Curiosity as the core skill for navigating the AI and Web3 era

Executive overview

Most people have opinions on AI and new technology without having spent real time using it. The next 20 years will bring more change than the last 15 combined — AI, AR, VR, and decentralised infrastructure are converging.

The single trait that determines who captures the opportunity: curiosity. Not optimism or expertise — a willingness to approach the unfamiliar with "maybe" instead of "no".

The coming era of change

• The convergence of AI, AR, VR, and decentralised servers rivals the iPhone's impact on society
• Early internet stocks collapsed in 1997–98, but the internet still became one of the defining inventions of our time — the same logic applies to crypto, NFTs, and AI hype cycles
• Tools like ChatGPT, Midjourney, and Jasper gave the mainstream its first taste of real AI after years of fake AI
• These technologies will converge at scale; the opportunities ahead will be among the largest in a lifetime

Why curiosity matters more than expertise

• Most people form opinions on new technology from secondhand sources — a friend, two articles — without direct exploration
• Curiosity is not innate; it can be developed by surrounding yourself with curious people
• The default response to unfamiliar things is "no"; shifting to "maybe" opens far more doors
• Self-esteem underpins curiosity — insecurity prevents people from putting themselves out there

The "maybe" framework

• "Maybe" is the posture to adopt when encountering anything new: a platform, a technology, a genre
• It is not blind optimism — it is suspension of premature judgment long enough to actually explore
• Applied consistently, it compounds: the curious person finds opportunities the closed-minded person never sees