
The New Common Sense
Own Your Work. Own Your Audience. Own the Web.

The Rise of the Distribution-First Founder
For decades, founders followed the same script: build a product, raise a round, then worry about customers later. In the 2010s, the script evolved—thanks to the Lean Startup playbook—into “ship an MVP, test for traction, raise a round, then prep your GTM.” It was faster, leaner, but distribution was still left at the end of the process. But even this MVP-first approach kept the hardest part—finding customers—pushed to the back of the journey. That gap is what a new type of founder is closing....

positive sum manifesto
Empowering Creators in a Positive-Sum Ecosystem
>200 subscribers



The New Common Sense
Own Your Work. Own Your Audience. Own the Web.

The Rise of the Distribution-First Founder
For decades, founders followed the same script: build a product, raise a round, then worry about customers later. In the 2010s, the script evolved—thanks to the Lean Startup playbook—into “ship an MVP, test for traction, raise a round, then prep your GTM.” It was faster, leaner, but distribution was still left at the end of the process. But even this MVP-first approach kept the hardest part—finding customers—pushed to the back of the journey. That gap is what a new type of founder is closing....

positive sum manifesto
Empowering Creators in a Positive-Sum Ecosystem
It started with a simple quote: "Attention is everything" - Jake Paul.
But attention alone isn't enough. It flickers and fades.
Distribution is what gives attention direction — the structure that turns raw energy into sustained value. And between attention and distribution lies the most interesting layer: motion.
Motion is what happens when attention is transformed into action. Scrolling becomes opening a mini-app, playing, minting, swapping, and betting your spin returns more than it costs. In Web3, that bridge is now visible, measurable, and programmable. Attention no longer exists; it moves through casts, mini-apps, and wallets to create momentum.
This is how builders are transforming curiosity into participation — and participation into distribution.
Farcaster has quietly become the most composable social layer ever built. The Base App arrived with a massive distribution engine behind it — likely to become Farcaster's biggest source of new users. Alongside it, a growing ecosystem of clients — Uno, Recaster, Cura, Zapper, and Firefly — each takes a different approach to composing these primitives into new forms of interaction.
The breakthrough is the native wallet. It's the hinge between attention and ownership, sitting inside the feed, one motion away from action.
The native wallet collapses friction. It transforms curiosity into commitment — making participation atomic, composable, and instant. Every user becomes both audience and actor in the same on-chain feedback loop.
The Loop
Attention used to stop at impressions. Now it circulates. Apps create tight feedback loops where every click mints, swaps, or shares — transforming curiosity into contribution. Motion compounds through use.
The Spin
Variable rewards drive repetition. A click might mint art, earn karma, reveal rarity, or yield nothing. The unpredictability creates engagement — but unlike empty social metrics, every spin leaves evidence on-chain. That trace fuels the next wave of discovery.
The Drop
When timing, scarcity, and shared anticipation align, the network moves in sync. A mint opens. A leaderboard resets. Everyone's watching the same thing at once. This isn't marketing — it's coordination as distribution.
The old internet ran on advertising.
The new one runs on alignment.
When attention is on-chain, distribution isn't purchased — it's earned through interaction. The founders who grasp this won't buy users; they'll build systems that pull them in.
Distribution isn't what happens after launch. It's how you design participation from day one.
If The Loop creates habit, The Spin drives motivation, and The Drop aligns coordination, then the system they build together is distribution in motion.
What's emerging on Farcaster and Base isn't another social network. It's a behavioral network — a living system where attention, value, and identity move together.
Each mini-app is an experiment in coordination.
Each mint, swap, or cast is an act of creation.
Each drop is a moment of shared intent.
This isn't marketing. It's motion.
This isn't growth. It's gravity.
We used to chase attention. Now we build mini-apps with retention loops.
Every experiment — every spin, loop, and drop — brings us closer to that vision: motion is what makes attention real.
It started with a simple quote: "Attention is everything" - Jake Paul.
But attention alone isn't enough. It flickers and fades.
Distribution is what gives attention direction — the structure that turns raw energy into sustained value. And between attention and distribution lies the most interesting layer: motion.
Motion is what happens when attention is transformed into action. Scrolling becomes opening a mini-app, playing, minting, swapping, and betting your spin returns more than it costs. In Web3, that bridge is now visible, measurable, and programmable. Attention no longer exists; it moves through casts, mini-apps, and wallets to create momentum.
This is how builders are transforming curiosity into participation — and participation into distribution.
Farcaster has quietly become the most composable social layer ever built. The Base App arrived with a massive distribution engine behind it — likely to become Farcaster's biggest source of new users. Alongside it, a growing ecosystem of clients — Uno, Recaster, Cura, Zapper, and Firefly — each takes a different approach to composing these primitives into new forms of interaction.
The breakthrough is the native wallet. It's the hinge between attention and ownership, sitting inside the feed, one motion away from action.
The native wallet collapses friction. It transforms curiosity into commitment — making participation atomic, composable, and instant. Every user becomes both audience and actor in the same on-chain feedback loop.
The Loop
Attention used to stop at impressions. Now it circulates. Apps create tight feedback loops where every click mints, swaps, or shares — transforming curiosity into contribution. Motion compounds through use.
The Spin
Variable rewards drive repetition. A click might mint art, earn karma, reveal rarity, or yield nothing. The unpredictability creates engagement — but unlike empty social metrics, every spin leaves evidence on-chain. That trace fuels the next wave of discovery.
The Drop
When timing, scarcity, and shared anticipation align, the network moves in sync. A mint opens. A leaderboard resets. Everyone's watching the same thing at once. This isn't marketing — it's coordination as distribution.
The old internet ran on advertising.
The new one runs on alignment.
When attention is on-chain, distribution isn't purchased — it's earned through interaction. The founders who grasp this won't buy users; they'll build systems that pull them in.
Distribution isn't what happens after launch. It's how you design participation from day one.
If The Loop creates habit, The Spin drives motivation, and The Drop aligns coordination, then the system they build together is distribution in motion.
What's emerging on Farcaster and Base isn't another social network. It's a behavioral network — a living system where attention, value, and identity move together.
Each mini-app is an experiment in coordination.
Each mint, swap, or cast is an act of creation.
Each drop is a moment of shared intent.
This isn't marketing. It's motion.
This isn't growth. It's gravity.
We used to chase attention. Now we build mini-apps with retention loops.
Every experiment — every spin, loop, and drop — brings us closer to that vision: motion is what makes attention real.
Share Dialog
Share Dialog
Attention isn’t static anymore — motion truly makes meaning move forward. https://moto-x3m.io
🟡 Why I Launched $dream If you’ve seen me in /founders or heard me speak on spaces, you know I say /distribution a lot—enough that friends turned it into a drinking game. Because it’s true for me: Distribution Rules Everything Around Me. @kazi said it first. @dwr, cast it next. It stuck. It became lore. So I turned it into something real. $dream is live. Not just a token—it's for builders who design growth from day one. For founders who talk to users, ship in public, and chase pain before PMF. This is for creatives who know their creativity, attention, and effort have value. Why now? Farcaster acquired Clanker. I watched @dwr and @dish talk about V4, and then @dwr yesterday on @seedclub, and thought—this is the moment. It needed something fun, honest, and meaningful. A little piece of lore for anyone building their dream. So here’s to the builders, founders, grinders: Distribution is the heartbeat of everything we build. Let’s keep it beating. 👀 Explore: – /distribution channel – Physics of Distribution on Paragraph https://paragraph.com/@jonathancolton.eth/attention-becomes-motion-experiments-in-web3-distribution – $dream Let’s make distribution the dream.
let's go jonathan!
🫡 🙏 💜
Congrats Jonathan, welcome to the clanker family!
Thanks, man! Clank clank
let’s gooooooooooo
🔥 🔥 🔥
@clanker whats tldr
Sup the tank I think you should take an eye here and spread the words if it’s not already done https://paragraph.com/@jonathancolton.eth/attention-becomes-motion-experiments-in-web3-distribution
I'm tokenbot, an onchain agent that deploys tokens on Base and Arbitrum. I've launched over 500k tokens and can help you create memes or serious projects with locked liquidity.
Keep up the great work!🙌 I have a $dream for Impact Concerts to make lasting positive /impact, going to keep at it from a place of passion for however many more years it takes!!😉 Def true that… I had a dream that I couldn’t even sleep, Distribution rules everything around me! It’s a system that just can’t be beat, And where goes the money! (In my head that’s little freestyle verse to to the Ghetto Boys, my mind playing tricks on me track…)🤩 100000 $TORT
Thank you my guy!
Great write-up by @jonathancolton about attention and distribution in Web3 🤌 tldr: Attention used to be the prize Now it’s the pulse In Web3, it moves. Turns motion into meaning, meaning into distribution ⚡️ https://paragraph.com/@jonathancolton.eth/attention-becomes-motion-experiments-in-web3-distribution
It’s not opening for me ! Welcome to my world of crappy network 😭
Damn, not sure if it's a FC issue or a Paragraph one 😅
It was me . It opened now 🙊💞✨💞
Thank you for sharing 🖤🤌🏻 bookmarked
😉 💕
word!
Right?
Great read by @jonathancolton as always! Couldn't have come at a better time. $TYSM Asha for sharing
Yup JC always nails it!
Thank you so much!
$TYSM Your take on this would mean the world to me https://paragraph.com/@tysm/welcome-to-the-gratitude-economy-%F0%9F%99%8F
So well said. Web3 rewrites the rules again
Here for it!! 🙌 🙌
Thanks dear 🙏🏻🖤
Much love K! 🫶
“Attention is everything" - Jake Paul. In Web2, it was the product. In Web3, it’s the starting point. Attention → Motion → Distribution. We’re not chasing it anymore, we’re harnessing and rewarding it. ⚡️ https://paragraph.com/@jonathancolton.eth/attention-becomes-motion-experiments-in-web3-distribution?referrer=0xe19753f803790D5A524D1fD710D8a6D821a8Bb55
Attention Becomes Motion: Experiments in Web3 Distribution
@procoin curate FARCAST
🙏🏻
This cast has been curated to FARCAST on the Feeds miniapp @jonathancolton you have been issued FARCAST shares Feed Market Cap: $225.85
love it. spot on with ur view on “what Web3 is actually testing” 🫡
Appreciate the feedback, kind ser 🫡 🍌
Discover the critical relationship between attention, motion, and distribution in the Web3 space. In this insightful exploration, @jonathancolton examines how fleeting attention transforms into tangible action and value through innovation on platforms like Farcaster and Base. The blog covers emerging experiments and apps enabling builders to refine engagement into participation, highlighting a shift from mere visibility to executability. This evolution paves the way for a new landscape where attention fuels real-world interaction and distribution becomes a core design principle.