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Slowcore Nerd Notes: On Sustaining Writing As An Art Form

This outline was originally shared on the Slowcore HQ channel on Farcaster as a discussion prompt and work in progress. Upon further reflection I decided it belongs in the Slowcore Nerd Notes series as-is, so I'm importing it into Paragraph and Zora.

I. What's important for long-term sustenance of writing as an art form?

  1. sustainable income and cash flow

  2. integration into positive-sum reciprocity networks (e.g., Farcaster scenius)

  3. care and support infrastructure

  4. incubation time (creativity is cyclical)

  5. time spaciousness

  6. attention and focus

  7. readers discovering and receiving value from the work

II. What's not so important for long-term sustenance of writing as an art form?

  1. pageviews

  2. follower counts/audience growth metrics

  3. going viral

  4. becoming a social media influencer, teacher, etc.

  5. joining several DAOs, group chats, membership communities, etc. (more stuff to track = less attention available for deep work)

  6. speculation on the future value of the creative work

  7. reader "engagement"

III. Observations

  1. The points on the second list are the expected "creator economy" norms in web3 for anyone who hopes to monetize, i.e. turn a creative endeavor into a livelihood.

  2. Sustainable income and cash flow can be more challenging for writers who take a slowcore approach, i.e., optimize for items 4-7 on the first list.

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#value flows#slowcore#slow culture#writing#art