30 Communities and Your Role
30 Communities and Your Role
What communities do you see yourself leading?
(Originally posted on Jan 20, 2021)
Random Observation/Comment #694: Evaluate the subset of communities where you want to spend your time.
Why this List?
Money is extrinsic in value. It’s necessary for a lot of things, but it’s nothing compared to quality time, friendships, passion, and devotion. If you’ve already figured out your strategic investing, then how you spend your time and who you spend it with will be most important for your own fulfillment.
Off of the 30 important contacts to know, consider your personal brand and topics you’re passionate about. Your active role is some dedication of time and thought, which will determine a lot of conversation topics and the people in your Web of Peeps (digital and social circles).
Crypto – There are some very smart and inspiring people here, but there are also a lot of scammers and crypto Twitter characters. I think I prefer maintaining a professional relationship with crypto instead of an influencer one. I love the few channels I’ve joined discussing this field as trend analyzers and trend setters. I’m still down to meet up with people at Devcon or Ethereal.
Trading & Stock Market – As mentioned in my previous post on Strategic Investing and Portfolio Management, I spend a lot of time following technical analysis and watching market sentiment in order to readjust my trading strategy where needed. I would never trade someone else’s money because that’s too stressful.
Venture capital and investing – Savvy institutional investors are also brilliant in applying their logic to the company proposal and the dedication of the founders. I love learning about new product opportunities. In a future phase of my career, I’d love to be a part time advisor or board member.
Universities and Education – At one point, I had an aspiration of being a professor. I just liked wearing elbow patches and sports blazers. It’s probably more influential and lucrative to start my own presence or create a one-time online course that can be a recurring revenue digital asset. It’s also a lot less stressful just staying in the conference circuit than creating a full curriculum. Also, universities will be the next disrupted industry given the opportunities forming in digital influences.
Economics – I may take some official classes (learning with actual people) and chat about these macro impacts on investments, but I consider myself more of a student than a teacher in this subject. I’ve consistently applied my learnings to crypto-/token-economic concepts.
Programming and hackathons – I love meeting people at Hackathons. They’re always passionate and have fun hobbies. I still code to optimize my tools and everyday activities. I’ve evolved into focusing on the app level than the protocol. I’ll still contribute my thoughts to standards organizations like the EEA and Baseline, and also participate at any Hackathons at conferences.
TED and TEDx community of organizers – If you ever wanted a diverse group of passionate do-ers and get-thing-done-ers, just join a TEDx conference. You’ll meet the hard working people that care enough to organize and coordinate these incredible events. I still consume a lot of TED content and hope to rejoin this space from a local chapter.
Toastmasters – It’s been 5 years since I’ve worked on any new speeches, but I still think about the community fondly. We were all just looking to improve and overcome our underlying fears. I may attend in a future local chapter meeting.
Comedy and Improv – I don’t think I’m that funny, but my wife laughs at my jokes (or at me), so that’s all I can ask for. Who doesn’t like to laugh? It’s like asking if someone wants to be happy. I would love to just meet/befriend a lot of comedians and attend some shows.
Alcohol appreciation – I’ve loved the taste of all alcohol and spent enough time enjoying it. Dipping my toe into the process would be trying out beer brewing (or joining a group of beer brewing Dads). Maybe I’ll invest in an alcohol brand like all those celebrities.
Video games and gaming life – It’s been a long time since Counter Strike, Diablo3, and Starcraft2. I actually don’t miss playing video games that much. I feel like it’s all encompassing to a certain extent – makes time pass quickly without providing too many lasting memories. I did watch a walkthrough of Last of Us Part 2 and it was a pretty intense movie. I don’t know if I really want to be a “member” of the gaming community or self identify as a “gamer.”
Fashion – There’s a whole scene of people I knew from FIT that invited me to Fashion week in NYC. Surprisingly cool group, but way too many drugs. I think I’ve outgrown Fashion and leaned into the outdoors-y Dad look.
Art – I’ve been to my share of art exhibits and parties, but never had a place to put the beautiful pieces (+not enough money to afford them). I find directly connecting with artists is better than the business around Art as an investment vehicle. Artists truly help with feelings and perceptions, and I’ll always want to be a part of this – maybe eventually as an investor.
Photography – I absolutely love photography. It’s a competitive industry now that everyone has an awesome camera and photoshop directly in their pocket. I can see myself taking photography tours and continue using my own photos for my blogpost or for stock photography.
Restaurants / Restaurant Reviewing – I’ve missed restaurants. I uploaded my reviews from my Yelp elite days to Google Maps for those early Google Guide perks. I personally think the foodie community is adventurous and interesting, so I’ll still stay a Foodie and Explorer. I don’t think I like the Restaurant as an investment business.
Cooking – I cook because I love the process. I can lose myself in smells and tastes. The value of making something for others is the added bonus. It’s a skill I’ll always keep improving and spend a lot of time enjoying. There’s no ambition on my side to be more than just a good home cook, but I want to surround myself with people that appreciate good food and share awesome recipes.
Real estate – There’s an admiration for a really awesome house and design. HGTV is just as addictive as the cooking channel. I don’t think I’d like the business behind property flipping or buying property for passive income. I may re-evaluate this if interest rates are low and house prices drop in 2022-2025.
Car appreciation – Similar to houses, I love looking at and occasionally driving fancy cars. It actually might not be that expensive to join a car club or just rent through Turo during my travels. This is something to explore and probably a set of interesting conversations within this community.
Podcasting – I spend a decent amount of time listening to podcasts as a way to keep me updated with news and for some good laughs. I could see myself going to podcasting conventions and being a part of some podcast clubs. After my rigid process of completing my 30 episode podcasting challenge at www.listsof30.com I will look into having guests and maybe even being a guest on shows that I admire.
Travel – There’s no doubt in my mind that I’ll continue seeing the world and using it as a way to enjoy a lot of different communities from a different cultural perspective. The travel community in itself is free spirited and can span from finding incredible deals to reviewing different fancy hotels. At the very least, I’ll rack up some rewards points.
Space – It’s a hobby subject I like to follow. I hope to teach Evie about the wonders of the universe and inspire her to seek perspective. Beyond donations, I’d love to attend a space camp or take a roadtrip to see some obscure launches.
Music – I’m always amazed at people planning their trips around concerts. It’d be incredibly fun partying with a band and traveling with them to a few shows. I’d probably need to get a few tattoos.
Family / Parenting – Back to reality, I think a larger number of my friends are parents with young toddlers. It’s a community of fairly tired and hard working people just trying to have as much fun as possible and hoping they don’t mess up. I’ll likely do all the parenting things like join a PTA and help with science projects. I can contribute my time and hopefully Evie will come to appreciate it.
Dungeons and Dragons – The storytelling aspect is fascinating to listen to and really fun to be a part of. I don’t know if I’m creative enough to be a DM, but the skillset is very transferable and rewarding with storytelling and writing.
Politics – Besides being a knowledgeable voter, I really don’t like anything about politics. It’s a shame because so much of governance requires its people to care about upholding justice and freedom. I just don’t see myself aiming for any type of public figure.
Fitness and Health – Exercise and healthy habits are the best thing you can do for yourself. What’s the point of all these communities if you’re not healthy enough to enjoy them? It’s not necessary to obsess over having a six pack, but I’d like to increase my probability of living longer. Communities like CrossFit might be a little too much for me.
Self help and productivity writing – In my process of reflecting and learning, I spend a lot of time analyzing my improvement plan. They manifest itself into lists of 30 most of the time, but hopefully they’re useful to someone. I would likely still write lists of 30 on these topics.
Movies / TV / Entertainment – While I don’t see myself making any movies, I don’t see why I wouldn’t consider doing executive producing for a film or theater show. These shows are not about the return on investment (because they’re probably low), but you can be surrounded by a very interesting set of connections.
Non profits and Philanthropy – This is a scene I don’t know too much about. I’ve been invited to some MET-hosted events for the corporate employees. It seems very high class and snobby surrounding a very good cause. Part of me feels like it’s a common avenue for tax evasion.
Sports – Table Tennis will always be a love of mine. I’ve met some of the most interesting people at Spin and treasure those friendships. I’d want to continue playing for the exercise, connections and investments back into the space.
The important part of keeping track of these communities is merging the skills you learn for synergies. For example, you can podcast or create artwork about anything. I want to surround myself and be useful to these communities.
In the short term, I’d consider my guiding activities to be:
Continued development and advancement of cryptocurrency initiatives through conferences and interesting projects.
Investing in Table Tennis initiatives and being a direct customer of the improved services.
Write and Podcast about different random topics that come up through the process of parenting and living.
Participate in innovative thought leadership organizations like TEDx and conferences/hackathons to continue meeting cool people.
Challenge yourself with new 30 day challenges getting deeper into learning topics and engaging with friends.
Be present to the joys of parenting, and where possible – doing nothing.
~See Lemons Love the Community