Dee Hock, the Creator of Digital Money Is Now Generating Digital Thoughts

Dee Hock fascinates me. He knew that money had been many things over time, from tobacco leaves to gold bits to pieces of paper - and realized that with the advent of the computer it could be digital bits. As VISA's founding CEO, he dreamed up a system that could turn digital bits into money. VISA became the first organization to ever hit a trillion dollars in transactions in a year. A trillion. Dollars.

He understands business and finance as well as anyone and he's quite the critic of it.

He turned 90 a couple of weeks ago. And I just found out that he tweets. He sounds at turns like some mystical guru and old curmudgeon, self-righteous at times and insightful at others. But always provocative.

Here are a few of his tweets:

• Watching Trump trying to play President is like watching a walrus trying to play a piano.  
• Simple purpose and principle give rise to complex, intelligent behavior. Complex rules and regulation give rise to simple, stupid behavior. 
• When observing the rich and powerful, take care not to confuse cunning with intelligence, avarice with ability, and notoriety with merit.
• 1st manage yourself, 2nd manage superiors, 3rd manage peers. Hire good people and induce them do the same. Only then do you become a leader.
• Capitalists invest their money in commercial corporations. Employees invest their lives. Which deserves the greater return?
• Philosophy of unrestrained capitalism:
• As few as possible, should take as much as possible, from as many as possible, as often as possible. 
• Dogma has this to recommend it; the believer is relieved of the struggle for knowledge, understanding and wisdom.
• Every life is subjectively epic and objectively trivial.
• The universe is constantly wanting to play with us. Why we greet it with such a grave demeanor, long face, and furrowed brow is difficult to fathom.

You can scroll through his tweets here. It's a deep well.

https://twitter.com/deewhock