Spotify Playlists and Instagram Faces

Algos that send us to blasé AirSpaces… Amazon packages wrapped without strings…. These are a few of my least favorite things…

One of the most glaring flaws of the creator economy is its link to self-obsession.

In a world that is made to feel like constant chaos, it’s only natural we would turn inward to what we can control: popping the latest pills from CBD to NFT — meditating, dieting, and growth hacking our way to 1-man flourishing shows, worth the watch.

I’m all for pursuing strategies that make you more efficient and effective at pursuing your dreams. My passion project, the Co-Creation C__ is based on this very notion — expanding who has access to human flourishing tools and opportunities.

What happens when those dreams are dependent on a large number of strangers subscribing to YOU as a brand, and when that YOU must always be on display? [because of the creator-celebrity paradigm we’re stuck in]

You get women in America spending $15 billion on cosmetic surgery and receiving 10 million neurotoxin and filler injections in 2018.

The line between self-optimization and self-mutilation gets really complicated when mixing in surgical enhancements. What is a botox injection but an extension of wrinkle cream?

What is CRISPR womb editing but an extension of the ultrasound? And why shouldn’t we ‘democratize beauty’ by making enhancements cheaper and accessible for those who didn’t luck into the genetic lottery?

The danger lies in the feedback loops that same-ify our Spotify recommendations.

“I’d say 30% of people come in bringing a photo of Kim [Kardashian] or someone like Kim” says famed plastic surgeon Jason Diamond interviewed for New Yorker’s recently published Age of the Instagram Face.

Will it be better when Web 5.0/the multiverse allows us to be our ‘best selves’ without spending fortunes poking our physical bodies with toxins? Maybe… but only if we re-think the prediction and attention models shaping Web 3.0 first & the inherent gender and racial inequalities that come with.