Neeva recently introduced AI search results. It works well for something so new. This search is a good example I was doing for Tyler where the AI was great. The references to sources are key.
I’ve tried multiple times to participate in the KZG Ceremony for Ethereum and it times out after hours of waiting. The wait time is 10,143 minutes right now (7 days)!
iPhone Upgrade “Waterfall” today. New iPhone 14 Pro for Tammy and I, and our old phones heading to the kids who will finally be out of the dark ages with their devices. Thankful that migration tools are so much better these days!
Morning bowling at Tuttle’s with niece Nora. Mazie won. Let’s ignore the rest of the scores.
We escaped the Diamond Dilemma room at Missing Pieces with 17m 14s remaining — and only one clue used! Great teamwork with the kids cousin joining us! 🔓 Room 46!
Bubble Tea Time
Our niece loves Bubble Tea so we all enjoyed one at Chatime in the Mall of America.
- Jamie: Mango Smoothie with Crystal Boba
- Tammy: Açaí Berry Spritz Tea Tapioca Pearls
- Mazie & Nora: Passionfruit Smoothie Tapioca Pearls
- Tyler: Cookies & Cream Smoothie Crystal Boba
POAP 6200232 at Joe's BONKalicious Bday.
POAPathon Future Thoughts
On the December 30th POAPathon Community Call there was a request for feedback on where POAPathon should go in 2023. I thought about it and here are my thoughts.
First some background. POAPathon is a community driven organization that facilitates design contests for people that need an image for a POAP event. I love creating POAP events, but I lack the design skills to create great images. I’ve used POAPathon a few times to get amazing images for my events. The process, collaboration, and results are great.
Some POAPathon designed events I’ve done include:
Magic Pines Summer of 2022
by kavishsethi
Jamie Thingelstad’s 51st Birthday
by designatum.eth
TeamSPS 2022 Kubb Tournament
by InsertGenericArtName
POAPathon DAO
Creating a DAO for POAPathon would enable two important functions:
Treasury for the DAO to fund programs, strategy, and execution.
To fund the treasury some percentage of all bounties should be directed to the DAO. POAPathon is providing direct value by creating this marketplace, and directing some of those funds into the treasury to be used by the DAO is best for the overall health of the community.
Governance tokens to enable decisions making.
Governance tokens have no monetary value and should never be bought or sold. These tokens would be distributed for actions done in the DAO. Examples would include:
- Sponsoring a contest.
- Submitting a design to a contest.
- Volunteers managing a contest.
- Volunteers sending a newsletter (see below).
- Volunteers hosting a community call.
There is likely a broad list of additional activities that could be rewarded with governance tokens, but there are two activities that should not be:
- Winning a contest is already rewarded with the bounty. Governance tokens should be given equally to any artist that participates in a contest. Winning should not be a factor for governance tokens.
- Community call attendance is already rewarded with POAPs, and that should continue. That rewards engagement, and governance tokens reward contribution. However, a volunteer hosting a community call should be rewarded.
Serious thought would need to be given to governance token amounts for each activity. Fortunately POAPathan has been doing nearly all of these things for a year or more, and that historical set of activities could be used to model what the amounts should be. Future changes to reward amounts could be handled via a DAO vote.
Lastly, the DAO should be run on Gnosis Chain in recognition that POAPs are distributed on Gnosis Chain. (Disclosure: I am a Gnosis Chain validator.)
Contests On-chain
Today contests are created via a survey, USDC is sent to POAPathon, and the Contest Managers (POAPathon volunteers) are trusted to setup the contests and distribute the funds. To further embrace a trustless approach, contests could be moved to a smart contract and executed on-chain.
When a contest is created the USDC would be sent to a contract. That contract would then manage the distribution. Some percentage would be sent to the DAO immediately after the contest is approved. The remainder would be sent to the addresses of the winners.
There are a lot of options here. It would be ideal if the smart contract knew what artists had submitted art for the contest, and could even handle distributing governance tokens rewarding them for participating. The contest requester could then select the winners from a list of participating artists.
This would require development efforts that may go beyond the scope of volunteer engagement. If so, the DAO treasury could be used to fund the development of this.
Other Stuff
Focus on just POAPs. The POAPathon website suggests a variety of design services via contest (PFP, Logos), but POAP is right there in the name and focusing on just that use case may create more opportunity.
Email newsletter. Discord is great, but is only useful for very engaged community members. A newsletter that highlights the contests, selected artists, and more could be very compelling. This is a way to stay connected and broaden the reach of POAPathon. POAP has This week in POAP for example.
Give out more POAPs. POAPathon distributes a POAP for each Community Call. It would be cool to give a POAP for submitting a contest, and winning contests. I’ve created five contests now but there is no record of that outside of Discord history. I’d love to have a POAP from POAPathon showing that.
Closer connection with POAP itself. POAPathon could be part of the POAP process. There seems to be no mention of POAPathon on the POAP website that I could easily find. Getting in this flow of requests would help make sure there are enough contests to have a thriving community.
POAP 6177735 at Jamie Thingelstad's 51st Birthday.
Scanning…
Having to get creative to thaw out the Big Green Egg. 🥶🔥
The Writer of the Family
Mazie has a talent with words. Her writing is engaging and her creative use of words paints a vivid picture in your mind. We try to do whatever we can to encourage her to exercise the craft. She wrote a short story to share with the family for Christmas this year.
Izzy Baltimore never ceased to be amazed by the water. How it swirled and flowed as if with a mind of its own. How it danced through the air in sparkling droplets as it cascaded off a rock or twig jutting out of the current. How it lept from one spot to the next, refusing to reveal its never-ending destination.
You want to keep reading right?
Holiday Week List
During the week between Christmas and New Years I like to focus on some different things.
Write a meaningful blog post each day ✅
- What, Why, and How to Improve Your Security and Privacy (Monday)
- Polarizing Technology: Encryption and Crypto (Tuesday)
- On Audience Capture (Wednesday)
- Having a Style Coach (Thursday) and Where in North Dakota is Carmen Sandiego?
- Organizational Dissonance (Friday)
Focus on Meditation
- Meditate 20 minutes each day, double my usual. ✅
- Take “The Stoic Path” by William B. Irvine in Waking Up. 30% complete
Read “The Bed of Procrustes” by Taleb ✅
Finished reading this, but read it like a book so I could read it all. I will plan to come back to this and reflect on select aphorisms from time to time.
Complete Christmas LEGO ✅
Each Christmas Tammy surprises us each with a Holiday LEGO project. I got the Super Mario 64™ Question Mark Block this year.
Mazie got started on her LEGO Typewriter! Through bag 3 building the keys. I’m excited to see this finished.
Organizational Dissonance
As a leader you are always seeking to move your organization forward toward the market opportunity that you are seeking. Moving your organization forward means constant change and always keeping ahead of the “jaws of death” that threaten your organization. As you move forward you are continually affecting change and defining where you want to be.
The gap between where you are and where you want to be divided by the time you have to get there is something I think of as organizational dissonance. I’ve found it valuable to name and manage this.
Dissonance is elastic and can be increased or decreased as part of your culture. Faster growing companies tend to need more dissonance, and need to invest in culture to allow that dissonance to stay higher. Said another way, the more organizational dissonance that your organization can handle, the more potential you have to change faster.
Examples of Dissonance
What does too much dissonance sound like? Leadership is “out of touch” and doesn’t understand what is happening in the “real world”. If you pushed these even further you could “snap the band” and lose the confidence of your entire team.
The other side is being too much in the teams work, and getting in their way. In this case you hear “micromanagement” and lack of ability to get things done. Here you may think you are helping your team by being close, but you are not leading toward the market opportunity, and are holding the team back from escaping the jaws of death.
How does culture play here?
Technology companies typically need to grow fast, and they also tend to focus on culture more than the average. Having a robust culture can enable for more organizational dissonance. And with that increased dissonance your organization can “stretch” out further and move faster.
Trust and Integrity in your culture are the two things that will enable this the most. As dissonance in the organization increases, knowing that the leaders operate with high integrity, and having trust amongst all team members, will allow the organization to continue to be very successful amidst all that dissonance.
Everyone Leads
Everyone is affecting change, at whatever the domain that you manage. This isn’t just about manager and leaders, you may be affecting change in the domain that you oversee. You have dissonance to manage as well. Whatever the difference is from where you are today, and where you need to be tomorrow — approximately divided by the time you have to get there is some idea of the dissonance.
***
Questions to consider:
- Is the dissonance in your organization high enough? If it isn’t, are you not trying to change enough or are you giving yourself too much time? Or both?
- What can you do to increase the organizational capacity for dissonance?
- Does your organizational structure allow for dissonance to be managed directly? Or does it leak in odd ways outside of clear accountability.
The term “Web3”?
Good: It describes a set of use cases that are easier for people to understand than “crypto”.
Bad: It is frequently used in opposition to the “current” web, instead of an evolution.
Ugly: It is a made up marketing phrase, just like Web 2.0.