Recently, I muted the group chats in several communities, and it’s a huge relief. Before, I would stare at those points rankings and identity badges every day, terrified that I’d miss some “guaranteed minimum/backup welfare” opportunity. In the end, the time I spent scrolling through my phone every day was even longer than the time I spent reading project whitepapers. To put it bluntly, I was trapped in a game—exchanging my energy for a pile of numerical, hollow prestige. Looking back, I haven’t even taken a close look at the art NFTs I genuinely like in a long time.

Just these past couple of days, that public chain has been messing with another upgrade and causing downtime again. The group was in an uproar, with people wildly speculating about which major project might be planning to run off, but I actually felt much calmer. After all, on-chain data can’t lie. Instead of spending nights chasing social points that could vanish at any moment, it’s better to take your time and go through things for yourself—see which ecosystem’s liquidity is truly healthy, and which art projects have real buyers with real money.

Now I only keep an eye on the wallets of a few small projects with clear cash flows. Occasionally, I check the artists’ on-chain issuance plans. As for the other groups, they’re muted anyway—nice and quiet.