# Paperhands Anonymous

By [Jason Peters](https://paragraph.com/@jasonpeters) · 2021-12-16

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"This looks interesting," I thought, as I minted [Lepidoptera #14](https://www.fxhash.xyz/gentk/73719) by MJ Lindow on fxhash on November 26th for 5 tezos. I looked at it a few times and I just didn't vibe with the art that was generated. It was my first piece of generative art, and I didn’t have the personal perspective or community to educate me differently.

![Lepidoptera #14 by MJ Lindow](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/89318070f817f8dde7955fe3cfa2898e06fa334f9feb06351ca23501106b5862.png)

Lepidoptera #14 by MJ Lindow

I sold it for 13 tezos, a ~50% gross margin after royalties and transaction fees. Sounds good, right? 💰

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/7aad0ca324ff0a82c2ec5799a39fd0f5b6f71fcb283dfcf60beea42c170f9aff.jpg)

To my amusement and dismay, the floor price continued to rise.📈 This, folks, is what we call “paperhands.”

💡 _Paper hands refers to a person who sells an asset too early, and therefore, represents an asset of incredible potential that is sold on for a quick gain_

Each time I checked the value increasing, I felt a sick feeling in my gut. Watching the gains you could have realized is not a good feeling for us human beings. As of this writing, the floor price is 600tez and may continue to rise.

💡 _The "floor" price is the lowest price of any NFT in a certain category_

For my mental health, I had to step back and use mindfulness to re-frame my perspective. There are many things to be grateful for, despite paperhanding a valuable piece of art:

*   Being early in the web3 space
    
*   Learning about technologies like NFTs, the blockchain, and creative coding methods
    
*   Being surrounded by beautiful creative energy
    
*   Building community
    
*   Feeling the pain and learning this lesson early
    
*   Having the means to be active in the Web3 space. If you're reading this, you are probably have alot to be grateful for
    
*   Being surrounded by opportunities with non-linear outcomes. In fact, I found one in the Lepideptora example! Others will come.
    

💡 _Nonlinearity is a term used in statistics to describe a situation where there is not a straight-line or direct relationship between variables_

Speaking of non-linear outcomes:

[https://twitter.com/naval/status/1464788767953154058](https://twitter.com/naval/status/1464788767953154058)

This resonated after my Lepidoptera experience. In fact, Naval tweeted it the day after this happened. Was he tweeting directly to me?! 😆 Holding would have been the right call in this case. However, Naval gives valid reasons to sell an investment, which make sense to me:

[https://twitter.com/naval/status/1465124744856961027](https://twitter.com/naval/status/1465124744856961027)

When we start "Paperhands Anonymous," let's look at the positives. What did we redeploy our capital into? Were those investments fruitful?

I urge you to be gentle with yourself, take a step back, and learn from our experiences. Let's support each other on the way.

🙏🏼

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*Originally published on [Jason Peters](https://paragraph.com/@jasonpeters/paperhands-anonymous)*