The Value Blindness Epidemic

I almost became a Bitcoin millionaire.

But I didn't.

Why? Because I was an idiot.

Back in high school, my buddy tried to sell me on the "digital money thing." I thought it was some sketchy dark web scam and dismissed it without a second thought.

Then in college, I heard about it again. But by then I was an "economics student" (aka pretentious know-it-all) who was SURE this Bitcoin thing couldn't possibly work long-term.

Fast forward to March 2025: that same Bitcoin is worth $85,000.

That's a 113x return I missed out on.

The opportunity wasn't hidden. I was just blind to it. I call this "value blindness" and it's probably cost you millions too. Every day, you walk past valuable opportunities without noticing them. Not because you're dumb, but because your brain has been trained to filter them out.

It's like being colorblind in a world where opportunities are color-coded.

Why we miss obvious opportunities

There are 3 types of value blindness that impact us all up:

1. Schlep Blindness

This one comes from Paul Graham (Co-founder of Y Combinator). It's when your brain unconsciously steers you away from opportunities that involve tedious, unpleasant tasks.

For over a decade, thousands of programmers complained about online payments being a pain. But instead of fixing it, they built... recipe websites.

Why? Because payment processing meant dealing with banks, fraud prevention, and regulatory headache. Their brains literally hid these opportunities from them.

The irony is the most valuable startup ideas often look like annoying problems that "someone else should solve."

2. Expertise Blindness

This one's a mindf*ck: the more you know about something, the harder it becomes to see beyond your expertise.

It's why industry veterans dismiss innovations that later transform their fields.

As Upton Sinclair said: "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it."

Your expertise becomes a perceptual prison. The very thing that made you successful blinds you to what's next.

3. Status Blindness

Peter Thiel talks about how elite education narrows ambition rather than expanding it.

Kids who once dreamed of changing the world end up competing for the same boring jobs at McKinsey and Goldman Sachs.

When everyone's looking in the same direction, the real opportunities are in the directions nobody's looking.

How to see what others miss

So how do you break free? Naval Ravikant talks about four types of luck:

1. Blind chance (winning the lottery)

2. Hustle (working hard creates more opportunities)

3. Becoming good at spotting luck

4. Becoming the kind of person to whom luck is attracted

Value blindness prevents you from accessing #3. You can't spot opportunities your brain filters out.

The solution is I call "Perspective Arbitrage" – profiting from seeing opportunities that others miss because of their perceptual limitations.

Here's how to develop it:

1. Hang out with “weirdos”

Not people who think differently. People who SEE differently.

The engineer, artist, economist, and anthropologist will spot entirely different opportunities in the same situation.

2. Ask "what if the opposite is true?"

Charlie Munger calls this "inversion" and it's powerful.

What if the "waste" in your industry is actually valuable? What if the "impossible" is merely difficult?

3. Solve your own problems

Instead of asking "what problem should I solve?" ask "what problem do I wish someone else would solve for me?"

The most valuable opportunities often hide behind the tasks you're unconsciously avoiding.

4. Pay attention to weird sh*t

When something doesn't fit your models, when users behave unexpectedly, or data shows surprising patterns that's where gold is hiding.

5. Get comfortable with "maybe"

Value blindness thrives on black-and-white thinking. Learn to hold contradictory ideas simultaneously.

The blindspots hiding in plain sight

Look at Stewart Butterfield. His game company failed, but he noticed something valuable in the internal communication tool his team had built.

That "failure" became Slack, now worth over $25 billion.

What others saw as worthless, Butterfield saw as valuable. Not because he was smarter, but because he could perceive what others couldn't. In a world of specialists, the greatest advantage belongs to those who can see across domains.

The opportunities you're missing aren't hidden, they're in plain sight. You just can't see them yet. Start by questioning one assumption in your field today. What does everyone consider worthless that might actually be valuable? Pay attention to what you're unconsciously avoiding. The tedious tasks, the intimidating challenges, that's where the gold is.

The most valuable opportunities aren't found. They're seen. And right now, there's probably a Bitcoin-sized opportunity staring you in the face.

Can you see it?