On The Other Side ep 13 - Simona Pop: Optimizing for human thriving
Primer: Economic thinking is obsessed with the idea of infinite growth. Simona Pop questions this mindset and proposes a healthier alternative: Optimizing for human thriving. Listen to her sharing as she unpacks what this means.
Background
Explored crypto around 2014/2015. Did a little bit of investing and did not give it much attention at that time
Came back in 2017. Had a sudden realization that there were a lot of people building very cool stuff
Properly dove in to crypto
Co-founded the Bounties Network. The project adopted a broad approach in exploring and experimenting with bounties as a payment mechanism
The experimentation led to projects with real life impact. The team also got to build many relationships with people in the ecosystem
Created the "Earn as you learn" model for Web3 onboarding
Part of the lead group for Devcon scholars and Denver scholars
"A big big piece for me is the education and the accessibility of the Web3 space for everybody, not the select few." - Simona Pop
Her work as community strategist for Status is centered around making this kind of empowering economy accessible to everybody
Co-organizing LisCon in October in celebration of our culture
Optimizing For Human Thriving
Previously, Simona tweeted about this idea of optimizing for human thriving instead of money. Chase got her to expand on this thought
Economic thinking has this idea that we can grow GDP to infinity. This is impossible
"Everybody's growth, growth, growth, growth, growth, but nobody has ever thought okay, but what are the implications of that? Is that even possible? How long can we sustain this growth?" - Simona Pop
Through the decades, people are becoming more obsessed with money as an end goal
People have not thought about the implications of a endless growth-obsessed mindset and the ramifications it has on:
Humans
Environment
Sustainability
And a whole host of other issues
Human thriving, unfortunately, gets relegated to the bottom of the list
Humans have stopped thinking that value is anything but money. The term "value" is incredibly diverse and multifaceted. However, people have reduced it to just this unit of measure, which is money
What fascinates her is that Web3 gives us this opportunity to shift from this reductive mindset to one that is much kinder and empowering
We have the opportunity supported by the technology to move into that next phase of genuinely human evolution
Metrics To Measure Human Thriving
Thought of this from the perspective of communities and how do we measure growth, adoption, and engagement
Thinks that Web3 measurements are superficial (e.g. like going to a doctor and being given a clean bill of health from having one's height and weight taken instead of going through a comprehensive health check-up)
Moving from a one-way communication (Web2) to a dialogue (Web3). Dialogues may be heated but it pushes us further as a community
This is what happens in nature; complex flow networks are all about communication and value flows from one organism to another and back again
"The complex flow networks in nature when you have diversity, it's an incredibly, incredibly resilient network. And when you have too much efficiency, for instance, with the monoculture, everything is very, very brittle." - Simona Pop
Growth
Continuously tries to bring different points of view, experiences, ways of looking at things, and designing things. This makes her aware of what could be versus what already is
People tend to do things the way things have always been done. This is not something that can facilitate evolution from what we are now to where we could be
Experimentations are good, but we have to ask where does it lead us to, and what values and intentions are baked into the experiments
How Can We Have More Depth In The Way We Measure Value?
Chase: how does she reconcile measuring value outside of the traditional system with people needing to pay their bills to survive?
Does not think it is a revolution, but an evolution
She grew up in Romania when the Romanian revolution happened
In a revolution, it is just a change of guard. Everything else remains the same
In contrast, evolution is what happens in nature. It does not happen overnight, but gradually through time
"If blockchain teaches you anything, it is patience, you have to be patient." - Simona Pop
In terms of accessibility, the entire space has been improving. People have multiple entry points to earn and contribute. They do not need to be technically oriented. Still, there is room for improvement
Shared about a blog post she published earlier this year on Mirror
A few years ago, she got to know Brandon Walsh, a homeless artist who started in the Bounties Network community
Received a message from him this year that he has put down a deposit on his first apartment
In Web2, social mobility is limited if one does not have a bank account or an address. Web3 fixes these issues
"Web3 really does shave all of that away and what it leaves is opportunities for you to access resource regardless of where you're born, regardless of how privileged you were, regardless of whether you are in the, you know, geographies of plenty, and all of that garbage, that, again, is completely and utterly devoid of any kind of consideration for human thriving." - Simona Pop
Not Losing Sight On What's Important
There are too many distractions in the space and it can really drain people of energy
Need to have a long-term perspective. Have to consciously keep this in our mind as we build
Favourite Thing In Her Wallet
NFT of her blog post on Mirror. It contains a snippet of the interview that she had with Brandon
Brandon says he's a citizen of Ethereum, not a user of Ethereum
Found it very powerful because it's coming from him
"It was powerful because Ethereum is a part of life. It isn't just a side thing. It isn't just a speculative thing. It isn't just like the flavor of the month or the day or the whatever. It is something that is genuine that Brandon has integrated into his life and is now such a big part of his life." - Simona Pop
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