August - kashvireads #8

🖼️ NFT Talk 🌈 Creator Economy ⭐ Fiction Reads

September 01, 2021

Hello 👋🏽

Taylor Swift was right. August really did slip away into a moment of time 🤍

This month has been about being around the people I love, doing the things I love, and diving deeper into NFTs! I’m finally on a decent schedule and trying to stay on top of things as much as I can. Although I haven’t been posting enough on IG, I’ve been thinking about how I want to proceed with it and have pretty awesome stuff in store for September!

Without further ado, let’s review August ⚡

📘 What I’m Reading:

  1. “A Court of Mist and Fury” by Sarah J Maas: This is the sequel to a fantasy series that won “Goodreads Choice 2016”. I personally have been reading more fiction lately in order to fully immerse myself in something engaging. Highly recommend the series if you’re looking for an escape. 🌫️

  2. “My Year of Rest and Relaxation” by Ottessa Moshfegh: This one had been on my TBR for over a year.. Albeit triggering, I found this read to be immersive as well, and exactly what I was looking to read this month. It revolves around a young woman’s efforts to duck the ills of the world by embarking on an extended hibernation. 😌

*Reviews are posted on Instagram!

🎧 What I’m Listening To:

  1. Roshan Abbas and the Creator Economy: If you're a creative person, there is no better time to be alive. In this episode of “The Seen and The Unseen”, Amit Varma and Mr. Abbas discuss what the journey for creators has been so far and all the amazing opportunities we have access to because of digital. I have a lot of respect for Roshan sir and I believe that anyone interested in becoming a creator should take the time out to listen to this 3-hour conversation. 📲

  2. Talk2Much ft. World of Women Founders: Yam and Raph are the minds behind World of Women, an NFT project that has taken the metaverse by storm. As an early investor, I really loved this conversation because it gave me a sneak peek into their lives and their thought process behind WoW. Sina was a great host and asked wonderful questions. I might be hosting Yam & Raph on an IG live soon! 👩‍🎨

🎶 August Playlist:

Happier than Ever, Omar Apollo, and of course - Taylor Swift! 🌈

📚 Advice from Books:

"Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. No single instance will transform your beliefs, but as the votes build up, so does the evidence of your new identity.

This is one reason why meaningful change does not require radical change. Small habits can make a meaningful difference by providing evidence of a new identity. And if a change is meaningful, it is actually big.

That's the paradox of making small improvements."

- Atomic Habits, James Clear

💭 A quote that summarises this month:

“Whatever you do in this life, it’s not legendary unless your friends are there to see it.” - Barney Stinson, How I Met Your Mother

📸 Photo of the Month:

🌎 Interesting Links that you can Explore:

  1. Canva’s Journey - Zero to $15 Billion: This is one of the most inspiring as well as informational threads I’ve read about startups in a while. Canva’s founders (teenagers at the time) pitched to 100+ VCs with zero success. They decided to bootstrap and have managed to build a company that’s worth $15b today. What’s special is not just the valuation, but also that they have full control over the company. And of course - they built an app that has made good design more accessible than ever! 🎨

  2.  Are Blockchains the new App Stores?: In this thread, Chris Dixon breaks down … well, he breaks down a ton of stuff that I don’t have words to simplify 👀 Please read this to learn about how web3 has the potential to change the Internet as we know it! I had to go through the whole thing at least twice to comprehend how high the probability is of what Dixon proposes in this thread. 👨‍💻

  3. Introduction to Human Behavioral Biology: Alright, I’m guilty of not following through on the second class of this free Stanford course but I highly recommend watching this one because it explains the basic premise of Behavioural Biology and ways in which we can avoid categorical thinking. Mr. Sapolsky is the teacher we all wish we had! My favourite quote - “when you put up boundaries, you have trouble seeing how similar things are on either side" 🧬

  4. How To Start Creating:

  5. How Learning Happens: David Perell simply never ceases to amaze me. In this essay, he explores WHY and then goes onto educate us about the “HOW”. Key takeaway: Learning begins with inspiration. 🧠

  6. Why Are Ape Avatars Taking Over Twitter?: If you’re familiar with the NFT space, you know what this is about. But if you’re not, you NEED to read this article. 📖It has not been written by a crypto blogger, neither is it written by me - this article from the New Yorker dives deep into Bored Ape Yacht Club, an NFT project that has seen immense growth since its launch. The piece explores whether this is all a massive bubble or the future of culture. Additionally, it also raises a concern that BAYC might be growing too fast. Only time can tell! 🍌

  7. Filter Coffee: Your morning shot of daily business & tech news packed with hot trends, startup signals and tech news 📈 This newsletter is SO fun. I highly recommend subscribing to it, especially if you're Gen-Z ☕ Fun fact: I discovered Substack through this startup!

NFT Update 🖼️

One month in NFTs feels like a year ⚡ Let's go sequentially!

5th August:• Won a “World of Women” giveaway (WoW #6148)

8th August:• Sold World of Women #4236• Bought FameLadySquad #7241: The first NFT project that claimed to have an all-women team and aimed to showcase better representation

10th August: • It was announced that the developers behind FameLadySquad are Russian men.• Everyone starts dumping the project for 0.01 ETH. I'm still holding because it feels wrong to sell a scam token.

11th August:• After a long process, a poll and tons of communication - the contract of FameLadySquad is transferred to actual women in the community from the Russian men. • The Ladies are BACKKK!!

21st August:• Bought BitShield #478• Bought ExpansionPunk #11261• Bought TheBiscuitClub Badge

23rd August:• Lionel Messi’s NFT Project dropped - I got 2 from the Open Edition (#10215 and #2424)24th August: • Minted Nastya’s Open Edition Letter A

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That's about it for my history this month! I'd love to go into detail about why I bought these NFTs, the projects I'm eyeing and more NFT stuff! If that's something you're interested in, let me know :)

For over a month, I've been working on building a guide to navigate the NFT space called “NFTs 101”. I understand that it can seem extremely intimidating to most, and my goal is for the guide to be an entry point for you. It’s completely free and will be hosted on Gumroad. if you’re interested in being notified of the launch, please fill this form.

Also, please do not take these NFT updates as financial advice. Always DYOR (Do Your Own Research) ☕

🙏🏽 Thank you for reading, and for subscribing to this. I appreciate all 464 of you. If there’s anything that I can help you with, please connect with me on the social links below. Feel free to reply to this email with any thoughts you’d like to share! Hoping that September will be a great month for us all! I can’t wait to write to you again :)

All the love,Kashvi 🦉