My biggest realisation as an entrepreneur was to stop seeing things as they should be, but see things as they are. A grandiose vision on how to change the world is all well and good, but only if it syncs up with a deterministic view on how the world will be.

For better or for worse, we live in a largely individualistic society. Zero-sum games (read status games) are rampant. We love to flex on each other by buying nice cars, that offer no real material improvement to quality of life, Rolex’s, expensive jewellery, clothes etc. While it’s inevitable we will realise the limitations of this worldview and move back to a more integrated version of a community-driven society (not bound by religion) for the foreseeable future, betting on humans desire to communicate value through materialism is a pretty safe bet. If you’re curious about societal and ego evolution check out Don Beck’s incredibly well-researched model of Spiral Dynamics, it’s one of my most foundational mental models.

NFTs as status-games appeal to our mostly stage orange population.

NFTs provide the easiest way for people to play status games. If I buy a fancy piece of art, or a nice car, the only way to demonstrate this value is to have you over to my yard to show it off. My NFT collection, however, is a constantly visible, locationless, shop window of my tastes, values and interests. Owning a Cryptopunk doesn’t just signal I’m a baller, it shows I’m a crypto fanboy, an early adopter, that I’m tech-savvy.

“But in any case, understanding is one of the higher functions of the human mind and brain, and a unique one. Many other physical systems, such as animals’ brains, computers and other machines, can assimilate facts and act upon them. But at present we know of nothing that is capable of understanding an explanation – or of wanting one in the first place – other than a human mind.”