It’s been a while since I’ve spent meaningful time here. There are three reasons:
(1) The vibes shifted. Too much focus on trading and prediction markets and content coins and stuff that I don’t care about. People I cared about weren’t as active.
(2) The future was happening on X. Lots of AI stuff that I wouldn’t have learned about or wouldn’t have been able to implement in my business if I wasn’t spending more time there.
(3) My potential clients were on X. So I spent more time there to make more money.
The Neymar acquisition is probably the best thing that could’ve happened to this place, though. It’s clear that Farcaster will never compete with X and Instagram and whatever other mainstream platforms exist.
Farcaster is prosumer social media. It’s for the founders, the tinkerers, the hustlers who are at the frontier and want to be around others like them. There is no other place like it on the internet.
I’m gonna be spending more time here because I think, in Neynar’s hands with the reinvigorated energy in the community, we will see an entrepreneurial revolution across crypto networks, agents, and organizational innovation that I absolutely need to be experiencing from the front lines.
If we haven’t chatted in a while, feel free to reach out.
Higher 🫡
a16z’s “New Media” is designed to manufacture consent for whatever idea will make them money. “American Dynamism” isn’t about what Americans want, it’s about whatever clears the fastest path to liquidity – gambling, genocide... anything that moves capital faster. their media strategy and investment thesis are all about saturating the discourse until profit looks like progress. investors who care about durable value should focus on conviction media. clarifying what kind of future deserves capital, not just what might deliver returns. in the long run, distribution depends on belief. a massive launch and fifteen minutes of fame don’t create it.
For decades, the West has been so afraid of the word “should” that we’re now stuck with political, technological, and cultural slop without the language or collective ability to fight back
Started running half-day "Narrative Expansion" workshops with founding teams, focused on working through:
- What is your story *today*?
- Where are you headed?
- What does the world look like if you win?
Lots of directions we can take it. Once we wrap up, I synthesize my thoughts re: narrative direction and give the team a gameplan to move forward.
This could be the beginning of a longer engagement, but I'm trying to make it as impactful as possible given the time constraints. Low-risk way of working with Native and getting started thinking about narrative strategy.
Want to run ~5 of these in the next 60 days. 2 already locked down.
DM me if interested.
Good reminders to myself from this week: learn, write, share. Engage in good-faith conversation and debate. Don’t engage with trolls. Take that energy and spend it on doing the work.
I grew up in a small, low-income town in Ohio with the name Jihad, and still, the most bigotry I’ve experienced re: being Muslim wasn’t there. It’s been from educated, otherwise worldly people that work in tech.
I really want to try going all-in on Notion's suite (calendar, mail, project management, etc.) but the apps are just SO SLOW. Nothing else gives me this much trouble. Performance is the only thing stopping me from being in Notion's ecosystem literally all day.
I need a team-based RSS feed reader. I want to be able to curate a feed, share it with a few people, and see all of their highlights/notes alongside mine. Bonus points if AI is able to recommend new content based on our conversations/highlights.
Software can be built faster than ever. Consumer expectations are rising. We’re no longer engineering-limited, we’re idea-limited. That makes ideas a scarce and valuable resource.
If you live in America, it’s far more brave and commendable to make something of yourself where you’re at and help your local community grow than it is to leave for greener pastures in the name of ambition.
There are ideas and stories that matter more than others. Not every company has a story worth telling, and if you don't have one, you should consider whether your business should exist at all.
