Jay Matthews

10 lessons from the past year

1. There has to be value: product market fit, there must be fundamental value for users


2. Web3 and crypto are not consumer friendly: people want problems addressed regardless of labels or terminology — " Crypto will scale when the technology becomes the invisible enabler of what consumer actually care about "


3. Incentive

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"we're not a game; we're a platform for creativity and play. We provide tools and support for people to build what their imagination wants. The only limit is their imagination." — Chris Misner, head of Roblox International

Shelby Lorman writes a cathartic essay on overwhelming tragedy and the lack of tools to process grief as a society—especially as tragedies compound. Lorman discusses the intersection between the internet and the history of US mass shootings up to the end of May 2022, offering a comparison with Nick Drnaso's graphic novel "Sabrina". To answer the... See more

Risks to the trend

1. LPs too slow to react, VCs lack incentives to admit limitations in current processes


2. Poor quant performance 


3. Downturn in private markets 

Writing, art, creation: this is smithwork. You set your fire; you use your bellows, your pen, your paper, to heat it to the right temperature. You set your base metal in the flames, heat it until it is white. Then you begin your transformation.

Participant interview: I felt like my life was very directed in one way, but when I came here and communicated with everyone else and heard their ideas and their ways of thinking, I found there was more that I could offer. In a way, I have different paths going off my tree, with more branches and that kind of thing.

A step-by-step recipe for beauty:

It’s the builder, not the drill sergeant, who genuinely cares about excellence; for the builder’s excellence is in service of the particular life she wants to build , whereas the drill sergeant threatens you with “excellence” as a vague, arbitrary dictate you have to appease before being allowed to build and enjoy your own life in the first place.