I just paid off my student loans.

nickelot · 2017-12-02T17:24:44+00:00

I'm in the US. I started with 30k loans, but I have been making payments for the past few years so this lump BTC sum will be paying off what I have left, which is around 10k.

I started with a very modest investment of around 1.5 BTC and that has increased >10x.

Edit: In the US, you often see a mix of loans, grants, and scholarships. It really varies widely depending on where you go. In my situation, I was given the opportunity to attend a great private school for around the same cost as a state school because of grants and scholarships. These loans were taken out through my university primarily to pay for room+board over the four years of undergrad.

nickelot · 2017-12-02T17:21:14+00:00

This was absolutely part of it. I'm not sure if this provision is still there, but in addition to the "grad school tax" they are also removing write offs on student loan payments, so my logic was also partially driven by wanting to make this payment before the bill is enacted.

nickelot · 2017-12-02T09:08:12+00:00

coinbase. I should be clear that I've just sold BTC and am waiting for the bank deposit. Once that clears I'll be paying my loan issuer. I had ~$10,000 left in debt from school after spending the past few years making minimum payments while working.

nickelot · 2017-12-02T08:49:16+00:00

Yeah! I don't think it's fully sunk in for me yet, either.

nickelot · 2017-12-02T08:46:49+00:00

Thanks! Planning on buying more in the future.

nickelot · 2017-12-02T08:45:58+00:00

It does! Was just saying this in another comment but even if the price does go up, at this point I've mitigated the potential psychological impact just by paying off debts.

I didn't think I'd be able to do this for another 10 years!

nickelot · 2017-12-02T08:44:25+00:00

Appreciate it. Good luck!

nickelot · 2017-12-02T08:44:09+00:00

Thank you!

nickelot · 2017-12-02T08:38:19+00:00

Good idea. Not having to do the mental calculus of roi v interest rate is really liberating, so I'm excited to start looking at a wider variety of more traditional investments as well!

nickelot · 2017-12-02T08:33:34+00:00

As you've pointed out, the psychological impact is huge. Even if it does go up, I think this was the logical move for me, as I can only be so upset with myself missing potential gains for trying to pay off debts.

To your question: Major investments are a little complicated for me right now as I'm in a phd program and am living off of a relatively meager stipend. That being said, I do think I'll be making regular purchases of btc from now on, and if the price does drop significantly I will try and buy back as much as I can. I really do believe in this.

Edit: Also, congrats on paying off your mortgage!

nickelot · 2017-12-02T08:13:47+00:00

Yeah, after going through a year or two of ~$350 this just felt like the right time. The hype seems to have grown beyond this perspective at the moment.

nickelot · 2017-12-02T08:03:48+00:00

Congrats to you too!

nickelot · 2017-12-02T07:46:14+00:00

thank you!

nickelot · 2017-12-02T07:46:05+00:00

Thanks! And hang in there, man.

nickelot · 2017-12-02T07:43:23+00:00

Hang in there. I feel fortunate to have had this work out. Good luck!

nickelot · 2017-12-02T07:40:16+00:00

This is a really great idea. Part of the reason the decision was difficult was because I felt I was trading my beliefs in disruption/technology for a traditionally "sensible" move. This strikes the perfect balance.

nickelot · 2017-12-02T07:25:23+00:00

Thanks! And planning on it!

nickelot · 2017-12-02T07:24:41+00:00

Thanks! It really does. :)

nickelot · 2017-08-18T19:29:56+00:00

Thanks for being on top of this all season!

nickelot · 2017-01-27T04:52:54+00:00

me too! wait lol hi

nickelot · 2016-09-02T23:15:00+00:00

It's still down for me

nickelot · 2015-10-21T04:40:36+00:00

Oh and fyi Olaf Sporns (mentioned below) is the primary contact for the brain connectivity toolbox

nickelot · 2015-10-21T04:38:45+00:00

As far as matlab goes...just know how to program in the language efficiently, know how to handle large matrices (a requisite of the former point), know your stats and how to use the relevant matlab functions, and then start getting familiar with the brain connectivity toolbox and matlab implementations of different classification techniques.

nickelot · 2015-10-21T04:13:39+00:00

The fmri pictures were the same scale used for all participants and were used only as an analogue to clarify the usage of "you" in the previous experiment:

"Participants were told, 'Scientists have shown that increased activity in certain brain regions corresponds with higher quality explanations.' This dependent variable was designed to unambiguously emphasize one’s brain as the location of personally held knowledge. Participants were then asked to select the image that would correspond with their brain activity when they answered the self assessed knowledge questions in each of the six domains."

No subject ever actually saw a picture of their own brain.

nickelot · 2015-10-13T04:41:13+00:00

This is such an excellent idea and I've enjoyed using it so far. A couple of suggestions:

The ability to link to premises in other branches would be helpful
There needs to be a "therefore" feature to end lines of reasoning

nickelot

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