brypto

A young person in the dot com era had to build something or be part of an enterprise to benefit from the tech paradigm shift (generally speaking)

A young person in the crypto era doesn't have to build anything, they can just bet correctly

This decoupling of money & meaning is a competitive moat for those who prioritize meaning

friendly neighborhood shitcaster // working on @pinetree

Yeah I pretty much agree with 2 also. My focus gets absolutely crushed it’s terrible. I think I’m hopeful that as time goes on the market will mature and people will learn that the best things to bet on will be the projects that have long-term visions. 

Although I also get the thought sometimes that really this casino activity was already going on “under the table” in the financial/investment sector and we are just bringing it to light and democratizing it. Better than it being professional and gatekept? Idk

Let's separate those two things:

1) Agreed, my point is not that the populations are static. But rather market access has greatly improved, increasing the # of retail speculators

2) How does it incentivize builders? It incentivizes casino builders for sure, but would argue that the excess speculative mania makes it harder for long-term oriented builders to focus. This sense is anecdotal, but many builders I've talked to have expressed that bear markets are welcome in some ways because of the "quiet" they bring

I would add though that those populations are not the same. People who weren’t into software in the dot com era were on the sidelines. In crypto they come in to fill some of that speculative role that used to just be professional investors, which actually incentivizes the builders, who I think will build anyway.

I think you're underestimating how much more financialized the world has become, lowering barriers to entry for retail participation there is across all markets 

Source: https://www.ft.com/content/7a91e3ea-b9ec-4611-9a03-a8dd3b8bddb5

Related response below. No doubt there was mania, but retail access and fervor is much higher now

i don't doubt that it's higher now on an absolute basis, but i don't know if i buy into it being a ~qualitative difference

w/o showing '99-02, that chart doesn't help much imo

Related response below. No doubt there was mania, but retail access and fervor is much higher now

https://farcaster.xyz/androidsixteen.eth/0x1687e56b

i wasn't around for it but i'm under the impression a lot of young people were betting on it via public markets (companies IPO'd very early back then, often with little to no traction)

Being able to bet your labor vs capital was more equalizing.

Tactics are irrelevant imo

Point being it’s easier than ever to do well financially without producing anything

unpack “bet correctly” — for serial winners there’s a lot going on besides serendipity.

I think you're underestimating how much more financialized the world has become, lowering barriers to entry for retail participation there is across all markets 

Source:

Fair point, maybe an acceleration, but I don't see it as a change of direction. It's always been the case that you can get wildly rich betting "correctly" and building nothing. Fortunately or unfortunately most cannot do this effectively.

more young people traded dot com stocks than worked for a company that ipo’d. 

not as different as you’d think.

Founder, designer, & product guy at /basepaint
Prev: Eigenlayer, ConsenSys, Gitcoin, Arweave, Protocol Labs, & MIT DCI

working on it. must not nearly round-trip this emerging base szn like I did with my virtuals bags...hard lessons learned there.

pain + reflection = progress

ask me end of year about my FIRE status

you may call it a decoupling. i call it living in the past. get with the times as a founder and cater to the edge. getting hit with the blunt side is just makin me more retarded.

10000%

also helps in giving yourself purpose - one cannot live without that even if one is rich

good insight, meaning feels like a competitive advantage (although both can be)… makes the money a bit stickier when it’s tied to something one defines as real

The gap between money and meaning is growing wider in crypto. That gap rewards gamblers short-term, but it isolates those who want real impact. If you care about meaning, you’re playing a different, deeper game and that’s where true resilience comes from.