I love the way you think about and frame these phenomenons. Absolute killer writing.
....but. I think you're still only applying an optimistic lens formed by behaviors in a bull market. I think you also missed the relationship between making money and having fun: most people are having fun now because they are making money. When the narrative swings on crypto again, and it's much harder to make money, it will not be as easy to have fun. The risk/reward equation will swing as it does during bear markets and turnoff most people.
Value driven by narrative is a double-edged sword, as we've seen with memes. It's as hot on the way up as it is cold on the way down. And if people keep getting stuck on the way down they'll be less excited to keep playing.
DAOs have the South Park underpants gnome Step 2 problem and are missing the financial innovation that will lead to sustainability. Uniswap was the accelerant of this bull run with AMMs that turned staked coins into fee generators while most of the 2017-2018 class has died because they didn't have other sustainable mechanics. DAOs need their own set of catalysts.
If the long arc of history is bent towards more money and more fun, does that mean there is some kind of singularity (fungularity?) moment in which we spend all of our time on experiences maximizing fun and getting paid for it? I would take your argument even a step further and say that Web3 will allow some (hopefully many) individuals to push completely beyond this Funtier into a world in which they no longer need to trade off between fun and money because they earn enough money having fun. That's the dream! Thanks for the great read.
Packy, loving this framework so much. Giving me courage to lean in to the fun + financial benefit of electrification of homes/vehicles. Thanks! https://mattcandler.io/
I really like the Pareto Funtier framework and this idea of the dichotomy of fun vs money; all this helps to explain some basic human phenomena that helps shed light on the growing fervor behind web3.
BUT we already have many great examples of people having a lot of fun AND making a lot of money ala athletes/celebs, and today's content creators. Let's ignore athletes/celebs because let's say they're outliers. Creators, however, are crushing it on Youtube, Etsy, Teachable, Gumroad, Substack, etc. in business models that are easy to explain and understand and which are frankly almost identical no matter what platform you're on. AND they're working on the things that they are passionate about.
Web3 is, as you rightly said, a brand new frontier that arguably needs a level of exposition on the innovations it's founded on like blockchain, tokens, smart contracts, decentralization, etc. Innovations often have some fervent early adopters, but for us to cross the chasm into mainstream adoption, we'll need to see solutions embed into our core routines and abstract all the technical details away from the user. I feel we're at a point where most excited chatter is happening amongst gearheads who are marvelling at the tech under the hood with some folks maybe driving some concept cars around. What we need, though, are the infrastructure folks to build the roads and highways; the manufacturers and designers to make the solution more scaleable, appealing, and user-friendly; the distributors to package it all up and take them to market; the marketers to paint the vision and explain why the new paradigm is better, etc. etc. etc. And the early decentralized nature of it all means that many parties will try this in many ways. Which one lands best is yet to be seen.
Either way, yes, this is an exciting time. Thanks for putting this all into perspective.
I think this was a great read. While it does seem a bit over optimistic, you can already see trends of having fun while earning a good income on web 2.0. The rise of influencers who go around taking pictures/videos and promoting products/services, gamers who make millions by participating in esport tournaments while also live-streaming can make even more doing something that certainly enjoy. These new job categories only start happening in the last decade or so. I am excited to see what new job categories will spawn out of web 3.0. So much of our reality will be shaped by jobs many of us really can't fathom yet.
I love the way you think about and frame these phenomenons. Absolute killer writing.
....but. I think you're still only applying an optimistic lens formed by behaviors in a bull market. I think you also missed the relationship between making money and having fun: most people are having fun now because they are making money. When the narrative swings on crypto again, and it's much harder to make money, it will not be as easy to have fun. The risk/reward equation will swing as it does during bear markets and turnoff most people.
Value driven by narrative is a double-edged sword, as we've seen with memes. It's as hot on the way up as it is cold on the way down. And if people keep getting stuck on the way down they'll be less excited to keep playing.
DAOs have the South Park underpants gnome Step 2 problem and are missing the financial innovation that will lead to sustainability. Uniswap was the accelerant of this bull run with AMMs that turned staked coins into fee generators while most of the 2017-2018 class has died because they didn't have other sustainable mechanics. DAOs need their own set of catalysts.
This was fun to read. Please launch PackyDAO so I can make money?
If the long arc of history is bent towards more money and more fun, does that mean there is some kind of singularity (fungularity?) moment in which we spend all of our time on experiences maximizing fun and getting paid for it? I would take your argument even a step further and say that Web3 will allow some (hopefully many) individuals to push completely beyond this Funtier into a world in which they no longer need to trade off between fun and money because they earn enough money having fun. That's the dream! Thanks for the great read.
Nice one. Enjoyed reading this. I’d say optimal on the Pareto funtier 😉
Packy, loving this framework so much. Giving me courage to lean in to the fun + financial benefit of electrification of homes/vehicles. Thanks! https://mattcandler.io/
Yeah, no downside to monetizing everything right?
You fucking crypto people are the worst
I really like the Pareto Funtier framework and this idea of the dichotomy of fun vs money; all this helps to explain some basic human phenomena that helps shed light on the growing fervor behind web3.
BUT we already have many great examples of people having a lot of fun AND making a lot of money ala athletes/celebs, and today's content creators. Let's ignore athletes/celebs because let's say they're outliers. Creators, however, are crushing it on Youtube, Etsy, Teachable, Gumroad, Substack, etc. in business models that are easy to explain and understand and which are frankly almost identical no matter what platform you're on. AND they're working on the things that they are passionate about.
Web3 is, as you rightly said, a brand new frontier that arguably needs a level of exposition on the innovations it's founded on like blockchain, tokens, smart contracts, decentralization, etc. Innovations often have some fervent early adopters, but for us to cross the chasm into mainstream adoption, we'll need to see solutions embed into our core routines and abstract all the technical details away from the user. I feel we're at a point where most excited chatter is happening amongst gearheads who are marvelling at the tech under the hood with some folks maybe driving some concept cars around. What we need, though, are the infrastructure folks to build the roads and highways; the manufacturers and designers to make the solution more scaleable, appealing, and user-friendly; the distributors to package it all up and take them to market; the marketers to paint the vision and explain why the new paradigm is better, etc. etc. etc. And the early decentralized nature of it all means that many parties will try this in many ways. Which one lands best is yet to be seen.
Either way, yes, this is an exciting time. Thanks for putting this all into perspective.
far out is possible: for example Google founders must have enormous fun when they did what far better than their peers, and got enornous meny as well
I think this was a great read. While it does seem a bit over optimistic, you can already see trends of having fun while earning a good income on web 2.0. The rise of influencers who go around taking pictures/videos and promoting products/services, gamers who make millions by participating in esport tournaments while also live-streaming can make even more doing something that certainly enjoy. These new job categories only start happening in the last decade or so. I am excited to see what new job categories will spawn out of web 3.0. So much of our reality will be shaped by jobs many of us really can't fathom yet.
Packy, let's throw a meetup at the next Art Bazel for Not Boring members. Happy to help with the logistics. Should be 9/9 on the Pareto curve.
Amazing. Super-new to this stuff and learning as much as I can. Got hooked by "The Great Online Game" essay. Many thanks!!