"I've seen much of the rest of the world. It is brutal and cruel and dark, Rome is the light." - Marcus Aurelius, speaking on web3 at Rome Blockchain Week.

Web3 burnout is real.

Pressure points and tipping points are as abundant as layer 2 scaling solutions.

Clicking on a link can empty your life savings. Obliterate everything you’ve worked for.

And do you know what makes it worse?

You can see it. Forever.

Immutability has no empathy.

But perhaps the stress and emotional ruin of scams and thieves fades into the background when pitted against the slow torture of Twitter, LinkedIn, personal brand building and the 24/7 culture that demands your presence, your input, your content and your storytelling.

Page views. Post views.

Analytics is an evil word.

Yes, web3 burnout is very real.

I’ve seen it break friends and gobble connections up.

I’ve even smelt its rampant breath on my own neck.

Very few are immune.

Which is why this Literary NFT is not to make light of it.

It’s just a little Stoic philosophy that I use to remind myself of perspective, to step back, to see web3 through the eyes of two thousands years of history.

These quotes won’t take away the pain of a badly programmed smart contract rampaging through your NFT collection and sending your Doodles to North Korea; they won’t make the anguish and anxiety of fruitlessly trying to keep up with the never ending supply of thought leaders and their content with a billion likes; hell, they won’t even make your Twitter threads cut through the noise.

But they might - just might, no promises - give you the space to think before you click that Discord link, compassion for the shillers and the thieves, courage to weather bear markets and the ancient wisdom to not chase the emptiness of vanity metrics.

And on that note.

Let’s visit Ancient Rome.

The full spectrum of the human condition laid bare across the Colosseum floor.

Siamo in anticipo.

Cryptocurrency is a riptide only the strongest can swim against. Most end-up out beyond the horizon in a bright yellow inflatable dinghy.

You can read every white paper and Reddit channel, decipher GitHub and play squash with Vitalik Buterin. You'll still going to drown in a sea of descending crosses.

Scams and rugs happen. Stablecoins tumble, NFT collections shrink, apes and animé don't always lead to five figures and a château in the Spanish sun.

You have power over your own mind, not outside events.

The metaverse is the merging of the physical and the digital; a place of exuberance and freedom and content and gaming and community and culture and all of your soul mates running around temples of like-minded connection as Snoop Dogg waltzes endlessly around The Sandbox

But, Stoic web3 friends, not a replacement for real life, merely an addition.

To keep a semblance of balance and chase the wolves of burnout away, dwell on the beauty of life, take solace in nature.

Only don't dwell. Because it isn’t 1850. Who fucking dwells?

Instead, take your shoes off and run outside and hug a deer.

Climb a rock, swim under water, smell a flower, dance barefoot across burning the coals of an exploding volcano if you need such a thrill to feel alive.

Dance with the stars.

Then go back to Decentraland.

A quote from Marcus Aurelius on Crypto Twitter.

The never ending conveyor belt of voices screaming about ascending triangles and descending oblongs, triple tops and death crosses. The rising wedge of complete uncertainty masquerading as a dead cert will cloud your judgement, confuse your otherwise analytical mind.

Remember more data means more information, but it also means more false information, more guess work and fiction, and opinion.

You miss 100% of the shit you don’t listen to.

Let’s get into the weeds of surviving the mental anguish of badly coded smart contracts. Stoicism is a mirror, it exposes rack and ruin and places it on the shoulders of personal interpretation.

I’ve lost thousands.

And it hurt.

Goddamn punk ass contract.

This Stoic quote didn't erase the feeling at the pit of my stomach.

However, It did take the edge off the sting.

And give perspective.

Social media-shaped echo chambers.

Algorithms will imprison you within walls of total agreement.

They’ll never question you.

Or ask you to question yourself.

You need a multi-coloured soul, a rainbow of flavours.

Echo chambers are the preserve of the passive.

Be careful where you seek your knowledge.

There is always a bear market racing towards you.

The future is volatile. I hope it will always be so, otherwise we we're all just playing a drab game of pin the tail on the donkey.

Strengthen your reason now, so you are ready when the future comes.

The anger mounts.

Who are these clowns prancing behind the promise of a DAO and a metaverse game?

Where is that airdrop the roadmap promised?

Did you really buy a blockchain based health tracker because you can't push yourself to run up a hill?

Here Marcus Aurelius is speaking about immutability on the blockchain. It is wise to remember when you click mint.

FOMO is nothing new. It’s part of the human condition. In ancient Rome FOMO was omnipresent.

Take the profits.

There you go, 11 stoic quotes to help you survive in web3.

I’ll end as I started. Web3 burnout is real. If you’re suffering, or thing you might be about to, reach out to someone. If you know someone is suffering, speak to them.

More links and further reading

https://www.one37pm.com/nft/preventing-burnout-in-web3

https://www.mybff.com/discover/how-to-beat-web3-burnout

https://medium.com/@mrsabian.m/what-i-learned-about-burnouts-in-web3-via-a-burnout-in-web3-714581f50a61

https://www.mindfulmetaverse.co/the-manifesto

https://nftnow.com/features/why-web3-needs-mindfulness-nfts-now-more-than-ever/

https://www.cryptoaltruism.org/blog/ten-strategies-for-staying-well-in-web3

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Thanks for reading.

Before you leave, make sure to click the subscribe button.

And If you’d like more, check out my book, literary NFTs or fanfiction.

Follow me on Twitter

And, because I ask a lot.

Listen to my web3 podcast, Thinking On Paper

"I've seen much of the rest of the world. It is brutal and cruel and dark, Rome is the light." - Marcus Aurelius, speaking on web3 at Rome Blockchain Week.

Web3 burnout is real.

Pressure points and tipping points are as abundant as layer 2 scaling solutions.

Clicking on a link can empty your life savings. Obliterate everything you’ve worked for.

And do you know what makes it worse?

You can see it. Forever.

Immutability has no empathy.

But perhaps the stress and emotional ruin of scams and thieves fades into the background when pitted against the slow torture of Twitter, LinkedIn, personal brand building and the 24/7 culture that demands your presence, your input, your content and your storytelling.

Page views. Post views.

Analytics is an evil word.

Yes, web3 burnout is very real.

I’ve seen it break friends and gobble connections up.

I’ve even smelt its rampant breath on my own neck.

Very few are immune.

Which is why this Literary NFT is not to make light of it.

It’s just a little Stoic philosophy that I use to remind myself of perspective, to step back, to see web3 through the eyes of two thousands years of history.

These quotes won’t take away the pain of a badly programmed smart contract rampaging through your NFT collection and sending your Doodles to North Korea; they won’t make the anguish and anxiety of fruitlessly trying to keep up with the never ending supply of thought leaders and their content with a billion likes; hell, they won’t even make your Twitter threads cut through the noise.

But they might - just might, no promises - give you the space to think before you click that Discord link, compassion for the shillers and the thieves, courage to weather bear markets and the ancient wisdom to not chase the emptiness of vanity metrics.

And on that note.

Let’s visit Ancient Rome.

The full spectrum of the human condition laid bare across the Colosseum floor.

Siamo in anticipo.

Cryptocurrency is a riptide only the strongest can swim against. Most end-up out beyond the horizon in a bright yellow inflatable dinghy.

You can read every white paper and Reddit channel, decipher GitHub and play squash with Vitalik Buterin. You'll still going to drown in a sea of descending crosses.

Scams and rugs happen. Stablecoins tumble, NFT collections shrink, apes and animé don't always lead to five figures and a château in the Spanish sun.

You have power over your own mind, not outside events.

The metaverse is the merging of the physical and the digital; a place of exuberance and freedom and content and gaming and community and culture and all of your soul mates running around temples of like-minded connection as Snoop Dogg waltzes endlessly around The Sandbox

But, Stoic web3 friends, not a replacement for real life, merely an addition.

To keep a semblance of balance and chase the wolves of burnout away, dwell on the beauty of life, take solace in nature.

Only don't dwell. Because it isn’t 1850. Who fucking dwells?

Instead, take your shoes off and run outside and hug a deer.

Climb a rock, swim under water, smell a flower, dance barefoot across burning the coals of an exploding volcano if you need such a thrill to feel alive.

Dance with the stars.

Then go back to Decentraland.

A quote from Marcus Aurelius on Crypto Twitter.

The never ending conveyor belt of voices screaming about ascending triangles and descending oblongs, triple tops and death crosses. The rising wedge of complete uncertainty masquerading as a dead cert will cloud your judgement, confuse your otherwise analytical mind.

Remember more data means more information, but it also means more false information, more guess work and fiction, and opinion.

You miss 100% of the shit you don’t listen to.

Let’s get into the weeds of surviving the mental anguish of badly coded smart contracts. Stoicism is a mirror, it exposes rack and ruin and places it on the shoulders of personal interpretation.

I’ve lost thousands.

And it hurt.

Goddamn punk ass contract.

This Stoic quote didn't erase the feeling at the pit of my stomach.

However, It did take the edge off the sting.

And give perspective.

Social media-shaped echo chambers.

Algorithms will imprison you within walls of total agreement.

They’ll never question you.

Or ask you to question yourself.

You need a multi-coloured soul, a rainbow of flavours.

Echo chambers are the preserve of the passive.

Be careful where you seek your knowledge.

There is always a bear market racing towards you.

The future is volatile. I hope it will always be so, otherwise we we're all just playing a drab game of pin the tail on the donkey.

Strengthen your reason now, so you are ready when the future comes.

The anger mounts.

Who are these clowns prancing behind the promise of a DAO and a metaverse game?

Where is that airdrop the roadmap promised?

Did you really buy a blockchain based health tracker because you can't push yourself to run up a hill?

Here Marcus Aurelius is speaking about immutability on the blockchain. It is wise to remember when you click mint.

FOMO is nothing new. It’s part of the human condition. In ancient Rome FOMO was omnipresent.

Take the profits.

There you go, 11 stoic quotes to help you survive in web3.

I’ll end as I started. Web3 burnout is real. If you’re suffering, or thing you might be about to, reach out to someone. If you know someone is suffering, speak to them.

More links and further reading

https://www.one37pm.com/nft/preventing-burnout-in-web3

https://www.mybff.com/discover/how-to-beat-web3-burnout

https://medium.com/@mrsabian.m/what-i-learned-about-burnouts-in-web3-via-a-burnout-in-web3-714581f50a61

https://www.mindfulmetaverse.co/the-manifesto

https://nftnow.com/features/why-web3-needs-mindfulness-nfts-now-more-than-ever/

https://www.cryptoaltruism.org/blog/ten-strategies-for-staying-well-in-web3

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Thanks for reading.

Before you leave, make sure to click the subscribe button.

And If you’d like more, check out my book, literary NFTs or fanfiction.

Follow me on Twitter

And, because I ask a lot.

Listen to my web3 podcast, Thinking On Paper