#200: 1 Year in - The Map is Not the Territory

🗺️ My journey so far, reflections, what's next

For those of you that haven’t followed the personal side of my journey, I encourage you to read the following:

#1: I’ve Got a Feeling, WAGMI: My first piece that started it all!

#100: My Journey, Reflections, What's Next: My personal and public checkpoint 5 months into web3 full-time.

As my one-year anniversary of diving into web3 was approaching last month, I started to reflect on who I’ve become, the lessons I’ve learned, and where I want to go. For various reasons, I wasn’t ready to write about these thoughts yet and save them for my 200th.

One of my favorite comics, Mr. Lovenstein

In preparation for this piece, I blocked off most of my Saturday this past weekend to reflect and think:

1. Where are you at?

2. What do you want to do?

3. What do you believe in?

So without further ado, here is my 200th piece.

The map is not the territory

I came across this concept thanks to my friend Chris who writes at

Spatial Awareness

. The concept may resonate with many of us and the respective journeys we’re on. For myself, it resonates deeply and simultaneously provides a sense of comfort.

Many of these ‘maps’ have been drawn out for us, whether we’re entrepreneurs, professionals in specific fields, or content creators. There are established best practices, frameworks, and how-to’s. However, the territory is the exciting, scary, and intriguing part of the journey, especially in web3 and Crypto.

While in a reflective mood last Saturday, I decided to head over to the high school I live near. The school sits on top of a hill, and though I’ve walked through and around the school numerous times, I never stopped to sit and observe the view.

This picture doesn’t do the view justice (it’s not that great of a view regardless lol), but I noticed several things:

1. With some elevation, I could see what was behind the apartment buildings in the foreground. It’s hard to see, but there’s a golf course! I’ve been aware of the local golf course a short drive away, but I didn’t know that I could see it from my neighborhood with elevation

2. I’ve driven on this street hundreds if not thousands of times. However, I’ve never had a view where I could observe cars at this intersection. It was amusing to observe how drivers approach the stop signs, if they do a complete stop or, and watching the cars jerk slightly as they shift gears. I also watched a car struggle to parallel park in a large space over the span of a few minutes 😂

3. As I sat on the hill over a couple of hours, I was able to watch the fog slowly roll in as the afternoon pass by. It was a sight to see and made me appreciate the often foggy neighborhood I lived a bit more than I did before.

4. On a clear day, the visibility is great! I had a clear view of Sutro Tower which is several miles away.

So what does this have to do with…anything?

Maps act as a guide and assist us when we’re going from one place to another. However, maps don’t provide the personal context, experiences, and stories that we gain as we interact with the map.

Maps act as a description of the territory, but is not the territory itself. And it’s our interactions, annotations and experiences of the territory that adds meaning to our personalized maps.

As I’ve spent more than a year diving in web3, I’ve taken maps provided by others and created my own version here at Web3 with TPan. In this map, I’ve pointed out various ‘landmarks’ and ‘points of interest’ to my readers through case studies, frameworks, and concepts.

But at the end of the day, the territory is rich beyond any map maker’s comprehension.

TPan: Web3 Spelunker…and cat?!

One way I’ve thought about my role in this vast industry is as a spelunker.

Source

I explore the various ‘caves’ of web3 and document them. These caves are vast, complex, and full of twists and turns and I do my best to make sense of them to a broader and non-technical audience.

As an example, Mammoth Cave in Kentucky is the world’s longest known cave system. Approximately 400 miles of the cave system have been explored, and there is another 600 miles and 200 separate cave fragments that remain unmapped.

Web3 and Crypto is like Mammoth Cave x1,000, and I am one of many individuals helping to map it out.

Source

Another way I’ve thought of my role in this ecosystem is as a cat, inspired by my cat, Nara.

A rare photo of Nara not meowing for more food

Nara spends hours a day on her cat tree looking out window observing the street I live on. A boring activity for us humans, she sits patiently paying attention to the minor movements of neighbors, birds, pedestrians, and animals within her field of vision. As she sees something that piques her interest, she perks up, following the movements. Sometimes she even dashes off her perch for a better view downstairs.

In a way, I am Nara. My field of vision is limited by the ‘street’ I live in, but I take note of the local happenings as my eyes widen and ears perk up.

Where is TPan at?

I written 200 pieces including this one, and have almost 3,000(!) subscribers, but it feels like nothing compared to the large newsletters and groups that command a larger audience. Comparison is the thief of joy 😔

A lot and a little at the same time

One of the largest struggles I’ve had over the past year has been with my professional identity. I’ve spent almost a decade in various Growth and Marketing roles at startups, yet I’ve focused on being a content creator (specifically through writing) in web3 for the past 13 months.

As my reputation has slowly grown in the space, I’ve fortunately received more inbound requests for consulting and writing. Earlier on, I was resistant to these opportunities. I wanted to write in my voice and for myself, and I was committed to the craft.

I’ve gradually come to accept with my newfound identity (a growth-oriented content creator and a growth generalist), I’ve become more open to these opportunities. Especially if they’re a good fit with my skill set.

What does TPan want to do?

Keep creating content of course! But there’s more to it. In its current state, my content doesn’t pay the bills (yet?).

Premium Content

I’ve had a premium subscription available since my last personal update 8 months ago, and I haven’t made much progress since.

My experience at ETH Denver a couple months ago served as an inspiration and helped me identify the framework for building a Premium experience, but I haven’t made much progress since then either.

So what has held me back? Intention (more on that later).

I’ve been so plugged in, staring and Twitter and Discord all day that I’ve lost the bigger picture of why I’m doing what I’m doing. I’ve fortunately built up the habit of writing to the degree where it’s second nature, but that’s where it stops. Additionally, as someone that is not as natural of a builder as others, I’ve struggled with the momentum needed to push beyond just writing.

Time to build. In my own way and with intention.

Supporting founders and startups

In my last full-time job, the leadership team I was a part of participated in Patrick Lencioni’s Working Genius exercise. We answered a series of questions and identified our areas of Working Genius within the WIDGET framework.

Source

My areas of Working Genius were Invention and Galvanizing:

THE GENIUS OF INVENTION:

“The natural gift of creating original and novel ideas and solutions… People with the Genius of Invention thrive on creativity. They are naturally drawn to coming up with ideas, seemingly out of nowhere, to solve the problems or address the needs that they or others identify.”

THE GENIUS OF GALVANIZING:

“The natural gift of rallying, inspiring and organizing others to take action… People with the Genius of Galvanizing bring energy and movement to an idea, project or function.”

These two types of working Genius resonated with me and helped me realize that there’s something there.

I’ve had a knack for creating frameworks and providing insights in ways that I don’t believe many others in the space have done. I personally find it fascinating that I’m able to get some of these ideas ‘seemingly out of nowhere’, but I usually say that I ‘pull it out of my ass’ 😂. Here’s a few recent examples of that:

• Co-Determination

• Rug Radio’s Stubs Program

• Announcement Velocity with Yuga Labs

I’ve also been gifted and cursed as someone that wears my heart on my sleeve. As a Working Genius, this helps when it comes to other non-writing mediums:

• Revolutionizing Growth Marketing in Web3: The X to Mint Formula with Web3 Academy

• Deconstructing Bored Ape Yacht Club’s Dookey Dash with Naavik

I want to help Web3 founders and startups with my areas of Working Genius. Exactly how? I’ll need to have some exploratory conversations first 🙂

And of course, this doesn’t preclude other types of work engagements (eg: currently working with the Ethereum Foundation on some projects at the incubation stage, and a member of Myosin).

These are two areas that I’ve identified I want to build towards and focus on long-term.

What does TPan believe in?

This brings us back to the piece around intention, more specifically the mission of my content and why the hell I even spend a disproportionate amount of time writing and thinking, leading me to the Web3 with TPan mission:

Provide Web3 insights that you can’t get anywhere else.

This doesn’t mean that I have all the insights, or that every insight can’t be discovered by others. However, I believe I have the background, Working Genius, and desire to build towards this mission and make it more defensible than most.

And this will be the fuel that’ll continue pushing me, as I’ve felt like I’ve been at that stop sign longer than I needed to be.

The best part is regardless of my work situation, I can continue working towards this mission.

Thank you

As always, there are so many people to thank for supporting me along this anxiety-inducing yet rewarding journey. A short and incomplete list since I’ve gone into reflection mode in preparation for #200:

• My fiancée A who has supported me every step of the way. I still owe you a Porsche, one day 😂

• Terry: You’ve been a mentor that has provided thoughtful guidance as I blabber out my stream of conscious. The 3 questions you asked me helped provide clarity and the structure of this piece!

• My fellow writers: Chris, Kairon, LG, Eliot, LJW, the WW3 community and so many more. Please remember (and as a reminder to myself): You are not alone.

The map is not the territory.

See you Thursday.