Community is a funny thing. It can sound like a fluffy word or concept, but it's actually really powerful. Maybe more powerful than many things.
Community is about helping people feel connected and aligned. When people are connected, they feel warm and good, and part of something bigger than themselves. When people are aligned, each of their individual efforts adds to the whole overall effort, so you have a lot of leverage.
There are so many examples of this. Here's one: today is International Women's Day -- essentially an effort to get 1/2 half of humanity connected and aligned around a sense of community. On a much smaller level (and as a part of that), some friends of ours own a restaurant near where we live. As part of Women's Day, the restaurant hosted an event, and was bustling all day long with people from the neighborhood, all wearing purple and doing a variety of activities. The restaurant itself is an important center of community where we live, and today it was plugging into an even bigger community movement.
Or, dating back to a past life where I helped create Streetsblog and Streetfilms: these were both community media efforts in the transportation policy space. When these launched, back in 2006, there were already plenty of organizations doing good policy work in this area. What Streetsblog and Streetfilms added were online places where this passionate community could come together, gain energy, and grow. The streetsblog comments section was (and is, today) a hotbed of community, and the Streetfilms videos (nearly 1000 today) highlighted community stories and community members. It was, and is today, a powerful force that has multiplied the effectiveness of people working on these issues.
Or let's look at examples from the cryptocurrency space, like Ethereum and Bitcoin. Both of these (and other strong communities in the crypto space) have developed something bigger than a company ever could, in terms of the connection and alignment of the community. These communities are wild and wooly, for sure, but they are broad and deep and powerful. People who are deep into them feel like the are really part of something.
At USV, we invest quite a lot in community. We have a network team whose mission it is to build community among our portfolio companies -- in this case charged with helping everyone become better at their jobs, and helping their companies succeed. The USV Network started out as a pilot program led by Gary back in 2010, was then grown larger by Brittany, and is now a 4-person team, scaled up by Bethany, that's running over 150 events per year and managing a ~4,000 person online community.
It can be hard to measure the impact of community, and this can make it hard to know how well you're doing when your job is to cultivate. But sometimes you can just know it when you see it / feel it.
Picking back up the series on what decentralization is good for (part 1, part 2), today I want to focus on one of the most exciting aspects of decentralization: growth.
In this case, when I say "decentralized", what I really mean is "open and non-proprietary". The two often go hand-in-hand.
Ok, so why are open, decentralized systems especially good for growth? When a technology is open (anyone can use, extend, modify, build on) and decentralized (no one party or company is in full control), it has the potential to spread like wildfire, for exactly those reasons. Since it is free to use without restriction, permissionless innovation is possible -- meaning anyone who feels like it can pick it up and run. And because open, decentralized systems reduce platform risk, developers can feel comfortable building on them with less of a risk of getting the carpet pulled out from under them.
Just about 10 years ago, I had a migraine that lasted two weeks. I have never been in such pain; even an ER visit and a morphine drip didn't touch it. Then, 6 months later, I had a stomach pain that just wouldn't go away. Finally I went to the hospital, and it turned out that the stomach pain wasn't indigestion, and the migraine wasn't a migraine; both were actually blood clots.
And so I embarked on a multi-year journey to try and figure out why the clots were forming. In the end, after dozens and dozens of tests and weeks in various hospitals, we came up empty -- and as a result, I have been on blood thinners as a precautionary measure ever since.
For me, it was the first time I ever dealt with a chronic condition. I had had plenty of injuries before -- mostly broken bones and other sports-related injuries -- but I'd never dealt with anything internal, and never anything... permanent. Not a welcome feeling.
I would say it has taken me close to 10 years to really internalize this. I have resisted it. Not only is the blood clotting a problem in itself, but the medicine causes its own problems -- specifically, constant risk of over-bleeding. In other words: if I don't take my medicine, I'm at risk of clotting up, and if I do take my medicine, and something happens (like a car crash or bike accident) I'm at risk of bleeding out. My wife put it pretty succinctly the other day when she said: "Anyone could fall down the steps, hit their head and die. That means you need to be more careful than everyone." Ugh.
Being more careful than everyone has never been my strong suit, and really just isn't in my nature. But truth is, that's how it has to be, and I need to deal with it.
Community is a funny thing. It can sound like a fluffy word or concept, but it's actually really powerful. Maybe more powerful than many things.
Community is about helping people feel connected and aligned. When people are connected, they feel warm and good, and part of something bigger than themselves. When people are aligned, each of their individual efforts adds to the whole overall effort, so you have a lot of leverage.
There are so many examples of this. Here's one: today is International Women's Day -- essentially an effort to get 1/2 half of humanity connected and aligned around a sense of community. On a much smaller level (and as a part of that), some friends of ours own a restaurant near where we live. As part of Women's Day, the restaurant hosted an event, and was bustling all day long with people from the neighborhood, all wearing purple and doing a variety of activities. The restaurant itself is an important center of community where we live, and today it was plugging into an even bigger community movement.
Or, dating back to a past life where I helped create Streetsblog and Streetfilms: these were both community media efforts in the transportation policy space. When these launched, back in 2006, there were already plenty of organizations doing good policy work in this area. What Streetsblog and Streetfilms added were online places where this passionate community could come together, gain energy, and grow. The streetsblog comments section was (and is, today) a hotbed of community, and the Streetfilms videos (nearly 1000 today) highlighted community stories and community members. It was, and is today, a powerful force that has multiplied the effectiveness of people working on these issues.
Or let's look at examples from the cryptocurrency space, like Ethereum and Bitcoin. Both of these (and other strong communities in the crypto space) have developed something bigger than a company ever could, in terms of the connection and alignment of the community. These communities are wild and wooly, for sure, but they are broad and deep and powerful. People who are deep into them feel like the are really part of something.
At USV, we invest quite a lot in community. We have a network team whose mission it is to build community among our portfolio companies -- in this case charged with helping everyone become better at their jobs, and helping their companies succeed. The USV Network started out as a pilot program led by Gary back in 2010, was then grown larger by Brittany, and is now a 4-person team, scaled up by Bethany, that's running over 150 events per year and managing a ~4,000 person online community.
It can be hard to measure the impact of community, and this can make it hard to know how well you're doing when your job is to cultivate. But sometimes you can just know it when you see it / feel it.
Picking back up the series on what decentralization is good for (part 1, part 2), today I want to focus on one of the most exciting aspects of decentralization: growth.
In this case, when I say "decentralized", what I really mean is "open and non-proprietary". The two often go hand-in-hand.
Ok, so why are open, decentralized systems especially good for growth? When a technology is open (anyone can use, extend, modify, build on) and decentralized (no one party or company is in full control), it has the potential to spread like wildfire, for exactly those reasons. Since it is free to use without restriction, permissionless innovation is possible -- meaning anyone who feels like it can pick it up and run. And because open, decentralized systems reduce platform risk, developers can feel comfortable building on them with less of a risk of getting the carpet pulled out from under them.
Just about 10 years ago, I had a migraine that lasted two weeks. I have never been in such pain; even an ER visit and a morphine drip didn't touch it. Then, 6 months later, I had a stomach pain that just wouldn't go away. Finally I went to the hospital, and it turned out that the stomach pain wasn't indigestion, and the migraine wasn't a migraine; both were actually blood clots.
And so I embarked on a multi-year journey to try and figure out why the clots were forming. In the end, after dozens and dozens of tests and weeks in various hospitals, we came up empty -- and as a result, I have been on blood thinners as a precautionary measure ever since.
For me, it was the first time I ever dealt with a chronic condition. I had had plenty of injuries before -- mostly broken bones and other sports-related injuries -- but I'd never dealt with anything internal, and never anything... permanent. Not a welcome feeling.
I would say it has taken me close to 10 years to really internalize this. I have resisted it. Not only is the blood clotting a problem in itself, but the medicine causes its own problems -- specifically, constant risk of over-bleeding. In other words: if I don't take my medicine, I'm at risk of clotting up, and if I do take my medicine, and something happens (like a car crash or bike accident) I'm at risk of bleeding out. My wife put it pretty succinctly the other day when she said: "Anyone could fall down the steps, hit their head and die. That means you need to be more careful than everyone." Ugh.
Being more careful than everyone has never been my strong suit, and really just isn't in my nature. But truth is, that's how it has to be, and I need to deal with it.
The Slow Hunch by Nick Grossman
Investing @ USV. Student of cities and the internet.
The Slow Hunch by Nick Grossman
Investing @ USV. Student of cities and the internet.
really well
. Many of the technologies we use every day -- like HTTP, SMTP, WiFi, USB and Bluetooth -- have become ubiquitous precisely because they are open, nonproprietary and decentralized in nature (in addition to being useful!).
Everyone knows that it's safe to build to the Bluetooth standard without platform risk. And what that means is that anyone, no matter what company they are with, or what country they live in, has the potential to grow the platform. This kind of omni-directional growth is really only possible with open, un-owned, decentralized technologies.
Often times, however, a single company drives the development of these open, un-owned, decentralized technologies. For example, the General Transit Feed Specification is on open data format that powers most of the public transit industry. As I have written about before, this standard came to market in large part because of Google's initial efforts, and was then adopted and grown by a large community of others (including our work at OpenPlans back in 2009-2012). Or, to go farther back, we can look at the role that Mozilla/Firefox played in bringing modern web standards (includuing Cascading Style Sheets) to market. Or to today, and Apple's and Google's role in bringing USB-C to market (of course, Apple does not have the best track record on this topic). The point is, it can be difficult for open, nonproprietary, decentralized technologies to take off -- they need some sort of catapult. Historically that has come from companies with some self-interest -- this has been a good thing (generally speaking).
Today, in addition to companies driving open technologies, we have the potential to use cryptocurrencies to drive initial adoption. We seen this work to great effect with Bitcoin, Ethereum and other platforms, and while the specific mechanics are still being explored and experimented with, the basic concept is clear: we can use cryptocurrencies and tokens to bootstrap new open, non-proprietary, decentralized technology platforms. It doesn't work every time -- and we will no doubt continue to see a parade of flameouts -- but when it does work, it has the potential to work in a massive, exceedingly rapid, and global way.
Here is the funny thing about making life-changing... changes. On the one hand, it feels lousy, unfair, and like missing out. On the other hand, when I think about the people I know who have done it, I am the most proud of them.
I remember when my uncle, who passed away a few years ago, had a health scare and abruptly quit drinking and smoking (after many years of doing both pretty seriously). I was maybe 14 at the time, but I remember being so impressed by the way he took the reigns and just did it. He knew he needed to, and was almost gleeful and proud about taking a hard right turn towards his health (and for his family).
An entrepreneur I know recently made a huge concerted effort to exercise, lose weight, quit drinking, and doubled down his focus both on his personal relationships and his company. He is thriving, big time. I see an effort like that and I am like, damn, that's awesome. It takes courage and dedication to make changes like that. But it is so beautiful.
Another friend was in a bad place with his marriage. After close to 10 years and three kids, he and his wife finally divorced. After some time, they are both better off and have things going in a new way, on a more solid foundation. He, in particular, seems so renewed and rejuvenated. Almost like being healed from a sickness.
It feels like it often takes a big shock, of some kind, to make these kinds of changes. I will never forget another time, back in 2008 -- I was dealing with a challenging situation at work, and wasn't dealing with it well -- ruminating, avoiding. I remember sitting in the doctor's office, watching my son's ultrasound, and seeing and hearing his heartbeat for the first time. Right at that moment I resolved to deal with the situation head on because, shit, I was undoubtedly responsible for important things and didn't have time to fuck around.
There is something about that feeling of being forced to make a big change that ultimately does it. Without that, it is often just too easy to let things be as they are, and to continue sliding through.
So, to everyone out there who is mulling a major change that has the potential to fix something important in your life; I hope to give you just the smallest bit of extra strength as you consider it.
really well
. Many of the technologies we use every day -- like HTTP, SMTP, WiFi, USB and Bluetooth -- have become ubiquitous precisely because they are open, nonproprietary and decentralized in nature (in addition to being useful!).
Everyone knows that it's safe to build to the Bluetooth standard without platform risk. And what that means is that anyone, no matter what company they are with, or what country they live in, has the potential to grow the platform. This kind of omni-directional growth is really only possible with open, un-owned, decentralized technologies.
Often times, however, a single company drives the development of these open, un-owned, decentralized technologies. For example, the General Transit Feed Specification is on open data format that powers most of the public transit industry. As I have written about before, this standard came to market in large part because of Google's initial efforts, and was then adopted and grown by a large community of others (including our work at OpenPlans back in 2009-2012). Or, to go farther back, we can look at the role that Mozilla/Firefox played in bringing modern web standards (includuing Cascading Style Sheets) to market. Or to today, and Apple's and Google's role in bringing USB-C to market (of course, Apple does not have the best track record on this topic). The point is, it can be difficult for open, nonproprietary, decentralized technologies to take off -- they need some sort of catapult. Historically that has come from companies with some self-interest -- this has been a good thing (generally speaking).
Today, in addition to companies driving open technologies, we have the potential to use cryptocurrencies to drive initial adoption. We seen this work to great effect with Bitcoin, Ethereum and other platforms, and while the specific mechanics are still being explored and experimented with, the basic concept is clear: we can use cryptocurrencies and tokens to bootstrap new open, non-proprietary, decentralized technology platforms. It doesn't work every time -- and we will no doubt continue to see a parade of flameouts -- but when it does work, it has the potential to work in a massive, exceedingly rapid, and global way.
Here is the funny thing about making life-changing... changes. On the one hand, it feels lousy, unfair, and like missing out. On the other hand, when I think about the people I know who have done it, I am the most proud of them.
I remember when my uncle, who passed away a few years ago, had a health scare and abruptly quit drinking and smoking (after many years of doing both pretty seriously). I was maybe 14 at the time, but I remember being so impressed by the way he took the reigns and just did it. He knew he needed to, and was almost gleeful and proud about taking a hard right turn towards his health (and for his family).
An entrepreneur I know recently made a huge concerted effort to exercise, lose weight, quit drinking, and doubled down his focus both on his personal relationships and his company. He is thriving, big time. I see an effort like that and I am like, damn, that's awesome. It takes courage and dedication to make changes like that. But it is so beautiful.
Another friend was in a bad place with his marriage. After close to 10 years and three kids, he and his wife finally divorced. After some time, they are both better off and have things going in a new way, on a more solid foundation. He, in particular, seems so renewed and rejuvenated. Almost like being healed from a sickness.
It feels like it often takes a big shock, of some kind, to make these kinds of changes. I will never forget another time, back in 2008 -- I was dealing with a challenging situation at work, and wasn't dealing with it well -- ruminating, avoiding. I remember sitting in the doctor's office, watching my son's ultrasound, and seeing and hearing his heartbeat for the first time. Right at that moment I resolved to deal with the situation head on because, shit, I was undoubtedly responsible for important things and didn't have time to fuck around.
There is something about that feeling of being forced to make a big change that ultimately does it. Without that, it is often just too easy to let things be as they are, and to continue sliding through.
So, to everyone out there who is mulling a major change that has the potential to fix something important in your life; I hope to give you just the smallest bit of extra strength as you consider it.
