Next Dimension of the Web
Incentive-Mechanisms, Remote-Dating, New Beginnings
Hello from the Himalayas!
After a long gap, today I managed to find enough free brainspace to write up about all the new ideas and updates bubbling up in my head for weeks. This week I have managed to break the inertia of the routine that I had gotten used to in the last 8-9 months. I’m writing this from the cool co-living space in Kangra Valley that I’m visiting for a couple of days.
Personal Updates
Work—
In February, I took up a position(ongoing gig turned into full-time position) at RARA Social, an early-stage social-money startup building towards the ideal of Open Social —with a focus on online-communities, win-win incentive-mechanisms and a playful social vibe.
I’m designing the incentive-mechanisms to be embedded into the RARA protocol and applying the specific-knowledge acquired through my research into how social-networks work— to help build a product that can catalyze cross-community pollination in the upcoming ‘decentralized social internet’.
If you’re working on something around decentralized social-networks or community-tokens and DAOs, I’d love to have a chat with you. Hit me up on Twitter.
Remote Dating—
I have accepted the fact that the possibilities of intimacy in remote-dating can’t compete with its physical counterpart. At least, not in the near-future. Still, I can’t ignore the fact that the discovery part of remote-dating opens up a new world of possible social connections that you can’t access in a physical-only search. This is particularly true if you’re living in places that are not big metropolises.
After my multiple failed attempts at remote-dating, I realized that making only the discovery part work is not sufficient for these potential connections to turn into lively relationships.
I need to tap into a set of good-enough remote-dating activities which can become the bridge from discovering an interesting potential dating-partner online to having a lively relationship with shared context.
I came up with these in my notes. If you’ve been successfully experimenting with remote-dating, let me know if you have other good ideas in the same vein.
Top-of-Mind Things
I have identified a crucial factor that I have been subconsciously using as a reliable filtering mechanism to find people I most enjoy working or hanging out with. It’s intentionality. Intentionality of a person participating in a group activity is a product of many other inherent factors like— aligned-incentives, initiative-taking ability, and personal integrity.
Shout out to Tom Critchlow whose writing on independent strategy consulting have helped me a ton in leveling up as an independent consultant —both in terms of nurturing client relationships and carving out my role in different contexts. I’m grateful that he decided to share his specific-knowledge in public and for free! Check out his series-of-essays here.
Async workflow is what indies wanted(and have been doing?!) all along. Remote-work is incomplete without tapping into async workflows. In my previous note, I wrote about some challenges of making Async collaboration work. Today, I’m sharing this post by Pieter Levels on the great benefits of making Async work —The next frontier after remote work is async.
Vitalik Buterin wrote this week on why Legitimacy is the most important scarce resource for any protocol whose value depends upon its social acceptance. This post includes examples of situations where extra-protocol measures with social legitimacy trumped over technical cryptographic ownership.
Behind the hype of skyrocketing-prices of famous NFT auctions, there are real teams building innovative products for Web3 and real communities having fun and blazing a trail by integrating internet-money into the global internet-culture.
If you’re curious to peek into the social-crypto side of the emerging Web3 space, here are two cool things I recommend you to check out.
SourceCred- An open-source algorithm(sybil-resistant) to measure and reward contributions in open-source projects.
What does the term Decentralized Social Networks mean? The definition is still up for debate and is being shaped by the the real protocols being currently built. This essay by Brian Flynn(Founder of RabbitHole) is a good piece to catch-up with the ongoing conversation.
For the VR-enthusiasts among you, check out this cool multiday virtual social-event with crypto social-tokens, virtual social spaces, cryptofunky avatars — Metalympics.
If you’re tracking the neuroscience frontier, you’re gonna love this treasure I stumbled upon —Jeff Hawkins presenting the output of years of their research at Numenta on how perception comes about in the NeoCortex — Have We Missed Half of What the Neocortex Does? Allocentric Location as the Basis of Perception
Since I’m writing to you after a long gap, I gotta include a music recommendation :)
This classical track from Sirat(an Indo-Arab trio) is an absolute journey when you listen to it for the first time and super conducive for abstract ideation or when you’re in the mood to reflect.
That’s it for today, folks. Thanks for reading.
Cheers,
Vinay