🎧 Episode #3 | Unleashing creativity and culture with web3: it's about more than just buying a farm
🎧 Episode #3 | Unleashing creativity and culture with web3: it's about more than just buying a farm
🎧 The Comma Project Podcast episode #3
Howdy,
Episode 3 of the podcast is now live on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever else podcasts live.
The links to the episode are here 👉🏼 (YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts) and embedded down below ⬇️.
I’ve also included the transcript below, in case you’d rather read than watch and listen.
I hope you enjoy - and if you do, I’d be grateful if you pressed the little ❤️ button at the top left corner of this piece, shared it with a few people you think would also enjoy it, and subscribed.
As always, let me know what you think.
✌🏼,
Devin
Unleashing creativity and culture with web3: it's about more than just buying a farm
BUT FIRST:
Check out my essay from earlier this week ⬇️ - while you could listen to this episode without it, reading it will give the full picture.
Chapters
[00:00] A farm is more than a farm
[01:04] Why I got interested in buying a farm
[02:05] It's about more than a farm
[04:35] It won't be Disney World
[06:22] Comma is agnostic - about humanity, not a doctrine
[07:28] Inspiration and integration, not imposition
[08:32] The fellowship is the heart of Comma
[11:22] Comma's "why"
[11:55] Unlocking creativity and culture with web3
[15:36] Come, connect, create - relationally, not transactionally
[18:11] The process of putting the puzzle pieces together
Transcript
A farm is more than a farm
Last week, I wrote about the idea of maybe buying a farm and where that idea came from. It might seem like it came out of left field, and in a sense, it sort of did.
But it's an idea that has filled me with energy since it popped into my mind, and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. I obviously wrote about it, but what I can't stop thinking about today, and which I actually had a full conversation about this morning, is one part of that which seems to hold the keys to unlocking everything Comma stands for, especially when placed on a farm. That to me is the fellowship piece that I wrote a little bit about.
So today, I'm going to talk a bit about why that is and what has come up as I've thought about that piece and why it has a little extra heat for me than the rest of it.
Why I got interested in buying a farm
I'll give a bit of background on the farm idea.
The full thoughts are in the piece from last week, which I'll link below. The basic idea came to me when I was talking to my friend Alex the other week. He was sharing what he's learned about the space, and in short, there were a bunch of trends that made the idea of buying and owning a farm really attractive to me.
All that's fine and good, and the investor nerd in me loves that kind of stuff. But more than that, it felt like another puzzle piece of this Comma project I've been working on for the last year and a half that might fit into place. A place that was sort of empty in this puzzle before but now seems to belong.
It's about more than a farm
It's more than a farm to me. The idea is about more than just owning and running a farm and becoming a farmer.
Ever since I started thinking about and working on Comma, the idea of having a physical space for Comma to occur has always been top of mind.
I've thought a lot about spaces in the city. I'm in New York City, and that's still interesting to me.
But every time I think about my dream, if constraints were off, what would Comma look like to me? It would be a place full of the natural world, full of the wild.
On top of the logical, rational reasons that make a farm interesting from an economic point of view - and I won't list all those here, they're in the piece - there was a more psychic, emotional, natural, grounded way that the idea of having a farm as the hub and base, the foundation of the space for Comma, just made a lot of sense.
Because to me, Comma is more than a farm, and so the space would be more than a farm. Something about the fact that a farm is inherently natural, linked to process, like we are.
A farm is interesting on its own, but it's more than a farm to me in the context of Comma.
I listed in the piece a bunch of other things I envision happening here through Comma. This includes hospitality, a place to stay, a restaurant, a café, a library - spaces to come and congregate - a brand that extends beyond the land that sells things made with craft and artisanship. And this - storytelling, a way for me to share my own process, but also the process of building whatever Comma is and turning whatever that farm would look like into the world of Comma.
It won't be Disney World
Something that dawned on me is that one way I think about this land and the space I want Comma to be is that it's not Disney World. It's not a place that is the brainchild of an individual. It's not a place that I want to impose on a space. I don't want to turn a land of nothingness into a land of something that is Comma. It's not an imposition on the space.
The reason a farm is so interesting to me is because it has this sense of place and almost this completeness in and of itself. It's a business. It's a home. It's the natural world. It has roots back millennia. It's one of the most ancient practices that we have as humans. So there are all these ways that it is connected and robust on its own. It stands on its own two feet.
The way I imagine Comma coming into a space like that is - yes - it requires some building up from that place, but it's more inspired by and integrated with that place and its history as opposed to the other way around. I think we see the other way around a lot these days.
I live in New York, which is essentially the epitome of that. We see a place, we impose our will on it. There's beauty there, too. I don't write that off lightly. That's why I live here. I love it, in a sense. But when I think about Comma, I think there is a place for Comma in the city, but the idea of a farm just seems to fit more authentically with what and why Comma is in my mind.
Comma is agnostic - about humanity, not a doctrine
Another piece that I was talking about this morning and thinking a lot about is that Comma is a place that's agnostic. It's not a spiritual retreat or one based on an activity like golfing or surfing.
To me, it's really important because the point of Comma is humanity. It's process. It's the art of seeking and becoming and whatever that means for everyone that shows up.
Rather than a place built around a belief or an activity, it's a place for coming to connect inward, with the land because nature has really powerful and unique ways that enable us to feel connected. From that place, we connect with ourselves and with others who believe in what Comma stands for. From that place of connection and grounding, it's a place to create, build, and express.
Inspiration and integration, not imposition
In a sense, it's similar to the idea we were just talking about, about it not being a place of imposition but a place of inspiration and integration. The same idea applies here.
It's a space, not an imposition on a person or from the person to the place. Not “we want you to come here to do the spa or play this particular sport or even do this particular type of ceremony.” But in fact, it's to come in contact with the core of who and why you are, and the direction that you're heading. It's for the people that are building their own life, whatever that means to them.
I want Comma to be a place to come back and get in touch with that core so that it can be expressed. That requires a place that thinks differently and does things differently than many places that I'm aware of.
The fellowship is the heart of Comma
The fellowship, as I mentioned at the top, is in a sense the heart of this angle, this direction that I'm talking about.
Why is that?
Yes, there's a farm. Yes, there's a hospitality wing. Those exist and are interesting. There are some places that are farms with places you can stay, eat, and connect with the natural world. That's amazing.
Yet, when I think about what Comma means to me and what I have envisioned for it, it is that piece I was just talking about where you inspire people who come to connect and express who they are for themselves and the world - the fellowship, or as I put it in the piece, an incubation or a studio.
Essentially, what I mean and what's important to me is a space and a place for people to come for a longer time scale. Not just a hotel or a lodge or a place to spend a night, weekend, or even a week, but a place to come and be with more structure and intention behind what's going on there. It's a place for those who are building, creating, expressing, whether they're an entrepreneur, artist, builder, or creator. Someone with a vision in a process that they see is broader than a specific task or goal they are oriented towards.
In other words, it's someone who has their "why," who understands what they care about, believe in, and why they're walking in the direction they are, even if they don't exactly know what it is.
I relate to that - having a why, having a direction, and being in the process of journeying, not knowing where I'm going, not knowing what the arrival looks like.
The fellowship is an interesting way to invite and bring people like that together to connect with the land, themselves, and others. The same thing I want for those who come and stay for a weekend, but with more intention and partnership in their process of Life's Work. It's a place to specifically foster that creation and expression of themselves.
Comma's "why"
Comma's the "why," the space, the farm enables the "how" and "what."
There are multiple "hows" and "whats." There's a farming business, a hotel, a café, a restaurant, etc. Yet, the fellowship really connects most deeply with the "why." The “why” of Comma, the “why” of a farm, and what that really unlocks in its unique sense of place and connection with the world, what that allows for us to connect with ourselves.
Unlocking creativity and culture with web3
Another set of ideas that I see playing a part in this whole vision is web3. It's something I've been obsessed with and fascinated by for the last five years or so in many ways.
At its core, what excites me is its potential to unlock creativity and culture.
I want to explain how I see web3 playing a part in Comma, particularly in the fellowship or creative studio element.
Until recently, all we've had access to is the corporate structure lens. To organize resources of all kinds - people, capital, and incentives - we used the legal structure of a company, enabling scale, mass organization, and decreasing friction for coordination.
That's a technology, the innovation of the company, the corporate legal structure, enabling us to coordinate as humanity on a large scale. As you read in Sapiens, this large-scale mass coordination is what enables us to be the apex creature on this earth. It's what differentiates us from apes - our ability to tell stories, get behind an idea, and coordinate towards a shared direction.
My experience in that paradigm is that everyone is aligned economically and theoretically towards one goal. But much of our lives and human existence outside that goal gets left aside. With scale comes dilution and leaving things aside. Web3 enables us to incorporate all parts of us. It moves the locus of organization and alignment of resources from the company level to the individual human level. And that, to me, is the ultimate goal.
We've seen glimpses of it already with the creator economy. There’s been investment behind individual creators, which is super exciting. But it's using the existing tools of corporate structure.
For example, we tell creator X, "we want to invest in you and your creative projects." So we set up a legal entity, fund it with money, and according to the articles of incorporation, give them latitude to do almost anything within set bounds. We share in the economics of it. That's awesome. However, web3 promises decreased friction and essentially automates the process so we don't have to go through all those extra steps.
The hope web3 offers is the ability to make this even more seamless and widespread.
Come, connect, create - relationally, not transactionally
I see the fellowship program and Comma's "why" as truly sparking those creators, as I mentioned, to create their life and their Life's Work.
So what I imagine for Comma, particularly for the space we are building for creators, artists, entrepreneurs - any seekers, really - is to come and create their life and Life's Work.
It's less about a pay-for-experience where you pay Comma to stay, for programming, for food and beverage, and all those other things.
I envision something much less transactional, much more relational - where it's more about coming, connecting, and creating. We partner with you, where Comma supports you in your process. As a result, we solidify that partnership using these tools so that it's not a tit-for-tat pay structure.
Think of a Y Combinator, which takes a bunch of founders with ideas, invites them in, gives them resources, structure, and partnership in their process of building their mission and life's work in exchange for a stake in their company.
Now, imagine a Y Combinator, but for people, for leaders, for seekers - whatever the expression of their process looks like. That's what I imagine The Comma Project to be, specifically the fellowship. I think that's a vision unlocked and enabled by technologies that are still early.
Web3 is still very early on, and criticisms abound with people saying, "I haven't yet seen a valuable use case; show me what it can be used for; give me one compelling example." We'll see, right? But I have a feeling about it. I believe in it, and I think it's going to get there. If it does, it’s really exciting to me. I see how it plays a part in Comma's future.
The process of putting the puzzle pieces together
This is what's been running through my mind. It's one of those instances where my mind is racing faster than my words can catch up.
Yes, it's a farm, but it's also all these other things. It’s the coming together of all these ideas that have fascinated me for so long. That's the exciting part.
Now, look, I don't know if I will buy a farm. I don't even know if this will ever happen.
But as I've shared in the past, and a promise I'll make to you here, is this: The Comma Project, as it stands today and into the future, is going to be a way for me to be and share in the process. It’ll be my own, it'll be ideas and stories of others, but this is my process; this is where I'm at.
It's confusing at times, even to me - many times even to me. It's challenging. It's lonely. It's uncertain. It's scary.
But this is what I want to do. Period.
This is the thing that matters most to me right now. And that's the place I'm going to keep sharing from.
I have this vision. I can literally see it in my mind of Comma integrated into and inspired by the landscape of a farm. We'll see where it goes.
Let me know what you think.
And I'm going to keep dreaming.
If you enjoyed this newsletter, forward it to a curious friend and tell them which idea they'd love.
Click here to watch and listen to spoken versions of essays, as well as other stories and musings, on YouTube.
To watch and listen on podcast apps:
Click here to read the archive.
Click here to follow on Twitter.
If you were forwarded this email, click the button below ⬇️ and enter your email to subscribe.