The Post-Hype Economy - What Comes After the Burnout?

You’re not imagining it.

Ads aren’t hitting like they used to.
Social engagement is falling off a cliff.
Ecomm brands are quietly panicking.
Even Marvel movies are bombing — and five years ago, that would’ve been unthinkable.

Something’s shifted.
We all feel it.
It’s like the momentum’s gone. The hype engine just isn’t pulling the weight anymore.

The question is: what comes after that?

I’ve been staying in Tarifa, Spain for the past three weeks.

It’s a small coastal town — popular with surfers and digital nomads, but still human in scale. And what I’ve noticed here has stayed with me.

No billboards.
No targeted social ads following me around.
No global chains in the old town. Not even a high street bank branch.
Just small, local businesses — and somehow, they’re thriving.

You feel it in the rhythm of the place.
People know each other. Cafés serve what they’re proud of. There’s an absence of friction.

It’s not perfect, but it works.

And I like it.

It’s made me reflect on something I’ve been sensing for a while.

I’m not anti-capitalist. I believe in free market capitalism — when it’s done ethically, when it actually serves. But I am against models that reward domination. I’m tired of watching global giants swallow everything, leaving behind burnt-out creators, shuttered independents, and homogenous town centres that could be anywhere and nowhere.

And hype culture? If I’m honest, I’m done with it.

I have no intention of watching another Marvel movie, even if Robert Downey Jr. makes a comeback. It ended with Endgame. That was the last moment I cared.

I feel the same about much of the last era.

It was loud. It was constant. And it left a lot of people — myself included — wondering if this was really what progress was supposed to feel like.

So what comes next?

Perhaps the answer isn’t more tech.
Perhaps it’s a shift in how we use it.

Imagine a business that isn’t just community-owned, but community-shaped.
A service platform that works like a co-op, but runs on cloud infrastructure.
A local-first economy, with a digital backbone — not trying to dominate the world, just trying to serve it better.

It’s not about going backwards. It’s about remembering what worked — and evolving it.

That’s the pattern I’m starting to see.

We don’t need to burn everything down. But we do need to build something new.

Something that trades reach for resonance.
That builds trust, not dependency.
That grows, but doesn’t extract.

Call it the post-hype economy.
Call it decentralised capitalism.
Call it the next version of enough.

Whatever we name it, I believe this:
The brands, platforms, and collectives that will thrive in the next decade won’t be the loudest. They’ll be the ones that make the most sense, in the most places, to the most people — without needing to shout.

And if you’re building something like that?
I’d love to hear from you.