In today's video, we're diving deep down the rabbit hole of the net's intrinsic problems and the ambitious project that promises to fix them all - Urbit. Now, before you hit that 'x' button, let me tell you why this is so important.
Remember how Twitter did that rebranding to X and, in an instant, a user lost their million-dollar username? Unsettling, right? That's because it's not your server, not your network, and not even your identity. But Urbit, a unique approach to personal servers, offers a solution, aiming to turn the tables on the system.
But to understand its full potential, we need to rewind to the root of our internet issues. From the infinite number of IP addresses causing havoc to the vulnerabilities of centrally controlled databases, let's break it all down.
No jargon, just plain speak about how this virtual revolution can empower you with an identity that's truly yours. If you're itching to bust out of the busted internet, join me on this journey of discovery. Let's get our hands dirty with Urbit and craft a new internet, where it's not just your identity, it's also your freedom.
When I ask most people about their frustrations with the internet, like I did on Monday with you, most people have some flavor of:
I'm mad that I don't even see stuff from my real friends & people I want to hear from. I only see stuff that the algorithm wants me to see.
Fair point.
The algorithm is looking for the stuff that keeps us on the website as long as possible. What better way to do that than show us the stuff that's going to get us riled up?
That's usually not the stuff from your real friends.
What if I told you that the algorithm, spam, shadow-banning, and a lot of other 'problems' that people are mad at, are actually symptoms of a deeper problem?
You'd probably say no way.
Then I'd counter your counter with this:
That's it.
That's the technological source of our social media / online life frustrations.
I'll unpack how & why in the next couple notes.
Until then, I'd appreciate you giving my new video a watch if you didn't get a chance yesterday. Give it a like if you enjoy it; helps tell the algorithm that more people should see it.
See what it makes us do?!
Alright, I'm out!
Best thoughts,
~Jonathan
PS: Did you also know that I'm building out an interactive community where I'm teaching people how to level up their mindset, improve their sales skills, have more successful negotiations, learn how to develop an online presence that gets them huge opportunities, and other "high stake" power-ups for winning in the 21st century? I call it ZAVANT University. Check it out! (Free to join!)
This isn't a rhetorical question; I'd really like to know.
👆 Good Monday morning; time for some heaving thinking! Ha!
If you want to know what kinds of things I'm asking for, here are some things I've heard people talk about over the past couple years:
Those are just some of the issues that affect millions of people as we all figure out how to use this "internet thing" along with the apps, platforms, and services that it makes possible.
Since this affects so many people in so many ways, I want to know which ways you are most frustrated by. Sound off! Don't hold back!
Best thoughts,
~Jonathan
PS: Here's the note that left me devastated:
They're not making more digital land! Come join a community of future-minded thinkers, builders, and creators.
Use your urbit server to join ~minder-folden/antechamber where you can request entry to the private group beyond that public welcome foyer.
Have no clue what in the world I'm talking about? This open letter to my Mom might help you understand.
You know how you're always asking me why I didn't comment on your Facebook post about that one thing that your friend from high school shared?
I didn't see it.
Seriously.
Facebook doesn't show me everything that you post. It doesn't even show me everything that Ashley posts.
In fact, Facebook doesn't show me most of what my friends share.
Facebook, as a company & a project, centers around this question:
"How do we get people to want to use Facebook more?"
That's the question that makes the shareholders happy. That's the question that makes the guy who started Facebook happy. That's the question that makes the people who sell stuff and want to advertise on Facebook happy.
How do they get you to spend more time on Facebook?
Facebook pays a lot of very smart people to keep track of what you respond to, and the stuff you pass right by.
Then they wonder, "What's the common thread to all the stuff you responded to? What's the common thread of all the stuff you ignored?"
Then they tell some fancy computer programs to show you more of the stuff you read, share, or comment on and show you less of the stuff you don't respond to.
The question is: what makes you react, so we can do more of that.
What makes you react is probably stuff that makes you scared.
Or furious.
Making you upset makes the owner, the shareholders, the advertisers, and every employee very happy.
Why don't they show me what you're posting?
Facebook thinks they can keep me on the platform longer by showing me something else.
Facebook is not interested in keeping a son in touch with his mom.
They're happy when their users are on the platform, and making them miserable seems to be the best way to do that.
Now I think you can see what the problem is.
I mean, part of it is that I don't call often enough. I admit that, and you're right, I should have written a thank you card to your cousin I met once a long time ago who sent $5.
Apart from that, though.
The real problem is that our relationship is directly affected by a service that wants us to do something other than stay in touch.
Since it's Facebook's house, it's Facebook's rules, right?
Facebook wants us to spend time there so advertisers can feel good that they just paid Facebook $5 to get you to click on their ad for healing crystals.
Basically, we're both using a service that we think is designed to help us connect when really it has turned into a place where we can all freak out together to make the creators happy.
That's demented.
And it's not just Facebook.
This is exactly what's happening on Gmail, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and every other place where you've found yourself.
Every single one of those places literally makes money off keeping you coming back like an addict with drugs, or a gambler in Vegas.
They are palaces built off the good will and trust of their users.
And they sell us out.
Every day. All day long.
That's the real reason I don't see your posts. Facebook doesn't show them to me.
And there's another reason.
I've mostly stopped spending time there. Or on Instagram. Or anywhere else online.
The whole place is built with some weird priorities that aren't lined up with what I know makes for the best life.
What do I do instead?
There is one place that makes sense. One place that is built the right way.
It solves a lot of problems I've talked about here, and a lot more I haven't even gotten into yet.
And I don't even really need to go into how it solves it.
I've spent nearly every day for the last year figuring it out for you.
At its heart it's a server, but that doesn't really explain anything so let me back up just a little bit.
You know how it's awesome that we're living in the future, and we can get in touch with anyone at any time?
That part is awesome.
And the thing that makes it all possible is called a server.
Basically it's just a computer that "serves" information that it has to another computer that would like to have it too.
A server is really one of the most important possessions you can have in the 21st century.
With your own server we wouldn't need Facebook to decide who gets to see what.
If I own my own server, and you have your own server they can talk to each other with nobody else involved in the process.
So that's what I've been working on for the past year.
I've been figuring this stuff out.
There's a better way for us to live in the digital future, and this is it.
Ultimately it's a lot more than just a server, and there's a lot of cool stuff to like about it. What I like most is that it's mine. It doesn't work to make some shareholder happy.
It doesn't succeed by making me miserable.
Instead, I now get to hang out with some of the smartest, most impressive people I've met in my entire life.
When you're ready.
This is a detail I was dimly aware of, but didn't really understand until recently.
My Dad is on Facebook. All the time. He pretty much only uses Facebook Messenger to chat, and here's how it works.
He wants to send me a message about his next woodworking project, but it doesn't go straight to me and only to me. The message he "sends me" is actually saved to one of Facebook's servers. Then Facebook allows my profile to access that information that my Dad shared with me. He never sends me anything directly.
This is a small, but vital, detail.
He and I never have truly 1 on 1 conversations. Everything we say to each other goes through Facebook first.
That's freakin' creepy.
Every conversation I have with my family? Facebook has it. Everything I've said to my girlfriend, whether angry or happy? Facebook is there.
Think about every single conversation (no matter how mundane or intimate) that you had on Messenger. It's never just you.
It's like always having an employee of Facebook in the room with you.
And that's not even to mention if that person working at Facebook doesn't like what you're saying, then you're barred from accessing all the information you've created on their service and stored on their servers.
Your account is shut down and you're sent down a memory hole to disappear as though you never existed.
"LOL got sent to Facebook jail, but now I'm back!"
What an absolute wrong thing to get used to.
So what do you do if you're like me? What if you're tired of having the connections and conversations of your life systematically catalogued, mined for data, and turned into a product to be sold to the highest bidder but you still want to be able to communicate with people online?
The real answer? Have your own server.
In order to have a different experience on the 'net, you need a different internet.
To have a different internet, you need a new kind of server.
In order to have a new server, you need a new kind of computer.
In order to have a new kind of computer you need a new computer language.
In order to have a new computer language you need a new computer logic.
There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.
Henry David Thoreau
Most companies and projects who are trying to solve problems with the internet and connecting with others are usually only addressing surface level issues. Their approaches don't go deep enough.
Why?
It's hard.
It's incredibly difficult to reinvent the internet, so why do it in the first place? It's worth it.
Urbit is a project dedicated to helping normal people like me own their own servers and connect with people I want to connect with, without having a 3rd party involved.
There's a lot about the project that I love, and I'll be diving into more of it over time on here, but for now I want to highlight the fact that Urbit is dedicated to making it as easy as possible for normal folks to own our own server (and thereby information & ideas), keep it safe from hackers, and be able to trust that you're really having 1 to 1 conversations online while still maintaining the ability to grow a community and share your world with others.
If you're a non-technical person it might be a little challenging to get into it at first, but that learning curve is getting less difficult all the time.
I'll be writing some "how to get started" articles for non tech-savvy people (like me) in the future, but for now I wanted to give you a brief overview of what problems Urbit is solving, and help you appreciate just how important the project is.
If you're already on urbit, then come find me at ~minder-folden. Invite me to a DM and we can chat there!
If you aren't already on urbit, you'll find some hints on this site of the kinds of things I share on ~minder-folden. It's a combination of long form articles, how to's for public speaking & influence, and visual work of various subjects.
This website functions as the outer welcome lobby for people who are ready to leave the old world of MegaCorps and enter the exciting expanse of being your own person online again.
Welcome, you're ready.
Originally posted on minder-folden.com
Visit EscapePod.Store to get your own server today.
Men are born ignorant, not stupid. They are made stupid by education. ~Bertrand Russell
Herman Melville, Ernest Hemmingway, David Bowie, Kurt Cobain, Frank Lloyd Wright, the Wright Brothers, Henry Ford, Charles Darwin, Leonardo DaVinci, Buckminster Fuller, and thousands of other world-changing minds have something in common:
These are all people who taught themselves whatever skills they were interested in without the benefit of a mentor, or the interference of education.
Too many people misconstrue an education for intelligence, or having a degree with genius. Here's an incredible autodidact (and personal hero of mine) talking about how the most educated people are often the easiest to fool:
Personally, I've been educated with a mixture of self-directed practice, reading books, attending college, and personal mentors.
I taught myself a lot on my own, then demonstrated skill to people who would become my mentors, and then threw college into the mix. I was fortunate to grow up around some really interesting people who taught me really cool stuff like how to juggle knives when I was 13 years old, hammer nails up my nose at age 15, and eating fire at 18.
Not everybody is as lucky as I am.
Until recently, everyone who would be considered an "autodidact" was severely limited in how they could learn. It was either through books (which could be hard to come by), or mentors (who might not live close by).
Nowadays, however, we have access to an incredible resource that's so incredibly powerful & extensive that you'll never reach its end; the internet.
No matter what topic you want to learn about, you can do a quick search and find detailed tutorials that can walk you through step-by-step. You can listen to Harvard lectures for free.
We are no longer bound by space & time. We can compress decades' worth of someone else's hard work into a couple minutes on YouTube.
If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants. ~Isaac Newton
Too many people think success is locked behind the gates of certificates, stamps of approval, or some other gatekeeper.
Don't get me wrong; if you're a brain surgeon, I want you to have the proper education.
Use YouTube. Learn via Skype. Read interactive e-books.
Don't allow yourself to be trapped by the belief you need someone else's approval to learn what you need to get the life you want.
This is the term I coined for the people who have already figured out the world has fundamentally changed. They're bypassing the old ways of learning.
It's exciting to think about what kind of incredible discoveries, works of art, and advances in human potential is just around the corner. Think about all the amazing accomplishments achieved by the list of people at the top of the article; wonder what they could have done if they had the internet growing up.
We are in the middle of a massive shift in human history, and it's so big it eclipses the achievements of Gutenberg & his little press.
It's a big claim, and it's easier to appreciate if we get some distance from the present. Let's travel back through time to:
If you were born in Europe back then, there's a 90% chance you'd be born a farmer of some sort. And that pretty much holds true for the next thousand years.
This isn't the idyllic farming either. This is the tough, back breaking, hard manual labor that ruins your body kind of farming.
This is the "It rained one too many times at the end of the summer and now we're going to starve to death because our food will rot" farming.
There's a small chance you'd get a cool job being a knight, but 9 out of 10 times, you're a subsistence farmer.
There's some guy by the name of Johannes Gutenberg who develops a technology that enables him to print books faster & more accurately than any time in human history.
Previously, books were so incredibly difficult to make they were prohibitively expensive for anyone who wasn't exorbitantly wealthy. In a sense, the knowledge in the books was doubly valuable: you had to be rich to get the book in the first place, and the knowledge contained in it could easily be worth more.
Case In Point: Sun Tzu's masterpiece of strategy "The Art of War" was kept from all but the most senior military officials. It's dangerous to have a clever army that can think for itself. . .
So along comes Gutenberg who can churn out any book he wants at a speed & volume never possible since books were first invented.
In the small sense, he figured out how to make books faster. In the larger sense, however, he completely revolutionized the world. He released the genie from the bottle, and there was no going back.
With books becoming less expensive, there were more of them around, and more people were exposed to new ideas much more frequently.
In this new world of easily-gotten information there were clear winners (the population at large), and losers (kings, rulers, and anyone benefiting from controlling information).
Case in Point: It's hard to believe, but there was a time in the middle ages where the information on how to make mirrors was so jealously guarded that if you were suspected of trying to steal it from the only people who knew how to do it properly, you were executed. Straight up murdered over shiny glass.
The creation of the printing press, and the consequent flood of books into the world were the first wave in a revolution that would play out over the next 500 years.
In that time we'd discover the scientific method, telescopes, medicine, and most of the leaps forward that directly contribute to our standard of living today.
The year is 1946 and the world's first computer is turned on.
It's a monstrosity that takes up a whole room. It weighs 50 tons. It's clunky. It's awkward. It can do simple calculations used in figuring out artillery angles.
And it can do it faster than anyone else alive.
Then it's the 60's and we send men to the moon and back with computers that have less computing power than the phone you have in your pocket.
In the late 70's we figure out how to get the increasingly capable computers to talk to each other. Now, instead of being limited to a single machine, you can now access the processing power of a whole network of these things.
The creation of the internet is the second renaissance and we're not even beginning to see how profoundly it's changing our lives.
We are now living in a world that is almost entirely post physical. When was the last time you:
This new dynamic is more than having any answer at your fingertips & a computer. This is way beyond Googling a trivia question.
Not only are you able to consume information, you can create & share anything you think of at the speed of light.
Our world's most important events are happening in a virtual world that doesn't exist.
We have a president who enacts "diplomacy" via Twitter.
People like to blame free trade for taking their jobs overseas. While that might have been true for a short period, what's really to blame is automation. Artificial Intelligence. Smart robots.
Technological advancements have made millions of human jobs irrelevant.
It's cars vs horses all over again, and we're the horse.
And there's no going back.
Back in ancient Egypt you probably moved rocks. Through the dark ages you moved dirt. Through the industrial revolution you got paid to move goods.
Now?
You move information. Ideas are the new economy.
For the few who recognize this massive shift in the world, they are going to win big. It's the value of your idea that will make or break you.
Never before have Carnegie's words of "Think and Grow Rich" been truer.
Those who don't adapt to the post physical idea economy will be left with little or no means to create something the economy finds valuable. Human labor jobs are simply too expensive to continue. They may not disappear completely, but they're on their way out.
After all, I guess horses are still around (for novelty's sake). . .
The way of life we've been sold our entire lives has disappeared. The offer on the American dream of working hard and retiring with the same company is null and void.
With the very technology that has destroyed the labor & goods economy, you can create an incredible life.
Just like fire; it can destroy, but when used properly it can be incredibly useful.
In the idea economy it doesn't matter where you live. You can be on a beach in Borneo or at a coffee shop in Iowa.
In the idea economy it doesn't matter how hard you work. Your muscles have very little to do with how much you get paid. Sweat not required.
In the idea economy you're not limited by space & time. Your ideas can be in all parts of the world instantly, and it can happen thousands of times a second, every second.
With the Post Physical Economy Mindset you transcend the limitations of physical reality. Your success is no longer tied to a desk. A location. Time.
None of it matters anymore.
The new future is complete & total freedom.
Absolute control over how you spend your time & attention.
You need no more resources than you already have access to this instant, so it isn't a question of more stuff.
It's the mindset. You don't have a deep understanding of the new reality.
But you can.
Allow me to introduce Ken Wrede.
Ken is a client of mine, a friend, and phenomenal storyteller.
When we first started working together he knew he had a lot of experience & useful knowledge that could make a huge difference in the lives of young leaders everywhere. What he didn't know, was how to communicate that valuable experience in a way that would position him as the expert he is.
Using tools that are available to you right now I helped him build a platform that he now uses to get scheduled on radio shows, write a book, promote speaking engagements, and more.
He now understands how to leverage his experience (which the robots will never have) in a way that allows him the freedom to choose how he spends his time, and where he chooses to do it.
What's your story? How are you surviving in the new economy?
If you'd like some help, I'd love to be there for you.
Because, really, who better to guide you through an economy of ideas than a mind reader?
Hit me up on Twitter, and let's talk.
Or, if you live on Mars, consider joining one of the longest-running & heaviest-hitting groups on the network:
~minder-folden/antechamber
(Don't understand that last sentence? Go here.)
