François CholletVerified account

The web itself, meanwhile, is sterile and moribund. There's nothing fun or weird around that doesn't get immediately co-opted, and there's certainly no DIY or collaborative culture of making cool things. You can play with the toys Google or Amazon gives you, big whoop.

We must not be using Twitter the same way... Also there are plenty of good creator communities around, including large "corporate" platforms (SoundCloud, YouTube, etc) Meanwhile 90% of NFT JPGs look like the output a "customize your avatar" wizard from 2003. Don't even look rare

I think we're talking about two different things—creativity within the guardrails of a platform, vs. basic blue-sky tinkering.

What it is about NFTs specifically that is supposed to stimulate tinkering and probing new grounds? As you are very well aware, all the actual creative production and distribution happens using the "old school" tools and channels, just with more money and media attention now.

I'm not talking just about NFTs but all the various cryptocurrency-adjacent projects. There is genuine novelty and innovation there. I agree with you that a revival of the old web sounds unlikely; I'd just like to see this energy channeled somewhere other than fraud and crime

I wonder if it can be seen as an acceptable trade-off. Fraudsters and speculators providing fuel to stimulate and sustain genuine innovation and creativity. Kind of like cold war-era military-industrial complex seeding many discoveries, including arguably the internet itself.

It's funny, we seem to have completely different experiences. While NFTs are make-believe driven by greed, I think they could have redeeming qualities if they had side-effects like supporting artists, incentivizing good or novel art, social structure experimentation, etc.

However, in practice the art/content & social tribes that emerged from the NFT movement are trash. It's some of the most formulaic, least authentic, least interesting content I've ever seen. TikTok is super creative by comparison. To me this is the biggest indictment of NFTs