I often get asked by friends or family how to get started in Web3. Most often it's during a bull market. Most often they just want to invest. The usual question is What tokens should I buy for a good return? or Should I buy X or Y?

I understand hearing stories of people getting rich quick and easy on the outside is like a drug you want to get a taste of and get in. I think its a risky way to start in crypto.

My answer to this is always the same - Don't invest in something you don't understand. What you are doing is throwing your money down the gutter. Their follow-up question is How do I learn about it? The answer I give is simple and commonsensical - Just Use It.

All of us grew up with the internet, the early Web1 and Web2 days. I am sure that you didn't have a teacher telling you how to do stuff on the internet. You just figure it out on your own. You were just being a user. Early days were fun - finding out new websites through StumbleUpon and Digg, spending time on social media apps like Yahoo Messenger, Orkut, and MySpace, Flash browser games on Miniclip, downloading music through Napster and Limewire and lots and lots of pirated content.

You were just using it.

It was the same with Smartphone Revolution, trying out new apps and viral games we were getting recommended by friends. Early days are fun. You don't know what is going to work. There are a lot of experiments happening. Builders are building and early adopters are playing with it.

The reason why old folks have a hard time with technology is that they didn't grow up with the internet. When you grow up with something, you learn it on autopilot. If you are having a hard time learning a new technology today, you are just getting old.

So the conversations usually end with me telling them that I'll send them some links to explore and experiment. Most of the time I never hear from them again.

The takeaway is to be a user first, specially in web3 where it pays to be a user.