​

Hi friends,

​

I’m hitting your inbox late this week. It is likely not a big deal for you, but a disappointment for me. I want to build this weekly publishing muscle. My curation piece was not ready to share on Wednesday.

​

To take my mind off the writers block, I distracted myself with newsletter and website improvements. The largest change was creating a newsletter landing page. Let me know how many other changes you can spot, and which ones you like.

---

Passable Prose

The curation post was a difficult assignment. I heard from mentors in the program that this was the hardest for them too. After two false starts and having to tap out in “Crossfit for Writing”, I have something worth sharing. The post is still in review with my editors. So if it changes after your first reading, you now know why.

​
​Peter Diamandis: Inspiring Abundance

Since reading Abundance, no other person has shaped my view of the future as much as Peter Diamandis. Whether you are looking for a vision of the future rooted in rational optimism, or trying to build that ideal future, Peter has resources that can help you. My goal was to highlight a couple of his key ideas, then bundle up his other resources at the end for you to continue exploring on your own.

​

Read more

---

Curated Columns

​Creativity Faucet by Julian Sharpio

Julian coined an idea he calls the “creativity faucet”. The premise is when you first start being creative, there is a backlog of wastewater. No one likes the wastewater, but you must get it out of the way to get to the clear, crisp, cold delicious taste of clean creative waters.

You all are joining me from the start. I hope you have some Mio on hand as I work through my backlog. Thank you for being here.

​

​NFTs and a Thousand True Fans by Chris Dixon of a16z Kevin Kelly’s 1000 True Fans essay is a cult classic. It outlines the promise of the Internet for creators. A16Z builds on Kelly’s article by showing how Social Media created a detour in Kelly’s vision, and NFTs may just be what’s needed to course correct.

NFTs are a hot topic right now. The thought of cryptographically verified ownership of a digital good is an interesting idea. I unsuccessfully tried to dip my toe in the water by backing Mario Gabriele’s $GENERALIST experiment. I have a friend that successfully turned a $15 NBA TopShot pack into $220 when he sold one of the three “moments” that came in the pack.

​

​The Value Chain of the Open Metaverse by Packy McCormick’s Not Boring Need an intro to NFTs? Yeah, I was right there with you not too long ago. This not boring article helped something click in my brain about the capabilities a blockchain could unlock.

In short, the NFT promise is to create digital scarcity and traceable ownership on the Internet. The Internet is effectively the world’s best copying machine.

​

My big takeaway was how Packy outlined the Web 1.0 to 3.0 path. Web 1.0 was open but stateless - no way to have an identity. Then companies stepped in to add state in Web 2.0 - but this privatized state created walled gardens and a notebook full of passwords tucked into the top drawer of your desk. Web 3.0 creates an open standard for tracking state thanks to a blockchain.

---

Feature Forecast

I’m moving into week 4 of my writing bootcamp. It has been intense. Our next prompt is “How is the world changing?”

​

I’m considering doubling down on the Peter Diamandis curation piece. When I outline the 6Ds of Exponential Technologies I am walking through how they apply to the office. Our world has already changed with the pandemic this past year. I am not sure it will ever completely go back.

​

Another area I may explore is how I believe businesses are going to shrink, but more businesses will open. Small teams are able to provide services that used to only be the domain of enterprises.

---

Thank you again for being here.

Here is my ask for you - if you know other people that would be interested in my writing, please forward this along to them. I am as ready as I'll be to start doing some outreach.

​