For a while I have been considering about what to write. I want to use this blog as a way to express my ideas and opinions because 1) writing is a great way to think and blogging my ideas helps me develop them, and 2) I want to find something to direct my mental energy and having a personal project like this is very useful to me.

However, I did not exactly know what would be the subject of my writing – is it cultural commentary, legal issues, politcal commentary, my artistic works…

The solution I have worked out is that the only thing I can write about is the thing I am an expert in: myself and the facets of my experience.

I’ve derived this idea from:

1. Dan Koe’s writing on this topic, who suggests that the way to build a great community is to allow people to binge you – binge aspects of your thoughts, aspects of your universe. So, building community is not about information but rather the curation of information or curation of a universe that people can experience. My brand is just a collection of my opinions based on my life story. This is “context creation” instead of “content creation” – building value from points of view rather than content See: https://letters.thedankoe.com/p/how-to-build-a-world-the-2-hour-content; https://letters.thedankoe.com/p/how-to-turn-1-idea-into-1000-that?utm_source=profile&utm_medium=reader2; https://letters.thedankoe.com/p/social-media-keeps-getting-worse?utm_source=profile&utm_medium=reader2; https://letters.thedankoe.com/p/most-creators-will-fail-in-the-next?utm_source=profile&utm_medium=reader2; https://letters.thedankoe.com/p/the-content-map-how-to-never-run?utm_source=profile&utm_medium=reader2;https://letters.thedankoe.com/p/you-dont-need-a-niche-you-need-a?utm_source=profile&utm_medium=reader2
2. Almanack of Naval Ravikant which helped me realise my niche is me. I cannot be in competition becuase no one can do a better job at actualising me than me. In this circumstance, what I am is just a story of my experience. So, authenticity is the expression of my unique experiences. There is also a lot of money to be made in authenticity and authentic expression. When I solve my own problems, instead of solving problems of others for money, I create answers that have value for a lot of people. And that value belongs to me.
3. This random triangle of 5 Levels of Mental Toughness that really inspired me and was in a way bit of an existential impetus into thinking about how I act: https://i.pinimg.com/1200x/20/57/6e/20576eaf0a7bfdd05bbffe6850b7cafa.jpg
4. A recent post I came across from Anthony Bratt called “The Creator Advantage” (here: https://anthonybatt.com/the-creator-advantage/?utm_source=tldrnewsletter). The part that really stuck with me is the point that the way to build an audience requires “the courage to share your ideas in public and the persistence to keep going when it feels like nobody’s listening…And this is where most people fail. Not because they lack interesting things to say, but because saying them publicly feels terrifying…Here’s what I’ve realized: the cost of being wrong on the internet is embarrassment. The cost of not building an audience in the age of AI displacement is career extinction.” And thats the sticking point for me which I guess I have known for a while but never stuck with me. The risk of speaking in public is embarassement but the risk of not speaking is even worse – for Bratt, career extinction, for me, this underlying melancholy, a feeling of being incomplete, being an outsider, this constant feeling of bottling up my ideas. That risk of feeling that for the rest of my life is far far worse to me than the risk of momentary embarassement. See also: https://kk.org/thetechnium/1000-true-fans/

I feel a greater sense of clarity about what to write about and how to use this blog. I think the now abandoned Project Neitzsche was an attempt by me to write out about something I could be an expert in (if I had read all the collected works of Nietzsche) but the far more interesting thing to write about is the journey to completing the project, the reason and the motivation, and my point of view about the work.

There is a lot that I have learnt just by living that I believe would make for an interesting read. So, watch this space.