Cowritten with ChatGPT
How the fuck do we build things that require long-term commitment? When everything is malleable, composable, and interoperable, our understanding of how we build is rapidly changing.
In my past work, I spent a lot of time researching gamers and observing toys. Watching kids in Roblox and Minecraft taught me something profound: play is where building begins. Through play, they effortlessly learn the fundamentals of "if-this-then-that" logic—the core of virtual machines. The introduction of a store in Roblox added another layer; they’re also picking up business acumen and an intuitive grasp of economics. Modular ecosystems teach building by doing.
As these generations grow up, the ways they build through play are shaping how we build today. Modular ecosystems with deeply integrated markets are becoming the norm. This shift brings new patterns, especially in terms of time horizons. Instead of massive, triple-A projects, we’re seeing smaller, simpler creations—indie-game-like, not blockbuster. The same pattern emerges in the indie hacker scene: launching one small product or service at a time. We’re all toolmakers and mini entertainment studios now, creating bite-sized content and interactions for a rapid-scrolling world.
The problem is that everything is short-lived. Attention is momentary. Stories grow and collapse rapidly. Participating in the memecoin space feels like playing a live-service game: everything happens in the moment. Apps are increasingly ephemeral, driven by UI generation tailored to immediate needs. Teams are exploring prompt-based interfaces, chatbots for executing complex tasks, onchain and offchain through intents, solvers and API requests. Add to this the ease of producing "good enough" design with systems like shadcn, and the result is rapid iteration—but also rapid obsolescence.
I call this phenomenon "attention halving." Each new technological primitive cuts our collective attention span further, creating immense pressure to milk the short-term nature of any available attention. Builders are forced to focus on short-lived games of engagement rather than long-term sustainability. This flywheel of short-termism can feel like a slow death spiral. Passive income obsessions arise because the attention game is brutal, and each new release demands more than the last. What was once a prototype is now the standard; the minimal viable product has become the peak of attention you can get.
So how do we build for the long term?
Everything is fluid, always changing, and while that’s great for progress, it’s toxic for long-term visions. I’ve been drawn to Mariana Mazzucato’s “mission economy” ideas—how massive, long-term missions (think the original moonshot) align entire systems toward a singular goal. Missions anchor us, but sustaining those missions requires more than just tools like roadmaps or positioning exercises. We need something deeper to align people over years, not just a few blocks or ticks.
That’s where rituals come in.
Rituals are one of the oldest human tools for alignment. They reinforce community, belief, and direction through repeated, symbolic action. In religions, rituals are often physical because movement reinforces thought, and thought manifests through action. This connection is missing in modern organizations, where rituals are often reduced to meetings or marketing gimmicks. These aren’t rituals—they’re at best distractions.
We need to explore new kind of ritual—one that breaks teams out of short-term thinking and aligns them toward moonshots. These rituals must evolve with the vision but remain anchored in the direction. They should be physical, intentional, and progress-driven. Not just feel-good moments, but practices that weave the future into the present. Imagine rituals that make building sacred again—actions repeated not for productivity’s sake but to bind a community of builders to something larger. Imagine shared rituals not just to kick off every major project but to also reinforce them. These aren’t productivity hacks—they’re acts of commitment to something bigger.
Building long-term is harder than ever. But that’s why we need rituals—to remind us that the future isn’t built in bursts of attention, but in sustained, intentional acts.
Thoughts sparked by a conversation with @thejaymo and @rafathebuilder
