Transcendence and divergence from the group

Transcendence is always an achievement of single individuals; the group has no access to it. The great and rare moments when groups reach a height are only possible because there is at least one among them who transcends. This individual is the group's leader.

In every field there are a few individuals who, thanks to their extraordinary gifts, make an outstanding contribution; they create something new or bring something to perfection.

These carry with them their own values; they do not drop them in the name of some superior morality or because they have been hypnotized by propaganda; on the contrary, it is their values that they set against those of their group.

They are not always right, but they are necessary.

The group is the enemy of transcendence; it seeks to level and uniformity, whereas transcendence is always an affirmation of difference. The group wants to drag down to its own level; it is terrified of anyone who stands out, who transcends.

The individual who transcends has no need for the group; on the contrary, it is the group that needs him. It needs him in order to have someone to look up to, to aspire to emulate.

We rightly admire them and tend to think of their achievements as the result of their genius alone. But we should not forget that these individuals also had to reach their elevated status by going against the grain of social ecosystems that operate to suppress the emergence of outliers; what we call "Genius" is oftentimes the tenacity of the individual in the face of opposition from the group.

Transcendence in the era of the owned web is a challenge; in the current cycle, we are seeing a strengthening of the group, and a new level of ridicule for the builders who have set themselves apart from traditional technological and financial infrastructure. The tech layers that have been built over the past decade are no less innovative and no less disruptive as the crypto market crashes in response to macro trends, but the web-native companies are seen as winnowing the field to a new oligarchy, and those who have dared to build something different are being forced to conform or be left behind.

This is the challenge of our time: to be those who still choose to transcend and continue developing and engineering the technologies of the future, even in the face of an increasingly hostile environment.

The paradigm shift that is being created will be delayed by the current conditions, as institutional money retracts and retail investors become wary of anything new, but the long-term trend is clear. The market that we have worked to create, and the ecosystems that have thrived have demonstrated too much strength, value and utility to become nothing more than empty and abandoned mine shafts.

The test at this point is not whether the builders have the capacity to sustain damage on an economic level, it's whether we have the conviction to remain apart from the zeitgeist at a critical point. We are at a fork in the road, and the future will be decided by those who have the strength to stay the course.

It is more important than ever to remember that what we are doing is not simply about money, but about building something new and different that can dent the universe.