Capital
What do you have that others need?
Agency requires capital. Not just money — capital in all its forms. Leverage is what amplifies it. The control system is how you direct it.
Types of Capital
Ranked by durability. When software goes to zero and money is meaningless, what compounds?
| Capital | What It Is | Durability | Leverage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Goodwill | Trust, reputation, social proof | Highest — survives everything | Infinite: others act on your behalf |
| Intellectual | Knowledge, skills, capabilities | High — compounds with practice | High: products that replicate at zero marginal cost |
| Social | Relationships, network, coordination | High — but requires maintenance | High: Reed's Law |
| Time | Attention and energy available | Finite — non-renewable | Medium: only multiplied through systems |
| Financial | Cash, assets, crypto | Medium — inflation, volatility | Variable: amplifies everything else |
| Physical | Health, location, equipment | Medium — depreciates | Low: bounded by atoms |
The pattern: Financial capital buys time. Time builds intellectual capital. Intellectual capital builds social capital. Social capital builds goodwill. Goodwill is the only capital that compounds without limit.
Levers
Capital without leverage is savings. Capital with leverage is agency.
| Lever | How It Multiplies | Risk |
|---|---|---|
| Stories | Narratives compound — others retell them for free | Fake stories destroy goodwill |
| Technology | AI and automation multiply output | Tool dependency, platform risk |
| Standards | Repeatable protocols scale without you | Rigidity if standards calcify |
| Distribution | Reach without presence | Attention is rented, not owned |
| Financial | Borrow to invest where returns exceed cost | Amplifies losses equally |
| Labour | Other people's time and agency | Coordination cost, trust requirement |
The Agency Test
Every opportunity should answer:
| Question | What It Reveals |
|---|---|
| Does this expand or narrow my options? | Some fast cash narrows (golden handcuffs). Some wealth-building expands (compounding assets) |
| Does this build or consume my time and energy? | Trading time for money is neutral. Trading energy for money depletes |
| Does this create or erode trust capital? | Goodwill builds slowly, spends slowly |
| Does this create conditions for flow? | Money is substrate. Flow is the goal |
Capital Conversion
The game is converting lower-durability capital into higher-durability capital.
Financial → Time → Intellectual → Social → Goodwill
↑ |
└──────── enables earning more ────────────┘
| From | To | How |
|---|---|---|
| Financial → Time | Buy back hours | Hire, automate, delegate |
| Time → Intellectual | Invest hours in learning | Meta-learning, deliberate practice |
| Intellectual → Social | Share knowledge generously | Teaching, building in public |
| Social → Goodwill | Be reliable under pressure | Character over time |
| Goodwill → Financial | Trust attracts opportunity | Deals, partnerships, investment |
Dreams Need Leverage
Conversion isn't just linear. Capital types combine to turn ideas into reality.
| You Have | Plus | You Get |
|---|---|---|
| Goodwill | Assets (land, machines, tokens) | Leverage to build what you see |
| Ideas | Goodwill | People who believe before proof exists |
| Assets | Ideas | Infrastructure waiting for direction |
| Ideas alone | Nothing | Wishes |
| Assets alone | Nothing | Extraction |
Dreams without leverage are wishes. Leverage without goodwill is extraction. The combination is what makes ideas become real — social capital attracts the resources, hard assets provide the substrate, and skin in the game ensures you're building for yourself, not renting someone else's dream.
Tokenization collapses this. Own fractional assets. Build goodwill in public. Combine them permissionlessly. The barrier between idea and reality has never been lower.
The Goodwill Flywheel
Goodwill isn't given. It's earned through a loop:
CREDIBILITY → PERFORMANCE → LOYALTY
↑ │
└─────────────────────────┘
| Phase | What It Proves | What It Earns |
|---|---|---|
| Credibility | You know how to deliver | Permission to try |
| Performance | You meet expectations | Trust that compounds |
| Loyalty | Others stay and invest more | Leverage for bigger ideas |
Credibility is skin in the game made visible — prove you know how, not just that you say so. Performance is the evidence. Loyalty is the compound interest on both.
On-chain, this becomes verifiable. Track record in public. Smart contracts that execute on delivery. Governance tokens that weight votes by contribution. The flywheel runs faster when credibility is provable and performance is measurable.
Scarce Capabilities
When AI handles pattern-connecting, what remains scarce is people-connecting.
| Capability | Why Scarce | Capital It Builds |
|---|---|---|
| Connecting | Consciousness meeting consciousness | Social + Goodwill |
| Shipping | Judgment under uncertainty | Intellectual + Goodwill |
| Predicting | Intuition from embodied experience | Intellectual |
| Character | Integrity under pressure | Goodwill |
Context
- Leverage — Force multipliers that amplify capital
- Goodwill — The highest-durability capital
- Control System — Levers for directing capital
- Skin in the Game — Capital only compounds if you own the equity
- Tokenization — Permissionless ownership of capital
- Flow State — The actual goal, money is substrate
- Time and Energy — The non-renewable capital
- Capabilities — Intellectual capital in action