Degenerate to Writer: How @SuperteamNG influenced my life and mindset.
One of the things I’ve always wanted in this space, and life in general, is to have creative freedom using whatever ‘skill’ I possess. From drawing fan arts, to making memes, to having conversations in communities, to writing short articles… I just wanted to be free.
That’s why this write-up means a lot to me because it includes all the experiences that brought me to this moment as a writer for @SuperteamNG, along with the many tips and insights I’ve learnt along the way. I ask you to just flow with me as we explore this piece together. 🫶
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If you came across a contest offering a prize for winning a discussion on the state of Web3 in your country, would you participate or pass? 🤔
That’s the exact question I pondered when I saw @SuperteamNG’s bounty on Twitter.
Obviously, I couldn’t just scroll past it. Why would I pass up the opportunity to share my views on the crypto market and Web3 in Nigeria while also having the chance to win a prize? It was an easy decision. I decided to give it a try, and I’m so glad I did!
In three distinct sections, I’ll break down what @SuperteamNG and the entire @SuperteamDAO communities are all about, and how I fortunately touched all parts:
1. Learn.
2. Earn.
3. Build.
In my own case, ‘Earning with @SuperteamEarn x @SuperteamNG’ happened first. 👇👇
▫️ STAGE ONE: EARN. 💰🫰
I’m chuckling as I write this because I just recalled the whirlwind of emotions I went through when I logged into Twitter and saw my notifications. I thought I had said something controversial and was possibly getting bombarded with negative comments. 😭🤣
But what I saw next was mind-blowing. I had just won my first bounty on my very first attempt!
No, it wasn’t because of the prize money; it was the fact that I won, especially after reading other wonderful submissions from @BintuParis, @danny_navigator, @a_ix_d, and 51 others? Crazy. 🤯
I truly couldn’t process the whole stuff, so I had to re-read my submission because @ObinnaMH mints rugs, not win bounties.🤣
https://x.com/SuperteamNG/status/1689200309577584640?s=20
Now, onto the interesting part — how exactly did I write my thread? Well, I always do it in the old-fashioned way, using just a pen and paper.
This method is the simplest way I gather my resources. I jot down every important point I want my write-up to include, then mark it when I’ve added it to my work. Not only does this make it easier to keep track, but I can also be flexible and easily add new points as needed, and I don’t expect to change this anytime soon to be honest.
You should always stick with what works best for you, then incorporate new methods or adjust your style to make it more efficient. This is where stage two comes into play: “Learning with @SuperteamDAO x @TaptiveHQ Writer’s Cohort.”
▫️ STAGE TWO: LEARN. 🧑🎓✍️
Before winning the first-ever bounty by @SuperteamNG, I had no idea about hackathons, cohorts, or any educational programs related to the @solana ecosystem. In fact, it was the first time I had ever come across anything related to @SuperteamDAO, let alone bounties.
It’s not surprising since I had been solely focused on chasing airdrops, running testnet task, and experiencing losses from speculative investments.
I was caught up in the frenzy and couldn’t do much except wait for the market to improve. When would the bull market come? When would the airdrops arrive? When would the prices skyrocket? Alongside managing my small airdrop community, these were the only things on my mind.
After winning, everything changed for me. The victory opened doors, leading me to sign up for the @SuperteamDAO x @TaptiveHQ Writer’s Cohort. The insights I gained from this program were invaluable. It was an incredible experience!
I completed the onboarding survey and joined the @SuperteamDAO Writers Cohort Discord server, where I introduced myself using the provided template in the #writers-cohort channel.
I still remember my first Zoom meeting for the cohort vividly. @Grant_Nissly, the Founder of @TaptiveHQ, summed up the program well.
He said that the @SuperteamDAO Writers Cohort was a three-week program where you write a 500-word post each week, join four live workshops for feedback and learning, and access plenty of writing resources. It was all about getting confident in publishing, finding your own writing style, and meeting other writers.
One thing I loved about the cohort was the feedback session. Prior to this, I had never been on breakout rooms or even considered the thought of it. My first experience was when i was paired with the amazing @path_taha.
These breakout rooms were literally what the name implied; a ‘break out’ from the major zoom call. You get paired with another writer in a separate room, then you read each other’s submission for the week and give feedback on it. I had never given any feedback in my life before, and it was awesome trying it out in this program.
But how do you give feedback if you’ve never done it before? 🤔 @TaptiveHQ gave us a template, and this has been helpful ever since. The idea was to focus on two key aspects:
- What you like about the content.
- What the writer could do to improve their content.
These two points addressed the fact that you understand that every writer have their own writing style and creative approach, but could also improve on other aspects of their work too.
It could be reducing large text wall or white spaces, adding more graphics to make a write-up look more pleasing to the eyes, using subheading to introduce new points, adding hyperlinks of resources used, and so on. The end goal is to have a good work -not a perfect one.
Another thing I loved from the cohort was the ‘5 minute bullet point timer’.
On the Zoom calls, we had a five minute window to quickly write down a brief summary of the entire article/thread we want to dive in. If you can breakdown the key points of your write-up in 5 minutes, then you can easily put out your content. No lies, this worked and still works for me.
The first draft we did on the meet was about what excites us the most about @solana ecosystem. All you had to do was just write as fast as you can without erasing or editing in that time-frame. Here’s what mine looked like:
This was obviously shitty as I haven’t felt a need to quickly brainstorm before, but that’s what learning always feels like. 😅
In 3 weeks, the cohort was over. I had written a not less than 500-word article and picked up valuable tips which would come in very handy in a bit.
Introducing my best part of it all; building with @SuperteamNG. 🇳🇬🔥
▫️ STAGE THREE: BUILD. 🏢🔨
Who would’ve known that attempting a bounty 6 months ago would lead to this point? Definitely not me for real.
When I first scheduled the one-on-one call for a chat with @SuperteamNG leads @NzubeEzudo and @Harri_Obi, I did not expect the conversation to move from talking about the bounty win to making an attempt to build for the @solana Hyperdrive Hackathon.
@NzubeEzudo asked me a simple question:
“If you have a crypto community (@MoonhubDAO) filled with researchers and some developers, why don’t you guys attempt the hackathon and at least, try to solve the problems you face in you own community?”
He was totally spot on.
I had mentioned the fact that I was part of a community who started off to learn about cryptocurrency amongst ourselves, until we moved past the stage of learning the ‘basics’, to moving towards actual research work and large scale crypto education.
The catch was that we experienced a lot of issues as a community with the major challenge of being a ‘scattered’ community. We existed on too many platforms, and couldn’t effectively collaborate or communicate.
All these, combined with the writer’s cohort, helped me win the next bounty @SuperteamNG set up: The Solana Hyperdrive and the Nigerian Market.
I talked with my friends and we decided to give it a shot. But we failed…
Somehow, I still consider this failure necessary, but avoidable. Why? Because we should’ve at least tried to be ‘unsuccessful’ instead.
Being unsuccessful is good because it implied that we submitted our work, but we didn’t win. Failing implies that, not only did we not submit, we did not also win. You get the vibe right? Moving forward, I’ll always pick the former. It means I should be bolder because you can only win if you try by having a proof of participation in the first place.
Nevertheless, this was also good in a way. I had picked a lot of amazing insights from the @SuperteamNG leads with relation to hackathons especially if it involved being a product lead, or even creating a pitch deck.
We couldn’t deploy because we focused more on aesthetics than functionality. We were oblivious to the fact that we should focus on integration, getting a good business model, go-to-market plan, traction and one-line title. These corrections are duly noted for the long run to be honest.
This didn’t stop me from writing an honorary thread for @SuperteamNG and other builders who were bold enough to continue working on their projects, and even succeeding to submit their work.
Fortunately, Nigeria was able to ace almost all metrics in the many of these hackathons, from OPOS hackathon, to the @solana Hyperdrive and the rest.
STAGE 2024: @SuperteamNG.
All the bounties, cohorts, one-on-one calls, and active participation lead to this moment: The writing role. I recall telling @Harri_obi that I have a low IQ, and to be honest that’s what drives me to play whatever role I can for @SuperteamNG.
This is because the pattern and approach we use in @SuperteamNG community, is what I’ve always wanted to see in Nigeria. The collaboration while learning, earning, building and growing together.
Last month’s @solana ecosystem IRL call was a testament to this community spirit, as we had 10 distinct watch parties across Nigeria.
I was fortunate to host the event in Jos, and I’m so glad that @SuperteamDAO via @SuperteamNG are working to ensure that we use regular skillsets like dev, design and content to change the way we interact with crypto in this country.
Shout out to @LamportDAO for setting up the Solana Scribe, which is the first ever content hackathon on @solana. I know this is the first of many content hackathons, and I can’t wait to dive deep into future tracks.
Special thanks to @kashdhanda, @kelxyz_, @arjunnchand, @ttrofel, @harsh4786 and the rest of the team for setting this up.
Find other interesting bounties on @SuperteamEarn. You can only win if you try:
https://earn.superteam.fun/bounties/
