priced maker-taker fee structure,” I decided to get fancy and try it. Upon first glance, advanced mode looks confusing as fuck (the UX is for sure for people who “get math” and like charts with numbers in them), but really, in using it to create simple buy/sell orders, it wasn’t confusing at all.

Sure, there’s a bunch of “advanced mode” terminology I still need to look up. But the main differences kinda just have to do with color palettes (these mean so much to our brains!), level of detail, and features. You actually get more in the advanced mode, while paying less to make and take orders. (In regs mode, you’re paying a little more for slightly easier UX and friendlier design, which… fair. I digress.)

Back to Pengu and setting up orders in advanced mode.

I set a limit sell order on my remaining Pengu—basically telling the app if this hits X price, sell it automatically so I don't have to stare at charts all day like a degenerate. Then, because I'm apparently now a person who does this, I set a limit buy order to automatically purchase more Pengu if it dipped to a certain price.

Reader, I tell you—I felt like a Wall Street person. A Wall Street person who asks Chat to remind her what a limit order is before placing one, but still.

When being math dumb becomes a superpower

My anecdotally-informed take on crypto trading? Being anxious about numbers might actually make you better at it. While the confident people are yolo’ing their kids' college funds into dog coins, I'm over here triple-checking every decimal point and conversing with Chat and reading and setting stop-losses because I assume I'm definitely going to fuck something up.

Whew.

This reminds me—three weeks ago on Farcaster, I wrote about growing up financially illiterate and eventually figuring out how to dig my parents out of massive debt and, eventually, buy them a house. The same skills that got me there—asking questions, admitting ignorance, pushing through the tunnels of confusion an setback—are what's helping me navigate this ridiculous landscape of penguin coins and limit orders.

Learning in public is pretty fucking sweet

Every time I scroll through Farcaster (and now TBA), there’s always multiple someones spraying about how "this is the top" or "welcome to degen mode." I think these someones have been mainstays of crypto Twitter since day one—both alarmist hype-filled, and also an extension of the ego. Disorienting and sobering at the same time. Like wait am I missing the boat? Wait—is there even a boat? Or are there five boats and no dock? Either way, this isn’t what I’m here for.

While “it’s the top” and other such bold, mostly unfounded claims can have some truth to them, here's what I've learned from months of stumbling through web3 (and life, really): the people who act like they know everything usually know the least.

The confidence required to risk actual money on digital tokens named after penguins? That doesn't come from understanding—it comes from accepting that you don't understand, but you're going to listen and research and ask questions and figure it the fuck out anyway. Also, sometimes there’s no figuring it out. You just feel something in your gut, take aim, and double backflip off the cliff. See what shakes out.

Does any of this mean I'm good at trading? Absolutely fucking not. Does it mean I'm learning to trust my instincts while simultaneously learning when not to trust them? I think so.

What I'm actually learning (besides how to gain or lose money efficiently)

This is the part that chokes me up. Because it’s tied to that family shit I mentioned earlier. You know, the financial illiteracy that gets passed down through generations, until someone says enough, there’s got to be a better way. 

Here’s that Farcaster post I referenced…

The real education isn't in the trading—it's in realizing that financial literacy isn't some innate talent that other people have and you don't. It's a skill you build by doing uncomfortable things repeatedly until they become slightly less uncomfortable.

The idea of setting my first limit order felt like taking on quantum physics. Actually doing it felt like ordering coffee. The math still confuses me, but that’s ok. I don’t need to understand it all. With numbers (or whatever the fuck makes you black out whenever you’re around it), it’s about working with the confusion instead of being frozen by it.

Most importantly: you don't have to be good at numbers to be good at crypto.

You don’t even have to be or know everything, or even anything, to get started. You just have to be good at learning from mistakes and comfortable with looking stupid while you figure things out.

Which imo, is a life well lived anyway.

PS: Subscribe now if you want in on this arithmetic. Miss the last issue? It’s right here. Also literally none of this is ever financial advice. I’m sharing what I learn through Babe, and perhaps you’ll learn from my mistakes. Hopefully, maybe, who knows, ily.