A Culture of Intimacy: a thesis for building enduring web3 commu…

Small, close, tight-knit connections are fundamental to intimacy,, and we can’t scale small groups in the sense of stretching them out to fit more people inside. To stretch out a small group and add more people to it senselessly is like trying to grow a cell by just stretching it out. The once small, intimate community will lose all the things that... See more

I’ve been fascinated with how the Internet can be used to form beautiful ephemeral moments of connection with the most unexpected kinds of people. This doc outlines an inquiry into how we create the conditions for those moments, how to cultivate and sustainably grow the intimate tiny internets we explore that protect us from the wide, scary, overwh... See more

What would it take for large online communities to feel intimate?

The seeds of intimacy are time and repetition. We choose each other again and again, and so create a community of two.

community members should “feel a sense of belonging (membership), feel like you make a difference to the group and that the group makes a difference to you (influence), feel like your needs will be met by other group members (integration and fulfillment of needs), and feel that you share history, similar experiences, time, and space together (share... See more

community = a true peer to peer network, which aids in the feeling of belonging but also in the sense of intimacy that's created when you're surrounded by people who share in your passions.

But these activities are all separate from the feelings needed to fully and sustainably participate: the courage, optimism, trust, love, intimacy, curiosity. The resilience to push through the inevitable feelings of fear, overwhelm, frustration, and hurt. The stamina to go through cycles of all of these feelings and more, again and again, and conti... See more