You might have forgotten you subscribed to this newsletter, or that it existed at all. Ironically my last post (also my first Paragraph post) was titled "The first thing you'll likely do is overthink it". So naturally I overthought what this post would be about. In fairness, my wife gave birth to our second child during this gap, so my attention has been on arguably more important things.
One of the struggles I have when putting together a newsletter is that I feel I should provide you with something long or short. For whatever reason I never considered removing this binary choice and just doing whichever one the moment called for. Not all subjects warrant long write-ups anyways. I'm sure theres a study that reveals you're more likely to continuously read something if it get's to the point quicker. Once you see someone do what you want to do out in the world, you should be left with less doubt as to why you shouldn't be doing it yourself. With all that out of the way here's what you can expect from me going forward:
Like this:
There’s a genuine collector type that scaled with NFTs: The kind of collector who has some money but isn’t rich, enjoys collecting art, but they’re more considerate when minting & buying. They want to ensure they can cash out if urgently needed. This is severely under-explored.
And these:
I don't interact with drops that are heavily time/attention based. Even if I miss out, I don't feel guilt because I recognize these as traps. Greed and sunk costs can keep you involved even if there's no genuine reason to. Would rather be intentional with my time and give it to projects w/ aligned vision.
Dwango was the L2 solution of its day "Players used to have to call one another on a landline and agree to connect modems to play. DWANGO was the bridge between the dark ages of modems and the shiny new internet." https://i.imgur.com/JtAXtmZ.jpg
We still don't value time correctly This arbitrage means crypto adoption first looks like random chance games The only way the imbalance settles is through opening all opportunities to everyone - which will solve problems currently not possible But first we must learn to play games on the Internet, together
But that's not all. You'll also get......
A few months ago I started experimenting minting my work on L2 protocols. Now that i've minted a few ideas under different settings (mint size & claim window, free mints vs paid, Curated niche markets vs, well know markets) I'm going to let you know what I found works best. This is ongoing, but my intention is to bring clarity to where there's currently a lot of confusion
Good design ultimately has a knock on effect that inspires other areas of my thinking. I try to immerse myself in it. This week I came across someone who envisioned a pocket pinball machine. It's such a sleek looking concept. Even if it were to exist and not fully deliver on the concept, I'd still be inspired by its design and want to have it close by.
Finishing Jon Romero's biography, Doom Guy. If you're interested in knowing how the FPS genre was invented and reinvented within the span of a decade this book is for you. There's also some excellent stories on running a pioneering business in your 20's (as well as the common mistakes that come with inexperience)
I a newly restored preview version of Saul Bass's Phase IV, a sci-fi any horror film from 1974 that to this day has the best ant cinematography thats ever been committed to film. This was legendary designer, Saul Bass's only feature film. If you know his work, his attention to detail, as well as experimentation is in full effect.
I figure that's a loose enough framework to let me wax poetic about the things that come natural to me. Hopefully it entertains as well as encourages experimentation for others.
I'm sure this will evolve over time, but for now its a good place to start. Thank you for sticking with me. Hold me accountable. I'll see you all again in a week 👋
Adam
