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HoCo ‘23

Let’s dive in…

This past weekend, we spent time facilitating a gathering called New Orleans Homecoming. Our objective: guide a group of NOLA natives and expats to challenge preexisting narratives and reimagine an equitable future for the city and its people. To deliver against that objective, we ended up designing a Futurist Writer’s Room – we called it The Reimagination Room.

We prompted a group of politicians, philanthropists, VCs, and non-profit leaders to go deep into their creative bags and create new worlds. The power in the room – THEIR power – was palpable. Folks crafted new systems that were equitable, all people were whole and taken care of, and the beauty of New Orleans’s culture pulsated with color, energy, and reverence. It was beautiful to witness. It was beautiful to dream.

Just a few days before the NOLA Homecoming, across the ocean, nestled in a country we’re considering calling home, a group of people also gathered to hear about the new, parallel worlds that are being created at this very moment. On October 30th, in Amsterdam, Netherlands, The Network State Conference happened. Its premise: How can we use technology to build new cities…new countries?

I mean, talk about world-building and bending! 🤯

Y’all, if you haven’t realized yet, I am an idealist. So the thought of having the ability to contribute to and build a city or country is peak idealism for me.

We can look at the news or even just examine our day-to-day experiences and acknowledge that so many systems are outdated or are simply not human-centered. The work we did in NOLA and some of the talks that the 1000+ people gathered to hear about in Amsterdam is what I believe (or at least the idealist in me would love to believe) Ruha Benjamin would call: UStopia. A world where humans harness their power and imagination to “build the world they can’t live without while dismantling the world they can’t live within.”

THAT SAID, if we’re trying to build ideal societies and countries, then the voices of those typically on the margins need to be contributing. After listening to some of the Network State talks and doing some background research, I wonder, are these UStopias, or are these still Themtopias?

While I’m an idealist, the Libra in me is all about justice and equity. So I can’t help but ask the question: Who is building your (our) future? Who U Wit?

Enjoy!

💚 Amy & Bryan

P.S. Ruha’s talk from TED Women is available now. It’s powerful y’all. I cry tears of hope and joy every time I watch it.

Zoom Out: The Network State Conference, 2023

The Network State Conference, founded by Balaji S. Srinivasan, former CTO of Coinbase, former General Partner of a16z, and WSJ-bestselling author of The Network State, is for “people interested in founding, funding, and finding new communities.”

The Network State platform houses parallel cities like Culdesac and Prospera, parallel communities like the Neighborhood NY, and digital organizations like Vibecamp. These all have in-person components, ranging from meetups to buildings to full real estate developments.

Along with these societies, there are parallel services like Ethereum and Solana, which are parallel financial systems. Synthesis is a parallel education, and Farcaster is a developing parallel media ecosystem.

These societies and services are a way for internet people to buck the systems that are not serving them by crafting internet solutions based on “internet values” (still learning what that means) which have real-world developments, implications, and connections. Not gonna lie; it can be a bit heady if this is your first time engaging on this topic.

The conference was only one day but jam-packed with TikTok-style talks. Some of the speakers…well, you could tell that public speaking is not their day job. But the content was interesting and valuable nonetheless.

Zoom in: Parallel Institutions, Contrarian Thinking with Codie Sanchez

Over the next few weeks, I will bring you one talk from the series of talks that I am either most critical of, inspired by, or I think is important for all of us to know about. Today, we start with a need-to-know by diving head-first into Contrarian Thinking with Codie Sanchez. Codie is popular on YouTube for her ETA strategies (entrepreneurship through acquisition). Simply put, she helps regular people buy boring businesses.

As someone relatively new to this space, Codie’s presentation hit home. Especially coming after our work in NOLA focused on creating a space for folks of all kinds to reimagine the future of their city.

During this talk, you’ll hear…

1. Who currently owns our world

2. Why simplicity is a winning strategy

3. Who needs to be a part of these parallel city conversations

K.I.S.S.: Keep it simple stupid

Ownership vs. Employment: Codie hails from the finance world, “one of the most unnecessarily over-regulated industries.” A piece of advice from a Private Equity CEO Codie looked up to and admired said: “PE firms get rich quietly.” That didn’t sit well with Codie and ultimately led her to begin her business helping everyday people purchase boring businesses without the need of Wall Street. Outsized returns are for the owners, not the employees.  

The big, own, and the many, buy: Here’s the breakdown of who owned America in 2022.

• Three companies own the entire soft drink market.

• Three big institutions: KKR, Blackstone, and Carlyle, owned 1 out of 4 single-family homes in 2022.

• Ten companies owned our groceries in 2022

• Ten companies own the companies who build our houses
  

The case for simplicity: The average American reads at a 6th-grade level, and the average European is at a 7th-grade level. Keeping things complex and hard has been a way for the privileged few to keep the many out. But what’s also true is that when people don’t understand something, they tear it down. When people are left out, they tear it down.

Codie calls this case for simplicity – Blue-collaring the Network State. We need all types of people to live, thrive, and contribute to these parallel societies. The glut for lopsided wealth and information is unsustainable. “What if the most intelligent among us can speak the simplest, not the most complex?”

Hey, let’s work together. 👋

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