“It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion, it is easy in solitude to live after our own, but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.”
Gm friends.
There’s no podcast this week, but I wanted to drop a link to one of my favorite essays of all time, Emerson’s Self Reliance. The above quote is a mantra that I try to live by and the reason why I re-read this essay every so often.
It’s an extremely challenging call to action to always be yourself, whether alone or in the company of others. How many fake smiles do flash in public, only to wonder why our jaws hurt as we get older? How many times have we laughed at a joke that we didn’t actually think was funny? How often do we puff our chests up in false pride when asked about work, or simply asked “how’s life?” unwilling to share the full truth of our day-to-day struggles. Not that we need to share the full truth with everyone, or that every person we interact with cares deeply enough about us or is “worthy” enough to hear our full story. However, life is hard enough when we are completely immersed in it, and putting on a show tends to make it just more tiresome.
This week maybe try not to laugh at that joke you don’t find funny, or don’t smile when you’re not feeling joy. It may be uncomfortable, but see what happens.
Anyways, on to the juicy stuff - this week’s readings. A lot of awesome links on the metaverse - including this one from one of my favorite Metaverse thinkers, Piers Kicks Dawn of the Guilds: Settlers of the Metaverse. If you come to this letter for insights on crypto, I highly recommend signing up for Delphi’s pro membership - it’s a wealth of knowledge.
Have a great week everyone!
What I’m Reading
Ideas
“Simping” and the Sexual Marketplace
Edward Snowden on WorldCoin / Data Rights
Markets
Bridgewater Thinks Stagflation the Real Risk and Most Portfolios Massively Exposed
Accelerating Inflation Spreads through the Economy, WSJ
Metaverse, NFTs, Web3 Social & DAOs
Why Your Group Chat Could Be Worth Millions, The New Yorker on DAOs
Once Upon a Time in DAOlin, Jamis from PleasrDAO (on $4m purchase of WuTang Album)
CryptoPunks, What’s Behind Their Unstoppable Rise?, Yasmine Karimi, Nansen
Coinbase NFT Marketplace hits 2 Million Users
Crypto
Is Code Law? , CoinDesk article on $16M Hacker
Pricing Uniswap v3 LP Positions: Towards a New Options Paradigm, Guillaume Lambert
Thoughts on DeFi 2.0, Vance Spencer Partner @ Framework
A Thread for New Crypto Entrants, Nick Chong, ParaFi
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