Ethereum Papers book chapter
The Warrior
In 1654, the famed samurai Miyamoto Musashi described the “Ways” of the men of his world in A Book of Five Rings (Victor Harris translation). “The Way of the carpenter is to become proficient in the use of his tools, first to lay his plans with a true measure and then perform his work according to plan.” The farmer “sees springs through to autumns with an eye on the changes of the season.” These middle classes of the old order seem normal, decent, balanced. The remaining classes, as Musashi describes them, sound extreme: “the Way of the merchant is always to live by taking profit” while “generally speaking, the Way of the warrior is resolute acceptance of death.”
Musashi lived close to death in a way no one today could understand. But I think we can still scratch at it, even if only on the surface. Sometimes there is a moment, when you feel jolt after jolt of blunt force to your face, when a switch is flipped. You’ve had enough. You stop thinking. You walk forward. Eyes dead. You become willing to take two, three, or even four shots, just to give back one. This is, by definition, unprofitable. Yet when you see it displayed, it is undeniably admirable. You almost feel the heat radiating from the heart of this person who has accepted whatever cost she must pay to make things right.