Soul Searching
Hey there rebels!
Not sure how many of you know this, but since leaving the last web3 project I worked for in June, I had made the decision to take a few months break, make a few steps back, re-assess my role in this space and do a bit of soul digging …
Although I am still pretty active in personal capacity, the free time I had made me think a lot about the things I did and did not like in this space. And although I never had similar thoughts since 2017, this was the first time I was almost considering looking into web2 jobs…
After meeting many people in different IRL events in the past few months, I realised that I was not alone. Many felt the same way and just like me were trying to find their sweet spot in here… and for each of us that sweet spot was obviously different…
So how is my soul digging so far you might ask?
And have I found that sweet spot of mine? (spoiler: not YET)
Going back to why
I got into the space completely by chance.
A writer friend introduced me to Steemit (really miss those days btw)… I found a new audience, earned crypto and fell down the rabbit hole.
But I think what’s more important is not how I got here but why did I decide to move my career here too and eventually stay (even during bear markets…).
I think the important points in my “onboarding” journey were:
I ended up being surrounded by amazing like-minded people, who were not greedy degens but rather creatives/creators and devs with rebellious spirit and value system similar to mine. For that group it was about way more than just the money and what made me feel good about them was that even those who ended up making a lot of money staid being the same good people - the money did not spoil them.
The origin story of the technology as well as it’s ethos fascinated me and it made me very curious. There was something extremely fresh and exciting about it… Not knowing how things will be in the future, the anticipation, the feeling that we could actually contribute to how the future would look like was very appealing
Back then there weren’t (YET) so many fake influencers around, so I picked and learnt from the best: those who did not have hidden agenda, were ethical and were not here purely for the money(eg. Andreas Antonopoulos)
The roller coaster
Would probably be too good to be true if all had staid the same way since then, wouldn’t it?…
During the past 6 years I’ve been part of an ICO team, worked in blockchain marketing agency, DeFi, NFTfi, web3 gaming… have done few NFT art collabs using my fiction with amazing artists, spoken from many stages in different countries, consulted web3 founders, published top web3 stories in different publications, been part of many communities and as a result: have seen the good, the bad and the ugly of this space from all possible angles.
If you’ve missed my attempt to explain what’s happening at the moment you can check this.
What am I (are we) missing?
Few years ago I had a chance to speak to Dima Buterin (Vitalik’s father) for an hour on my podcast (here is the full episode with the full transcript).
During that conversation he said something that stuck with me since then.
The write up from Vitalik, which he did at the end of the year 2020 – his closing notes for 2020. It was a wonderful write up.
But the one aspect that the number of people notice and I noticed that right away – he mentioned that a project has to have a soul.
And to hear that from Vitalik, it was really amazing because I know that he has a brilliant technical mind, philosophical mind as well and that he’s becoming more and more comfortable with using very soft, but extremely important terms that talk to some crucial aspects of reality.
And what does it mean for a project to have a soul?
Like, can you define it? You can not.
But then you can look at this and you can feel it.
I think that at the stage we are at in web3/blockchain/crypto (whatever you wanna call it) that’s exactly what we’re missing.
There is a deficit of projects (and people) with a soul!
That in its turn results in the overwhelming amount of fake: fake projects, founders, influencers, investors, etc.
It also results in web3 brands which have tons of money but lack purpose, real business and bring 0 value to the space.
Not saying there are not initiatives and projects that have a soul and vision and amazing founders… but somehow it feels like those are not appreciated and funded enough.
So I personally feel like all that glow from my naive Steemit times has worn out a bit. Now it takes time and effort to find the real ones: the projects and the people who genuinely care.
So what now?
Just as Dima mentioned on that podcast - you can’t define what is a project with a soul… but you can feel it.
And probably that’s exactly what I am looking for now… that feeling… the one I had so many years ago when I joined the space…
Although I am digging my soul what I should do instead maybe is find those who are building projects with a soul… and join them…
or maybe…
Meanwhile I should come up with a space where we could capture and preserve that soul and grow it together?
This probably has been the most honest and raw issue so far. So please feel free to reach out since the feeling that I’m talking to myself in here is not a good one.
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Website: www.anialexander.com