I've been asking the same question in different forms over the past twenty-five years:
What do people need to make ambitious things together while remaining independent — and to keep doing it?
I grew up the son of a musician and have spent my entire life immersed in creative worlds. First as a fan, then as a published critic, an entrepreneur building platforms, an author and creator, and now someone helping to create and pass laws. Each role touches a different piece of that question.
Kickstarter created a new path for funding creative projects.
The Creative Independent explores how to sustain a creative life.
The Dark Forest Theory of the Internet examines why people are retreating from public social media and what comes next.
Metalabel offers new models and financial tools for creative people to organize.
Artist Corporations creates a new legal structure that helps creative people more easily own institutions rather than simply participating in them.
DFOS introduces shared private internets where creative people can make and create in worlds of their own.
The New Creative Era podcast with Joshua Citarella explores what creative people need from economic, philosophical, and practical perspectives.
On the surface these look like different projects. At the time, they felt like separate projects. Looking back, they increasingly feel like one conversation.
The underlying work is about institutions: the structures that allow people and communities to create, collaborate, govern themselves, retain ownership, and flourish over time.
We still lack much of the social, technological, legal, and economic infrastructure that independent communities require. My work is an attempt to help build it through ideas, platforms, tools, protocols, organizational models, and legislation.
Creative people are where I began and remain the community I know best. But the questions extend beyond creativity. They concern how people organize, how they preserve their independence, and how they build worlds together without surrendering control of them.
If you're new here, a few pieces to start:
- The Dark Forest Theory of the Internet
- The Post-Individual
- What's the Difference Between an Artist and Creator?
From there, follow whichever thread interests you most.
One way or another, I've learned, it all eventually connects.
Yancey Strickler
New York City
07/19/26