I wonder if we’re slightly overfitting to the legible layer of the system. If “mutuals” are the new proof of work, then we’ve effectively redefined work as visible, continuous signaling. That’s a very specific slice of cognition.
What gets selected for is the ability (and willingness) to externalize thought in real time. What gets filtered out are forms of thinking that require long incubation, like someone spending years refining a craft before sharing anything publicly, or a researcher working through a complex idea that only makes sense once it’s fully formed.
There’s also a subtle circularity here: if your “proof” is your network, and your network is built from prior visibility, then access compounds around the already visible.
The open question is whether this system is actually surfacing the most valuable thinking, or just the forms of thinking that are easiest to perform in public.
The "proof of work is your mutuals" makes sense but I think the more interesting tension is what this does to good old serendipity.
You could say coffee chats are inefficient but they're also porous. You could stumble into rooms you had no business being in and meet people completely outside your graph.
When access is gated by mutual follows and group chat invites, you may get higher signal but at the expense of much narrower aperture.
"If the terminally online are running the SF tech social scene today, is it only a matter of time until they’re running every city’s social scene?"
I pray to the old Gods and the new that this isn't the case. I'm at least very confident this kind of culture will not become the norm in the Nordics. For me, it feels like a bizarre flex to perceive "terminally online" as a positive.
So, the new goal is not warm intros, instead going ahead with a public ledger of intellect, where your digital footprint is the verifiable proof of work. Interesting. So, building personal brands is more important than ever, but could it be that we are chronically online but we might be missing talent that is not online but has actual intellect?
This sounds exactly like NED Talks, that we hosted in our apartment in bangalore between 2015-2020. Yet another thing on which I guess I was “too early”!!
Katie, el año pasado tuve la oportunidad de visitar San Francisco y entre otras cosas vivir el primer UPSCALE CONF de Freepik. Una experiencia muy enriquecedora conocer todo lo que mueve en el entorno de la Bahía y compartir con grandes profesionales de distintas compañías con los que tuve la oportunidad de coincidir.
Interesting but could use perspective on how new it's not. The most erotic organ is the brain. What did Grace Slick sing in White Rabbit? "Feed your head." That's what is going on.
Amazing! Can you do the analysis on New York City as well?
We are so back… until we’re not. And then we are again. 🤣
I wonder if we’re slightly overfitting to the legible layer of the system. If “mutuals” are the new proof of work, then we’ve effectively redefined work as visible, continuous signaling. That’s a very specific slice of cognition.
What gets selected for is the ability (and willingness) to externalize thought in real time. What gets filtered out are forms of thinking that require long incubation, like someone spending years refining a craft before sharing anything publicly, or a researcher working through a complex idea that only makes sense once it’s fully formed.
There’s also a subtle circularity here: if your “proof” is your network, and your network is built from prior visibility, then access compounds around the already visible.
The open question is whether this system is actually surfacing the most valuable thinking, or just the forms of thinking that are easiest to perform in public.
The "proof of work is your mutuals" makes sense but I think the more interesting tension is what this does to good old serendipity.
You could say coffee chats are inefficient but they're also porous. You could stumble into rooms you had no business being in and meet people completely outside your graph.
When access is gated by mutual follows and group chat invites, you may get higher signal but at the expense of much narrower aperture.
"If the terminally online are running the SF tech social scene today, is it only a matter of time until they’re running every city’s social scene?"
I pray to the old Gods and the new that this isn't the case. I'm at least very confident this kind of culture will not become the norm in the Nordics. For me, it feels like a bizarre flex to perceive "terminally online" as a positive.
We have this exact same trend in Dubai btw. I founded one these communities that have since grown exceptionally by the terminally online
So, the new goal is not warm intros, instead going ahead with a public ledger of intellect, where your digital footprint is the verifiable proof of work. Interesting. So, building personal brands is more important than ever, but could it be that we are chronically online but we might be missing talent that is not online but has actual intellect?
SF is great--everyon should move here! https://jennahermann.substack.com/p/move-to-san-francsico?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web
the mutuals-as-proof-of-work dynamic explains something real about how fundraising works right now too. thanks!
This sounds exactly like NED Talks, that we hosted in our apartment in bangalore between 2015-2020. Yet another thing on which I guess I was “too early”!!
https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/bangalore/ned-talks-connecting-people-offline/article7804219.ece/amp/
Katie, el año pasado tuve la oportunidad de visitar San Francisco y entre otras cosas vivir el primer UPSCALE CONF de Freepik. Una experiencia muy enriquecedora conocer todo lo que mueve en el entorno de la Bahía y compartir con grandes profesionales de distintas compañías con los que tuve la oportunidad de coincidir.
Is there a “terminally offline city”?
Berlin
seeing lotta the speedrun portfolio doing IRL and social and always thought a model like this is stronger but not sure it’s scalable to the world
Amazing, social groups and popup gatherings organized completely online. 😏
Interesting but could use perspective on how new it's not. The most erotic organ is the brain. What did Grace Slick sing in White Rabbit? "Feed your head." That's what is going on.