Our brains have a natural tendency to create coherent narratives to make sense of the world around us, even if those narratives are not necessarily accurate or complete. This bias can lead to oversimplification and a failure to appreciate the complexity and randomness of life.

Narrative Bias: Our Minds Prefer Coherent Stories to Truth

Overconfidence is a common human trait that can be dangerous, particularly in situations where we have limited control over outcomes.We often underestimate the role of luck and randomness in our lives, leading us to make bad decisions and take unnecessary risks.

Overconfidence: The Illusion of Control

Seeking theoretical perfection or maximum efficiency often makes things more fragile and prone to disruption in practice.Overoptimization narrows tolerances, removes redundancies and streamlines away safety nets that provide resilience. It is better to favor empirically antifragile systems and activities that gain from uncertainty over theoretically optimal but fragile ones.

Optimization Leads to Fragility

Antifragility means having systems, processes and activities that actually improve when faced with volatility, shocks and stressors. It goes beyond resilience or robustness to exploit uncertainty.We should engineer and participate in antifragile domains that dynamically learn and strengthen from disorder rather than merely withstand it.

Antifragility: Beyond Resilience

True optimal solutions are often unknowable in complex domains with many variables. Don't chase fictional best-case scenarios drawn from models and assumptions.Settle for what empirically seems to work well enough in practice, avoiding overoptimizations.

"Good Enough" Beats Optimal Illusions

Seek nuance, avoid false dichotomies. Binary, black-and-white thinking and simplistic models ignore the organic interconnectedness and complexity of the real world.Appreciate gray areas and overlaps rather than forcing false choices.

Accept the Gray Areas

Randomness, uncertainty and unpredictability are unavoidable facts of life. Black swan events happen. We cannot accurately forecast or model everything, especially in nonlinear systems.Accept the limits of prediction and prepare to adapt.

Plan for Unpredictability

Some errors and guided trial-and-error are necessary features for antifragility. Systems that are overprotected from all shocks and stresses tend to weaken.Allow imperfection to enable dynamic gains from stressors, learning and evolution.

Imperfection Enables Antifragility

Pursue activities and gather knowledge for their own sake rather than narrow utility. Curiosity, not optimization, is crucial for fulfillment, optionality and avoiding fragility.Learn broadly guided by interest, not just specialized investment.

Curiosity Over Optimization

The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms" is a book written by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. It was published in 2010 and is a collection of aphorisms, or short philosophical sayings, on topics such as randomness, uncertainty, and human nature. The title of the book refers to the Greek myth of Procrustes, a bandit who would stretch or amputate his captives to fit them to the size of his iron bed. Taleb uses this story as a metaphor for the dangers of forcing people or ideas into predetermined categories or molds.

The Bed of Procrustes is a standalone book in Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s landmark Incerto series, an investigation of opacity, luck, uncertainty, probability, human error, risk, and decision-making in a world we don’t understand. The other books in the series are Fooled by Randomness, The Black Swan, Antifragile, and Skin in the Game. By the author of the modern classic The Black Swan, this collection of aphorisms and meditations expresses his major ideas in ways you least expect. The Bed of Procrustes takes its title from Greek mythology: the story of a man who made his visitors fit his bed to perfection by either stretching them or cutting their limbs. It represents Taleb’s view of modern civilization’s hubristic side effects—modifying humans to satisfy technology, blaming reality for not fitting economic models, inventing diseases to sell drugs, defining intelligence as what can be tested in a classroom, and convincing people that employment is not slavery. Playful and irreverent, these aphorisms will surprise you by exposing self-delusions you have been living with but never recognized. With a rare combination of pointed wit and potent wisdom, Taleb plows through human illusions, contrasting the classical values of courage, elegance, and erudition against the modern diseases of nerdiness, philistinism, and phoniness. “Taleb’s crystalline nuggets of thought stand alone like esoteric poems.”—Financial Times

philosophy

Philosophy

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

books

Books

Nassim Nicholas Taleb is an accomplished writer whose work has resonated with readers around the world. Nassim Nicholas Taleb has published several books that explore a range of topics, from fiction to nonfiction, and has received critical acclaim for the ability to weave compelling narratives. Nassim Nicholas Taleb's writing style is known for its depth and authenticity, and has earned quite a loyal following of readers.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

The Bed of Procrustes

Use these three criteria to evaluate an idea:<ol><li>Longevity — Will it stay relevant for a long time?</li><li>The monetization sweet spot — Can you make a living?</li><li>Limited but extensible scope — Can you pull it off?</li></ol>

The Golden Trio

Riding the hype train can get your project trending quickly, but you'll have nothing left when the hype is over. So find something that has longevity instead. What's something people will keep searching for in the coming decades? Email, DNS, online meetings, and timezone conversions are all examples of things that have a high and steady search volume.

Longevity

If your project can't attract any users, then it's obviously not going to generate any meaningful revenue, let alone allow you to eventually build a business around it.Too much monetization potential, on the other hand, can attract regular businesses, or venture-backed businesses. So ideally, we'd be somewhere in between.

The monetization sweet spot

You can't undertake a massive project on the side, so the scope needs to be minimal. Once an initial version is live, it should be extensible incrementally. Adding many small features that add up to a great product. Since side projects are primarily done in the evenings and weekends, the available time is usually chunked into sessions of a couple of hours.That's another reason to find something that can be built iteratively. Try to ship something every other session.

Limited but extensible scope

Three important criteria for picking a side project are longevity, the monetization sweet spot, and the scope.

career

Career

business

Business

computerscience

Computer Science

How to pick a side project strategically

Metaverse platforms intentionally limit the size of their digital worlds, so they can parcel out pieces of land to be bought and sold on virtual real estate marketplaces.Across the top 4 metaverse platforms — Sandbox, Decentraland, Cryptovoxels, and Somnium — there were over $500 million worth of virtual real estate sales just last year. Virtual real estate got a boost during the pandemic, when people started spending more time online, and then another one when Facebook changed its name to Meta.

What Is Virtual Real Estate?

Virtual real estate is a highly speculative investment. Still, there are some basic principles to evaluating virtual real estate. <ul><li>Building something interactive on the land can raise a property’s value because it allows you to charge for admission or lease out space.</li><li>Heavily-trafficked areas are also going to be worth more. The more avatars that visit a property, the more you can make from foot traffic or selling ad space.</li><li>Being close to other valuable properties can make yours more valuable. </li><li>The value of virtual real estate depends entirely on how much other people value it — just like money.</li></ul>

How Much Is Virtual Real Estate Worth?

<ul><li>The future of the metaverse is still uncertain. </li><li>There’s no way to know which metaverse platforms will stand the test of time. </li><li> Digital land can be infinitely replicated. And yet scarcity of land is what gives it value. So virtual land is vulnerable to a high level of volatility.</li><li>When you buy virtual real estate, you’re also buying something that’s not tied to reality. People just don’t need virtual property the same way they need physical property. </li><li>Metaverse platforms rely heavily on blockchain technology. Most use cryptocurrencies for processing real estate transactions, which are highly vola<warningtag>tile in and of themselves. </warningtag></li></ul>

The Risks of Investing in Virtual Real Estate

Ultimately, the value of virtual real estate depends entirely on how much other people value it — just like money.

crypto

Cryptocurrency

moneyandinvestments

Money & Investments

technologyandthefuture

Technology & The Future

Is Virtual Real Estate in the Metaverse a Good Investment?

Most product-led businesses focus on signup conversion.But if you do the math, optimizing the user onboarding process is much more impactful to your company's growth.We analyzed 150+ onboarding experiences. Here are the best user onboarding examples.

The Best Onboarding Experience

The six basic types of social proof:<ul><li>Expert's stamp of approval</li><li>Celebrity endorsement</li><li>Trust icons</li><li>Data </li><li>Customer testimonials</li><li>Reviews</li></ul>You should use at least one of these in a business’ <a href="https://productled.com/blog/5-steps-to-refine-customer-onboarding/">onboarding experience</a>.

Leverage Social Proof

<ul>
<li>30-50% of signups don't verify their email.</li>
<li>Prevent this by removing the activation step right at the beginning of the onboarding process.</li>
<li>Over 30% of required user onboarding steps are rubbish.</li>
<li>Every field, button click, and page is an opportunity for users to abandon your app for good.</li>
</ul>

Email Verification Walls Are Conversion Killers

<ul><li>The goal is to provide users with enough information to experience the product's value without being overwhelmed by too many unnecessary steps.</li><li>People don't hate product tours, they hate being forced to the tour, invasive pop-ups and irrelevant steps.</li><li>Product tours should cover important step(s) that set users up for success.</li></ul>

Product Tours Should Be Done Right

Most products have many different features, and the majority of the time, a user arrives to find a solution to one problem.By helping users accomplish their desired outcome from the start, they are more likely to see its value and adopt the product.

Context and Segment Matter

The problem with the time-based email approach is that it does not consider what the user has already done in your product. The emails have to be synced with the performed actions of the user.To avoid coming across as annoying and spammy, trigger emails based on users' actions they have or have not taken inside the product to ensure timely and relevant communication.

Time-Based Emails Without Context Backfire

There are form fields that you don’t really need to ask people when signing up. There are required steps that first-time users don’t need to complete right away. And, of course, some steps don’t really need to be there at all.

Form Fields: Unnecessary Steps Discourage Users from Completing the Onboarding

Often, teams approach the content of signup screens and onboarding elements as a low priority. It’s usually focused on product features rather than communicating the benefits of these features. Every word in the entire customer onboarding process is an opportunity to speak to users’ needs and desires. This is the ultimate motivation — show users how the product can help improve their lives.Use content to amplify the solution to their current pain points, calm their anxieties, and help them to overcome their existing habits.

Describing “What” and Not “Why”: Focus on The Users’ Goal

We analyzed 150+ onboarding experiences. Here are the best user onboarding examples of product-led companies doing it right.

Discover the world of business and economics.

economics

Economics

product

Product & Design

We analyzed 150+ onboarding experiences. Here are the best user onboarding examples.

How do you replicate presence?Mark says Meta wants to make the most human thing possible: visual presence, spatial audio, temperature, olfactory system, touch, etc.Meetings over Zoom are a great counter-example to some of the goals at MetaMany Meta product elements are developed based on basic functions of psychology: facial expressions, eye contact, and moreThere will be different use-cases for avatars: photo-realistic vs expressive identities. There is personal and functional utility in being able to customize your avatarThe market for creative commerce around digital clothing could be huge.

Metaverse

All the work that I do is at the intersection of Psychology and Computer Science

The goal of the metaverse is not to build technology for people to interact with; but rather, to build technology for people to interact with each other

What grabs someone’s attention in the near term is not going to grab it over the long term.Making a user angry isn’t going to retain that user, Facebook doesn’t have an incentive to do this. Products are not just their function and utility, it’s their feeling.Subscription products cater towards their audience, they don’t have an incentive to be in the middle–this fuels polarization. Advertising models at least make consumer services free, giving everyone an opportunity to have a voice. Greater polarization has been found in groups that are least likely to use the internet or social media.

The Social Dilemma

An accurate characterization would have been that teens using Instagram are generally positive for their mental health, but of course, that was not the narrative that came out. Mark argues that other tech companies don’t even bother to perform the researchThey want to do the research to improve, not to sweep it under the rug“Objectively speaking, there’s hunger [in the press] to say negative things about social media. And, I don’t understand how that leads to an open conversation about the positives and negatives of social media.

Instagram Whistleblower

You can only build Facebook/Meta if you have the idea that people having the right to express themselves is a good thingVoice + Connection = Opportunit.The challenging thing with free speech is that there is a line, the thing that everyone disagrees on is the definition of real harm. The blame for improper censorship should also be directed at the institutions of the United States that fail to define harm accurately and honestly.Balancing the AI system that proactively regulates harmful content is challenging. It’s no longer a technical problem, simply a philosophical one.

Censorship

I don’t think pressure from advertisers or politicians directly affect how we think about this, these are just hard topics

Think about what you’re excited about for the future. Always keep sight of things that bring you joySurround yourself with people you want to be like. Mark only hires people that he could see himself working for in an alternate universe.This advice expands to your friends and relationships.

Life Advice

All children are artists, the challenge is how do you remain one when you grow up

Mark Zuckerberg is CEO of Meta, formerly Facebook. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors: - Paperspace: https://gradient.run/lex to get $15 credit - Coinbase: https://coinbase.com/lex to get $5 in free Bitcoin - InsideTracker: https://insidetracker.com/lex and use code Lex25 to get 25% off - ExpressVPN: https://expressvpn.com/lexpod and use code LexPod to get 3 months free - Blinkist: https://blinkist.com/lex and use code LEX to get 25% off premium EPISODE LINKS: Mark's Facebook: https://facebook.com/zuck Mark's Instagram: https://instagram.com/zuck Meta AI: https://ai.facebook.com/ PODCAST INFO: Podcast website: https://lexfridman.com/podcast Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2lwqZIr Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2nEwCF8 RSS: https://lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/ Full episodes playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOdP_8GztsuKi9nrraNbKKp4 Clips playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOeciFP3CBCIEElOJeitOr41 OUTLINE: 0:00 - Introduction 5:36 - Metaverse 25:36 - Identity in Metaverse 37:45 - Security 42:10 - Social Dilemma 1:04:16 - Instagram whistleblower 1:09:01 - Social media and mental health 1:14:26 - Censorship 1:31:35 - Translation 1:39:10 - Advice for young people 1:44:58 - Daughters 1:47:46 - Mortality 1:52:19 - Question for God 1:55:25 - Meaning of life SOCIAL: - Twitter: https://twitter.com/lexfridman - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lexfridman - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lexfridman - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lexfridman - Medium: https://medium.com/@lexfridman - Reddit: https://reddit.com/r/lexfridman - Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lexfridman

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Marketing & Sales

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Videos

Mark Zuckerberg is CEO of Meta, formerly Facebook.

Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:
- Paperspace: https://gradient.run/lex to get $15 credit
- Coinbase: https://coinbase.com/lex to get $5 in free Bitcoin
- InsideTracker: https://insidetracker.com/lex and use code Lex25 to get 25% off
- ExpressVPN: https://expressvpn.com/lexpod and use code LexPod to get 3 months free
- Blinkist: https://blinkist.com/lex and use code LEX to get 25% off premium

EPISODE LINKS:
Mark's Facebook: https://facebook.com/zuck
Mark's Instagram: https://instagram.com/zuck
Meta AI: https://ai.facebook.com/

PODCAST INFO:
Podcast website: https://lexfridman.com/podcast
Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2lwqZIr
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2nEwCF8
RSS: https://lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/
Full episodes playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOdP_8GztsuKi9nrraNbKKp4
Clips playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOeciFP3CBCIEElOJeitOr41

OUTLINE:
0:00 - Introduction
5:36 - Metaverse
25:36 - Identity in Metaverse
37:45 - Security
42:10 - Social Dilemma
1:04:16 - Instagram whistleblower
1:09:01 - Social media and mental health
1:14:26 - Censorship
1:31:35 - Translation
1:39:10 - Advice for young people
1:44:58 - Daughters
1:47:46 - Mortality
1:52:19 - Question for God
1:55:25 - Meaning of life

SOCIAL:
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/lexfridman
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lexfridman
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lexfridman
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lexfridman
- Medium: https://medium.com/@lexfridman
- Reddit: https://reddit.com/r/lexfridman
- Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lexfridman

Lex Fridman

Mark Zuckerberg: Meta, Facebook, Instagram, and the Metaverse | Lex Fridman Podcast #267

When it comes to creating a new technology, you need to sell a vision to attract the resources you need (people, investment, etc.). Hype can act like glue. It can create a shared vision pulling the actors in the same direction and thus creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.One important component of hype is thus a set of promises of what the technology can achieve in the future for us. These might range from solving a particularly annoying problem to creating new markets, making heaps of money, or even revolutionizing a whole field and changing society as a whole.

Hype: A Primer

Hype moves on a scale from overpromising to overselling, and even irrational exuberance.Today‘s tech industry is obsessed with the big futures. The metaverses, the next internets — you name it. Hype is everywhere, oozing out of the headlines of news articles, growing like mould all over the LinkedIn feed, and blinking at me whenever I open my inbox.But hype is not always the same; there are different forms and levels. The following categorization is intended to help people better understand which form of hype they‘re confronted with.

The Movement Of Hype

MARKETING CLAIMSThis is your standard marketing speak. They‘re focused on what existing technology can do for you almost immediately. Though exaggerated, they‘re still grounded in reality.Marketing claims work on an immediate time scale, meaning whatever they promise can be realized almost instantly. The technology already exists.

The Levels Of Hype: Level 1

EXAGGERATED CLAIMSHere the effects and impact of existing technology are greatly exaggerated and oversold but still informed by its real capabilities. The focus lies on the returns to come by investing now.These claims oversell the present capabilities of technology, often skirting the line to fraud.A good example might be tesla selling their driving assistance systems as “full self-driving”

The Levels Of Hype: Level 2

UTOPIAN FUTURESThe technology is the key to a utopian future or the avoidance of a dystopic one. Claims are solely focused on the “potential” of the technology, less its benefits in the present.Here the focus of the hype is solely on the future, though the time-scale is still concrete, promising the technology will arrive at a fixed time from now.Example: Carbon capture technology, though it already exists in the form of prototypes, it‘s still in its infancy

The Levels Of Hype: Level 3

MAGICAL THINKINGThe technology has left grounded reality and takes on magical properties. The problems it is expected to solve simply by existing are growing in number and scale while criticism gets ignored as minor hurdles, to be overcome soon.With magical thinking concrete predictions are becoming less and less important, though the development might still be expected at a fixed date.Example: the blockchain industry, which has been overselling the capabilities of the technology for years — pitching it as a solution to every imaginable societal problem and challenge.

The Levels Of Hype: Level 4

OTHERINGThe technology has become a group identity for its boosters. Claims are exclusively utopian, and critics are painted as defenders of the old, to be left behind.This is the most aggressive and annoying form of hype. Notably, the time of arrival is less important at this level, simply that the technology will arrive at some point in the future.Example: The cryptocurrency scene which has been pretty good at othering critics as “no-coiners” or with the phrase “have fun staying poor”.

The Levels Of Hype: Level 5

The five Levels of Hype

If you're struggling to find product/market fit,<ul><li>First, <a href="https://deepstash.com/article/119692/finding-language-market-fit-introduction">figure out the language/market fit</a> to make everything else easier.</li><li><a href="https://deepstash.com/article/119693/finding-language-market-fit-starting-with-step-zero">Finding language/market fit should be "step zero"</a> for startups as it can save you a lot of time and wasted cycles.</li><li>Consider the four-step process to find the language that unlocks the language/market fit.</li></ul>

Struggling to find product/market fit

A simple purchase decision is framed within a larger context in customers' lives. As marketers, that context is critical as the words in their heads will show their situation more than your product.Capturing the specific words people use to describe their struggles or desired outcome can help product and marketing teams be more effective. Steps to find Language/market fit:<ol><li>Uncover their goals, struggles and language</li><li>Draft some test messages based on interview transcripts</li><li>Validate comprehension qualitatively</li><li>Test the language quantitatively</li></ol>

How to find language/market fit

Your "job". Figure out how your product will fit into people lives.<ol><li>Find somebody who has recently bought your product, or interview someone who purchased a competitor's product or asked for alternatives.</li><li>Ask them to walk you through the purchase process step-by-step, from when they first realised they were struggling with that goal.</li><li>Ask questions to understand what they were struggling to do, where they looked for help, which alternatives they tried.</li><li>When they use vague terms like "better" or "flexible", ask them to unpack it for you.</li><li>Capture their exact words.</li></ol>

Uncover their goals, struggles and language

After a few interviews, you should start to see patterns. You should now have a list of people's goals "I want to...", "I wish it were easier to..." and struggles "I hate it when..." "I'm tired of...", "Why can't I just...".Write the most promising up as headlines that complete the sentence, "Now you can..." For example, "Build a custom ad server in just weeks." or "Create Photobooks in 5 minutes."Tips to keep in mind:<ul><li>Stick to "I", not "you" struggles.</li><li>Avoid vague platitudes, such as "all in one", "faster", "revolutionary", or "convenient", as these lead to cynicism.</li><li>Stay specific.</li></ul>

Drafting some headlines

A/B testing can show which headline gets more clicks but can't tell you why. Therefore, ensure your words mean what your prospects have in mind when they read them.How to validate comprehension:<ul><li>Type out each headline.</li><li>Find someone to test it on. Show it to them for five seconds only, then ask them a few questions: (Remind them that there are no right or wrong answers.)</li><li>"Do you recall what that said?"</li><li>"What do you think that is?" (Check how they interpret the words.)</li><li>Ask them to explain it in their own words.</li><li>Use the feedback, iterate, and test again.</li></ul>

Validate comprehension

Test your new headline against your current one. It is quicker to test messages in ad impressions, such as Facebook or Instagram. Make several copies of a simple ad design with different headlines, and test which one performs best with your audience.

Run a quantitative test

If you’re struggling to find a product/market fit, first figure out what “looks like food” to your prospects. Find the language/market fit first and everything else will be much easier.

After more than a decade of running B2B growth teams at PayPal and investing at 500 Startups, Matt Lerner now spends his days helping early-stage startups with growth. He's seen firsthand how changes in a handful of words can yield jaw-dropping differences in conversion — and accelerate a startup's course to product/market fit. Here, he makes the case for starting with language/market fit first, and offers up his 4-step process for getting there.

startup

Startups

Finding Language/Market Fit: Use this four-step process to unlock language/market fit

The Metaverse is a virtual universe where you can do anything, be anyone, or go anywhere. You can inhabit new "earths" that are not bound by physics laws.
The Metaverse initiates two major disruptions in:
<ul>
<li>The physical world</li>
<li>The internet</li>
</ul>
The economic implications of this combination could give huge opportunities that could drive growth in the real world.

The Metaverse Economy

The Metaverse will be a network of worlds with different things to offer and different levels of popularity.
The way to monetise traffic in the Metaverse is similar to the ways governments and shopping malls generate revenue. Developers of top locations in the Metaverse will be compensated for their efforts. The competition for capturing valued in the Metaverse will result in the same capitalistic forces of modern history.

The New World

The Metaverse is the successor to the internet, and all the worlds in the Metaverse are equivalent to the internet's websites. We can now visualise and experience what the worldwide web can offer in a 3D user interface.
This new interface will reveal new opportunities for existing websites to reinvent their user experience. For example, instead of looking at some photos and reviews on a webpage, you would be able to touch and test out the digital version of an object.

The New Internet

High Fidelity is an existing social virtual reality company and is a good example of how the building blocks of the Metaverse and its economy are put in place. High Fidelity Metaverse gives open source tools to build anything you can dream of, like avatar clothing, items, and buildings. Creations are certified and recorded on the blockchain, then made available for purchase using High Fidelity Coin (HFC). The items you acquire or create within the game is linked to you, where you can bring your avatar from one world to another, including your skills, belongings, and appearances.

High Fidelity Case Study

With an economic system in place, the Metaverse could drive significant growth in every industry. Wall Street analysts will be asking the CEO of major organisations what their Metaverse strategy is on earnings calls. Companies will have teams to advertise, sell, or build products in the Metaverse.
A new generation will be able to learn, make a living or build the next big company because of the economic structure provided by the Metaverse.

Economic Impact

An inside look at why the Metaverse matters, it's economics, challenges and the future

artificialintelligence

Artificial Intelligence

The Metaverse Explained Part 3: Economics | Loup

The Metaverse is a virtual universe where the limits of reality are your own imagination. In the Metaverse, you are one of the people on the street. You look down and see your hands and feet; you look up and see the skyline. The experience doesn't feel like a video game - it feels real. Virtual reality is a tool that permits infinite simulation. Therefore, the Metaverse has the potential to be one of the most impactful technological developments of the future.

The Metaverse Introduction

Name almost anything, and it's possible in the Metaverse.
You can catch an esports tournament, shop for both digital and real-world clothes, take a free course at a learning centre, catch up on work from the real world at your virtual desk. Then you can earn Metaverse cryptocurrency that you can also use in the real world.

What You Can Do In The Metaverse

In the Metaverse, you can customise your character's appearance and abilities. A significant amount of Coin is spent on it every day.
You can shop for real-world items in the virtual store, from furniture or new haptic gear to a pizza. Companies will have virtual stores in the Metaverse and compete for prime retail space in the premier worlds. The incentives to earn and spend in the Metaverse will be just as important in the real world. Advanced neurohaptic VR will create a virtual experience almost identical to a real one.

Player Customization

The Metaverse Explained Part 1: An Inside Look | Loup

Your value to potential clients is what sets you apart from your competition. When you can clearly communicate the value you provide, you’ll have a better chance of winning more freelance clients.The first thing to ask yourself is what your value actually is. Start by asking yourself the following questions:<ul><li>What results have your past clients gotten from projects you’ve done for them?</li><li>What experience do you have that’s unique to you?</li><li>What do you have to offer that other graphic designers don’t?</li></ul>

Be clear on your value

If you have happy clients, ask them for referrals or recommendations. Let them know that you’re always open to talking to new clients and appreciate their referrals.While it might initially seem like a client wouldn’t want to refer you to their potential competition, remember that most businesses have working partnerships with all kinds of suppliers and other organizations. They could refer their vendors or other business contacts to you.

Ask for recommendations

Your graphic design portfolio is one of the most valuable assets you have in winning new clients. Be sure that you showcase your best work there, and take the time to explain each project. Talk about what your role was in the project, what the design problem was, and how you solved it. Share your portfolio far and wide. Add new projects to it regularly (but remember that you don’t have to add every project you work on; just the best examples).

Make sure your portfolio is the best it can be

One of the best ways to get new clients is by creating content. <ul><li>Writing blog posts, creating templates or UI assets, or otherwise providing valuable content that will appeal to your potential clients is an excellent way to build your professional reputation while also giving potential clients one more way to find you.</li><li>Writing articles about graphic design topics is one of the best ways to have new clients find you. Writing about design particulars for the niches or industries you serve can be especially helpful.</li></ul>

Create valuable content

Be sure that your design portfolio is up to date with more recent projects. The same goes for your social media profiles.If a potential client visits your Instagram or other social media profile and there are no posts in the past six months, they may assume you’re no longer working as a designer. The same goes for your portfolio or blog: if there are no updates within the past few months, a client may assume you’re no longer in business and move along to the next graphic designer.

Update your online presence

Meet people with the intention to get to know them. Don’t immediately think about what they can do for you or what you can get from them. Instead, look at how you might be able to help them.Are there others you can connect them with? Is there a great book or article you recently read that might appeal to them? Look at ways to connect on an authentic level with the people you encounter and go from there. Maybe you’ll end up working with those people in the future, or maybe they’ll refer people to you (and vice versa).

Network, network, network

Social proof in the form of testimonials can go a long way toward getting clients on board with working with you. Display testimonials prominently on your website or portfolio. Share them on social media, too.Ask past clients for feedback and testimonials on projects you’ve completed for them. Ask for recommendations and endorsements on sites like LinkedIn, too. When prospective clients see that you’ve worked successfully with other organizations, it gives them reassurance that you have the expertise you claim.

Use social proof

Follow-ups show people that you value working with them and that you’re eager to continue the relationship. But if you don’t hear back after following up, beware of sending multiple messages. This can come across as pushy. If it’s a prospective client you really want to work with and you feel the need to send more than one follow-up, consider what you could send them that would provide value to them (i.e, an article you recently read that you think they might be interested in). If you provide value, you’re building a relationship rather than just nudging them to give you business.

Don’t underestimate the power of a follow-up

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