If effort is now diminished, if it can be hidden, and proof can or soon will be gamed too, if transparency itself can be performed — what’s left?
The only thing left that can’t be gamed is wanting something badly enough that it shows. Desire is the closest thing to proof of authenticity we have left.
I don't know if I'm ever going to get rich doing this but I am going to keep making things that I want to exist, in a way that seems fun and to a level of quality and style that I myself like and trust that the score will take care of itself
When you try to make something that solves everything, you obsess over questions of power: how to make something that is omnipotent and everlasting. But when you make something that does one thing well, the questions are much more personal: does it solve my problem? and for how long? and who for? and where will it push the space around it? I want... See more
But what I began to notice, through all of it, was that something felt increasingly off. Not just in my own experience, but in the culture surrounding it. What once felt full of possibility had started to feel constricted. The language of freedom was still there, but beneath it was a kind of pressure that didn’t feel creative at all.
The founders who figure this out early will own the next decade. Everyone else will be optimizing landing pages for an audience that no longer exists.
The path to becoming future proof comes down to shifting from consumer to creator. When you solve your own problems, publish the solutions in the global town square, and help an audience of like-minded people, even if that audience is a "tiny" 1,000 true fans, I find it hard to believe you won't find the power in you to create a good life. At that... See more