AI made creation infinite. anyone can make anything. claude reverse-engineered the original halo & put it in a browser, 1:1.
so what’s left after software becomes free?
the only moats left are the ones you can’t one-shot: getting humans to agree, again and again.
after all, humans are random, and Claude cannot reverse-engineer time.
the three moats
money <> traders — get everyone to buy one thing. “i buy this.”
consensus <> shitposters — get everyone to agree on one matter. “i believe this.”
vanity <> egirls — get everyone to desire one trait. “i want that.”
money
keynes, 1936: the market is a beauty contest. you don’t pick the prettiest face, you pick the face everyone thinks everyone will pick. soros: then the price moves the belief right back.
price moves beliefs; belief dictates actions; action drives prices.
money coordinate around value. “I buy xyz”. you are trying to get everyone to buy and hold into one thing, be it the dollar, real estate, or a shitcoin.
nobody reads whitepapers. everybody reads candles. the price recruits.
consensus
shitposters are the new philosophers. The skill is to spread your esoteric ideas far and wide through shitposts and memes.
consensus coordinate around belief. “I believe xyz”. get everyone to agree on one matter, and spread one meme is hard engineering work.
consensus doesn’t reveal what matters. it decides. desire is copy-paste.
vanity
an egirl gets a crowd to want one trait so badly they stop being rational. (broad category. idc if you’re a furry egrandad.)
a $100k daytona tells time like a $20 casio. napoleon: “a soldier will fight long & hard for a bit of colored ribbon.”
vanity coordinate around status. “I want xyz”. get group of people to think with any other organs (?) than their head. to desire something so much that they are willing forego basic self-preservation.
scarcity doesn’t disappear. it migrates, & status follows it. you don’t sell access. you sell status.
they feed each other
consensus → vanity → money → more consensus.
first people agree something matters, like a luxury watch. then they want to signal proximity to it. then markets form around that signal. then people spend $100k for a Daytona. Then more people agree it matters.
consensus creates vanity. vanity commands money. money compounds consensus.
culture becomes a self-reinforcing availability cascade once it reaches escape velocity. That is how consensus compounds.
do one & you have a career. do two & you’re rich. do all three & you start a religion, a country, or the new pokémon.
ask who people want to be
ask: what do people want, & who do they want to be?
“i buy this. i believe this. i want that.” one sentence: this is who i am now. & that part can’t be bought, only joined.
pick a career, be it trader, shitposter, or egirl. ask what people buy, believe, and desire. you’ll never be in a rut.