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NEAR is Nao x @NEARWEEK : Fullword Alchemists ✍️
Recorded: Dec. 23, 2022 Duration: 1:05:49Space Recording
Full Transcription
Hi guys, we're just getting ready and setting all the speakers up, so give us a few more
moments before we kick it off here.
Hi everyone, hey Naomi, hey Ariana.
Hi there, how are you doing guys?
We are like super on time, that's so not what I'm used to.
Maybe it's because I work with a French company, but every time we join a space or a Google
meet, it's always you have to wait at least five minutes.
But yeah, I think we're just, oh, Jillian also just showed up, awesome.
I'm going to invite you up to speak and then, okay, Jillian, I sent you a speaker invite.
Okay, awesome.
Well, welcome.
I'm just going to get up AGT as well, in case he wanted to say a few words.
And yeah.
And then we can kick it off.
Well, welcome everybody to the last Nias Now of the year.
And this time I'm very happy to co-host with Nia Week.
How's it going?
Yeah, and to those that don't know, AGT is from the Shih Tzu community, which it was a
meme coin, and now they are heavily supporting educational efforts, and that's why they're
also supporting this space.
So people who ask good questions might be rewarded with some Shih Tzu.
So it's always worth asking questions, regardless of what you get.
But in the best case, you get a good answer, and you get some Shih Tzu.
And possibly Nia, if you get that grant, hurry up and get the grant money.
Yeah.
So if we get the grant money, we get even more.
But anyway, so for those of you who don't know, I'm now, and I'm hosting these spaces
basically to educate and bring people together and hopefully provide some insights and
tips and recommendations for people looking to get into the space for projects, maybe
just looking for what's happening on other chains or some help, and also to give them
a platform to discuss certain topics.
And today we're here to talk about writers in Web3, because it's, yeah, quite much needed.
Yeah.
Writers are much needed.
But a lot of people want to get into it, but they are often not sure how to do that.
So I think it'd be great to get some people who are already working as writers and been
here for a while to pick their brain on what's the best thing to do?
How do you get into this?
What are the challenges you face?
And obviously, Nia Week is one of the best people to co-host this with, because they're
the leading publication covering everything that's happening in the Nia ecosystem.
So if you don't already, go check them out, follow them, and every week they send out
a newsletter that covers pretty much everything that has happened in detail.
And of course, if you want to be a writer, they also are starting a DAO and a bounty program.
So you can potentially even write an article and get a bounty for that.
So definitely check it out.
But without further ado, I think we will kick it off with a round of introductions.
And yeah, because today I've got three amazing writers here with me.
And first of all, we have Jillian.
Jillian, could you quickly introduce yourself and tell us what you do in this space?
Thank you very much for having me.
Yeah.
So I'm a journalist in this space.
I've been in fintech a long time.
And my first job was back in the dark ages with J.P. Morgan in London after college.
And I've been a journalist, I suppose, the last...
I started off as a systems analyst, then I went into PR or fintech and then marketing.
And then the last, I suppose maybe 20 years, 15, 20 years, moved on to journalism.
What was really interesting is that so I've done...
I mean, I've always written.
So my first degree was in history and English.
I've always been a writer.
But it's funny.
So I was writing lots of different things.
I was writing a lot of fintech stuff because I was writing, first of all, internally as a PR person or marketing or whatever.
And then I increasingly wanted to do more journalism, which interests me more.
But the leap into Web3, from Web2 to Web3, is quite a chasm.
I have to say, it's eminently doable.
But it's, I think, I don't know, when I first discovered Web3, which wasn't even called Web3 back in 2017,
I was going, you know, what?
I couldn't understand anything.
And I've been doing fintech for years and years and years.
So I was very lucky.
And I'm going to stop now because I'll let people talk.
I was very lucky that I was working with Simon Cocking, who I knew in sort of fintech originally.
And he was editing a crypto coin.using online publication.
And he set me off because he knew as a writer, he was a journalist.
And he said, well, go and analyze these projects.
So I had to sit through loads and loads and loads of horrible white papers and try and analyze them.
And they weren't horrible, obviously, but it was a huge learning curve.
And that's how I got into writing in Web3.
So that's, it was, I wouldn't necessarily recommend it.
It's kind of like a baptism by far.
And, but it did, it did.
Yeah, it was interesting.
So I'm now a full-time writer and editor in this space.
And I loved it.
That's me.
Yeah, and also Joliet writes for pretty much any big crypto publication you can think of.
So definitely now after the baptism of fire, it was worth it, I would say.
And I've been through similar.
Like, I remember all the white papers I was reading thinking, who wrote this?
Like, this is terrible.
But yeah, I think that's something a lot of people will share.
And we also have Ariana here.
Yeah, hi.
Hi, everyone.
Thanks for having me here.
To briefly introduce myself and what I do in the space, currently, I work at Aurora as
content manager.
Previously, I was working for NIRWIC in the same position as content manager.
And before NIRWIC, I was working together with the Forens Guild.
And through that, I was basically writing a bunch of articles, introductions to different projects around the ecosystem.
And that's how I started it.
And yeah, it has been two years since then.
Yeah, amazing.
And then we also have Hiro here.
Hi, everyone.
I'm the head of content, the content manager at NIRWIC currently.
This was Ariana's position at NIRWIC.
I think you gave a pretty good introduction, Elmi.
You know, we're one of the first decentralized publications on NIR protocol and also the biggest one.
So we do quite a wide range and I'm happy, happy to be here and happy to share any knowledge.
Yeah, so one more question that is part of the introduction, because as you might have noticed, all of these spaces are always anime inspired by name.
So one of the must ask questions is, if you have one, what's your favorite anime?
Jillian, do you even watch anime?
I don't.
I don't.
I saw that question.
Oh, I'm very ignorant.
I'm sorry.
I like it.
It looks nice, but I have no comprehension.
Sorry.
You have so much to learn.
That's also quite exciting.
I will send you some recommendations.
Then you can decide if you want to give it a try.
No, I mean, I've seen I have seen this and it's very beautiful and it's amazing.
And I know every so often you get down to a rabbit hole, you're watching stuff and whatever.
But I've never.
Yes, actually, I would like recommendations because I have no idea where to start or what to look at.
You've come to the right place.
Okay, moving on to Arianna.
How about yourself?
Yeah, I'm sorry to disappoint, but I've never watched any anime.
So, yeah, I'm very ignorant in this field, but I'm open to learn more about it.
I think this is going to turn into an onboarding to anime space, but that's fine.
How about you, Hiro?
I'm so disappointed to know Arianna didn't watch anime.
You know, the things you find out on Twitter spaces makes you rethink.
Yeah, but my favorite anime is Slam Dunk, definitely.
The basketball anime 90s.
Yeah, and we all know for AGT, it's Gurren Lagann, which is a very good one.
It's definitely good for the vibes.
But moving on, let's talk about working in Web 3 as a writer.
And maybe let's start with some of the challenges.
Like, what kind of challenges have you faced when working as a writer in Web 3?
Yeah, Jillian, I think you already mentioned a couple of them, but if you could.
I have a very funny one, which is hilarious.
Because I've been on both sides of the fence, I've been PR and now I'm in journalism.
I much prefer to be a journalist than PR.
I didn't really like PR, but journalism, I much more enjoy it.
It's very funny.
I don't know if you're aware, oftentimes when PR companies are setting up interviews with journalists,
they like to sit in on them, which I hate, because it's like,
I want to build my bond with the person I'm speaking with.
I don't want to have the PR person there.
And also, in the early days, I was so ignorant.
I didn't want those people to know how little I knew about this space.
And I was learning hugely.
But anyway, there was actually a very nice girl from one of the top PR companies.
And we were on a Zoom call with an Italian founder.
And the Italian founder was doing an ICO back in 2017 about experiences.
That was the whole project.
You could buy experiences.
And that was his idea.
An interesting man, but he had a very, very thick Italian accent, a beautiful accent.
But I found it difficult to understand him.
And towards the end, I said, if you could buy an experience, what would your personal preference be?
And he said, oh, I'd like to have an evening with Metallica.
I'm thinking, Metallica, are they still going?
Is that band still going?
I asked him twice, and he came back.
And this lovely PR girl, for whom I'm entirely embarrassed, I didn't want her there.
She said, I think you'll find, he said, he wanted an evening with Vitalik Buterin.
And I went, oh, Metallica, oh, that's what you mean.
So sometimes you can be very ignorant about things and not know it.
And you're learning very fast.
But I was so glad that woman was on the line, because otherwise it would have been a very
embarrassing article I'd written afterwards.
So things to be aware of.
Let people help you, perhaps.
Yeah, for sure.
I think I've had some misunderstandings like that in the past as well.
So I totally relate.
Ariana, how about yourself?
But which challenges you've encountered?
Yeah, I definitely share Gillian's sentiment there.
I would add that communication with technical people that are commissioning you articles that
are supposedly for the general public, it's not always very easy, because they're not really
able to be able to give you any direction on the kind of article that they would like.
Or sometimes they would like to include information that they're very interesting from a technical
point of view, but they're not necessarily relevant or interesting for the general user that
they want to onboard.
So I would say that communicating and getting in line with more technical people on content,
it's definitely one of the challenges there that I faced.
Yeah, I totally agree.
And somehow then I'm now being perceived as a nerd for going down all these tech rabbit
holes and trying everything from running a lightning node to creating my own soulbound
token.
So yeah.
But it's definitely a challenge, especially in the beginning.
I was like, what does any of this mean?
How about you, Hiro?
What were your greatest challenges?
Yeah, Ariana took the words out of my mouth.
I thought it was going to be original there.
But yeah, communication between clients and trying to really understand what they want when
they don't really know what they want.
It's a bit of a challenge.
And I think that's one of the biggest challenges because it really hampers all your experiences
sort of with every client.
It sort of influences it some way that you have to, I think, as a writer, editor, or doing
any kind of PR, you're sort of forced in that position where you have to sometimes make a
lot of guesswork as to what clients are wanting and sort of reading in between the lines and
being like, okay, well, you know, he says he wants this and this and this, but like really
he wants people to know about, you know, this.
And then you have to make a bit of a guesswork.
And I think that's the biggest chasm, at least for me.
Yeah.
And I think another challenge, which maybe I have found quite a bit is, and I think that's
probably generally if you work as a freelancer, is negotiating your rates, especially when
you get started.
It's like, okay, because there's, it doesn't really seem like there's an industry standard,
even now that I've worked with a variety of companies.
It's like, some pay this, some pay this, some pay this.
It's like, and then also in the bull market, it's a lot more.
In the bear market, it's like, hey, can we pay you in this token?
You can stake it.
Congratulations.
I don't know.
Have you had any experiences with that?
Maybe, Joel, since you've been on both sides.
I have loads of tokens that are worth nothing.
When I joined this industry in 2017, because I had a background in fintech and because I
have written, I mean, I write for a lot of broadsheets and stuff like that, and I would
have quite a high profile.
But so I got a lot of tokens and I wasn't really, didn't really know what I was doing.
More savvy advisors negotiated fiat and tokens.
And I was going, oh, how nice.
This is lovely.
And I did believe in the people and they were lovely and they were smashing and they
were all startups.
And I think that there's maybe one or two tokens that I got and that might be worth a couple
of hundred euros now at this stage.
The rest, I work so hard for these people, but it was a great learning curve.
I don't regret it in the slightest in the sense that how else do you learn, but you get into
the belly of the beast and you work with founders and you find out what they're thinking
and what they're doing.
So it was a sponsored learning curve, if you like, but it is tough.
Going back to your original point, Naomi too, as well.
It's so hard as a freelancer, as a writer, as a creator to get paid for your writing.
And I've only reached the point now where I am paid not as much as I would like, but
I write for the Irish Times and I would get paid by them.
Reasonable rates.
I write for Cointelegraph, a bit better.
I have my own site blog, it is on IO, which I'm trying to monetize so that I can write more
and pay people more, but it is, it's very tough because, and I do that thing too, is
what I wanted to rant is that sometimes people approach you, if you're a freelancer, people
approach you to write an article about something, either an interview or perhaps some news or
an exclusive, whatever, the whole thing.
When you're a freelancer, you still have to sell that to somebody else.
And sometimes people will pitch you the stories going, why won't you write this?
I'm going, no one's going to pay me to write this.
So while I would love to cover your amazing story with your amazing widget and what's going
to change the world, unless I'm going to do it as a labor of love or as a freebie.
And that person who's pitching is probably being paid by the company themselves either.
I think that there's that lack of, because you wouldn't, a lack of knowledge between,
if someone is a freelancer, unless they can get someone to commission it or there's some
payment, they're writing for free.
And that's not fair because if you invited, well, if you asked a plumber to come to your
house to fix your toilet, you're not going to give him or her exposure as a result.
So it is difficult and it takes a long time to get there.
Though I'm hoping that, and I'll yield the floor now, but I am hoping that with my
blockaders.io next year, we're going to try to get some investment and then we can engage
more writers and have, and also use tipping and stuff like that.
So a lot of plans try and reward writers more fairly, but it is tough.
Very, very tough.
Yeah.
Anybody else would like to add anything to that?
Yeah, on this, I would like to add that one of the problems is that people don't really
understand, the people that are not writing, they do not really understand the work involved
in a really good article.
And so it might be difficult for them to understand that, okay, you're reading this in three minutes,
but it took me three hours to write it and to do all the research on that.
So I think that definitely it's also these, that makes people not value writers as much
because they just think that it's easy, you know, it's just putting words together.
Anyone can do that.
And that's not the case.
It takes a lot of knowledge to do something really good.
Yeah, I totally agree.
I echo that it's so well said, because if you spend a lifetime writing, it does mean
it's taking you 30 years or 20 years at every age to be able to write something effectively
and efficiently and articulately in five minutes.
But that's taking, that's taking 25 years plus your five minutes to write that.
And I think you're right.
People do not recognize that it's very difficult to write well-crafted content without a lot
of experience, and that should be rewarded.
So well said.
I think that's kind of similar with artists as well, right?
I mean, in a sense, writing is an art form.
So the more experience you have, eventually, I think this should be reflected in how you
get paid, and it's not necessarily always linear.
Yeah, here, Rob.
I just want to add to Ariana's point that I don't think this is necessarily just a niche
application, like a niche situation that we're talking about, because I think we see the
consequences.
Like, everyone in this space has seen the consequences of sort of either, you know, projects neglecting
to hire people that can write or just PR people, editorial people and writers.
Because, you know, you see it when you visit these sites, and it's clear that no one has
spent any attention to the amount of time.
They're like the front end and how it looks and their public-facing side of the company.
And, yeah, I do think everyone has experienced this before, and that's sort of the consequence
of this not, you know, paying a good writer or a good PR person to just have a look at that.
Yeah, for sure.
But maybe moving on, did she ever write something that she later regrets?
So, for me, to share a personal experience, I once accidentally contributed to one of those
content, fake news about Lightbox, and I wasn't very proud of, I never worked with those people
again, but, you know, that was my early days.
Yeah, was there something like that for anybody else here, because it can be so dangerous, I
guess, in this case, because you don't necessarily always know who exactly is your counterparty,
and that's probably not helped with everything for now, actually.
I can go one bigger than that, if you like.
Well, not one bigger, but the same.
I don't have no new project that was a total scam, but over the last couple of years, I
have met, and previously, hugely respected and admired and lovely what he was doing in
Celsius, Alex Mashinsky, and I'd met him, I'd interviewed him, and I love his thoughts.
And then, and especially, I was taken in by the whole, you know, for this, you know, the
single mums, the plumber, the carpenter, you've got a few bob, whatever, don't sell your crypto,
use the key, it's a safe spot, we'll look after it, and you can earn your bit of interest,
and you can hang on to it for your child's education.
So, that was a whole spiel that I totally believed, and I wrote about him several times
in glowing terms, and I was just horrified when the whole Celsius thing blew up, and the
T's and C's, and the actual decisions behind the covers, I was just, and I say, I wrote
two glowing interviews, glowing is not the word for it, because I totally believed the
man, hook, line, and sinker, and I was so disappointed to discover afterwards that he
was selling when he said hodl, he was taking hugely risky decisions, and moreover, the money
that people, and myself included, put into that site, it wasn't our coins anymore, they
were, it wasn't just we'd given them our key, they were, they were Celsius' coins to do
with as they wished, so, I don't know, I feel very stupid, I feel very let down, and I'm
just glad I didn't interview Do Kwon and Sam Bankman-Fried, because I might have made the
same mistake if I'd have been there too, it's hard to know.
I think we all have at least one such person, where we actually thought they're legit, and
then it turned out to be not, I mean, at least that's the story of my dating life, but also
working in crypto, it's quite common, you come across people, they're very eloquent, they
have the right ideas, at least so it seems, and then maybe in the background they don't.
But, yeah, Adriana, how about yourself?
I mean, that definitely happened with me, it happened with OIM, it's a project that was
building on NIR, and I had written a few articles on that, and I was actually really bullish about
the project, but then it ended up not being that good after all, because when the price
of NIR started plummeting, then they basically impeded people to withdraw their money and
their debt, and so a bunch of people got liquidated, and that wasn't really good, and, yeah, that
would be my experience with that.
Of course, it's not such a big magnitude as, like, with other projects, but still, that
was sad, and I felt like, yeah, I've been promoting this project, and I felt a bit responsible
for that as well.
Yeah, I think that's probably one of the hardest parts about that, if you actually wrote something
and you feel that maybe because of what you wrote, other people got intrigued, and as
consequent, they had some bad experience.
How about you, Hino?
Any regrettable pieces?
I'm not so sure as in regrettable pieces, but it is something that's definitely on my mind,
and I know it's, like, on a lot of our minds, especially, I think, at NIR Week, because
we cover a lot of projects, right, and we cover a lot of startups as well, so I think
it's, as a bit of an extra layer of it being very difficult to know, because you sort of
only get the story from the founder themselves, right?
It's very hard to sort of get, like, a third party to verify or to do more due diligence,
so it just makes it all a bit harder.
I would say that, speaking on NIR Protocol specifically, there are two cases where I don't
feel like I regret how we covered it or anything, but more that it sort of highlights that this
is kind of a very shaky business.
I think there was the central bank.
I mean, it's still a bit of a sore issue on there, but they did really just shut down
completely.
And then there's also the, there was the Skyward Finance hack, which I don't, I don't
necessarily, we didn't cover Skyward Finance a lot, for example, at NIR Week, but I do think
that then, you know, how suddenly that project just failed, it does make me look back and
look at some of the ways we did highlight them and just think, like, wow, was there any
way we could have known about this beforehand?
Yeah, no, for sure.
I mean, those things happen, unfortunately, quite a lot in this nascent industry.
Yeah, on that note, have you ever gotten rocked by a client who you delivered the work and
you didn't get paid?
Maybe Julian?
Loads of times.
But in fairness, it's mostly because I have a lot of work with startups, it's because they
haven't got the money.
They've been a little bit less than honest about having said money when they commissioned
the work.
But if, I mean, I will help a startup.
If they've got no money, I'll do my best to help them.
Of course, I mean, anyone would.
And I don't mind helping people out.
And hopefully, if they're rich and famous one day, then I can charge them properly.
But yeah, a lot of times startups, they mean well.
Well, fortunately, I haven't been experienced any problems with big companies because there's
no excuse for them not to pay.
But startups, sometimes they're overenthusiastic and they just don't have the money and you're
helping them out.
OK, see you in the next world.
Yeah, I mean, I've had the experience with a couple of people as well where they didn't
pay for the work delivered or they actually paid, but they paid a lot less than they were
supposed to.
But yeah, those are always frustrating experiences because you put in a lot of effort and sometimes
they don't even launch, right?
If it's a startup and they're still in stealth mode, then they might say, hi, write this
for us.
And then they never end up launching.
So then it's kind of a nothing burger, I guess.
How about you, Ariana?
Yeah, luckily, it happened only once.
Not in the near ecosystem, but in the Solana ecosystem, I worked for a project and I wrote
a few articles for them and they never paid for it and they just basically ghosted me.
And that was kind of upsetting.
Yeah, very relatable.
How about you, Hero?
Oh, no, luckily, luckily not in Web3, right?
So I actually had the pleasure of only working for NERIC, right, for seven months now.
And they never worked me, thank God.
That's why I'm still here.
But yeah, and then Web2, everything was a bit more, you know, was a bit more above board.
Yeah, I think there's simply more infrastructure to support these kind of working arrangements
in Web2.
I mean, a lot of the time in Web3, you don't even have any kind of contract or written agreement.
It's just like, hey, we need this.
Are you going to do it?
And it's just Telegram group.
So yeah, there's a lot less, let's say, security.
And I think there's definitely a niche for somebody to come up with a good escrow solution
where companies put in the money and you get paid once you deliver the actual work
and nobody can touch the money in the meantime.
Kind of like Fiverr, but without the Fiverr.
But yeah, let's talk about the fun things about working in Web3 as a writer.
What would you say have been your highlights?
Oh, yeah, Jillian.
I think she's like, I meant to put a big love thing or a big thumbs up as opposed to my hand.
Highlights, though, since I'm here.
The thing that I love the most in this space is the innovation.
And I love founders.
So even though I've said I've been, I won't say let down, but founders fail, obviously,
as well as succeed.
And sometimes you work with a project and it doesn't get there.
And maybe they pay, maybe they don't.
But at the end of the day, maybe they don't deliver and maybe the tokens are worth nothing.
But it's an amazing space and a privilege to be able to interview people who are really
creative and inventive and far seen and who have vision and energy and determination.
And that, to me, is like a privilege because I do not have unique thoughts every day,
I can assure you.
And the privilege for me, then, is to meet people who are doing some amazing stuff.
And that's like, wow, opening someone's brain and seeing what they're thinking and why they're
thinking.
So that, to me, is the bit that I love about it.
And oh, and also the fact that Web3 people are very huggy.
I love hugs.
So now that after lockdown, I go to events, everyone's hugging.
It's really nice.
Yeah, I agree.
That's a lot of very...
I also want to add that Web3 people are also home cats.
I just want to add that.
Yeah, for sure.
Arianna, how about you?
What is your highlights working in the space?
I agree with what Gillian said.
And I would add to that that there is a really nice energy and the way that you can work that is very different if you were working for a Web2 company or for a different publication in the Web2 space.
And definitely also the fact that there is way more opportunities for writers in the space as opposed to Web2.
And you can actually, you have more chances of being paid decently, at least if you are just starting out.
Because in the Web2 space, you usually need to have years and years of experience to publish anything.
And you usually don't get paid that much or you don't get paid at all.
You have to do it for free.
So definitely more opportunities.
Yeah, I agree.
Hiro, what are your thoughts?
Because you started recently.
Yes, so my thoughts, I've spoken about them many times.
But Arianna as well, from a New Weeks perspective, I think it's great that...
I guess it's the same if you're a freelancer, right, or a journalist, that you just get to meet different people every time.
So it is never a boring day because every time, you know, you think you know everything about one area, like a new innovation comes in.
And a lot of times you're also left wondering, like, wow, will this work out, right?
It's that energy that comes with that.
And it's constant and thriving.
And that's why I'm really bullish on there, so to say.
Just because I think we have quite a good overview of all the builders that are doing their best.
And it is kind of incredible to see.
And I think that just that, you know, that sort of energy and buzz that comes with that every day, not knowing, you know, what new innovation or technology you'll learn about.
I think that really keeps me going.
Yeah, it's quite exciting.
On the other side, it's a lot of information all the time.
So how do you try to keep up with what's happening in the market?
Yeah, Gillian, what's your way to keep up with at least some of the things?
I think, honestly, I don't.
There's so much.
It's fast and furious the whole time.
And sometimes I find, because I do a lot of interviews.
I interview, I say, write articles.
I also have two radio shows here in Ireland.
They're not Web3, but it means that I'm doing eight shows a month here in Ireland, radio shows.
And then I do at least one or two videos and podcasts a week.
So I'm talking to a lot of people, and I find, unfortunately, that while I'm talking to the person or I'm looking at this thing, I'm focused.
And I'm, you know, laser eyes and whatever.
And then I turn to the next thing, and I park the old information.
And sometimes I'm going, who is that person?
What did I interview him or her for?
It's quite, it's so much going on.
Having said that, being a journalist in this space or a broadcaster in this space or a moderator, whatever, does give you the privilege of meeting people that you're hearing this stuff.
So it's not, I'm not stuck in one company learning one set of pieces of information.
I'm learning lots for the one.
So I do, some of it slips by me, but it's just being a journalist by itself means you are exposed to all this content.
And that is interesting in and of itself.
Yeah, for sure.
Ariana, any tips on keeping up with what's happening?
I mean, I think that Twitter is a great resource for keeping up with what's going on on the crypto area.
And also, I think that if you read Coindesk, they have a bunch of interesting articles on different, if you want to broaden or zoom in into particular issues.
And also the Defiant is really good as a source for getting news.
And yeah, these are the main things that I do with for keeping up with what's happening in the space.
And then, of course, I also have the opportunity to talk to founders and get like their opinions on what's going on.
And they also share news on the space or their projects.
Yeah, for sure.
Being directly at the source definitely helps.
And you, Hero?
Yeah, I think it's a bit of a benefit that at least at Nier Week, we're only focused on the Nier ecosystem.
Like I said, there's a lot going on there, but it allows me sort of to just focus on Nier protocol and what's happening there.
So, I mean, you know, it's almost Christmas now.
My cousins are here, for example, and they ask me like, oh, what's happening on, you know, this and this project?
And it's like an Ethereum project.
And I just told them, I have no idea.
I might work in Web3, but like if it's not Nier protocol at the moment, my knowledge is quite limited.
But I do try to keep up like on the major things happening in the space, you know, because it does have influence.
So, for example, there's the Decrypt, another social media publication.
They have this daily podcast called Decrypt Daily with Matthew Deamer.
And he just like, it's basically a news podcast where he just talks about the 10 biggest stories that happened basically in Web3.
And it helps me keep up with everything that's sort of going on outside the ecosystem.
And it's quite interesting because then if I see Nier protocol mentioned there, I know that something that we did in our ecosystem was sort of big enough to make it to the wider Web3 news.
And yeah, that's about it.
Yeah, I mean, for me, newsletters are a big source.
So one of my favorites is TLDR Crypto because they just summarize the news and very concisely and you can decide by the headline if you actually want to read the rest.
But also, I agree on podcasts.
Every morning I listen to a podcast called New Economy Podcast.
And it's in Japanese, so I guess most of you won't benefit much from it.
But it's interesting to see what news they cover versus what we talk about in the West as well.
So sometimes there's some alpha to be had by listening to your local publications, I think, regardless of where you're based.
But yeah, I also just want to encourage people, if you have any questions for the speakers, feel free to request to speak and we will get you on.
And you can ask your question and it can be anything related to Web3, related to working in Web3 or maybe about near week, about any of the speakers themselves and about becoming a writer, obviously.
But yeah, speaking about becoming a writer, let's get into some tools and practical tips.
And one of the biggest challenges potentially for writers is the so-called writer's block.
Do you have any tips on overcoming that, Jillian?
I'm going to say just do it.
There are sometimes there are times I often do my writing on a Saturday morning because I'm too busy during the week doing stuff.
And sometimes I'm kind of going, it's a Saturday, you know, I could have better things to do with my time.
Then I think, hang on, this is what I want to do with my time.
So in terms of commercial writing journalism, it's deadline driven.
And so I just, there's another thing too as well, they call it the sloppy five minutes, whatever.
Sit down and just try and start your article.
And you may only get the headline of the first paragraph and sort of an idea of what you're doing.
But that's great because when you come back to it afterwards, it's much easier to have done a certain amount of it.
And so I find, right, I don't really get sort of writer's block in commercial writing as in journalism, in business or leisure writing, whatever I'm doing.
The other thing I do have problems with is my creative writing.
And I have been sitting on a novel for the last four years, I think.
And I haven't got past the opening chapters.
And again, recently, I started to think about it again.
Because you know when you're so busy, so hard, especially for creative writing, you need space.
I'm so busy, deadline driven, I'm deadline this, I'm going to do this, whatever.
So I'm constantly writing and broadcasting and whatever.
But I started thinking again recently.
So for creative writing, you need space.
You need your brain to sort of settle down and figure out what you're doing.
And that's much harder.
For journalism, I think a deadline will drive you.
You know, you've got to make your deadline, so you're going to do it.
That's my tuppence worth anyway.
Yeah, for sure.
I'm also one of these people, like, as long as I have a deadline, I will manage to do it in time.
But if it's, like, just for myself and up in the air, it's like, okay, I will do it whenever.
And then it doesn't happen.
Ariana.
Yeah, I really agree with what you said.
And up to now, because, yeah, if you have a deadline, it's much easier to be, to find the motivation and also the time and resources to get something done.
When you're doing something just for yourself, but you don't really know what's going to be for, and it's not for a project, not for anyone in particular, then it might be more difficult to motivate yourself.
And I think that there you need to push yourself a bit harder and to actually set yourself some goals for the things that you're writing.
So I don't know if you're writing a novel and you're struggling with that, then maybe you can think of what you want to do with that to find some, like, motivation to push through and get it done.
Because that's very essential, that we always have some motivations, either good or bad, in the sense like a deadline, it can be a bit stressful.
It's something that you don't have when you're writing on your own stuff.
But then it's also important that you dedicate time to what you like.
Yeah, for sure.
How about you, Hiro?
Any challenges or, oh no, any ways to overcome writer's block?
I just want to echo all the sentiments shared by the previous speakers.
I think the only thing I'd add, well, there's nothing really to add, really, I think with creative writing, I struggle as well.
But just with, you know, journalism, interviews, editorial pieces, it's just a matter of just getting it over with.
And if it's something you're interested in, then that will happen eventually, in my opinion.
And so it doesn't really feel like effort in that regard.
I think maybe if you look at it from a different way, then I think the deadlines really do help.
So I try to, with my creative writing, I try to just set, like, deadlines as well in my environment somehow.
So that way, I don't just leave them to the wayside because, you know, it's very easy to just dedicate all your time in Web3 and in your protocol.
So, yeah, that's for sure, even though there's obviously a lot of protocols and there's often things we can learn from others as well because they've done something wrong or they've done something great.
So why not take that and use it?
And, yeah, I also try to create artificial deadlines in my own head just to get stuff done.
And sometimes it helps.
And what also helps me is, I guess, I have some kind of setup where I know, okay, now I have to do something.
Like, I set my timer.
I put on the music I always listen to when I write.
And then it kind of works eventually.
But, yeah, as Julia mentioned, it's just getting over the first five minutes sometimes and then you're in it.
Speaking of writing itself, are there any tech tools you use to elevate your writing?
Jillian?
Not so much.
I'm trying to think now.
I'm a fast writer.
Certainly when I do my journalism, I find.
What I really do, I use, I record on Zoom.
I use otter.io to transcribe my articles, which is great because that means that if I don't have to write it for another couple of days,
I don't, I mean, I might have some notes or I might not if I use the Zoom recording thing.
Then I have the transcript.
Now, the thing I will say for a newbie writer, do not treat the transcript as something to edit into your article.
Use it as an aid memoir because if you try to write it from the transcript, it's not going to work because it will probably be way too long, way too wordy.
And also people don't speak in full sentences.
So if you're trying to craft something from a transcript, it's going to be really messy.
And if you read anybody's journalism, not so much to create a writer, but journalism, they don't have people going, they take them out because no one wants to read.
You can tolerate it on your ear, but not when you're reading it.
So anyway, I use the transcript as an aid memoir, which is great.
And then the other thing that I do is quite handy because people use Grammarly.
I don't like Grammarly because I actually don't agree with all the rules.
They kind of go against the rules that I have learned during my years of writing.
But a quick and dirty technique I do use is I put the text of the song I've written, whatever,
and I'll chuck it into a Gmail just in the body of the email.
And they'll pick up all the things like where the word is not spelled incorrectly, which word would pick up.
But if it's the wrong word or the wrong tense or the wrong, you know, whether it's has or have, you know, the wrong pronoun, the verb attached to the pronoun, it'll pick it up for you.
And that's just a very quick way of things you won't see.
Because when you read it, there's none so blind as people have actually written a copy.
And you won't see that you've written has and not had.
So that's a really cheap and dirty, handy tool to use because it's free, obviously, the Gmail.
But it picks up those things that are jarring when people read it, but you won't see it.
So that's like a Zoom record, author to transcript, and then Gmail.
Just check out those very obvious grammatical errors that you might have made.
Yeah, Arianna.
Yeah, I agree with what Gillian said.
Those are really useful tools.
Maybe something else that could help writers that are getting started is definitely to find someone, maybe another writer that can read your pieces and give you an opinion on the readability, on whether it's engaging, whether the grammar is fine.
These are, feedback is very much needed when you're trying to improve your writing.
So I would definitely recommend that you do find a circle of writers that can help you out with that.
But yeah, that's what I would say.
But now I have to jump on another call.
So I have to say goodbye.
But this was a really interesting conversation.
And yeah, let's do it more often.
Yeah, for sure.
It was great having you here.
And definitely, I will invite you again and look forward to hearing more from or reading more from you as well.
Sorry, Arianna.
Bye-bye, guys.
Have a nice day.
Bye.
Yeah, I mean, on that note, I actually use Grammarly.
I quite like it because I have clients who do British English and some who do American.
And it's really good at telling me where I have to change from S to Z and from O to OU.
So that's been quite helpful.
But another one I can recommend is called HemingwayApp.com.
And it's just a website, and you can copy-paste your text in, and it will show you some – it will highlight stuff, for example, when there's very long sentences or when you use passive voice a lot.
And so that's been quite useful as well.
Hiro, any tools to add?
I'm just checking out the Hemingway one right now.
That's some good alpha right there.
Other tools to add?
I'm a very manual writer to my own detriment almost.
It just means that I have to spend a bit more time just rereading everything and make sure it makes sense.
But it works out for me.
I think I have actually been looking at ways – I have been paying a bit of attention to the recent rise of, you know, a generated text.
And just seeing ways it can be applied and its limitations and whatnot.
But I have yet to incorporate that to any actual output.
Yeah.
Yeah, I've actually started with that, I must say.
I've used ChatGTP just for, like, quick outlines of stuff and what people might want to read in a certain title piece.
But, yeah, it helps to get started sometimes.
Jillian, anything to add?
I used this today, this morning.
I was, you know, I have that ChatGPT.
I signed up for it.
I haven't really used it.
And I'd be a bit wary in terms of – I heard someone on the news there recently saying on the radio saying that what happens if college students decide they use it to write their essays?
How are professors going to know it's AI as opposed to just pure plagiarism?
So, anyway, this morning I had a bit of fun.
I gave the instruction, write a poem about Christmas in Ireland.
And four seconds later, I had this, like, 12-line poem.
I have a little pogue in it from my LinkedIn.
I was saying, is this good or is it, like, could your five-year-old have written it?
But in four seconds, it's mad.
I'm sure if I had refined it, I could make it into a nice poem.
It's a little bit clunky.
But, yeah, it's kind of – it's interesting.
And I also do AI with art and stuff.
I do the text to images.
But that's very interesting.
I love that.
And other image-to-image stuff.
So, it's – I think for artists, people are saying, where does the artist end and the AI begin and the graphic?
There's a huge argument about, you know, is – well, obviously with a lot of NFTs, they were done by graphical artists as opposed to fine artists, fine print artists, whatever.
And there is an idea of what comes and goes.
But I think there will be a melding in the future.
There has to be.
And I'm not quite sure what it'll turn out.
And I hope we don't start reading books written by AI bots.
That would be a bit sad.
That would be very sad indeed.
Hero, you've got your hand up.
Yeah, I just want to say that.
Well, I think, you know, virtually suddenly brought in AI-generated things to the whole of art and whatnot.
So, to get very – yeah, it's hard, easy to sort of lose track of where and when.
But I think if you just focus on sort of writing, right, and really talking specifically nonfiction here, I don't – like, whether it's essays or anything else,
I don't – I don't really don't think there's anything to worry about from any sense, right?
Even just if teachers are like, oh, no, suddenly my English student will get an A writing this essay.
Then the problem is really not the essay assignment.
It's like the student.
It would be that the essay assignment doesn't require enough critical knowledge and interpretation that it can actually just be summarized like this or answered in a very linear way.
Because the AI does work in that linear way.
And when you start adding that sort of critical thinking to it and the interpolation and reasoning, it's just a bit more next level.
And I think that that will really shine with this tool.
So, I don't necessarily – I think it's more like if there's like an art form or assignment that really struggles under AI,
then probably the problem is not the AI.
It's the art form or the other literary form.
Yeah, that's my opinion.
Yeah, Jillian, go ahead.
Yeah, sorry.
I'm keeping my hand up.
It doesn't seem to work.
It's interesting.
I think – I mean, as a writer, I don't like the idea of novels being written by bots.
Genuinely don't.
I'd rather read a bad novel by a writer than a good novel by a bot.
It's just kind of horrible.
And two things.
I think the one thing is that they point out people who talk about AI, you know, in supercomputers.
AI is a very – you know, machine learning.
It can be a very, like, mediocre learning thing or whatever.
But if you put, like, the entire internet at its disposal, it's going to be able to deliver something.
And it'll have nuances because it'll learn from other writers, other stuff.
And it's just – I'm not quite sure where it'll end up.
I don't know.
I don't know.
And the other thing is there was an experiment.
A woman did a TED Talk.
I forget her name.
But she – as part of it, she played some music.
And, again, the AI had done a composition in the style of – I don't know – back, whatever.
I don't know.
It was the style of a major composer and played it to an audience.
And the audience could not tell the difference between the original composer and this new styled piece.
So I think there will be interesting conversations to be had.
I'm not intelligent or well-versed enough or anything to be able to make any commentary.
But it's the bits you hear, you go, oh, that's interesting.
Maybe not so good, maybe.
Or then, having said AI is amazing when it can do stuff for saving neonatal babies and stuff like that.
You know, AI is amazing.
But just in the world of arts, it's kind of interesting and maybe not good interesting.
I was actually just listening to Bach yesterday and thinking I hope that AI doesn't ever become the main thing that creates music.
Because I think a lot of the time, these people back then, what they did was – yeah, it was something new.
And they created some new art form, music, how it hadn't been done before.
And I don't think that's something that AI can necessarily do.
So, yeah, I kind of hope we don't get to the point where a concert is just you go and listen to a computer.
That would be really depressing.
And maybe in the metaverse, you know.
So even more depressing, everybody alone at home.
But, yeah, Hero.
Yeah, I think my counterargument or my stance is quite different because I think it's inevitable, right?
I think any sort of art form progresses with technology.
So as much as I would, like, initially share the sentiment of, oh, okay, maybe, you know, it's not good to hear, you know, back being composed, like, by machine-learned AI.
I think it's like a train I'm not going to stand across in front, right?
Because it seems there's no way to stop it.
So I think the best way is to see how – to experiment with it and actually see how it could be applied in good ways.
Yeah, AGT.
You've got your hand up.
Yeah, no, I would have mentioned something earlier.
I think, you know, we're talking about how AI may integrate, may or may not integrate.
But I think the biggest threat right now to writing is – I think you wrote an article about it – our attention, our focus is declining.
And, you know, right now the standard crypto writing is too long, didn't read.
I mean, as a writer, you know, how do you deal with that?
How do you further, you know, do under your writing for more impact and for more viewership?
Yeah, I think that's also one of the challenges, right?
The entire business model of the digital economy where you have to, well, basically generate enough views to make advertising worth a jillion.
Yeah, maybe you have some thoughts on that because you have your own publication at Media.
Well, I'm kind of old-fashioned.
It's possibly my age.
But I do – I like long-form journalism.
Like when I was a young person, I was living abroad and I discovered Vanity Fair.
And, oh, my God, I just love the writing in Vanity Fair because, you know, if you've ever read it, the first half of the magazine is glossy.
It's beautiful.
It's art shots, whatever.
But the articles that they write, they continue for pages and pages of dense text, like book, at the end of the magazine.
And I just loved this.
Maybe it was my early 20s and I went, oh, my God, this is what I want to write.
So I do a lot of long-form writing on blockages that I own and other publications that I write for as well.
It's not long, long, but it could be 1,000, 1,500.
So it's not, you know, 300 words.
And the only thing I can say is that perhaps the pressure is on the writer to make it entertaining.
I don't mean entertaining as in clickbait.
I mean as in let's try and really bring the reader in and have them read the first paragraph and then have them keep on reading.
Because you were saying you look at the headlines.
They go, I keep on reading that.
And if it's well written – I mean, I'm a big fan of The Guardian too as well.
They have a lot of really nice articles now.
And I start reading.
And I'll finish reading because the story progresses in a way that makes sense.
It's meaningful.
It's well written.
The language is nice.
The articulation is great.
You go, oh, okay.
And then you're learning something typically.
So I do love that.
But I was thinking, we came up earlier about AI and creating stuff.
And at this time of year, I don't know about where you guys are, but here in Ireland, the fairy tale of New York is like a big, big, big Christmas song.
Let's read this one verse in it.
And I wonder what a bot ever would be able to write this.
If you're not familiar with the – it's the Pogues and Christian McCall did the song.
And it's in terrible trouble because it has the word faggot in it.
But it's not as in – it's written in the 90s or whatever.
But there's one part, one verse.
I'll just read it for you.
I won't sing it because I'll hurt your ears.
I love this one.
It goes, I could have been someone.
Well, so could anyone.
You took my dreams from me when I first found you.
I kept them with me, babe.
I put them with my own.
Can't make it all alone.
I built my dreams around you.
Now, that's not modern poetry.
That's a modern song.
But I challenge a bot to write something, especially when you hear it.
Go back maybe after this and listen to the words.
It's just so powerful.
It's wow.
So, I don't know.
Yeah.
But maybe since we're running up to the hour, let's get into maybe something that I think people who want to become writers will be interested in.
And that's like what kind of skills or traits do you think are helpful for somebody starting or wanting to become a writer in this space?
Hero, what do you think?
I think the biggest thing is self-independence, right?
And curiosity.
I think if you're interested in what you're writing about, you don't have to necessarily agree with it or love it all the time.
But as long as you're interested and as long as you have the self-independence to sort of take care of yourself, but also know what you're looking for, then I think everything will work out fine.
Yeah, for sure.
How about you, Gillian?
I totally agree.
I've been loving the spaces, by the way.
It's so nice about writing and creativity for what are.
And the only thing I would say, and it's said by every writer ever living, is read.
Read, read, read.
And heroes write, read that which you don't like as well as that which you like.
So, you know, you're not going to write the crap that you don't like if you like.
And even with the opinions and facts, whatever.
So curiosity is great, but a lot of reading.
And especially, I know when I up my game and I read writers that I really like, I find even in my journalism, my writing goes up a bit because I'm thinking and I'm trying to use the right words.
And I'm not just doing click-baity, Daily Mail type, or running on whatever.
So be curious, heroes of Humphrey write, and read good writers.
Yeah, I couldn't agree more.
I mean, people who know me know me that I read a lot, and I will always give them book recommendations, even though they never, well, sometimes they ask for it, but even in conversations where they don't.
And I think it definitely helps also to read fiction, even if it doesn't seem very straightforward to read some fiction book about, I don't know, the future and time travel and whatnot.
But there's a lot of metaphors.
There's a lot of stylistic elements you can use in even nonfiction writing.
And I think also academic writing, for example, just struggles a lot because people think it has to be a certain way, but it makes it hard to understand on purpose.
And I think that sometimes happens in crypto as well, when people just try to force a lot of buzzwords into articles, even though they are not necessarily warranted.
Because as long as you can bring across what it does and how, then I think that's the major accomplishment.
Yeah, well, I think we've covered quite a lot of ground.
If anybody in the audience has any questions, feel free to jump in on stage and ask them.
If not, I would ask, yeah, the speakers to share maybe, what are you excited about for the next year?
And that can be crypto can also be not related at all.
Gillian.
I'm going to break my writer's block when it comes to my creative writing and write my next novel.
I've written many books, fiction books.
And in fact, the last trilogy of books I wrote was back in 2014.
I was trying to save my bank, my house from the banks.
And the most popular book that year, that close couple of years was Fifty Shades.
So I said, oh, I'll write a trilogy of eroticals.
I'll save my, I'll sell millions and I'll save my house from the banks.
Didn't work.
But my mom, the funny thing is my mom read, my mom, who's 92 now, she's a very progressive, liberal, amazing woman, non-judgmental.
So she read it and she said, yes, not bad.
This is, this stuff caused babies.
This is hardcore erotica.
It's not like, you know, it's terrible stuff.
Well, it's great stuff, whatever.
But what's really funny is that for my, my challenge for this year is that my mom is 92.
She said, will you ever write your proper novel, Gillie?
Because she at 92 is very progressive, open-minded, non-judgmental.
But a lot of her friends might find it a bit difficult to read erotica.
So she wants to share my writing with her friends.
So anyway, that's my challenge for this coming year, to get off the pot and actually do something and write my novel in between the journalism.
So that's, and I've said it live on Twitter spaces, so I have to do it now.
Thank you, Naomi.
I think that's one way to hold yourself accountable is for me as well, to just say, I'm going to do things in public.
And then I feel socially pressured into actually doing these things.
It works.
Hiro, how about you?
Yeah, I'd just like to personally echo Gillian's sentiments with my own creative output.
Hopefully I can get that on track and dedicate some time to it.
But aside from that, to speak about Near Protocol, I'm very excited for the upcoming year.
We have a lot of great projects working and building in this space.
And I think we'll start to see a lot of that come together in 2023.
So I'm just excited to witness that.
And I'm also excited to build out Near Weeks products.
We've added quite a bit.
You know, we have our own merch store now for the ecosystem.
Our projects can host their own merch.
We also have an ecosystem calendar.
But yeah, we're also building out the content, Bounted Out.
So I'm excited to see what we can do with that.
And hopefully we can get more writers, freelance writers, writing in this space.
And also writing about Near Protocol.
And hopefully we can really bridge that also with projects that are looking to, you know, bring quality to the table.
Yeah, so I'm just really excited to see that come together and to keep building.
Because eventually, you know, we'll be finished building.
And then we'll look up and we'll see what we build.
Yeah, that's going to be a great moment.
How about you, AJT?
What are you excited for?
We'll continue to grow the Shih Tzu community.
Jillian, we invite you to come over to Shih Tzu.
Help us, you know, nurture our...
We have several folks trying to become content creators.
And also, my biggest goal for next year is to bring back 99.
99, just for those who don't know, is a bot.
Yeah, I mean, for me personally, I'm just very excited to continue hosting these spaces.
Because every time I do them, there's so many great people on stage sharing insights.
And it's just great to see in Web3 especially that people are just open to come on these spaces, share their insights and across ecosystems as well.
So, I'm looking forward to continue doing that.
And for me personally, I'm now on a mission to finally learn JavaScript.
And a friend of mine, he now gave me an annual subscription for Scrimba.
So, I'm kind of forced to do it because it was a gift.
And I cannot let it go to waste.
So, yeah, that's going to be a different kind of writing.
But who knows what comes out of it.
Yeah, with that being said, thanks so much, everybody, for joining.
And I wish you all happy holidays and a happy new year, in case we don't speak before that.
And look forward to hosting the next Nears Now.
And if you have any topics you would like to suggest to talk about, just let me know.
I'm always open.
Thanks, everybody.
Yeah, Hugo.
Yeah, can I just add if we have any projects in the ecosystem that are looking to have content written for them?
Or any writers that are looking to write in their protocol, just reach out, send me a DM.
We're actively looking to produce more content, but also to recruit more writers.
Yeah, Julian, you should also become a writer for Nier Week at some point.
Yeah, no, I mean, I did a lot of work for Nier last year as well.
Including, like I've met, I did the, I have a sweat coin on my phone since 2018.
And I met Oleg, one of the founders in Lisbon, actually, a couple of years ago.
And then I wrote up about his stuff.
So I'm actually a big fan of Nier.
I've done quite a lot of interviews with people in Nier.
And I'm a big fan of this community.
So, yeah.
Yeah, it was going to be an exciting year.
So, yeah, thanks, everybody.
And I hope to see you soon again.
Bye-bye.
