simondlr #25 - 'Hope Runners of Gridlock' Companion Guide (4 Blog Posts) + NFT Project!

Hi everyone!

This newsletter is jam packed with blog posts. Instead of spamming your inboxes with a newsletter per blog post, I decided to publish all of them first.

Part of the joy of creating for me, is also the creative process itself. How do people make music? How do people create their art? Where do they draw inspiration from? What’s the day-to-day like? What’s it like writing a novel?

For my debut novel, I wanted to also document it and share the process and the inspiration. I, thus, created a companion guide that I’ve now turned into 3 blog posts. I wrote the novel for three reasons.

1) Creating cities.

“Novel Cities, Soft City, And Radical Markets”.

https://blog.simondlr.com/posts/hrog-1-novel-cities-soft-city-and-radical-markets

2) Exploring metamodernism.

“Exploring Metamodernism & Optimistic Nihilism in Sci-Fi.”

https://blog.simondlr.com/posts/hrog-2-exploring-metamodernism-amp-optimistic-nihilism-in-sci-fi

3) Learning to write a novel.

“The Process & Learnings of Writing My Debut Novel.”

https://blog.simondlr.com/posts/hrog-3-the-process-amp-learnings-of-writing-my-debut-novel

While I did not intend this to be a part of the series, I detailed my experiments in self-publishing, sharing some stats of the sales. Bonus content!

“Experiments in Self-Publishing A Novel. One Month In.”

https://blog.simondlr.com/posts/experiments-in-self-publishing-a-novel-one-month-in

Then! Another exciting proof-of-concept. I created a digital collectible project at the frontier of ‘digital merchandising’: giving collectors the ability to own 15 unique excerpts from the novel.

https://excerpts.ofgridlock.com/

The initial auction is on-going and will finish on the Sunday, 13th of December. Each excerpt has a minimum bid of 0.02 ETH.

Thank You!

For those that have read and for those that came to the book clubs, I sincerely appreciate it. It’s particularly meaningful to have heard in-depth questions about certain events in the novel. The city of Gridlock is increasingly being occupied by more people, and it’s growing. Thank you!

If you’ve read and wish to review it still, please do so on Goodreads!

Links!

Jaymo

One of my favourite recent writers I’ve discovered is Jay Springett. Fascinating exploration at the intersection of the metaverse and new tech. Read this article on VTubers! Also, he has an in-depth notes dump about the Roblox IPO. Definitely a lot more content in the Jay Springett rabbit-hole. Recommended to dig in!

Bonding Curves - The What, Why, and Shapes Behind Them

Bonding curves have come a long way since I first proposed them in 2017. Paula Pettit gives a great rundown on explorations of bonding curves.

Gamerbait

Gamerbait is one of those terms that once you see it, you start seeing it everywhere. The premise is, is that culture is increasingly being defined by gaming over other cultural mediums. Thus, increasingly, culture panders to gamers and gaming. A key example of this, is Balenciaga aiming to launch their new line in a game. It’s also examples like AOC and others streaming Among Us and then talking politics. The cultural center is increasingly revolving around gaming.

Currents.fm

I recently discovered Currents.fm. One of their unique hooks is the ability to tip artists, but in doing so, requires the artist to send it along to others until it is depleted. It’s such a simple and novel idea that enshrines the interdependence of cultural scenes. One of those simple adjustments that make a lot of sense.

Flashbots

Definitely a really interesting new organisation. Miner-extractable-value is profit that a miner in a blockchain ecosystem can make because they create and order transactions in a block. This ‘scalping’ in the wrong hands can undermine a blockchain ecosystem. Like OpenAI, in a way, Flashbots aims to extract this value but share it among the ecosystem. If this is going to be the future of blockchains, it’s best we all benefit from it.