From the Managing Directors’ desk:
Over the last week, we noticed an interesting release of news. In the crypto world, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin stated, “We’ve underestimated the importance of community.” In the tech startup scene, team messenger behemoth Slack released an article stating “not all users are equal: work is fueled by true engagement.” And then we read an interesting article from The Atlantic talking about why you never see your friends anymore.
What’s the connection?
Well, we noticed a theme: the deterioration of “societal norms,” but also a return to “traditional values” (despite the advances in tech). Amidst all the hype, Vitalik Buterin continued on from his aforementioned statement, “Two years ago I was a believer that if you built good tech they would come. We now see that without investing in community the good tech won’t come, or it won’t be that good.” This, not so ironically, is why Faiā has kept harping on about the importance of - not just - community, but the harmonization of community & tech.
We are strong believers in the power of individuals and innovation, but in harmony with communities and past wisdom. These “traditional values”, at least in the context of tech, are about remembering who you’re building for: humans. And humans are tribal/communal/social by design. The below video is an animation from Fritz Heider and Mary Simmels (1944), an experimental study on “apparent behavior.”
Credit: The American Journal of Psychology, 57, 243-259.
In regards to Slack, their data is now showing just how important true (aka organic) engagement is when building out teams or communities. This is perfectly in line with some of the issues we’re currently seeing with AI, bots and fudged metrics. When it becomes that much easier to deceive, people are going to be drawn more and more to what they can verify as true, honest or honorable. This is our prediction.
And with innovations in the blockchain space, being able to do the aforementioned, will actually pay for itself. It will become profitable to be honest, if you’re working in the business world. Again, this is a return to traditional values of “honest business.” Sure, there will always be those who attempt to deceive and/or manipulate, but if we can reduce and/or penalize such behavior, we incentivize more honest activities (in the long run).
Finally, with the article from The Atlantic, you get a sense of dread around the idea of a declining social fabric in American society, but you also see a glimpse into some realities that need to be tackled head on. Being “busy” is eliminating the joys of free time. To date, we have introduced new innovations to help us “improve our working lives,” help us be more efficient, but it has been replaced with more and more activities. So, are we really innovating to “free up time,” or are we replacing the hamster wheel? To feel like we’re being productive?
Food for thought for your week.
Speak soon,
George Siosi Samuels
Managing Director, Faiā
📣 UPDATE: THE PACK ROUND 12 BEGINS
Our productivity accelerator The Pack began on Tuesday with a lot of returning members! This program/community has been the testing ground for a lot of our work in building productive communities, which can be applied to teams or any group. What’s fascinating is that it has been 4 years since it all began, and each round we have around 80% return (we must be doing something right). Applications are now closed, but if you’d like to apply for the next round (in February 2020) or just learn more, click on the link below.
📚 What We’re Reading…
Here are a few articles from the last week that struck our team the most:
Build A Community (People)
Monitor The New (Tech)
IBM CEO Sees Amazon and Microsoft as Cloud Allies, Not Rivals
Tether, Bitfinex sued for creating the “largest bubble in history”
Improve Your Business (Productivity)
New Snapchat Integration Enables Direct Sharing of Reddit Content
Why Teams Like Slack and Uber are using this powerful new design tool (Figma)
📅 Featured Events
(27/10) BitcoinSV Meetup at Tribe Theory Singapore
(31/10) Celebrating Success at Tribe Theory Singapore
⭐️ Faiā Insights
Our Head of Technology, Brendan Lee, shares insights on building a knowledge base for Bitcoin.
The Solution to Mindfulness Is Tech by Sagar Tandon, Head of Innovation at Faiā
👏 Faiā Spotlight
Featured news and updates from our clients and customers:
If investors don’t get you, it means you’re on to something - Vikram Bharati, Founder of Tribe Theory
Interview with Handcash Cofounder Alex Agut on the BSV Business Show - HandCash
How Community Identity is Shaped Through the Power of Public Art - Gretha Oost, Founder of the O Initiative
Quote of the Week
“We’ve underestimated the importance of community. Two years ago I was a believer that if you built good tech they would come. We now see that without investing in community, the good tech won’t come, or it won’t be that good.” ― Vitalik Buterin, Founder of Ethereum
Faiā is a consultancy. We help scale-ups build communities, improve productivity, and integrate emerging technologies (such as Bitcoin). We were the first in Asia-Pacific to offer Bitcoin (BSV) exclusive integration services and are evangelists of Community-Centred Design. Visit our website to learn more.