On Sovereign Individual, Li Jin Creator Economy and Web3 Content Creation

At the beginning of this year, I participated in the writing competition under the 1729 community. One paper per week over a six-week period that echoes the “Internet Nation” theme. I originally wanted to participate in the fun and exercise my English writing skills, but I didn’t expect that the two articles I wrote won the championship of the week, and finally was voted as the overall champion ?!

Taking the opportunity of Balaji’s release of the new book “The Network State” , the 1729 community is brewing a new round of writing training and competition activities, and I am also fortunate to be recruited to be responsible for course design, online interaction and experience sharing. and so on. This month of working remotely with two American netizens in the community has made me more and more convinced of Pieter Levels ’ prediction that there will be 1 billion digital nomads in the world by 2035 .

In the past, as a freelancer, I worked alone, with occasional contact with clients, and it didn’t matter which time zone or country I was in for the rest of the time. At the moment, the three of them are working together in different time zones, and there is actually no major inconvenience. As long as everyone embraces a common vision, the work will be smooth and smooth.

Remote work has become mainstream in Europe and the United States, and the rise of DAOs has contributed to this. I have left a large company for more than three years. I have said goodbye to the negative energy that I once complained about the company, my boss and my colleagues, so that I have more time and energy to do fun things with the people I like.

More than 20 years ago, a best-selling book called The Sovereign Individual set the tone for our current age of digital life. The book puts forward the concept of “sovereign individual” for the first time, emphasizing that with the development of information technology, the social class we live in will also change, and the sovereign individual is a new social class.

Simply put, a sovereign individual is a group that can get rid of geographical constraints and generate revenue anytime, anywhere in the digital age. Most people live a day-to-day life in a constant cycle of routine and habit. But throughout history you will see that life is always in flux, changing slowly and inadvertently, and then suddenly one day there is a change that takes us by surprise (gradually and then suddenly).

Part of the reason these changes are so hard to notice is because the mainstream media still leads popular opinion, leading to a single, directed narrative. However, the birth of the Internet has accelerated the dissemination of information. Some people have realized the drawbacks of mass media. They have taken the initiative to break down the barriers of information and technology, and thus benefit from it, becoming individuals with autonomy.

Sovereign individuals believe that taking personal responsibility is the path to freedom and wealth. We used to be in a standardized society, received a unified education, followed the trend of college entrance examination/postgraduate entrance examination, entered a well-recognized unit, found someone who is basically similar to your life path, got married and had children, and the children continued to repeat this path… This kind of standardization The way of life makes us feel dependent and gives us a certain path and direction. But sovereign individuals do not want to limit themselves to this seemingly prosperous journey. They actively seek and filter information, jump out of the standardized life circle, create their own rules of the game and build leverage to achieve wealth and prosperity. Life.

They are not influenced by ideologies like nationalism and statism, but are veritable globalists. Now more and more work can be done by computers in any corner of the world. For sovereign individuals, the world is their playground. They can choose any country and region that is beneficial to their development and create multiple sources of income. , get rid of the restriction of 9 to 5.

The internet itself has created a powerful economy and provides more and more immersive experiences. Sovereign individuals can use the Internet to find like-minded people, cooperate on projects (DAO) without geographical restrictions, and rely on smart contracts to reach agreements in a digital environment without relying on local government policies, thus realizing multi-time zones and multi-regional development source of income, and reasonably avoid geopolitical risks.

Take a look at the sharing of small partners in the community today (below), the future is always full of infinite hope for those who have ideals and aspirations, bravely follow the inner guidance to find your own community, there will always be A place for you to shine!

Last year, I wanted to take the online course of Li Jin, the “Godmother of Creator Economy” , but many bigwigs, including the CEO of Spotify, were not ranked. At that time, I silently expected her to give another online course, but failed to do so.

Recently, Li Jin made her online course free to the public. Although some of the content has become outdated after a year, the underlying logic related to the economy of most creators is always the same. Let me briefly summarize my study notes. :

– How to define “creators”: purposefully create consumable content to create value for themselves and consumers; influential people continue to produce high-quality content; “cult leaders” in the digital age, creating consumers can Communities that resonate.

– Looking at the current situation of creators, 90% of streaming royalties on Spotify go to the top 1.4% of musicians, more than half of Twitch’s revenue goes to the top 1% of streamers, and the 1% of streamers include major Part of podcast ad revenue. The Internet media model of web2 squeezes the vast majority of creators (especially middle-class creators), so that their creative income all fall into the pockets of the platform.

– Mark Anderson, the founder of a16z , once suggested that the original sin of the Internet was not incorporating payments into its infrastructure. This also explains why web2 has a prevalent ad monetization business model that monetizes users’ attention rather than making them pay for their credit cards.

Therefore, with a huge user base, the platform uses algorithms to control the creation and dissemination of content, and delivers page views to content creators who are already popular. User preference and behavioral data is a platform’s most valuable asset, so the platform adopts a closed ecosystem and locks users into its own network in order to maximize the collection of this proprietary data.

– In the web2 model, creators have to compromise with advertisers to create more eye-catching and traffic-driven content. This model does not inspire the creation of niche and in-depth content, but rather shallow content that goes viral and popular.

The platform-centric, advertising-driven business model is the key to the success of web2, but the birth of web3 technology has empowered creators and created scarcity through four major ways (NFT creates scarcity, users/followers become investors) , a new economic model with a track record, DAOs and community ownership) allow creators to break away from the constraints of the platform and directly build relationships with followers and users.

– Just like finding a product-market fit (PMF) when starting a business, creators also need to find a Creator-Market Fit. At this time, three factors need to be considered: business model, content scope, and audience. When exploring business models, several questions need to be answered (motivation for content creation, platforms for content creation, classification of followers, content types, content creation-monetization stages, content distribution and promotion platforms).

– web2 does not have a system of reward and tracking mechanisms to give everyone who participates in the creation the recognition they deserve. And web3 solves this problem. Taking the early dividend functions of Mirror and Foundation as an example, the income can be automatically distributed to the Ethereum addresses that contribute to the project and works.

The Internet itself is a melting pot. Creators continue to produce content and create value through remixing and cooperation. This process, which once could not be quantified and financialized, can now be realized with the help of technology, thus providing creators with greater creative power. Each on-chain project and creative work is recorded, and creators will also receive corresponding benefits for subsequent use of their works.

– Creators’ biggest anxiety: psychological, algorithmic, and financial. The most laborious thing for creators: finding the right tools and platforms, finding investors to grow.

– What aspects do investors look for when investing in creators? Creator-market fit, finding a niche, creating value for both yourself and consumers, growth trends and monetization models. The way investors get their income: ISA, shares, tokens, NFTs and loans.

– What the most advanced segment of people do on weekends is what the average person will be doing in the next ten years. The things and projects that children are passionate about now are the things that future creators will focus on.

– Over the past decade, we have lived in an environment where content ownership is in the hands of a handful of platforms that own our data, manipulate creator-user relationships, and squeeze creator value. Although user-generated content has ushered in explosive growth after wave after wave, we are still limited by algorithms and improper incentives, and it is even more impossible for the vast majority of creators to make a living by creating content alone.

Fortunately, we are at the beginning of the Internet renaissance, and the technology of web3 will bring us to a real golden age where content is king.

PS Inspired by Li Jin’s feedback to readers, my community CY CIRCLE is also buying one get one free for a limited time (as of the end of this month ). Friends who have purchased membership can contact me directly. I will open 130,000+ words of encrypted notes to Your nominated buddy.

New friends can directly click “Read the original text” or log in to https://cycircle.camelliayang.com/ to join. After the purchase is completed, I will contact you directly and give you and your companions permission to open!
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1. My goal in life is very simple: to read ten thousand books and travel ten thousand miles. Eat, drink, and have fun with the people you love.

2. If you want a safe life, you don’t really love life.

A safe life is a rehearsal to a script written by someone else.

If you can clearly see the trajectory of your life, it is not your real life, but something imposed on you by society and circumstances.

Life is like traversing a long tunnel with no end in sight and anxiety, and all we can do is to take the brave and fearless move forward as a voluntary act, participate in and experience the whole process.

Your life is only known when you look back at it at the end.

3. Krishnamurti writes that it is extremely difficult to learn oneself because oneself is in constant motion. To learn something alive, you have to see it and learn it from a fresh perspective every minute.

Self is a living entity, not a dead thing that must be observed. Also, you have to let go of what you have learned about yourself one minute and relearn it the next, so that you are always learning a living thing with a fresh perspective.

Instructor Tom Morgan also said that the constant flow of equilibrium we pursue can be called “Tao”. Sadly, this state of equilibrium can never be articulated in precise language, because once we do, the Tao is defined as a state of stillness, which is contrary to the definition of Tao.

The best way to know yourself is to enter a completely spontaneous state of unconsciousness, a state of flow that dances with life. You need to listen to your heart to find a way to achieve this state, no one can teach you, nor can you imitate it, it is all based on your own feelings and experiences.

4. In March of this year, I discovered BookCoin, a website focusing on book NFTs . My favorite blogger, Mark Manson , is the consultant and participant of the website, and made the golden sentences of his best-selling books into NFTs to be distributed on this website.

Readers with Mark NFTs can unlock unpublished chapters of the book, join his exclusive clubs and online courses, and more.

Recently, BookCoin has started to play the Read to earn mode again. After purchasing NFT, readers can read the classic novel “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde” online. After answering a series of questions related to the book content, they have the opportunity to get a limited edition of NFTs. If you are interested, you can study it!

5. I am addicted to MidJourney this week, using AI to make pictures. It seems that I can rely on it for the book cover and article pictures in the future. Hahaha!