The universe rewards action, not intelligence. While you may wish it worked differently, the stupid person who acts every day will outcompete the smart person who acts intermittently because of the nature of compounding. This principle occurs in all facets of life, including but not limited to school, family, friends, work, entrepreneurship, investing, etc.
Our modern world is going through growing pains due to this reality. China has spent the last 20+ years acting in order to position itself to be able to withstand Western pressure once the divorce proceedings begin. We are experiencing the effects of the asymmetric position that China has maneuvered itself into. As a result, the United States is now rigorously playing catch-up by performing actions that it hopes will even the scales and maintain its global hegemonic position.
On an individual basis, those in the private sector understand this principle quite well.
The small business owner knows that if he or she takes days off, the business will not grow. Therefore, they are obsessed with building a team that can act continuously in order to propel the business forward.
Those who earn their money through investing and making decisions must act every day in order to acquire information, evaluate that information, and decide what to do next. Warren Buffett has built his wealth through tiny compounding action over the years. Sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, and ETFs promise those who contribute that they will get incremental and consistent returns, which over the course of time compound and result in wealth.
The same can be seen in the social networks of our time. Facebook was not guaranteed. Myspace was a competitor once. Google was not guaranteed; Bing remains a competitor. Firefox remains a competitor.
ChatGPT emerged as the next version of Search through persistent daily action. Google responded quickly via Gemini and has iterated. Elon threw his hat in the ring and, through persistent daily action, created Grok and maximized distribution by adding Grok to X.
Right action done persistently is what separates the winners from the losers. Truth be told, it’s more difficult to be consistent over an extended period of time than it is to be intense for a short period of time.
I don’t think crypto is exempt from this principle. I think the projects with leadership and members that are willing to put themselves out there and act irrespective of what the external world is saying about their actions will outcompete the projects that are more passive. Now I don’t mean that one cannot take external criticism and assess what one’s action is doing. In fact, I would argue that the acceptance of criticism, the evaluation of the tenants of that critique, and then the adjustment of future action based on that reflection is a vital piece of the puzzle. If the stupid person who acts every day does not reflect and adjust course, they may find themselves rowing in the complete opposite direction and never reach their goal.
Action that occurs in the digital space is one thing, but action that occurs in the physical space is another.
In our world, in real life, action will be valued at a premium compared to digital action. And digital action will be valued at a premium compared to no action.
Naval Ravikant’s advice for wealth creation is to productize oneself and use human capital, monetary capital, code, or the written word as leverage. Find the thing that you do that feels like play to you, but work to everybody else, and figure out how you can provide value to the rest of the world by doing that thing. That advice rings more true by the day.
Meme coins don’t pretend to be alt coins and present to the potential buyer a proposition around some technological product that will revolutionize the world. Their value proposition is more in the realm of the intangible, either entertainment, community, or a vehicle to send a message, to state some examples. But that does not mean that they do not have to follow the universal law that I laid out at the outset of this post. In fact, they must do so even more. And they get rewarded even more by following this tenet. That is my argument to you.
The memes that understand this the best have evolved to provide a sense of community, coupled by a cultural software upgrade on top of the promise of asset appreciation. I don’t think the crypto market stays in a dog versus cat coin existence for eternity. The use of a decentralized Blockchain for that purpose is low value. There are far more powerful and potent uses for the ability to amass capital and coordinate individuals. Furthermore, as institutional players enter the space, the individual trader will be eaten alive.
Why are phones so addictive? Is it because you have one developer creating the entire phone and providing it to you? Is the dynamic you versus that one developer, and it just so happens to be that the developer is so much more intelligent than you that they designed the phone in a way that captures your attention so perfectly and addicts you? That’s not the dynamic. The corporations that made the phone have armies of developers tinkering on each individual element of the phone. It’s you versus that army and the sum total of their thoughts regarding how to make the phone as addictive as possible.
Do you think market makers, insiders, and whales are not going to approach the crypto markets in the same manner? How will you fare in that competitive environment by yourself if you can’t even break the phone addiction?
Bitcoin is like a digital tree. It’s not a carnivore, it’s a herbivore. Institutions and insiders are carnivores. The best meme coins, in fact, the best tokens in crypto, will take the bitcoin model and become herbivores as well. Their photosynthesis will be the actions that promote the growth of the project and the community. And if that community or project is not actively photosynthesizing, it will die.
They say that if you want to change, you must approach the problem at the identity layer. I’d argue that meme coins approach the individual and present them with a value proposition at the identity layer. Therefore, those tokens that perform the best will affect the action that their members take in real life because they have affected the identity layer of their members.
This is a core reason why I’m long SPX6900.
Let me know what you think in the comments.
