Recently been thinking about the idea of context, in advertising, in crypto, really everywhere. People say they hate ads, but ironically, everyone also wants to run ads. It’s not that ads are inherently bad. They have literally carried and grown entire industries. The real question is: 1. how do you make ads something enjoyable instead of noisy and annoying? 2. who has actually been in control of ads until now? Think about Meta for a second Why do they go so hard on personalized recommendation algorithms? Because ads are annoying when they are irrelevant. If I am scrolling on Instagram and I see an ad that perfectly matches my interest, I might click, read, maybe even purchase, and then move on happily. That is context at work. The system understands “me” just enough to make the ad feel like part of my experience. That is why social networks have become the most powerful distribution channels. They know context better than anyone else. Originally the power of marketing rested with advertisers Why? Because NOBODY understands their product better than they do. So it made sense for them to ask: who FITS best with our product, who shares the RIGHT CONTEXT? The goal was not only exposure, but relevance. But once you remove that consideration, once you chase only short-term profits, people STOP trusting you. Then you go from being a voice to just another ad guy. At some point, you start losing followers, bloating numbers with bots just to show you have impressions. That is when you realize you have already lost. Crypto had its own version of this Some people leaned into memecoins, others focused on BTC ETH lev trading. Some cared about the tech itself, wrote deep breakdowns, or maybe focused only on DeFi yield farming. Each person had their own niche, their own context. And it somewhat worked. People built audiences and could even advertise within those contexts. But then came this idea of “MINDSHARE.” And everyone is trying to manipulate and disrupt this mindshare now. Suddenly it was not about fitting into your own lane anymore. It became about everyone chasing the same prize pools, the same attention streams, with zero context. People shouted about anything and everything, regardless of who they were. They lost their own identity in the process, and projects themselves lost clarity of what they stood for. What was left were just money giveaway projects pretending to be something meaningful. That is the cost of losing context. Now think about the current content landscape. Anyone can create anything. So what is actually scarce? Context and curation Following the money blindly does not work unless you are already a massive account with brute force visibility. If you are starting fresh, chasing whatever is hot without anchoring it to your own taste or worldview is a recipe for nothing. The only sustainable edge is knowing what you actually like, cultivating your own sense of taste, and cutting the rest out. The same goes for projects. Of course, some teams are basically dead on arrival. They know it, but they will keep minting tokens just to keep the lights on. Maybe survival for survival’s sake is their whole play. But if you are a new team just starting, then it has to be about taste and context. Choosing authentic expression, having a clear identity, understanding your niche. That is the only way forward. The point is simple. Lose context and you lose trust. Keep it and you actually have a chance to survive.