A Crack in the Matrix

This is one of my most favorite pieces of content I've ever created. Some might call it an e-book because it's self-contained as a presentation without the need for a presenter. Anyway, I think it provides a unique perspective on retail investing. Take 5 minutes and have a look.

Originally posted in February 2013, A Crack in the Matrix is my most popular piece of content ever, anywhere. Just under 34,000 views... though it's been 9 years now, most of these views were early.

A Crack in the Matrix: A Financial Fable from David Bressler

This was the first piece of content I created to promote my book.

I wanted to put it here, because it's part of my portfolio and as I was wandering around Ghost documentation late at night, I saw that slideshare could be integrated easily.

I've shut down the original Wordpress davidbressler.com, and redirected that domain here. I've always wanted to keep my content in one place, but that's just impossible. I've a copy of that whole site locally, and hope to share some posts as time allows me to repost them.

This slideshare... I've always been proud of it. It's a good message. It's useful beyond investing. Since I wrote this, mindfullness has come into vogue, and it's about that too. Listen, think, measure what matters.


Do you have a portfolio? You should.

I have some customer recommendation letters, some of my favorite proposals, and a disorganized pile of my own content.

I regret not keeping things more organized. However, I don't regret asking coworkers and customers to say something kind about me on LinkedIn. I have a nice collection of references there.


I will eventually consolidate my book's website into this one as well. I haven't added content there in years. I just don't want to lose the work I put into it, at least for now. My book has value, especially through the lens of Ethereum staking, but I'll probably have to explicitly make that connection for people.

My favorite metric from the book is the idea of "actual yield". If you stake ETH today at ~$1,500/token, and it doubles... you still earn whatever % (let's say 5.26% like you can earn at RocketPool)... but if the price doubles, you're earning 10.52% on your original investment, because you're earning 5.26% on the current value.. This is a way to measure the truism "start investing early, and let time work its magic." Most (all?!) metrics, at least those commonly presented to retail investors  do not measure the impact of time. Which is odd, considering most advistors say invest when you're young and let time do its work.

Anyways, if you haven't read the slideshare above, you should. It's as clear as can be, and maybe gives you a different perspective on your own wealth building efforts.