Web3, Metaverse, Cryptoverse, or Whatevers
The year is 2030.
The early adopters and Gen Zers are taking full advantage of the crypto space – a space us now geriatric millennials (ugh whoever coined it I hate it too) missed the memo on during the 2020 pandemic and are now just trying to wrap our heads around. A bubble or two might have burst during that time, but they all HODL (held on for dear life) as the third wave of the internet on the blockchain had finally arrived. Web3 was no longer a theoretical, egalitarian utopian controversy of the past.
“First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.” -Arthur Schopenhauer
These people seem like they’re all just vibing online and generating income – not working that 9 to 5 grind like most of us still are. NFTs, social tokens, DAOs, individual IPOs, owning a piece of the internet, play to earn, etc. are all commonplace terms… We had Googled it once upon a time back in 2021 when it first hit the mainstream media but got too overwhelmed by all the crypto jargon. So we just got back to mindlessly scrolling through IG and TikTok.
It was, after all, an escape from our jobs – which still sucks 6 years later. What’s another decade or two left of the grind before we reach that retired promise land? Besides it’s way too late now, we’re in too deep. Yet another missed opportunity.
Back to today – 2022.
That first part was just to trigger some FOMO and get your attention.
Don’t worry though I’m not here to onboard you with the latest crypto hype. I’m here to start the conversation of what happens next when all the dust settles and we in fact enter the next generation of the internet. How will this pan out for the creative economy and the future of work?
I’ve been ruminating for quite some time on the evolution of this idea of “work” – the very thing that shapes our existence and identity in society. Yet if it’s what we do for the majority of our lives – why are so many of us unhappy in our careers?
source: A. Piacquado
We’ve heard a job is a job – work is called work because it’s not supposed to be fun – or your job title doesn’t define you.
At some point around 2010-2020, we witnessed the rise of the full time “social media influencer,” and got a glimpse of what it might mean to actually make a creative living doing what you enjoy.
But we were already on a career trajectory we mapped out in our 20s. So complacency and stability wins over because change is scary for a 30-something year old.
Are we really the cursed generation just trying to catch up with the rapid pace of technology causing multiple industrial revolutions in our lifetime? Not to mention experiencing two Great Recessions and a Pandemic where millions of people lost their jobs. Most must have also had time to reflect on their careers because what came after was the Great Resignation. People either jumped ship to another company or changed their entire career.
The latter is what I’m really fascinated by. The once monogamous career path may be a thing of the past. After all, we aren’t robots and shouldn’t be chained down to a specific role we continue to do until we retire or die (noted other cultures might disagree).
“Be too complex to categorize… specialization is for insects” -Tim Ferriss
As we get older, it’s easy for us to brush aside ideas that disrupt our current views or doesn’t fit our narrative. Our brain develops habits and doesn’t need to think anymore as we go on autopilot with our everyday routines. Social media and everything we consume these days do not help, with all the algorithms that reinforces the same ideas – keeping us in our bubble.
At the start of the new year, a time when we all make resolutions we can’t keep, I decided that I really needed to just pull myself out of this creative rut I’ve been in for quite some time now. I came to realize my continual hours of scrolling on Instagram through a loop of similarly curated photos of fashion, food, home decor, celebs, and travel for years was not helping my cause but actually creating this rut. My mind needed a big blow across the head so it can build new connections and ideas. I thought what is the least likely thing I would ever do…
For whatever reason, I decided to take a free online computer science class (Harvard CS50) and then activated a Twitter account – since it seems where a lot of these people were hanging out.
I went down a rabbit hole and ended up in a foreign world of technologists, cryptologists, and futurists.
source: T. Miroshnichenko
I was so lost and was tempted to leave this space but something was tugging at me to stay and delve a little deeper.
And when something feels overwhelming and highly speculative you can either make a run for it – or dive in and blog about it until you understand it. I did just that. Blogging is not dead!
source: V. Karpovich
It’s not to say I don’t still love Instagram with all its filtered photos of people’s seemingly perfect lives – why must we be pigeonholed to labels?
I’m a mama to a stubborn 2 year old, lawyer, small business owner, and now a content creator about the future of content creators. Because why not?
1/3 of the people will love you, 1/3 will hate you, and 1/3 dgaf.
We live in a permissionless economy – let’s take full advantage of it.
Forget that you got your degree in x or spent y years doing z. If you feel you built your foundation on grounds that no longer serve you or make you happy – don’t be afraid to start over and build something new.
Don’t keep building on autopilot until you hit your 40s or 50s and realize damn – I should have just followed my heart and start over 5 or 15 years ago. It is never too late.
Your story can be one of reinvention to reclaim your narrative and reach your fullest creative potential – and the timing is ripe during this pivotal moment in history.
Nobody is far ahead of the game. If you believe Web3 is around the corner, the game has just begun. By just understanding the fundamentals now, you might find real opportunities you never realized existed.
All this might not have been on your radar – it definitely wasn’t on mine and had no reason to be (liberal arts major / millennial mama in the burbs here).
But now that I caught wind of it and seeing the forest beyond the trees – it has my attention and should have yours.
We don’t know what we don’t know. And now that we know – what now?
Welcome to Nat 3.0.