The Future of Learning: Combining Social Capital and NFTs

The Future of Learning: Combining Social Capital and NFTs

"Status Monkeys". Neither Bitcoin nor Twitter existed fifteen years ago. Both are dominant forces today. They bootstrapped from nothing to something by rewarding early adopters, incentivizing them to do work for the network, and making it increasingly challenging to mine new tokens. The fact that high follower counts are scarce makes them valuable, and the proof of work requirement enables scarcity. Lack of social graph portability is frustrating for users. This one is particularly germane, and highlights a main difference between traditional social networks and NFTs The power of NFTs is that they make digital assets scarce. Scarcity makes digital assets valuable NFTs are starting to feel a lot like a new kind of social network that sits above other social networks and communities People are status-seeking monkeys. People seek out the most efficient path to maximizing social capital. Social capital is, in many ways, a leading indicator of financial capital, and so its nature bears greater scrutiny.

Not only is it good investment or business practice, but analyzing social capital dynamics can help to explain all sorts of online behavior that would otherwise seem irrational. NFTs blur the lines between social and financial capital, and as the media has been quick to point out, buying jpegs for thousands or millions of dollars seems irrational. Each new social network issues a new form of social capital, a token. You must show proof of work to earn the token. Over time it becomes harder and harder to mine new tokens on each social network, creating built-in scarcity. Many people, especially older folks, scoff at both social networks and cryptocurrencies. the most useful is the idea of proof of work in status games.

First Utility, Then Social Capital. “Come for the tool, stay for the network.” First Social Capital, Then Utility. Wei highlights Foursquare, Wikipedia, Quora, and Reddit as products that used the promise of social capital to get people to do free work that then becomes a utility for the masses. Wei points out that there are two forms of asymptotes that limit growth or lead to downright collapse. Social Asymptote 1 is Proof of Work itself. Not everyone in the world can do what it takes to gain social capital on any given social network, which creates an upper limit. Social Asymptote 2 is Social Capital Inflation and Deflation. The only scarce resource in an abundant digital world is users’ attention, so it’s necessary to deliver the things they’re most likely to engage with. On the deflation side, social networks can get less cool as more people join. The canonical example here is what happened to Facebook when parents started joining: “At that point,” Wei cautions, “that product or service better have moved as far out as possible on the utility axis or the velocity of churn can cause a nosebleed.”

Social capital can be used as temporary energy. “You can think of social capital accumulation incentives like these as ways to transform the potential energy of status into whatever form of kinetic energy your venture needs.” New proof of work can lengthen the status game. Social capital turns into financial capital, and vice versa. Over the past thirty days, according to DappRadar, the top ten NFT marketplaces did $1.86 billion in volume. This is the power of valuable NFTs: they are high in social capital and utility, and moving higher in entertainment. They hit the social network trifecta. Social Capital. NFTs are social capital with skin in the game. It’s “Investment-as-a-Status.”

Utility. NFTs also have utility as investments, as tickets for access to Discord groups, and even as something that you can hang digitally on your wall. Over time, NFTs will give owners access to events and unique experiences as they evolve and infiltrate a wider audience. NFTs are entertaining as well: it’s fun to watch the sales, and some people are already building personas and online characters starring their Apes or Punks. Bidding on PartyBid is as much a social activity as it is an investment. NFTs more directly tie social and financial capital. NFTs bring status signaling and social capital online at a global scale. It’s possible that a direct exchange of social capital for financial capital is enough to get people to duplicate work or move their work to a new platform, but it’s challenging. You need to reward an entirely new behavior. NFTs may be different enough to work, and they’re not asking people to leave their favorite existing social network. On new and existing platforms, members could bring the exogenous social capital that comes with owning valuable NFTs and work as a group to build up the social capital of their NFT avatar. NFTs make it possible to come for the tool, bring the network wherever there’s the most social and financial value. NFTs have the ability to add infinite new proofs of work, which Wei said can lengthen the half-life of status games. NFTs have the advantage of being decentralized. While certain platforms may present NFTs in an algorithmic feed, NFTs themselves are portable and can be used and displayed wherever the owner chooses. New NFT projects can harness a potent combination of social and financial capital to get off the ground. Ownership brings social capital, utility, and entertainment. There are ever-evolving proofs of work, from figuring out the next big thing to creating brand extensions. Powerful things happen when you combine money, status, and community.

"The Future of Learning". Learning is a state of mind. If your mind is always open, you’re always learning. And if it’s closed, nothing has a real chance of sinking in. I think the number of perspectives on the subject determines how much you really know about it. To increase and accept them, your mind needs to be open. “A wise man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer.” — Bruce Lee. The answers are always less valuable than the questions. Since new information is now generated more and more rapidly, it takes less time for said information to lose its value. More "information" is generated, but is it really new? Is new information really outdating old information? As the Lindy effect says, I think that important things won't change much over time. Knowledge is cumulative. Intelligence is selective. It’s a matter of efficiency versus effectiveness. Determining what to know at any time will matter more than the hard facts you’ll end up knowing. Idea synthesis, rapid learning, and adaptability: three skills that multipotentialites are very adept at and three skills they might lose if pressured to narrow their focus.

As a society, we have a vested interest in encouraging multipotentialites to be themselves. We have a lot of complex, multidimensional problems in the world right now, and we need creative, out-of-the-box thinkers to tackle them. You learn how to learn by continuously challenging yourself to grasp concepts of a broad variety. This ironically then allows you to specialize in something else faster if you so choose. This is an incredibly valuable advantage. You valued learning and you taught me to value it. Once I learned to value it, the rest came without trouble. In order to build true intelligence, we first have to let go of what we know. Anytime you read something with the mindset that you are there to extract what is right and what is wrong, you are by default limiting how much you can get out of a particular piece of writing. You’re boxing an experience that has many dimensions into just two. Learning really is a state of mind. If your mind is always open, you’re always learning. And if it’s closed, nothing has a real chance of sinking in. Can't agree more! The reason the wise man can learn from even the most foolish question is that he never assigns that label in the first place. If we focus only on the activity of learning, we miss the most important part: Unless we’re willing to change our perspective, we won’t grasp a thing. I think the number of perspectives is related to understanding. The longer we can hold opposing ideas in our heads without rejecting them, the more granular the picture that ultimately forms. “Like this cup, you are full of your own opinions,” replied the Zen teacher. “If you do not first empty your cup, how can you taste my cup of tea?”

In conclusion, the future of learning lies in the intersection of social capital and NFTs. By combining the principles of status-seeking, proof of work, and the value of scarcity, NFTs have the potential to create a new kind of social network that blends social and financial capital. NFTs bring status signaling and social capital online at a global scale, allowing for the exchange of social capital for financial capital. They also offer utility and entertainment, making them more than just digital assets. On the other hand, learning itself is a state of mind that requires an open mindset and the willingness to explore different perspectives. The accumulation of knowledge is valuable, but the ability to synthesize ideas, adapt quickly, and challenge oneself to learn new concepts is equally important. Encouraging multipotentialites to embrace their diverse interests and skills is crucial for solving complex problems in today's world. In the future, the combination of social capital, NFTs, and open-minded learning approaches will lead to powerful outcomes and an ever-evolving landscape of knowledge and creativity.

Actionable advice:

1. Embrace the power of NFTs and explore how they can provide social and financial capital in your online presence. Consider investing in valuable NFTs and leveraging them for social status and utility.
2. Foster an open-minded learning mindset by constantly challenging yourself to explore different