1028 | A Means of Exchange

Carl reflects on the profound significance of the words we use to describe money, such as "means of exchange" and "store of value." He explores the historical context of exchanging goods and services, highlighting the personal connection and value inherent in these interactions. Carl will leave you with a question, "What does it mean to exchange?" He encourages us to contemplate the deeper implications of our relationship with money!

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What is Behavior Gap Radio?

Greetings, Carl here.

This podcast is super simple, it's me wandering through the world noticing things about how to align my use of capital (time and money) with what is actually important to me.

-Carl

Carl: 00:01

Greetings. It's Carl. This is behavior up radio. Money is often referred to as a medium or a means of exchange. And I love this idea of it's so interesting how much we can learn about our relationship with money through the the words that we use, like cash flow or net worth.

Carl: 00:24

And I think means of exchange is also very interesting. Like, what does it mean to exchange? And I've talked about this in other episodes, but what does it mean to exchange? What did it mean what did it mean 50 years ago to exchange something with your neighbor? What did it mean a 100 years ago to exchange with somebody else in your town or your village?

Carl: 00:57

What did it mean 500 years ago or a 1000 years ago to exchange when money was first created as a way to facilitate a means of exchange, what did it mean to exchange? Right? And you can bat you can imagine this idea of, like, looking somebody in the eye and exchanging. Now we talk about exchanging gifts. I I I can't imagine that that those two phrases weren't pointing at the same thing, exchanging something meaningful something meaningful that I have with something meaningful that you have, something that the the these things that we have were a place where we stored value.

Carl: 01:48

It's another word we use for, another, like, phrase that we use to describe what money is. It's a means of exchange, and it's a store of value. So I used to have this thing that was a store of value, and it became a store of value because I put energy into it, and then we exchanged it. We exchanged gifts. We exchanged the things.

Carl: 02:14

And then at some point, money became a substitute for all of that to facilitate obviously the speed and the the, to try and standardize, make it easier and faster. It's a means of exchange. And the question I wanna leave you with is what does it mean to exchange? Cheers. By the way, let me just mention.

Carl: 02:41

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Carl: 03:03

I listened to this. Would you listen to it? Let's have a conversation because that's what I'm after really is I have this vision of creating a million conversations a month about things that matter. And you could help me by sharing behavior up radio. Cheers.