Looking back, most of what I wrote this year wasn’t about trends, predictions, or not even tactics. It was about orientation of your thinking towards things that matter the most when you're building products, teams and businesses. Hopefully better products and businesses 🤝

It was also a bit about how to look at work, markets, technology, and life without constantly reacting to noise.

This is my wrap for the year — think of it as a map of the ideas I kept returning to, even when I thought I was writing about something else.

Let's start with highlights — two most read essays where about frameworks and GTM;

• Crypto GTM Isn't Rocket Science - was the most read essay of 2025.
  https://paragraph.com/@buildbetter/crypto-gtm-isnt-rocket-science-its-dms-vision-and-10-people-who-care

• Followed closely by The Frameworks that built big big products 😉
  https://paragraph.com/@buildbetter/12-the-frameworks-that-built-billion-dollar-products

Now, on to more structured wrap up 👇

No matter how abstract the topic — Web3, creators, founders, protocols, coins, frameworks, playbooks — I kept circling back to the same unquestionable and, for many, uncomfortable truth: most good things fail quietly because nobody knows they exist.

This year managed to sharpen my belief that distribution is not a problem to solve, it's a core function of your product, but:

• It’s not a “marketing” function

• It's not a token function either

It’s actually the harder half of your company/project. It's a system of habits that bring visibility, build trust, allow for revenue, and incentivise sharing with others (aka spreading the word).

Whether I was writing about founders, early communities, or product launches, the real question underneath was always: “How does this gets to people and move through communities?”

The essays around launching faster, talking before building, and shedding fear weren’t motivational — they were practical responses to a market where silence is the default failure mode.

If you’re waiting to feel ready before you speak, you’re already late.

Select Links to Read:

• Crypto GTM: https://paragraph.com/@buildbetter/crypto-gtm-isnt-rocket-science-its-dms-vision-and-10-people-who-care

• Narrative > Hype: https://paragraph.com/@buildbetter/narrative-greater-hype-the-sustainable-way-to-win

At some point mid-year, I realized much of my thinking was related to time horizons and what we call cycles.

• Short-term vs long-term

• Cycles vs narratives

• Momentum vs fundamentals

Studying Kondratiev's waves, Perez's tech cycles, and historical patterns felt helpful and useful — not for prediction purposes per se — but rather for orientation. When you zoom out far enough, many “existential” crises start to look… familiar.

This theme also tied into personal work:

• Building location-independent projects

• Avoiding false urgency

• Playing longer games than usual

Long periods give you more time to compound good stuff. This is as true for markets as it is for work.

Select Links to Read:

• Tech Cycles for Builders: https://paragraph.com/@buildbetter/technology-cycles-for-builders_carlotaperez

• How Tech and Financial Cycles Map: https://paragraph.com/@buildbetter/how-tech-and-financial-cycles-map-on-today

It bugged me since I joined Web3 more actively. I mean the fact that most products built here are not something someone actually needs or wants to use.

And after all these years it felt surprising that even this year many people don't get that the best way to guaranteed success is — making something people need, are ready to use, and want pay for with money or time or both.

Select Links to Read:

• Before You Build Anything: https://paragraph.com/@buildbetter/before-you-build-anything-trace-the-pain

• Why Infinite Scroll Wins and Your dApp Doesn't: https://paragraph.com/@buildbetter/why-infinite-scroll-wins-and-your-dapp-doesnt

• X Business Playbook: https://paragraph.com/@buildbetter/the-twitter-x-business-info-playbook

and very recent one …

• Underrated Frameworks - BMC and LC: https://paragraph.com/@buildbetter/the-most-underrated-frameworks-in-startup-building-bmc-and-lc

There were couple of essays where I vented my frustration from promising projects or communities that are just squandering their potential by not following the basics.

Select Links to Read:

• DeSci Projects Being Invisible: https://paragraph.com/@buildbetter/why-your-desci-project-is-invisible

• Paragraph's Not Winning Focus and Narrative: https://paragraph.com/@buildbetter/web3-wont-save-writers-paragraph-might

I started the year curious about decentralization as infrastructure. I ended it more interested in decentralization as psychology.

And I still have more questions than answers — because it seems that every new technology we introduce into the world invites more centralization than the previous one.

(and it doesn't matter we call it decentralized)

I became more curious about what the idea of living well and winning means — is it simply less stuff, is it cheaply, or even alone. Don't want to become a monk, nor it is some anti-ambition manifesto, but it feels as anti-confusion for obsessive builders.

Main thought here is - If success costs you clarity & peace of mind, it’s probably not a real success.

For most of the year I was also wondering how much we (you, me, others here on Farcaster and Twitter) do live in a tech/crypto bubble compared to the remaining 7 Billion people.

Through my four months summer sabbatical I found out — we absolutely lie to our selves that anyone except us cares about tech or crypto.
Sad? Yes.
Worrying? Yes.
True? Absolutely!

If 2025 was about showing you typical tech-founder blind spots, and hinting at possible directions, 2026 feels like it wants to be about expansion from writing to focused execution via GTM sprints with those who want to build distribution early.

I would recommend for everyone to consider making 2026 the year of:

• Fewer but desired ideas.

• Fewer but clearer bets.

• More compounding than hype.

• And writing for clarity and attraction of likeminded folks (not bots).

Why? Because focus cuts through the noise. And 2026 is gonna be the year of a lot of noise.

I also expect 2026 to be the year where we will see “coining everything” meta unfold into downwards spiral. After saying that, I transparently proclaim that I will be experimenting with coins of all types to see how it feels and if I'm maybe wrong on my dehumanising angle.

You may want to check this link, if you're curious:
Zero Sum Future of Tokenized Everything: https://paragraph.com/@buildbetter/the-zero-sum-future-of-tokenized-everything

$QCONVO

Ironically, I believe that the above doesn't apply to memecoins. They can have a life of their own. There can't be too many that work but some can live with just memetic quality and idea that connects others. I accept that. 😉

It was on my list for quite some time but I couldn't find the right angle but you might have noticed that yesterday - I have launched — $QCONVO — Quality of Conversations memecoin on Clanker. There are also airdrops waiting for about 30-40 Farcaster quality casters I interact with regularly.
It is an experiment. Don't expect anything but hope for everything 😊 I hope for more $QCONVO holders and more quality conversations in 2026.

https://farcaster.xyz/bfg/0xb0988dd5

SOPHA
Maybe quality won't come from memecoin but from projects like Sopha - which I recommend everyone to check if you haven't done it yet.

https://farcaster.xyz/chriscocreated/0x43f1fb86

And that's really it for today.

The only thing left for me to do today — is to wish you Happy New Year 2026!  

May 2026 be better year for building, living, learning, for spreading positivity, making new friends and reconnecting with old ones and for supporting those who align with your vision of the world.

Have wonderful 2026, ya'll 🎆

BFG

PS: We'll start next year with productivity bang, so bring your friends 😃

Publishing every Tue morning UTC and occasionally over the weekends.

Looking back, most of what I wrote this year wasn’t about trends, predictions, or not even tactics. It was about orientation of your thinking towards things that matter the most when you're building products, teams and businesses. Hopefully better products and businesses 🤝

It was also a bit about how to look at work, markets, technology, and life without constantly reacting to noise.

This is my wrap for the year — think of it as a map of the ideas I kept returning to, even when I thought I was writing about something else.

Let's start with highlights — two most read essays where about frameworks and GTM;

• Crypto GTM Isn't Rocket Science - was the most read essay of 2025.
  https://paragraph.com/@buildbetter/crypto-gtm-isnt-rocket-science-its-dms-vision-and-10-people-who-care

• Followed closely by The Frameworks that built big big products 😉
  https://paragraph.com/@buildbetter/12-the-frameworks-that-built-billion-dollar-products

Now, on to more structured wrap up 👇

No matter how abstract the topic — Web3, creators, founders, protocols, coins, frameworks, playbooks — I kept circling back to the same unquestionable and, for many, uncomfortable truth: most good things fail quietly because nobody knows they exist.

This year managed to sharpen my belief that distribution is not a problem to solve, it's a core function of your product, but:

• It’s not a “marketing” function

• It's not a token function either

It’s actually the harder half of your company/project. It's a system of habits that bring visibility, build trust, allow for revenue, and incentivise sharing with others (aka spreading the word).

Whether I was writing about founders, early communities, or product launches, the real question underneath was always: “How does this gets to people and move through communities?”

The essays around launching faster, talking before building, and shedding fear weren’t motivational — they were practical responses to a market where silence is the default failure mode.

If you’re waiting to feel ready before you speak, you’re already late.

Select Links to Read:

• Crypto GTM: https://paragraph.com/@buildbetter/crypto-gtm-isnt-rocket-science-its-dms-vision-and-10-people-who-care

• Narrative > Hype: https://paragraph.com/@buildbetter/narrative-greater-hype-the-sustainable-way-to-win

At some point mid-year, I realized much of my thinking was related to time horizons and what we call cycles.

• Short-term vs long-term

• Cycles vs narratives

• Momentum vs fundamentals

Studying Kondratiev's waves, Perez's tech cycles, and historical patterns felt helpful and useful — not for prediction purposes per se — but rather for orientation. When you zoom out far enough, many “existential” crises start to look… familiar.

This theme also tied into personal work:

• Building location-independent projects

• Avoiding false urgency

• Playing longer games than usual

Long periods give you more time to compound good stuff. This is as true for markets as it is for work.

Select Links to Read:

• Tech Cycles for Builders: https://paragraph.com/@buildbetter/technology-cycles-for-builders_carlotaperez

• How Tech and Financial Cycles Map: https://paragraph.com/@buildbetter/how-tech-and-financial-cycles-map-on-today

It bugged me since I joined Web3 more actively. I mean the fact that most products built here are not something someone actually needs or wants to use.

And after all these years it felt surprising that even this year many people don't get that the best way to guaranteed success is — making something people need, are ready to use, and want pay for with money or time or both.

Select Links to Read:

• Before You Build Anything: https://paragraph.com/@buildbetter/before-you-build-anything-trace-the-pain

• Why Infinite Scroll Wins and Your dApp Doesn't: https://paragraph.com/@buildbetter/why-infinite-scroll-wins-and-your-dapp-doesnt

• X Business Playbook: https://paragraph.com/@buildbetter/the-twitter-x-business-info-playbook

and very recent one …

• Underrated Frameworks - BMC and LC: https://paragraph.com/@buildbetter/the-most-underrated-frameworks-in-startup-building-bmc-and-lc

There were couple of essays where I vented my frustration from promising projects or communities that are just squandering their potential by not following the basics.

Select Links to Read:

• DeSci Projects Being Invisible: https://paragraph.com/@buildbetter/why-your-desci-project-is-invisible

• Paragraph's Not Winning Focus and Narrative: https://paragraph.com/@buildbetter/web3-wont-save-writers-paragraph-might

I started the year curious about decentralization as infrastructure. I ended it more interested in decentralization as psychology.

And I still have more questions than answers — because it seems that every new technology we introduce into the world invites more centralization than the previous one.

(and it doesn't matter we call it decentralized)

I became more curious about what the idea of living well and winning means — is it simply less stuff, is it cheaply, or even alone. Don't want to become a monk, nor it is some anti-ambition manifesto, but it feels as anti-confusion for obsessive builders.

Main thought here is - If success costs you clarity & peace of mind, it’s probably not a real success.

For most of the year I was also wondering how much we (you, me, others here on Farcaster and Twitter) do live in a tech/crypto bubble compared to the remaining 7 Billion people.

Through my four months summer sabbatical I found out — we absolutely lie to our selves that anyone except us cares about tech or crypto.
Sad? Yes.
Worrying? Yes.
True? Absolutely!

If 2025 was about showing you typical tech-founder blind spots, and hinting at possible directions, 2026 feels like it wants to be about expansion from writing to focused execution via GTM sprints with those who want to build distribution early.

I would recommend for everyone to consider making 2026 the year of:

• Fewer but desired ideas.

• Fewer but clearer bets.

• More compounding than hype.

• And writing for clarity and attraction of likeminded folks (not bots).

Why? Because focus cuts through the noise. And 2026 is gonna be the year of a lot of noise.

I also expect 2026 to be the year where we will see “coining everything” meta unfold into downwards spiral. After saying that, I transparently proclaim that I will be experimenting with coins of all types to see how it feels and if I'm maybe wrong on my dehumanising angle.

You may want to check this link, if you're curious:
Zero Sum Future of Tokenized Everything: https://paragraph.com/@buildbetter/the-zero-sum-future-of-tokenized-everything

$QCONVO

Ironically, I believe that the above doesn't apply to memecoins. They can have a life of their own. There can't be too many that work but some can live with just memetic quality and idea that connects others. I accept that. 😉

It was on my list for quite some time but I couldn't find the right angle but you might have noticed that yesterday - I have launched — $QCONVO — Quality of Conversations memecoin on Clanker. There are also airdrops waiting for about 30-40 Farcaster quality casters I interact with regularly.
It is an experiment. Don't expect anything but hope for everything 😊 I hope for more $QCONVO holders and more quality conversations in 2026.

https://farcaster.xyz/bfg/0xb0988dd5

SOPHA
Maybe quality won't come from memecoin but from projects like Sopha - which I recommend everyone to check if you haven't done it yet.

https://farcaster.xyz/chriscocreated/0x43f1fb86

And that's really it for today.

The only thing left for me to do today — is to wish you Happy New Year 2026!  

May 2026 be better year for building, living, learning, for spreading positivity, making new friends and reconnecting with old ones and for supporting those who align with your vision of the world.

Have wonderful 2026, ya'll 🎆

BFG

PS: We'll start next year with productivity bang, so bring your friends 😃

Publishing every Tue morning UTC and occasionally over the weekends.