The Good: a tweet from Sarah Zucker

Pobody's nerfect.

Jun 17, 2022 The Good, The Bad, & The Rare

SuperRare

2 years ago

“Let’s cancel this new thing because, despite innovating in various arenas, it has some of the same drawbacks as the old thing.”

This isn’t activism – it’s confirmation bias in action, perpetuated through misinformation that maintains the status quo of existing power structures.

— Sarah Zucker (@thesarahshow) May 17, 2022

Human beings are drawn to patterns. One of our great strengths as a species is our ability to make inferences and assumptions based on past information. It’s normal to be apprehensive in the face of something new. It’s a lot of work to challenge things we “already know to be true,” and we often take the path of least resistance. That’s why it’s easier to cling to what we know than to embrace something untested, even if it carries the chance of being exponentially more rewarding in the future.

“Ethereum Classic Wallpaper – Bad Snowman” by EthereumClassic marked with CC0 1.0.

Confirmation bias is a tactic we use to verify things we think we already know, whether or not the facts line up. Like when one reads a headline saying “blockchain is bad for the environment” and accepts that as truth rather than doing research to find out if it’s true (it’s not—it’s nuanced).

Like when one says crypto is just another place for privileged white dudes to make money, rather than a thriving community-driven industry composed of people from all backgrounds, from all over the world.

Like when people see crypto as a bunch of risky assets, rather than tools with which to build a more just world (smart contracts, DAOs, and de-fi, we’re talking about you!).

This tweet from Sarah Zucker deftly thumbs its nose at the retiring spirit that is all too eager to chalk up blockchain tech and its associated endeavors with the past misdeeds of Silicon Valley and other corporate giants. No, nobody’s perfect, but would you rather live in Zuckerberg’s metaverse, or in one built by a bunch of coders, writers, and activists who turned down job offers from Google?

Onwards and upwards 🚀