Image source: Shenchao TechFlow
I woke up this morning with the intention of writing a blog post about why Halloween is the best holiday to bring unity to communities in New York City. However, when I logged into Slack, I saw colleagues sharing their experiments with the new ChatGPT search feature that just launched yesterday.
Opening Twitter, I also saw some similar discussions:
"This is Google killer."
"This new tool changes everything."
"It will revolutionize the way you use the Internet."
"Goodbye, old stuff. Hello, new stuff. If you can't keep up, you're already behind."
By 8:05 a.m., I had done a few small chat tests myself, successfully found myself in a ChatGPT search, and installed a browser extension on my Chrome browser to make it the default search engine. , replacing Google.
Wow, this all happened so fast.
So, I decided to abandon the original article plan and write this article about new technologies.
If you woke up this morning feeling like, "Oh, here we go again...", trust me, you're definitely not alone. Let’s take a deep breath and dive deeper into this topic.
How to avoid the “I can’t keep up” trap
It’s really stressful to see subversive comments like this floating around. These seemingly huge changes are happening almost every month, or even every week, and can feel overwhelming.
I'm a bit impulsive and extreme, so whenever this happens, I always have to restrain myself from doing one of two things:
Fight or flight? I have two polarizing instincts when facing new things
Give up all the things you were doing before, devote yourself to new things, quickly familiarize the entire team, and immediately start exploring cooperation opportunities to get ahead of the competition. This is the new world order, and there is no turning back.
Or, reject the new altogether, give up altogether, vow to shut down all technology forever, change course completely, and start imagining yourself living a completely agrarian, isolated life in the northern part of some state while awaiting the inevitable robot apocalypse.
Overall, this reflects the "fight or flight" mentality that new technologies often trigger. However, I find that my actual reaction is always somewhere in between.
In my 15-year career working at tech startups and venture-backed companies, I’ve received a lot of “Disruptive! Unprecedented!” technology emails. Unfortunately, I'm easily swayed by visionary builders and entrepreneurs who take a long-term view of the world. This led to a period in 2018 when I was working in venture capital that I truly believed that companies no longer needed to go public through traditional banks, that new social media apps couldn't stand out, and that Ethereum was going to be the ultimate technology for blockchain.
Of course, these expectations were not fully realized.
I've come to realize that after the initial hype, there's a longer, more challenging phase of habit formation and strategy integration. This stage may last for months or even years. While a few early adopters may be quick to jump on new opportunities, there’s no point in blindly chasing every new trend if you’re not in the top 5% (I’m not).
So I started focusing on accepting the inevitability of change. While I can't control the change, I can control my reaction. Rather than feeling a deep FOMO anxiety about every new trend, I prefer to approach change with a mindset of playfulness and curiosity—something I owe to my experience in the cryptocurrency industry.
Lessons learned from the crypto community
This isn’t the first time I’ve experienced FOMO or imposter syndrome in the new technology industry. Through three years of working closely with the crypto community, I’ve learned that there’s still value in being curious and engaging, even if you feel left behind.
I admit that "FOMO" was an important reason that initially attracted me to this ecosystem. While I’ve been exposed to crypto industry builders for years, it wasn’t until 2021, a year after the birth of my first child, that I really had the desire to learn about the industry first-hand.
Since I haven't been personally involved in the crypto industry for as many years as others, I entered the industry with a lot of imposter syndrome. I feel like an outsider from a non-technical, non-crypto background. I used to really think that unless I could discuss the nuances of blockchain consensus or governance in a white paper, I wasn't "smart enough" to be a part of the industry.
This mentality is actually a trap. Once you start believing that you're not "smart" or "brave" enough to try something, you'll get stuck in a fixed mindset. And that can really stunt your future growth.
When I first decided to learn more about cryptocurrencies, I started joining Discord channels and scrolling through Twitter almost 24/7. My computer is constantly prompting me about new cryptocurrencies, new communities, new businesses, new conferences, and new technologies. I put them all on a huge to-learn list.
Should I go to a developer conference in Denver or Amsterdam? Better not to miss it. Which airdrop should I participate in? Might as well try both. Do I know this DAO? Do I understand the latest on-chain governance? Attended that demo day? Not yet, but I will definitely find out.
In those early days, I often asked myself:
The deep anxiety that comes with trying to catch up in the cryptocurrency industry
"Why do I feel like I'm falling behind just when I feel like I'm catching up?"
"Are all the efforts you put into the last project in vain?"
“How do I tell which tools and trends are really important and which are just secondary?”
“How do I find the time to learn something new again?”
What I didn’t realize was that as I was trying to explore, I was actually improving myself. The improvement is slow, but it happens all of a sudden.
While studying, I was also working. I assist venture capital firms in coordinating communications among builders within their networks. I help technical teams describe their work in simple and understandable language. I also help hybrid businesses, such as the Crypto-Native Foundation, design strategies based on traditional and non-traditional best practices.
It turns out that I didn’t need to suddenly master esoteric science to succeed in this industry. I just need to know how to apply my strengths in new situations.
It took me a long time to get out of this fixed mindset, but I’m glad I did. Now I know that no matter what industry I get into next, I can do it again.
Finding peace amidst the chaos of new technology
When I saw the first message on Slack this morning, "ChatGPT search is the end of Google," I did feel a twinge of that familiar "I'm behind" panic. But now, I'm used to this feeling and know what's coming, so it's not as scary or unsettling as it once was.
So I poured myself a second cup of coffee, tried ChatGPT search myself, and wrote this blog.
So, is this latest innovation really the “ultimate” technology that will change the world? Who knows? But in the meantime, why not play it for yourself and see what you think? I daresay the others are not as far ahead as they seem. After all, we’re all still in the same 24-hour release window. Let’s wait and see what new changes will come next week…
Game-over, doomsday technology? Maybe. But we still can't get the fonts to display correctly on the DALL-E image, so don't panic just yet...
[Disclaimer] There are risks in the market, so investment needs to be cautious. This article does not constitute investment advice, and users should consider whether any opinions, views or conclusions contained in this article are appropriate for their particular circumstances. Invest accordingly and do so at your own risk.
This article is reproduced with permission from: (Shenchao TechFlow)
Original author: Bethany Crystal
