• Howie Town
  • Posts
  • We were promised Web 3.0 and all we got was Deglobalization, Degeneracy and Slop..The World Is About To Get Weird

We were promised Web 3.0 and all we got was Deglobalization, Degeneracy and Slop..The World Is About To Get Weird

We Are Creating The Future and Better Does Not Win By Default - Ben Thompson

In partnership with

Summer’s around the corner. If you’re dialing up training on the bike, on the run, or just getting back into it, DSTNC is a curated platform for high-performance gear from top global brands.

We’re offering 15% off with code HOWIETOWN15 (some exclusions apply).
Worth a look before your next block.

Good morning everyone…check out the deal above if you cycle or have cycling friends from our portfolio company DSTNC.com

Before I get started…

I am already aggravated that I decided to pull Trump’s ‘truths’ over to Stocktwits so our community could follow his lunacy.

I woke up to this soothing message from Trump this morning…

The $VIX is only 23 against this absurdity.

Over on Stocktwits, the negative sentiment seems higher as we pass COVID levels of fear/concern from our community.

The highest ever $VIX levels and Stocktwits fear levels in history have all occurred under Trump leadership. Trump is playing 4D chess on his own people.

Deep down I know/assume that the US Military, not Trump, has a plan for this war, but I would hate my ‘captain’ to be giving the other team/side more hate ammunition.

The biggest progress/disruption during the era of the internet seems to be in warfare with drones and the Iron Dome. No wonder Trump is asking for $1.5 trillion and Silicon Valley is living in the White House. These topics are over my pay grade to decipher and invest in early with any edge.

I am so grateful for our brave troops and living on Coronado reminds me of this as I run into military people each day.

Onward…

Web 2.0 was very good to me. I was in the right place at the right time with the right skills and attitude. Web 2.0 was incredibly fun when it began. Everyone was surfing, sharing and stumbling upon. The extra juice to the boom was the overwhelming cynicism because of the Internet bubble of 2000 and the long technology bear market that followed.

Web 2.0 refers to the second generation of the World Wide Web, characterized by user-generated content, interactivity, and social connectivity. Emerging around 2004, it shifted from static, read-only websites (Web 1.0) to dynamic platforms, allowing users to create content, collaborate, and share, transforming the internet into a participatory, social, and mobile ecosystem.

What ever happened to Web 3.0?

Web 3.0 (Web3) is the proposed next generation of the internet, focusing on decentralization, blockchain technologies, and token-based economics to shift control from centralized entities (like Big Tech) to individual users. It enables users to own their data, digital assets, and identity directly, aiming for a more transparent, secure, and user-centric web.

In 2026, it does not feel like we came anywhere close to a web 3.0. I wrote about some of this last week. Everything feels more centralized and less fun. It feels like there is NOBODY to root for - which is why sports and ‘IRL’ (in real life) are also huge winners from this change in the web (I will be covering this a lot more in the weeks ahead).

Goldman, JP Morgan, Warren Buffett, Exxon, FaceMetaBook, Elon, Bezos, Amazon etc..rule the world.

Instead of Web 3.0, we ended up with AI which is eating all of the internet and spitting it back out to those of us with enough tokens. It’s a less fun Chucky Cheese for information and Nvidia ( $NVDA ( ▲ 0.93% ) ) is the tokens arms dealer.

Complaining will get you nowhere, so you must adapt and learn.

In just the last few months I have had a monumental shift in how I think about the world. To those that got their first, there is billionaire status.

I am but a simple trend follower so I am happy to surf along behind the great white sharks of AI, space, deglobalization, degeneracy, hardware, entertainment and creativity as AI changes the world order.

My Twitter friend Bucco started a newsletter and his first post titled ‘Friction is a Feature - The World Is About To Get Weird’ dove into some of what I am talking about about above. It is fantastic so take the time and read it. The gist…

The people who can afford to step outside the system, which has been flooded with zero-signal AI slop, will quickly and efficiently do so. In fact, they will be greeted with open arms by the person on the other side of the transaction.

Those with connections will build their own social networks, both online and offline. This has already happened on social media. The action isn’t on the timeline, it’s in the group chats. Those without the connections will remain on the public timeline, posting in the sea of AI agents spamming garbage.

Ultimately, I think it’s inevitable that we will use AI to fight AI. And the absurdity of this scenario is that everyone pays more only to be worse off. Applicants paying $20 to refine their resume, companies paying $50k/yr for an AI screening tool, only for the hiring manager to hire through the side door.

The same will happen for college admissions. AI essays screened with AI detectors. The one part of the application process meant to highlight the unique humanity of applicants - to celebrate and distinguish them as more than a test score - destroyed by slop.

The best candidate didn’t win. The filtering mechanism didn’t even work. The winning candidate left the AIs to fight each other and circumvented the entire charade. The token dealers will get rich, and we will be increasingly frustrated.

Here’s the truly depressing part: If human nature has shown us anything, it’s that once friction is removed from the system, you can’t fix it by trying to add friction somewhere else. You can see that on the internet, where CAN-SPAM laws and GDPR cookie pop-ups and screen time limits haven’t really fixed the problems caused by the reduction in friction. We are all growing more addicted to being online every day, feeding more of our personal information into a giant ad targeting cannon that fires hyper-targeted content and products directly into our eyeballs as we scroll for hours on end.

And you can see the impact of removing friction in offline areas, too. We removed as much of the friction as possible from our food system and now 40% of the adult population is obese. The obesity epidemic is placing significant strain on our healthcare system, and the CDC now estimates that obesity costs the US healthcare system almost $173B a year.

Humans, it turns out, are not good at adapting when friction is removed from a system. We’re solving the problem in a very American way - not by reintroducing friction into the system (although some people prefer to shop at their local farmer’s market), but by using drugs to make people skinny again.

In this new world order…marketing, go to market, distribution and attention are increasingly valuable. Trust, authenticity, vertical networks and group chat will matter more as we continue along , but right now the mass public are addicted to the ‘public’ algorithm driven timelines of large social networks dominated by anger, trolls and slop. Be careful how and where you spend your time more than ever.

Because I have invested in startups, written and published consistently over the last 20 years I have a large network online and IRL, especially around my area of interest and domain experience of investing. Thanks goodness I did this.

Today, almost all my free online time is now dedicated to Stocktwits and my newsletter. I get 10-100 times more engagement from this smaller, narrower audience versus the main social networks. Nobody stands between me and my audience, readers, fans when I post to Stocktwits or my newsletter.

Building trust, capturing and growing attention are now the hardest it has ever been in this era of centralized search, LLMs and chatbots. I am fascinated and consumed with gaining more and more expertise in these areas. Most people are focused on shortcuts and they are a dime a dozen. Be extra careful on how you use them and spend your time.

Ben Thompson said ’we are creating the future and better does not win by default’

That feels more true than ever. Each of us now has the time and tools to be better in our areas of passion and expertise.

Have a great Sunday.

Turn AI into Your Income Engine

Ready to transform artificial intelligence from a buzzword into your personal revenue generator?

HubSpot’s groundbreaking guide "200+ AI-Powered Income Ideas" is your gateway to financial innovation in the digital age.

Inside you'll discover:

  • A curated collection of 200+ profitable opportunities spanning content creation, e-commerce, gaming, and emerging digital markets—each vetted for real-world potential

  • Step-by-step implementation guides designed for beginners, making AI accessible regardless of your technical background

  • Cutting-edge strategies aligned with current market trends, ensuring your ventures stay ahead of the curve

Download your guide today and unlock a future where artificial intelligence powers your success. Your next income stream is waiting.

Reply

or to participate.