We are at the cusp of a major paradigm shift in Web3 (props to the crypto et al rebrander) when it comes to ownership and the gradual removal of barriers that have dictated access to information, wealth, and status by way of DAO’s and the inexorable greater blockchain ecosystem.

Flexes like:

• working at one of the Big Four or F(M)AANG tenure

• Ivy pedigree or higher education degree

• previous founder, executive, or VC

have diminished weight and at the end of the day, crypto endemics could give AF.

Your wallet is your resume.

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The power dynamic largely rests on the shoulders of a new class of digital influencers, operators, investors, and builders who subscribe to a higher level of scrutiny on your actual contributions and intent in the space. This has largely been dictated by the amount of “Fuck you $$$” that has created generational wealth in a flash and catapulted anons to the forefront of the intersection of crypto x culture. Pitches don’t quite work the same especially when the core tenants of value are misaligned.

Institutions and the establishment can no longer hide behind the veil of value props that centered around gate keeping relationships they’ve cultivated over the decades. This isn’t to say that the VC’s or the entertainment Majors of the world aren’t relevant, they still add credibility to the overall process, but the means to secure collaborations, deals, funding, and talent (both professional and entertainment) are being democratized. They just got nerfed. 🎯

How it started:

Traditional alignment: C.R.E.A.M. 💰

How it’s going:

Web3 alignment: Values. 🤝

Opportunities abound.

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With the openness of community collaboration, pedigree takes a back seat when the collective draws on inclusion and accessibility. Nepotism, 0→1 product building, or bleeding in the trenches at a major brand were the “I have 0 yrs exp” starter packs.

The allure for working for incumbents and their shiny perks, beyond their systemic issues and consumer practices, has all but waned and now it’s a [Web3] gold rush baby!

Given the SEC rules on being an accredited investor (its criteria constrained around income and net worth), individuals are discovering mutuals to change the way people purchase, build, share, and operate entities. We’ve reached a point in time where the individual can have sole custody over the opportunities they want to create and can tangibly program (and to a greater extent visualize) the long term effects to the things we interact with.

So much so, tech giants are going to great lengths to deploying stopgaps to hemorrhaging valuable talent.

Work smarter, not harder.

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Access and the ability to hire highly skilled talent has never been easier. Are higher ed degrees worthless? Not necessarily, but it certainly has diluted the “BA/MBA education requirement” on job postings given how experience can be compensated for if the individual applies themselves wholly to learning the boundaries of this space.

Let’s be honest for a second - if you were going in for a medical operation, you bet your ass you’d want someone with the proper validated schooling track (some industries are no brainers) and you definitely should fall under regulated guidelines.

But in an industry where “magic internet money” and digital goods/products/creative are made (here’s looking at you entertainment + media), the raw experience counts, not necessarily which top ranked program you graduated from. The diversity of individuals who have chosen the unconventional path in the community mirror the makeup of the IRL world, one of many conversations unfold:

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The MCN, esports, and creative spaces are proof of this (legitimized by the waves of non-endemics flocking in years after to professionalize pioneering verticals), pressure cooking some of the hardest working and impactful noobs that have consumed every bit of key learnings to become effective operators.

As we enter the confluence of all these tangental industries intertwining at the investment, development, growth, and personnel levels, there will be a huge blur of the rise of unknowns w/ limited experience seeking answers and solutions on their own, and formalizing their informal training.

Hustle, grit, and curiosity stages to become equivalent to founding your own company or 10+ years working for the man.

Boomers and status quo-maxi’s can keep crying about how NFT’s, crypto, and the larger promise of Web3 are all scams but we’ve literally been at this juncture many times over.

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It’s happened at every career jump I’ve made starting with:

1. social media

2. content creators (YouTube)

3. esports

4. streamers (Twitch)

5. [crypto]

It’s always “a bubble” or some other half baked excuse. (😂) This is also a friendly reminder that it’s ok NOT to know or understanding something in its entirety and to figure it out as you go. I found myself doing that all the time as a social media intern in early 2011, yet look where social’s at now.

But one of the pleasantries this space offers is the arms wide open mentality and willingness to teach despite the vitriol naysayers spew before people start to come around in droves [hint: they always come around] and as everyone loves to meme, “we’re still so early.”

I’ll close with a quote our Korean counterparts at Azubu in 2015 (an esports livestreaming company) told us when we had our first in-person all hands that has stuck with me all these years because of how revealing it was to no longer see the US as the vanguard I was conditioned to believe (AfreecaTV launched in 2005):

Acknowledgments

This post benefited from the feedback and contributions of many:

• James Koo of Twitch

• Mateo Arias of ACG

• Rob Oshima of Block Tackle

Don’t make me think!

Been able to kick up my average ⏲️: ~45 min. since the last post, still not finding enough time to lock in a solid hour.

Last month’s stack applied directly to a number of topical areas in my current workflow. Overall great to brush up on concepts that I’ve been reinforcing day to day.

The current stack is also theory heavy and mainly draws interest on diving in on yield farming and passive income. One of the main linkages of building blockchain nodes centers around game theory and considering how I haven’t had higher ed exposure or taken a class on statistics since HS, figured it was time to set some foundations:

• The Art of Strategy - Dixit Nalebuff

• Theory of Games and Economic Behavior - Jon Von Neumann & Oskar Morgenstern

• Game Theory An Introduction - Steven Tadelis

• Feb 2022 Issue 150 - Monocle

• *Competitive Strategy: Options and Games - Benoit Chevalier-Roignant, Lenos Trigeorgis

The Monocle read is purely extracurricular, forgot to cancel my yearly subscription this year and was too lazy to cancel it midway through so guess I’ll be adding more issues to the shelf. I don’t get to them on a timely basis and usually read them a month delayed, am reminded when the next month’s issue comes by mail…

Had to do a bit of digging to find some highly recommended books on the subject - and this stack was chosen by cross referencing a few common threads on multiple lists. Still taking in recs from people with advanced knowledge and will get around to updating any new ones. Given that some of these will read like textbooks, I’m optimistic on what I’ll learn.

To be continued…

So far averaging ⏲️: 30-45 min. before my mind kickstarts for the day but looking to build up endurance past an hour, since spare time is pretty scarce.

The current stack is theory heavy and I’m actually unsure when I started reading multiple titles at the same time [might have been a habit of reading on the 🚽] but here we are:

• The Cold Start Problem: How Start and Scale Network Effects - Andrew Chen

• Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future - Peter Thiel

• Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind - Yuval Noah Harari

Technically one’s a re-read, I’ve got a knack of coming back to books for a refresher, while the other two touch on concepts I’m very familiar with having been constantly exposed to the language and direct application in professional settings, so felt it needed a formalized read-through mastered by some pretty prominent tech leaders (I mean they’re leaders for a reason right?).

One interesting thing to note is the gradual shift in genre I’ve been gravitating towards from fiction >> non-fiction within the last 5 years that I attribute to working in a new industry and trying to play catch up (🙋‍♂️ not a tech guy by trade). Maybe it’s time to diversify the mix.

To be continued…