What game are you playing

draft: true

This is more of a shout into the void about thoughts that have been kicking around my brain recently. If they are not good thoughts, well, then don’t read them.

Games, growth, and ZIRP

Let’s start with a quick glossary of terms:

• Zero Interest Rate Policy: a type of economic policy used by gov’ts to stimulate activity and growth. Basically, central banks turn the dial all the way down on short term interests aka it sets its target short-term interest rate to 0% (or like sorta close to 0). Might sond familiar if you operated in the US from post Great Recession to the COVID era (lets call it ~09-22)

• Lucasverse: the many spinning plates that make up Wayspire and all its associated entities

• Techno Wizard: Lucas, as seen here (https://lucasearth.com/) or here (https://www.google.com/search?q=techno+wizard+of+tallahassee&sca_esv=556766949&sxsrf=AB5stBgMiPU0CZ1XFTHFgeBxSCZOHXhjmA%3A1692024698653&source=hp&ei=ej_aZMTpJJCMwbkP8NaEsAY&iflsig=AD69kcEAAAAAZNpNisNV6GQnEA5mIBaZqZiNBzbR6yU5&oq=techno&gs_lp=Egdnd3Mtd2l6IgZ0ZWNobm8qAggAMgcQIxiKBRgnMggQLhiABBixAzIFEAAYgAQyBRAAGIAEMgcQABiABBgKMgUQABiABDIFEAAYgAQyBRAAGIAEMgsQLhiABBjHARjRAzIFEAAYgARIvQ5QAFilBnAAeACQAQCYAYcEoAGiDKoBCzEuMS4yLjEuMC4xuAEDyAEA-AEBwgIEECMYJ8ICERAuGIAEGLEDGIMBGMcBGNEDwgILEAAYgAQYsQMYgwHCAgUQLhiABMICCxAuGIoFGLEDGIMBwgILEC4YgAQYsQMYgwHCAhEQLhiDARjHARixAxjRAxiABMICCBAAGIAEGLEDwgIIEAAYgAQYyQPCAggQABiKBRiSA8ICCxAAGIoFGLEDGIMBwgIIEAAYgAQYkgPCAg4QLhiABBiSAxjHARivAQ&sclient=gws-wiz)

Early on in my journey with the Techno Wizard in the Lucasverse (Wayspire, Arcvale, you know the lot), I remember chatting with a group about the gaming and tech industry, the failures we had seen in it, and the type of things we would build in its place (if we had the chance). I remember distinctly during that conversation that the entire group was aligned on building something that was focused on sustainable growth with an emphasis on control by the people building it and you know, (actual profit). This was right at the last, massive, ambitious, short sighted, beautiful gasp of the ZIRP era. The glory of crypto, the Uber Eatsification of mobile, the sheer blind faith of the Metaverse. What a time. Anyway, these days everyone is talking about startups valuing control over infinite injections of outside capital (and dilution), prioritizing profits over projected growth, disbanning skunk works divisons etc. On one hand, I think it’s easier to make that decision when the insane valuations are no longer on the table. On the other hand, can’t take too much credit from our side of things. We were a group of industry friends on Discord making fun projects and opining on the scars we had gathered in said industry. We weren’t a startup, or a nonprofit, or an agency, or anything that we ended up becoming. We were just a small fish in a big pond trying to figure out if we even liked the water. Basically, we were nobodies, outsiders, etc. It’s pretty easy to take on a contrarian approach in a world that uh doesn’t really care what you think of it. I didn’t have the words for it back then, but being unknown (and broke) was a gift because it allowed us to move without fear of loss (there wasn’t much to lose!) and to identify that we wanted to play an infinite game, not a finite one. We lucked into identifying the game we wanted to play really early on. Many businesses, organizations, and people never realize what game they are playing (or what game they want to play).