Wallets and transaction basics
A crypto wallet does not hold crypto. It holds the key that proves you control crypto. The assets live on the blockchain.
Read the noteGuidance library
Short notes that are meant to be useful, not clever.
Evergreen writing for readers making real decisions. Each note is short on purpose, readable in a few minutes, and written to stay useful over time, not to win a week.
Guidance vs. Journal
Companion spaces.
The Journal holds longer essays on career, field, and reflection. Read those when you want the argument. The Guidance library holds short, evergreen notes you can scan for a specific answer. Read those when you want the instruction. The writing discipline is the same in both. The shape is different.
Cluster 1, Crypto basics
The minimum floor of understanding for anyone about to make their first real transaction. Wallets, common mistakes, and how to read project claims critically.
Common beginner mistakes
Most of the losses in the first year of someone's crypto use come back to the same small set of errors.
Read the noteReading project claims critically
Every project is describing itself to you. The description is not neutral. It is shaped by incentives that have almost nothing to do with whether the project is good.
Read the noteCluster 2, Investor education
Tools for readers who are past the basics and are about to make a real decision. Evaluation, red flags, risk, and a shortlist of things every new user should know before their first transaction.
How to evaluate a project at a basic level
A basic evaluation does not need to be sophisticated. It needs to be honest.
Read the noteRed flags in narratives and community behaviour
Projects in trouble often communicate in the same way long before the trouble becomes visible.
Read the noteThinking about risk before decisions
Most people approach crypto risk backwards. They make a decision, then ask what the risk is. The more useful order is the reverse.
Read the noteWhat new users should know first
If a new user could only read five things before their first crypto transaction, these would be the five.
Read the noteCluster 3, Learning systems
How serious learning actually works. For readers who want to build competence in a new field over time and do not want to fake it to get there.
Learning in public without faking expertise
Learning in public is useful. Performing expertise you do not have is corrosive. The distinction matters more than it appears.
Read the noteFrom curiosity to competence
Becoming competent in a new field is not a single movement. It happens in stages, and trying to skip any of them is how people end up with false fluency.
Read the noteCluster 4, Communication and work
The operational half of the site. Explaining things simply, writing updates people can use, distributed-team habits, and the link between clarity and trust.
Explaining technical things simply
Simple explanations are harder to write than complicated ones. That is the part the field tends to get backwards.
Read the noteWriting updates people can use
Most internal updates are written for the writer, not the reader. A useful update respects the reader's time by doing the sorting in advance.
Read the noteCommunication habits for distributed teams
Distributed teams do not fail for lack of talent. They fail for lack of shared context, and shared context is built through habit.
Read the noteHow clarity improves process and trust
Clarity is usually described as a style choice. It is better understood as a system.
Read the noteCluster 5, Transitions and translation
Short notes for humanitarian and development professionals in the middle of a private-sector move. Each one takes a skill you already have and shows how to name it, translate it, and carry it across.
Actionable communication as a sellable skill
Most humanitarians call themselves strong writers on their CV. That is not wrong. It is also not what the private sector is actually trying to buy.
Read the noteSystems literacy and why it travels
A humanitarian who has worked inside an emergency response knows what a system looks like when it is under stress. That knowledge is more transferable than it looks.
Read the noteEthics and dignity as a professional capability
In the humanitarian sector, ethics is not a compliance module. It is a daily working condition. That is a professional capability, not a soft skill.
Read the noteFraming as craft, not as spin
Framing has a bad name in some quarters. That is not what a humanitarian communicator means by framing.
Read the noteTranslating a humanitarian CV for the private sector
The most common mistake humanitarians make when applying for private-sector roles is submitting a CV written for the sector they are trying to leave.
Read the noteSuggested reading order
Depending on what you are here for.
If you are new to crypto
Read Notes 1, 7, and 2 in that order. Then 6 and 3. That sequence is the safest path from “new user” to “someone who can slow down before clicking sign.”
If you are already using crypto
Skim Notes 4 and 5 against a project you already own. The point is not whether you agree with the evaluation; it is whether you have actually done it.
If you lead or work in a distributed team
Start with Note 12, move to Note 11, then Note 13. The three together describe a working style that holds up across humanitarian coordination, research offices, and crypto teams alike.
If you are learning anything new and serious
Read Notes 8 and 9. They are the spine of how I think about learning, independent of the field.
If you are in the middle of a career transition
Start with Note 18 for CV translation, then move through 14, 15, 16, and 17 in order. The five together take the skills you already have and give you the language to carry them across sectors without apologising for where they were built.
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