I guess I am just a luddite cause the thought that the only way to financial success nowadays is to turn yourself into a brand and sell yourself on social media is profoundly depressing to me. We were not meant to live like this. Social media was a mistake that is actively destroying humanity. The so called attention economy is an abberation that is unsustainable long term. AI will soon destroy whats left of the internet flooding it with fake bots, so I guess this problem will eventually solve itself.
I feel this, and I agree with the core of what you’re pointing at.
The idea that financial survival requires turning yourself into a product is deeply misaligned with how humans are meant to live and create. That model extracts attention, flattens identity, and slowly hollows people out. It’s not surprising it feels depressing, because it is.
Where I’d add a nuance is this: the problem isn’t expression or visibility itself. It’s mistaking self-packaging for contribution. The moment the reflection becomes more important than the work, meaning evaporates.
I don’t think the internet is doomed, but I do think the influencer-guru model is already cracking. As content becomes more synthetic and performative, trust erodes. And when trust erodes, people don’t look for better hacks. They look for depth, sincerity, and real connection.
That’s the shift we’re feeling. Not toward optimisation, but toward alignment. Not more systems, but more humanity.
The people who last won’t be the ones selling lifestyles or funnels. They’ll be the ones building something real and letting the signal speak for itself.
Im finally about to launch my first digital product. It has indeed been a journey.
I could of done it faster for sure but it would of been something different. But playing around in this realm of content Creation and also just learning more has brought me to this point. Im curious to see where it goes next.
The starting point was your writers bootcamp over 1 year ago now. Im grateful for that. 🙏
" If you can't make your first few dollars within 30 days, you are absolutely doing the wrong things, and at that point, your problems are emotional regulation and focus. Solve those."
LOVE the liberal arts list you listed, and the need to have a vehicle to develop those skills. The best learning and development never happens inside a classroom. It happens when you’re building something.
“Similar to the liberal arts that were supposed to liberate you, but since they are a department in an ideological structure, they do the opposite of that”
Grifter talk. You can study history, philosophy, or literature at a university without limiting your view if you actually try.
An insightful post. It's very important to create or build something, and digital assets are key in today's digital age. Basically, it will be a creator's economy, and one needs to build skills around it. Typically, it's easier to build something in which you already have some domain knowledge and exposure, so it's best to start there. Thus, one should be able to build digitally. I believe we do need to know technology and social media too, as it's important to have a personal brand. With digital, you get global access.
Nobody cares about your niche, they care about your point of view.
You escape competition through your perspective. Your unique combination of experiences, interests, and opinions.
That's how you future-proof yourself against AI (in my humble opinion).”
One must be a decent writer in order to optimize this wisdom. I’m working on it.
I appreciate your experience and recommendation to keep going forward - even as we stumble and fail forward - we can count it as investment in our being unique in our authenticity.
Hey! I write about financial literacy and how it connects to your lifestyle. My goal is to make personal finance practical, relatable, and actionable for real life. If that sounds interesting, I’d love for you to check out my Substack and see what I share each week.
While this all makes sense, you are using rhetoric to spread the somewhat conspiratorial idea that our educational institutions are rotten.
We need research scientists and PhDs in these institutions for all of the progress we’ve made. Drug development, technological breakthroughs, the internet, and on and on.
We need all types of people in society. And I’m sure glad some people choose to build inside our institutions.
I guess I am just a luddite cause the thought that the only way to financial success nowadays is to turn yourself into a brand and sell yourself on social media is profoundly depressing to me. We were not meant to live like this. Social media was a mistake that is actively destroying humanity. The so called attention economy is an abberation that is unsustainable long term. AI will soon destroy whats left of the internet flooding it with fake bots, so I guess this problem will eventually solve itself.
I feel this, and I agree with the core of what you’re pointing at.
The idea that financial survival requires turning yourself into a product is deeply misaligned with how humans are meant to live and create. That model extracts attention, flattens identity, and slowly hollows people out. It’s not surprising it feels depressing, because it is.
Where I’d add a nuance is this: the problem isn’t expression or visibility itself. It’s mistaking self-packaging for contribution. The moment the reflection becomes more important than the work, meaning evaporates.
I don’t think the internet is doomed, but I do think the influencer-guru model is already cracking. As content becomes more synthetic and performative, trust erodes. And when trust erodes, people don’t look for better hacks. They look for depth, sincerity, and real connection.
That’s the shift we’re feeling. Not toward optimisation, but toward alignment. Not more systems, but more humanity.
The people who last won’t be the ones selling lifestyles or funnels. They’ll be the ones building something real and letting the signal speak for itself.
Im finally about to launch my first digital product. It has indeed been a journey.
I could of done it faster for sure but it would of been something different. But playing around in this realm of content Creation and also just learning more has brought me to this point. Im curious to see where it goes next.
The starting point was your writers bootcamp over 1 year ago now. Im grateful for that. 🙏
" If you can't make your first few dollars within 30 days, you are absolutely doing the wrong things, and at that point, your problems are emotional regulation and focus. Solve those."
DUDE. <3
LOVE the liberal arts list you listed, and the need to have a vehicle to develop those skills. The best learning and development never happens inside a classroom. It happens when you’re building something.
“Similar to the liberal arts that were supposed to liberate you, but since they are a department in an ideological structure, they do the opposite of that”
Grifter talk. You can study history, philosophy, or literature at a university without limiting your view if you actually try.
An insightful post. It's very important to create or build something, and digital assets are key in today's digital age. Basically, it will be a creator's economy, and one needs to build skills around it. Typically, it's easier to build something in which you already have some domain knowledge and exposure, so it's best to start there. Thus, one should be able to build digitally. I believe we do need to know technology and social media too, as it's important to have a personal brand. With digital, you get global access.
Very educative, well done 👍
Love these big picture ones. I think they are the most important. Maybe even more so than the technical and specific ones which are also great.
True education is discovery, not memorization.
Looking forward to support my son with this after I’ve figured it out. It’s a process. Everyone’s path as well as timeline is a little different.
Love this. Avoiding competing with the masses is 🔥
“Here's the thing:
Nobody cares about your niche, they care about your point of view.
You escape competition through your perspective. Your unique combination of experiences, interests, and opinions.
That's how you future-proof yourself against AI (in my humble opinion).”
One must be a decent writer in order to optimize this wisdom. I’m working on it.
I appreciate your experience and recommendation to keep going forward - even as we stumble and fail forward - we can count it as investment in our being unique in our authenticity.
What an interesting post. So to summarise the skills we should focus on building are:
Agency: choosing and acting with purpose
Investment: growing what you already have
Logic: connecting facts to find truth
Psychology: understanding what people want
Research: finding facts about unknowns
Rhetoric: persuading and spotting persuasion
Statistics: making sense of the numbers
Is this AI?
Finally took the leap to build something I knew I wanted. This article hit just in time!
Most careers pay you to forget how to think. The skills that set you for life are the ones that compound outside the job description.
Hey! I write about financial literacy and how it connects to your lifestyle. My goal is to make personal finance practical, relatable, and actionable for real life. If that sounds interesting, I’d love for you to check out my Substack and see what I share each week.
https://joshr35.substack.com/p/how-mental-health-shapes-the-way
While this all makes sense, you are using rhetoric to spread the somewhat conspiratorial idea that our educational institutions are rotten.
We need research scientists and PhDs in these institutions for all of the progress we’ve made. Drug development, technological breakthroughs, the internet, and on and on.
We need all types of people in society. And I’m sure glad some people choose to build inside our institutions.