Joe: Alright Lewis, I've got a book for you. It's co-written by a tech marketing guru and a celebrity DJ. What do you think it's about? Lewis: Wow. A tech guru and a DJ? Sounds like a guide to throwing the world's most expensive, algorithmically-perfect, and soulless party. Am I close? Joe: Not quite, though you're not a million miles off on the 'expensive' part. We're talking about The Metaverse Handbook by QuHarrison Terry and Scott Keeney, who is much better known as DJ Skee. Lewis: DJ Skee! I know that name. He’s been around forever. Joe: Exactly. And that combination of authors is the whole point of the book. Skee isn't just any DJ; he's a professional trendspotter. This is the guy who first put a live DJ inside a massive football stadium during a game. He even performed a set from inside the Metaverse that was broadcast into a real-world stadium for the Minnesota Twins. Lewis: Hold on, he performed from a video game into a real stadium? Okay, that's a much more interesting resume than I was imagining. So this book isn't just theory, it's from someone who is actually in the trenches, bridging these two worlds. Joe: That's the core idea. And the first thing the book does is try to clear up the biggest misconception of all: what the Metaverse even is. Because most people, I’m guessing you included, have a very specific, and probably wrong, picture in their head.

Lewis: Guilty as charged. When you say Metaverse, my brain immediately shows me two things: Mark Zuckerberg’s slightly-creepy, legless avatar, and maybe that movie Ready Player One. It’s a big, immersive video game, right? Joe: That's the common image, and the book argues it's like describing the internet in the 90s as just a place to send email. It misses the scale of the change. The authors call the Metaverse the "internet's next tectonic shift." It's less about a single place you go, and more about a fundamental change in how we experience three things online: digital identity, digital value, and digital immersion. Lewis: Okay, "tectonic shift" is a big claim. Break that down for me. What does that actually look like in practice? Joe: Let's take a huge brand: Nike. In late 2021, they didn't just run a new TV ad. They launched something called Nikeland on the gaming platform Roblox. This wasn't just a banner ad; it was a whole virtual world. Lewis: Right, I think I heard about this. Kids can run around and play games in a Nike-themed universe. Joe: Exactly. Inside Nikeland, you can customize your avatar with exclusive Nike gear, play games with your friends, and even attend virtual events. It’s not a passive experience; it’s an active one. And it was a massive success, attracting millions of users. It allowed Nike to build a relationship with a younger generation in a way a 30-second commercial never could. Lewis: I can see that. But isn't that just a very clever, very elaborate advertisement inside a kids' game? Why is that a 'tectonic shift' and not just a new marketing gimmick? Joe: Here's where the shift in 'digital value' comes in. The virtual Nike sneakers your avatar wears in Nikeland? People desire them, they have status, and in some cases, they can be bought and sold. This is powered by the same technology behind NFTs, or non-fungible tokens. It introduces the concept of verifiable, unique ownership to a digital item for the first time. Lewis: So a digital file, which could be copied a million times before, now can be proven to be the 'original'? Joe: Precisely. And that changes everything. It’s the difference between owning a print of the Mona Lisa and owning the actual Mona Lisa. This concept of digital scarcity and ownership is a building block of the Metaverse economy. It’s why the Travis Scott concert inside Fortnite wasn't just a livestream. Millions of people attended as their own avatars, bought virtual merchandise for that avatar, and shared a collective experience. It generated massive revenue because the digital items had perceived value. Lewis: Huh. So the 'shift' is that the stuff we do and own in these digital worlds is starting to have real, measurable value and social currency, just like stuff in the physical world. Joe: You've got it. It’s the internet evolving from a place of information you consume to a place of experiences you inhabit and assets you own. Your digital identity, through your avatar and your digital wallet, becomes a portable, persistent version of you that can move between these different worlds, carrying your reputation and your assets with you. That’s the grand vision. Lewis: Okay, that's a much bigger idea than just VR goggles. It's more about the plumbing of the internet changing underneath our feet. Joe: And that brings us to the most fascinating argument in the book. This new plumbing isn't being laid primarily by the giant corporations you'd expect. It's being built by a very different group of people.

Joe: The book argues that the real driving force behind the Metaverse isn't corporate power brokers, but what they call "Interest Geeks." Lewis: An "Interest Geek." That sounds like a term of endearment and a slight insult all at once. What exactly is an Interest Geek? Joe: It's someone who gets so deeply, obsessively passionate about a topic that they go further than anyone else. They're not motivated by a business plan; they're motivated by pure, unadulterated curiosity. They fall down a rabbit hole and start building a new world down there. The book is full of them, but the most powerful example is the story of a digital artist named Mike Winkelmann. Lewis: Never heard of him. Joe: You know him by his other name: Beeple. Starting over a decade ago, Beeple decided he wanted to get better at digital art. So he gave himself a challenge: create and post one new piece of art online. Every. Single. Day. Lewis: Wait, every day? Like, no weekends, no holidays, no sick days? Joe: For over 5,000 days straight. More than 13 years. He called the project "Everydays." For years, it was just this personal project, this obsessive act of creation. He was the ultimate Interest Geek, exploring the frontiers of digital design because he was fascinated by it. Then, the technology for digital ownership—NFTs—caught up to his passion. Lewis: Oh, I think I know where this is going. Joe: In March 2021, he bundled his first 5,000 "Everydays" into a single digital collage, a single NFT, and put it up for auction at Christie's, the legendary art auction house. Lewis: What did it sell for? A few thousand dollars? Joe: It sold for sixty-nine million dollars. Lewis: Come on. Sixty-nine million? For a JPG file? Joe: It was a watershed moment. It proved that digital art, created out of pure passion by an Interest Geek, could have the same cultural and financial weight as a physical masterpiece. Beeple didn't set out to get rich. He set out to get good at something he loved, and in doing so, he became a pioneer for an entire new economy. Lewis: That's incredible. So an Interest Geek is someone so authentically obsessed with something that they accidentally build the future. They're not following a trend; they are the trend. Joe: That's the perfect way to put it! And it brings us back to the authors. DJ Skee is a classic Interest Geek. He was obsessed with music and culture, so he built platforms that launched artists like Kendrick Lamar. He was obsessed with sports, so he reinvented the stadium experience. He's always been driven by what's next, what's interesting. The book even has a foreword by Paris Hilton. Lewis: Paris Hilton? Now you're losing me again. Joe: But it makes perfect sense in this context! She talks about getting into crypto back in 2016, building her own virtual world in 2017, and creating NFTs for charity long before the boom. She's another one of these cultural figures who, through her own curiosity, was way ahead of the curve. The book's point is that these are the people to watch. The innovation is happening at the edges, driven by passion, not in a boardroom. Lewis: I see it now. The Metaverse isn't a product being rolled out by a single company. It’s a culture being co-created by millions of these Interest Geeks, artists, and influencers. It's messy, chaotic, and driven by people who are just genuinely excited about what's possible. Joe: Exactly. It's a bottom-up revolution, not a top-down mandate.

Lewis: So, if I'm getting this right, the big takeaway from The Metaverse Handbook isn't to go out and buy the latest VR headset. It's to understand that the fundamental currency of the internet is shifting. It's moving away from just information we consume, and towards communities we join and digital things we can actually own. Joe: That's the heart of it. The value is flowing to the creators and the communities. And the people to watch, the real architects of this future, aren't necessarily the tech giants with their polished presentations. They're the passionate, sometimes-obsessive, creators. Lewis: That feels... more human. And a lot more hopeful, honestly. It feels less like we're all going to be plugged into a corporate machine and more like we're building a bunch of weird, wonderful, and unique digital nations. Joe: And the book's final advice is wonderfully simple and accessible. It says you don't need to be a coder or a venture capitalist to get involved. The first step isn't to invest; it's to get educated and get curious. Lewis: What does that look like for someone listening right now? Joe: Find a corner of this new world that genuinely interests you. Maybe it's a digital art community, a play-to-earn game, or a decentralized organization—a DAO—that's trying to fund a cause you care about. Just join, listen, and start participating. The book's message is that the future of the internet will be built by those who show up. Lewis: I like that. It’s an invitation, not a prescription. And on that note, we'd love to hear what rabbit holes you've fallen down. What's the most interesting corner of this new internet that you've found? Let us know on our socials, we're genuinely curious to see what you're all building and exploring. Joe: This is Aibrary, signing off.