TIA (TIA)

Social media is cat-1 drug and it’s far more pernicious than hard drugs because it corrodes one’s cerebral, mental and social health slowly and in a way that appears normal to everyone else - often the detection happens a little to late ⏰ because of influencer culture etc

Many have struggled with twitter dopamine since 2010 but as usual with dopamine it was always pleasurable and crypto being social media money was a good, sometimes even a source of income

The first time I noticed the damage CT can do was when @FranklinBi posted about it. You can spend years on CT feeling good but produce nothing of significance

@FranklinBi CT substituted hard execution skills for clout and engagement and that drove prices for a bit especially in 2021-22 so it was economically rational to focus on CT for all the “KoL”s

@FranklinBi We had an entire era of founders like Rushi whose entire value prop was building buzz on CT… celestia kinda started that tbh and there were super profitable ghost writing business shilling tokens from founder accounts

@FranklinBi @KaitoAI and infofi peaked the KOL phenomenon but it collapsed soon after. Many of us social media specialists were blindsided and poorly positioned to navigate the shift

@FranklinBi @KaitoAI The second comment came from @gajesh saying it’s substance not engagement that counts. Gaj is wiser beyond years and still very effective on social but he ships big stuff and gets engagement by shipping cool kit.

@FranklinBi @KaitoAI @gajesh There are long horizon agentic influencers like @milesdeutscher who operate this platform with awareness, discipline and technique but most of us aren’t that

@FranklinBi @KaitoAI @gajesh @milesdeutscher As for me, I spent way too much time on CT and over time it corroded my attention span, social ability IRL and planning and distracted from the meatier stuff - revenue - that ultimately counts. The validation provided by CT was truly pernicious because it wasn’t for meaty outcome

So when @nikitabier killed CT for a bit it was quite a relief and expanded my focus and attention span - attention is all you need - in life and in the age of AI, but not quite to the levels where I ran large programs of work in banks and PwC. Once I left PwC for CT it was a spiral

@FranklinBi @KaitoAI @gajesh @milesdeutscher @nikitabier As @paraschopra says attention is all YOU need. Well it if I have one regret it’s watching my attention span drop from hours and days at Goldman quant to minutes and seconds in CT over 10 years

@FranklinBi @KaitoAI @gajesh @milesdeutscher @nikitabier @paraschopra COVID made it all much worse because we were no longer hanging out IRL with hoomans. It was all on zoom and hangout with alt tab for quick dopamine where we weren’t always paying attention - attention is all you need

@FranklinBi @KaitoAI @gajesh @milesdeutscher @nikitabier @paraschopra Further sources of dopamine added up - conference tours, swipe Consensys card to go to Belo, conference tours, vibes and buzz like token 2049, events, slack chats, telegram messages… group chats were the future and we were all chatting

@FranklinBi @KaitoAI @gajesh @milesdeutscher @nikitabier @paraschopra Add the dopamine or price movements “pumps” and most or CT was hooked on non stop dopamine

@FranklinBi @KaitoAI @gajesh @milesdeutscher @nikitabier @paraschopra This was different from my job at Goldman Barclays’s and PwC which required long attention spans and diligent planning and execution on a line by line basis over weeks and months. That’s what real jobs look like in the world outside the influencer and CT circuit

@FranklinBi @KaitoAI @gajesh @milesdeutscher @nikitabier @paraschopra Agents are outperforming humans on planning, organizing, detailed execution and verification. If this doesn’t scare you maybe it should. Agents can also outperform on agency - the focus on an outcome and doing resiliently what needs to be

@FranklinBi @KaitoAI @gajesh @milesdeutscher @nikitabier @paraschopra If you look at the winners in crypto and defi like @StaniKulechov or @SergeyNazarov , they were all builders… people with long attention spans, attention to detail and diligence - sort of the same things Goldman asked for in performance reviews

@FranklinBi @KaitoAI @gajesh @milesdeutscher @nikitabier @paraschopra @StaniKulechov @SergeyNazarov The underachievers were very bright CT enthusiasts - consuming more than producing every time - so many cases.

@FranklinBi @KaitoAI @gajesh @milesdeutscher @nikitabier @paraschopra @StaniKulechov @SergeyNazarov I count myself in the latter list. CT wasn’t a place for doing large scale high impact work because it’s the mother of attention deficit which reduces focus, persistence and resilience

@FranklinBi @KaitoAI @gajesh @milesdeutscher @nikitabier @paraschopra @StaniKulechov @SergeyNazarov Influencers like @blknoiz06 and @andyyy with a clear purpose and ability to focus monetized CT brilliantly. @Cobie too - he shipped a 400m product inspite of being a CT legend

@FranklinBi @KaitoAI @gajesh @milesdeutscher @nikitabier @paraschopra @StaniKulechov @SergeyNazarov @blknoiz06 @andyyy @cobie The gig with social was always turning it into a purposeful business with long horizon agentic planning and execution. Either that or it was not worth it as it distracted from building a business

@FranklinBi @KaitoAI @gajesh @milesdeutscher @nikitabier @paraschopra @StaniKulechov @SergeyNazarov @blknoiz06 @andyyy @cobie Now that agents can do all this better than humans can, except for the authenticity bit, which is also simulatable, CT is dead. Founders still count, some investors still count, KOL better be ai influencers already and post news

@FranklinBi @KaitoAI @gajesh @milesdeutscher @nikitabier @paraschopra @StaniKulechov @SergeyNazarov @blknoiz06 @andyyy @cobie Tl;dr is to build clout of the best of a business or product you build. The reverse used to work but it’s not really working right now. AI and data science and deep tech don’t work that way so everyone has to bring good kit

@FranklinBi @KaitoAI @gajesh @milesdeutscher @nikitabier @paraschopra @StaniKulechov @SergeyNazarov @blknoiz06 @andyyy @cobie Also seek help early if your attention span is dropping, you’re less able to execute complex projects, are taking less responsibility, have a hard time taking a 30 minute call undivided or can’t play with our own kids or colleagues IRL because it’s not that “dopamine”

@FranklinBi @KaitoAI @gajesh @milesdeutscher @nikitabier @paraschopra @StaniKulechov @SergeyNazarov @blknoiz06 @andyyy @cobie If your output/input ratio is dropping you don’t have an intelligence or age problem. You most likely have a dopamine problem and CT is where we acquire it. CT also looks like the illusion of a work which makes it even more lethal

@FranklinBi @KaitoAI @gajesh @milesdeutscher @nikitabier @paraschopra @StaniKulechov @SergeyNazarov @blknoiz06 @andyyy @cobie Attention is all you need. No attention, no retention