From the Crypto Casino to the Era of Super Individuals
TechFlow Selected TechFlow Selected
From the Crypto Casino to the Era of Super Individuals
Your true product is a self-driven living system.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthor: Mao
Since I posted that tweet about wanting to become a "Super Individual," I've received plenty of friendly teasing from friends. Some said I'm inventing new terms and playing with the idea of being "super," while others joked I might end up as a "super韭菜 (super loser)."
https://x.com/porounclemao/status/1978777462818369695
But I’m actually serious. I’ve spent considerable time thinking about what a "Super Individual" truly means, and combining my own experience, I’ve built a preliminary framework for becoming one starting from the crypto space. After nearly eight years in crypto—without hitting it big but gaining a lot—I feel fortunate and genuinely hope you can learn this concept earlier. I also hope to connect with like-minded people through this article and grow together. Additionally, last week I wrote a somewhat naive post explaining roughly that: Super Individual > Trader Lifestyle; using the absurd example of "nine lives of a韭菜" to lay an initial ideological foundation. The idea wasn't fully developed then, but the joy of that moment of awakening was real. Feel free to check it out:
https://x.com/porounclemao/status/1978777462818369695
1. What is a "Super Individual"?
🔹 Super Individual = Super Individual
"Super Individual" best captures the original meaning, emphasizing "individual awakening and growth," not just making money or entrepreneurship. It can be further broken down into three dimensions:
1/ Sovereign Individual – self-sovereignty 2/ Solo entrepreneur – independent entrepreneurship 3/ Self-Evolving Individual – continuous self-growth
In this AI + Crypto era, a "Super Individual" is someone who, amidst algorithmic and capital-dominated systems, simultaneously masters AI productivity and financial sovereignty—achieving independence in cognition, wealth, and influence.
If we are indeed moving toward a cyberpunk world, then living a life constantly fed by AI, pushed by algorithms, led by market sentiment, and manipulated by insiders feels suffocating.
I want to become an ordinary person who carries their own computing power, has sovereignty, awareness, and the ability to grow. Not necessarily earning the most money, but controlling my own pace of life, unbound by most constraints.
Don’t think only someone like Elon Musk can break free from the system. True freedom isn’t much related to money or status—it’s a mindset, a posture. Confucius said at seventy he could “follow his heart’s desire without overstepping boundaries.” I believe in this age, even if you’re not a wealthy “chosen one,” today’s Crypto Natives have a real chance to achieve this by their twenties or thirties.
2. Why does this concept only make sense in the AI + Crypto era?
In the Web2 era, people were fed by algorithms, held hostage by traffic, exploited for data, and constrained by values. In the Web3 + AI era, we now have two accessible tools and powers for the first time:
1/ First major weapon: AI = amplifies your cognition, creativity & productivity
Gives individuals the power of a “thousand-person think tank,” lowers knowledge barriers, creates “cognitive compounding.” A person skilled in Vibe Coding and actively using AI to boost productivity can match the output of an entire company from the past.
2/ Second major weapon: Crypto = amplifies your wealth and financial sovereignty
A single wallet allows individuals, for the first time, absolute ownership of assets—no longer dependent on banks, institutions, or intermediaries.
Only when these two converge does the journey of a “Super Individual” begin. AI provides productivity; Crypto provides financial sovereignty. If you can also learn independently, earn independently, and express yourself boldly—no longer controlled by algorithms, institutions, or emotions—then you’re already close to being a “Super Individual.” As for what comes next, I’m still exploring.
3. Five stages from crypto to becoming a Super Individual
Our generation is special. Thanks to cryptocurrency, we have more time freedom and wealth accumulation, and we’ve figured out our own ways of survival. Some trade coins, some farm airdrops, some write research, some create content.
Truthfully, everyone who has survived so far is already closer to awakening than those stuck in the previous cycle's gambling loop.
But the hardest part in crypto isn’t just “surviving”—it’s “living wisely.”
I, the author, am still struggling in the sea of crypto, often troubled by not being the “chosen one” who makes it big. Yet I’ve made peace with that thought and am determined to become a Super Individual. Perhaps the following framework can inspire you:
Stage One: Awakening – From digital anxiety to mental clarity
Recognize the limitations of a “trading life.” We think the market’s end goal is financial freedom, but that’s just an illusion. Wild price swings are merely bull market hallucinations. The real主线 (main thread) is whether you get what you truly wanted—and stay清醒 (awake).
Practice directions: 1/ Stop measuring your day’s worth by profit or loss. 2/ Begin introspection—observe your desires (what you truly want) and fears (what you truly dread).
Mindset: Find rational grounding between euphoria during rallies and panic during crashes. The sign of awakening is no longer staring at charts, but watching your inner self.
Stage Two: Balance – Let investing integrate into your life system
When one day you don’t feel ecstatic after a big win, or devastated after a big loss, you realize that investment gains and losses are just one dimension of life. Real growth comes from balance: balancing thinking and practice, AI and humanities, wealth and health, solitude and socializing. The market becomes just one training ground for achieving balanced equilibrium.
Practice directions: 1/ Reserve 40% of your energy daily for the “non-market version of yourself.” 2/ Let creation, reading, and exercise become remedies against anxiety.
Stage Three: Autonomy – Rebuild your value system
The biggest illusion in crypto is comparison, which makes people think “others know the answer.” True autonomy means comparing only with your past self and redefining your belief system.
Practice directions: 1/ Don’t be swayed by major exchanges, KOLs, token issuers, or social opinions. 2/ Build your own “mental research model” and “asset allocation system.” 3/ Extend financial sovereignty into time sovereignty and mental sovereignty.
Stage Four: Long-term compounding and sovereign self – Growth as faith
Compounding isn’t just about growing asset curves—it’s multidimensional accumulation of cognition, character, skills, influence, and mental strength. Markets are volatile, but only time rewards the清醒 (awake). When you start thinking long-term—on a ten-year scale—you’ll navigate markets with greater calm and ease.
Meanwhile, sovereignty is the core keyword of this stage—a sense of control. It means not only owning your assets, keys, and identity, but also mastering your emotions, choices, attention, and life rhythm.
Practice directions: 1/ Design your life blueprint on a ten-year horizon across five dimensions: wealth, skills, works, relationships, and spirit. 2/ Use AI as your cognitive lever: learn faster, express better, gain deeper insights. 3/ Use Crypto as your capital lever: understand the fundamentals of ownership, liquidity, and value transfer. 4/ Build your own Life OS (Life Operating System), including five modules: mind management, information intake, learning cycles, financial review, and creative output.
Mindset: True freedom isn’t doing whatever you want, but never being forced to do anything. When you have sovereignty, you no longer depend on external validation to confirm your existence—you’ve become the root node of your own system.
Stage Five: Infinite possibilities and infinite games
At this point, your goal is no longer “making money” or “winning the game,” but entering the state of an infinite game.
In finite games, people chase victory and defeat. In infinite games, people pursue continuation and creation. Starting from the crypto market, you begin to see it not as a casino, but as an energy amplifier—enabling you to transcend cycles and unlock endless possibilities, using market rules to enrich other aspects of life.
In investing: Stability first, small bets for upside. You no longer chase get-rich-quick dreams or go all-in recklessly. Instead, establish your own mechanism of “long-term stable allocation + small high-risk experiments”:
Main positions for steady compounding—stablecoins, BTC, these are the era’s红利 (bonuses)
Small positions reserved for pursuing超额收益 (excess returns) and high-risk exploration
You can afford to lose, and enjoy winning too; both outcomes bring learning and inspiration.
In life: Let the market nourish your life. When you’re no longer enslaved by money, money starts serving you. Adopting any of the following mindsets helps significantly:
Money isn’t the goal—it’s a tool to buy back time and freedom;
Investment returns aren’t just numbers—they give you room to read, travel, exercise, create;
Market failures and volatility become your most authentic mental training camp.
Practice directions: 1/ Build your own asset portfolio and cash flow system: stability-focused, experimentation-supported. 2/ Let money fuel life quality, not stress. 3/ Treat losses as feedback, not punishment. 4/ Align market cycles with life rhythm, using wealth compounding to drive compounding in time, health, and cognition.
Mindset: The true master isn’t the one who leaves the market, but the one who keeps evolving their life amid market fluctuations. The end of the infinite game isn’t “winning,” but continuous upgrading, sustained existence, ongoing creation, and constant growth.
🌌 Summary
Finally, to all ordinary people still struggling in the sea of crypto—including myself—about money: don’t become the kind of loser who, despite earning lots of money, remains empty, anxious, and boastful. “Super Individual” might be a way of living that even the richest old-school tycoons would envy.
Walking this path, wealth may just be a byproduct of your energy. Your real output is a self-driven life system.
This preliminary framework is essentially an evolution chain: trader → investor → long-term compounder → infinite gamer → Super Individual.
There’s still much to improve, but I plan to build a small, long-term “Super Individual” group soon, with membership by referral only.
I hope our “crypto friends” can slowly become true life companions. I hope our “trading lives” in crypto can evolve into becoming self-mastered “Super Individuals.”
Maybe this is just my utopian fantasy, a brief moment of clarity. Will one misstep ruin everything? Will I still sink in the苦海 (sea of suffering) of trading? Will illusions persist? I don’t know.
But what I truly look forward to is this path toward becoming a Super Individual.
The road is long and arduous. Walking it with like-minded people, encouraging and growing together, might just increase our chances of success!
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@porounclemao
