Calm and crypto?
GM,
After five years in crypto, a few things have become clear to me:
- People are chronically online, and grinding is very much encouraged.
- Unethical behavior is the norm (look on Uniswap, 99% of projects are rugs, so what other conclusion can you draw?)
- We’re still far from people like my mum benefitting from anything web3. It’s like we’re too busy re-staking, and extracting the last bit of yield to care about people irl. (A cynic take, I know) And yeah, maybe my mum has never been the target audience as an engaged classical guitar teacher encouraging kids to tap into their creativity… But wouldn’t culture and education be a great way to have an impact on people’s lives?
Anyway, today, I just want to talk about the first. This tweet sums it up quite well…
Add telegram and discord to the mix, and you have the life of a web3 worker.
The other day I was asked how I had managed to not have to take any days off sick yet. As if that’d somewhat be the norm. It made me think, though. How did I actually not get sick?
Sick physically and of this industry.
So here’s an attempt to answer that by looking at how I changed my behavior. For those in a rush, scroll down for a TLDR of my suggestions.
When I started in crypto
I very much fell for the idea that I wasn’t productive if I wasn’t all day online, answering messages, taking calls, and going to meetups. Being new in this space as someone with a linguistics background gave me enough imposter syndrome to drag my introvert a*s to at least 1 meetup with strangers every week.
There was always more one could do working in a little startup that was trying to get some big clients. There was also a lot of traveling to different places putting jet lag and unregular eating schedules on the list of stuff to deal with.
Don’t get me wrong; it was a great way to learn more about this industry and gain at least so much knowledge that I could hold myself up in a conversation.
Now looking back, however, while I was always busy, I sometimes wonder what did I actually achieve. Sure some clients here and there, helping with media production, etc. I also built a big network, so that’s another plus.
What fell flat, though, was my personal development. I didn’t spend much time on my hobbies because work was all that occupied me. The only thing I regularly managed to squeeze in was a Japanese Advanced Grammar and Kanji class every Saturday.
A year in
A year in, I quit the first blockchain company I worked at to join another startup. How that went is a story for another day, but the TLDR of their work culture was: you have to be in the office from 9–18:00 (or later) regardless of what you do (of course, the latter wasn’t said out loud).
The good part of having some type of fixed working hours was I got more time to explore who I was outside of work again. It didn’t last long because an accumulation of things made me realize it was time for me to leave Japan and that business culture behind for my own sake.
I still remember how on my plane to London, I read a book called “Your Guide to Succeed After Graduation: Practical Advice by Young Professionals”.
It was the nudge I needed to start getting myself together. I mean, I wasn’t a complete mess, but I wasn’t doing anything systematically to work on myself and my sanity.
2ish years in
While in London working for Bitcoin.com Exchange, I started getting the hang of balancing work and life. And then lockdowns happened.
To be honest, I thrived during the first 6 months of that. I read a lot, I did some Marketing Mini MBA programs and a bunch of other online courses. I also never let my daily walk go to waste.
I also realized that when outside of an office, with just actual tasks in front of me, there was a lot more time to dedicate to activities outside of it. Good start, but of course living in London without lockdowns, you end up going out a lot, and there might have been a few G&T too many to do anything productive afterward.
Now
I noticed that feeling overwhelmed in crypto is not necessarily because of the tasks I’d have. It’s more about the overflow of information, the constant “expectation” to be online 24/7, and uncertainty.
Companies highlighting employees that go out of their way to send slack messages at 3 am their time don’t help (I guess that isn’t limited to crypto). Imo the signal that sends is someone needs to get sleep. Sacrificing your long-term well-being for stakeholder profits, Idk man.
It doesn’t help that there are so many platforms to be on and having to stay in tune.
Let’s be honest. Most of the crypto news will be forgotten already next week. So why spend 3 hours every day catching up on them?
Suggestion: Get a bunch of quality newsletters, and that’s it. TLDR Crypto is a very good one. Focus on reading in-depth pieces and understanding new concepts.
It works very well for me, and so far, no one has ever complained about me not knowing a certain piece of news.
One more pro tip if you don’t want newsletters to clutter your inbox: meco.app .
Productivity illusion
Another thing I observed (even with myself): in the beginning, it was easy to talk myself into “I’m making a difference here by answering all the messages and constantly switching between Slack, Telegram, Twitter, Discord.”
Call that the illusion of productivity or something.
But what I was actually doing was getting very few actual things done and just elongating the hours I’d have to spend working. I’m a lot more rigorous now.
Suggestion: Avoid context switching as much as possible.
That means when you have to write a business plan, only have the tabs open you need for that. Turn off Slack and any other notifications.
And if you don’t want to believe it coming from me, maybe you’ll from a best-selling author.
And you know what has helped me a lot from switching contexts and getting distracted easily?
Technology. Sure, it’s ironic to solve the problem technology is giving us with technology, but it works.
Suggestion: Violence. Lock yourself out of distractions.
I use an app called Cold Turkey that blocks all app launches and distractions, as I specify. Either for custom times Pomodoro style, or however, you want it to. 🍅
Funny enough, after a while of using it, I automatically don’t check messages anymore, even when it’s disabled.
Another benefit is that when I only have 10 minutes — because that’s how I set it up — to answer messages in Slack, Discord, Twitter, etc, it really forces me to be intentional.
Of course, the laptop isn’t the only device crypto people work from. In fact, I’ve seen some flex their mobile screen time. For me, it isn’t a flex; it’s sad.
Smartphone always on
If you spend 10 hours on your phone, are you ever actually experiencing the world around you fully? I guess not. A study from 2013 suggests that even just a phone on the table can lower the quality of in-person connections and divert attention.
A few centuries ago, Descartes said, “I think, therefore I am.”
A modern take could be
“I am in a constant state of distraction, therefore I am not”.
Cause you know, when always lowkey distracted, you do not think deeply.
Suggestion: put your phone in a different room than the one you work in.
It removes the distraction and lowers the temptation. You might notice you get stuff done faster.
Once focused, you might even get into a state of flow; that’s kind of the holy grail of productivity — so why are we not trying to create more environments that’d foster it?!
That state when you are so immersed in a task, the right balance between being challenged and progressing, that you forget the time. It also helps with general well-being btw.
On that topic, I can also recommend walking outside without your phone. It gives you the opportunity to actually see what’s happening, to notice the seasonal changes, and to smile at the strangers that walk past who aren’t staring at their phones.
Work as identity
For many, work becomes their identity. Maybe in web3, even more so because we’re all 24/7 online, and someone is always active.
I am more than my job, and so are you. Somewhere I heard this quote which I liked a lot (and I can’t find it, so if you have seen it anywhere or the correct one, please help!)
It went along the lines of I always work furiously because I am furious at having to work. That’s because you have other things you want to get to.
I like my job. I don’t like any job enough to sacrifice all my time for it. I deliver, and so far, my managers have been rather happy with my work.
Things might be different if you are the founder of a company. But even then, striking some balance will be good.
Because it gives you time to think deeply, connect with the world around you, and importantly not burn out. 🔥
So yeah, maybe it’s good to ask yourself sometimes, “What will I say when AI has taken over my job, and someone asks me about who I am and what I do”
Suggestion: Find things you want to learn, achieve, or do outside of work
And don’t fall for…
Instant Gratification
Crypto is somewhat addicted to instant gratification. But many things you want to become or learn probably won’t give you immediate rewards.
Suggestion: Get a tracker, and make anything you want to do longterm a habit.
It takes discipline at first, but eventually, it becomes natural. If you ever checked my Twitter, you know I read a lot. That’s part of who I am, but it wasn’t always that way.
One day I figured to become a great writer, I needed to read more. So I set myself a goal of one book a week and checked it off every day for weeks. Did it immediately make me a better writer? No.
Now, slowly I realize the benefits. I have a lot more general knowledge and can reference concepts I came across in different books.
Sometimes I will even find a phrase in a fiction book that is a perfect description of something written in a non-fiction book.
When reading Lessons in Chemistry, one thing that stuck with me was how the protagonist described a pencil as the perfect tool for scientists because they expect failure — and, like with a pencil, one can correct it and move on.
Those are ideas very much in line with books like Black Box Thinking.
I’ll stop here, or else this will turn into an endless list of great stuff I read about.
The gist is to get out of the instant gratification mindset and have some discipline. You see, often, that’s the start of greater changes — because if you can do it with one thing, you can do it with others, not to be cheesy.
So, that’s my take on how I don’t go crazy in this crazy industry. It’s actually not that hard. That being said, of course, I am nowhere near perfect. Sometimes I also scroll mindlessly around or spend hours watching random youtube videos. But I’ve become a lot better at catching myself — and from the questions I get, it seems I have it a lil more figured out than others.
I do think it points to a bigger issue, though; we rarely ever discuss the implications of requiring people to spend so much time online.
We should. Because it’s not sustainable if we condition an entire workforce to be constantly online. Tbh, I don’t think mass adoption will happen through more financial engineering and further alienating ourselves from the broader public.
As long as we don’t all live in the Metaverse, better to cherish some real-life connections.
Suggestion: Foster your real-life connections
TL;DR
For those who just want my suggestions cause they have to get back on some call 😆
- Quality newsletters and in-depth coverage > constantly refreshing the feed — use Meco App not to clutter your inbox
- Avoid context switching as much as possible
- Violence: use tech to keep yourself out of tech — Cold Turkey Blocker has been a great productivity hack.
- Put your phone in a different room. Also will make you walk really fast for 2-FA, which is an added benefit.
- Find things you want to learn or do outside of work. It can be anything from walking 30 min every day to learning how to make sculptures.
- Whatever activity you chose, make it a habit. Get a planner or calendar, and track for a while. Eventually, you do it automatically. Don’t expect immediate results. Good things take time.
- Foster your real-life connections.
In case you need inspiration on things to do outside of work, here's what I do:
- Write posts like this
- Read lots of books
- Make cute images with AI
- Spend time with friends and family
- Study Spanish
- Go on daily walks
- Exercise
- Explore museums and galleries and marvel at the architecture of old buildings
- Listen to live music — cause it doesn’t get better than that
- Play guitar
- Decorate my flat
- Watch Anime
- Sit in coffeeshops watching people go by, wondering what their backstory could be
- Listen to a lot of Podcasts
That’s it from me today. Time to read a lil. 📚
If you have anything to add on how to stay sane in crypto, hit me up. Also, when you have book recommendations :)
