The ladders of wealth creation
PLUS: Don't offer free stuff if you have nothing to sell
Daniel Hunter
May 01, 2023
Think Week No. 1 – May 1, 2023
Timeless ideas and insights for creators.
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The ladders of wealth creation
In college I first heard Jason Fried from Basecamp talk about how making money is a skill—like playing the drums or piano—that you can get better at over time. That resonated with me immediately. I wouldn’t expect to be able to sit down at a piano for the first time and immediately play a concerto. We could outline the progression to mastering a musical instrument, so we should also be able to do the same with earning a living.
Don't offer free stuff if you have nothing to sell
Charging money completely changes the perception people have of you and what you’re doing. You’re not just a dude who posts random stuff on the internet but an author. You’re not just some kid who codes a bit after school but an entrepreneur. It’s not just a long blog post or random PDF but a book. It’s not just a YouTube video, it’s a course. It’s not just a fun web app but software-as-a-service.
The COMPOSE Pattern
COMPOSE is a pattern that arises naturally when people write well. Most writers recognize these major waypoints in the writing process as soon as they see the acronym.
C = Concept — the general subject matter
O = Objective — what you want the reader to think, feel, or do
M = Material — stories, anecdotes, data, definitions, arguments, dialogues, examples, etc.
P = Plan — a high-level mockup or blueprint for presenting the material
O = Organization — the precise order in which the writer presents the material, sentence by sentence
S = Style — the writer’s unique voice captured in writing that’s fun to read, word by word
E = Elegance — a sense of effortlessness in accomplishing something difficult
Noteworthy
Learning Through Play. (link)
How to Be Great? Just Be Good, Repeatably. (link)
Creating a New Luck Surface Area Model. (link)
Allow me to reintroduce myself. (link)
Why Culture Eats Strategy. (link)
The One-Touch Guide to Doing a Weekly Review. (link)
Will AI Replace Writers? (link)
Atomic Thoughts
An ode to editors. (link)
Typical writing advice. (link)
A community can be an unfair advantage. (link)
The most interesting people are life hackers. (link)
You don't need 1,000 new ideas to be a prolific writer. (link)
Et cetera
Tana AI for builders. (link)
Not Boring newsletter crosses 200k subscribers. (link)
9 in 10 companies that are hiring want workers with ChatGPT experience. (link)
An AI Assistant for Obsidian users. (link)
A stormtrooper vacuuming a beach. (link)
Fin
The fear of wasting time.
Writing something that no one reads or no one "seemingly" cares about is deflating. It can destroy your momentum and motivation if you let it.
It feels like a waste of time.
This leads to overthinking and perfectionism.
I believe the fear of wasting time is one cause of procrastination.
If you want hundreds or thousands of people to read what you create, you overthink the topic, edit until it's "perfect", and then put it on the shelf because "yeah, it's not that good, I'll think of something else".
One solution is to write for yourself first, and the world second.
Don't worry about the outcome. Just hit publish.
— Daniel
P.S. It's no longer procrastination - it's much worse.