Your words are a permission slip to pause. To ask: why am I making this? for whom? Am I still listening to the curious child in me or just chasing what performs?
Thank you for reminding me that thoughtful creation isn't dead. It's just quieter now. But it’s still here, patiently waiting in that place inside of us that still cares about the joy of creating.
This isn’t just a manifesto, it’s a map back to the Self in an age of mechanized mimicry.
Your writing cuts through the industrial residue still clinging to our minds. We weren’t meant to produce on command. We were meant to respond to what’s alive inside us. That’s not softness, it’s precision. It’s the difference between noise and signal, output and offering.
“You become irreplaceable through risk and story.”
Exactly. Jung called it individuation. Not more skills, not more speed, but the long path of becoming undeniably yourself. You don’t compete with AI by being more efficient. You become sovereign by being more whole.
What you name as “taste” is soul-level discernment. It’s what happens when your craft starts speaking in your own dialect. It’s not a style built on trend. It’s *psyche, shaped through iteration and aligned to a purpose you didn’t choose, but remembered.
We don’t need more creators. We need more carriers who embed their own story, suffering, and signal into what they build.
People who care more than they optimize.
People who can still feel in a system that numbs.
And here’s the truth:
AI can spit out content.
It can even mimic genius.
But it can’t ache for meaning.
It can’t bleed for beauty.
It can’t choose what’s worth risking everything to say.
Only you can do that.
And that’s where this piece lands so powerfully:
It’s not about building faster. It’s about building from the right center.
Not to escape the system, but to reshape your role in it.
So yes, create less.
Refine more.
Make something you’d fight for.
And let your presence, not your productivity, be what lasts.
Thanks a lot, for sharing this Dan. I am half way going forward to go all in to kick off the helly life of total distraction that keeps popping up in my life with this letter. Dan!
We’ve mastered making things faster, but forgot to ask if they’re worth making. This reads like a love letter to leisure disguised as a productivity manifesto, and I mean that in the best way.
There’s something revolutionary about deciding that care, not scale, is the real metric of value.
📌 Does the future belong to those who are brave enough to be slow?
⬖ Drafted with one eye on craft and the other on Frequency of Reason: https://bit.ly/4jTVv69
Wow! Blown away by the elegance of that piece, Dan.
A very important topic to present in a world where AI is becoming the norm for creation (I love it, but it's a supportive tool, not a replacement for me).
The guidance you were able to share in that 8 minutes of reading time is quite astonishing. I'm just starting over on my journey in online entrepreneurship, after spending 7 years helping another Founder grow their business.
This has really helped me clarify that I'm heading in the right direction. Leading with my personal story of the last 25+ years, and combining it with my experiences in leadership and online business growth over the last 10 years.
Thank you for such an inspirational and heart-felt article. Truly awesome!
The most compelling story (to yourself and others) is the one that’s discovered by embarking on your own hero’s journey - an emergent, risky adventure born out of action, discovery, and iteration.
I’ve been wrestling with similar questions lately... especially as I try to build and share things that don’t fit the “fast & optimized” paradigm. In a world that keeps speeding up, choosing thoughtful creation feels almost subversive. But maybe that’s the point.
I’ve come to believe that quality is a long game worth playing. It’s harder, often invisible at first, but it compounds. As they say… “Gradually, then suddenly.”
Your words were a timely reminder that it’s worth staying the course... even if it means being offbeat for a while.
This was absolutely insightful. Very beautiful to read!
It felt like I was being spoken to directly and it was just what I needed after a very long hiatus on creating and struggling with how I can do so in today’s world where AI can easily do what I do.
Is the drop off here intentional? “I think my newsletters are pretty good now, and while they're much better than what they used to be, I'll look back in a year…”
I feel this so much right now.
Your words are a permission slip to pause. To ask: why am I making this? for whom? Am I still listening to the curious child in me or just chasing what performs?
Thank you for reminding me that thoughtful creation isn't dead. It's just quieter now. But it’s still here, patiently waiting in that place inside of us that still cares about the joy of creating.
https://open.substack.com/pub/amitdhakad/p/the-cleanest-goodbye-there-is-fog?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=60i1r1
This isn’t just a manifesto, it’s a map back to the Self in an age of mechanized mimicry.
Your writing cuts through the industrial residue still clinging to our minds. We weren’t meant to produce on command. We were meant to respond to what’s alive inside us. That’s not softness, it’s precision. It’s the difference between noise and signal, output and offering.
“You become irreplaceable through risk and story.”
Exactly. Jung called it individuation. Not more skills, not more speed, but the long path of becoming undeniably yourself. You don’t compete with AI by being more efficient. You become sovereign by being more whole.
What you name as “taste” is soul-level discernment. It’s what happens when your craft starts speaking in your own dialect. It’s not a style built on trend. It’s *psyche, shaped through iteration and aligned to a purpose you didn’t choose, but remembered.
We don’t need more creators. We need more carriers who embed their own story, suffering, and signal into what they build.
People who care more than they optimize.
People who can still feel in a system that numbs.
And here’s the truth:
AI can spit out content.
It can even mimic genius.
But it can’t ache for meaning.
It can’t bleed for beauty.
It can’t choose what’s worth risking everything to say.
Only you can do that.
And that’s where this piece lands so powerfully:
It’s not about building faster. It’s about building from the right center.
Not to escape the system, but to reshape your role in it.
So yes, create less.
Refine more.
Make something you’d fight for.
And let your presence, not your productivity, be what lasts.
“We care about what other people have put care into.” 🎤⬇️💥
Thanks a lot, for sharing this Dan. I am half way going forward to go all in to kick off the helly life of total distraction that keeps popping up in my life with this letter. Dan!
We’ve mastered making things faster, but forgot to ask if they’re worth making. This reads like a love letter to leisure disguised as a productivity manifesto, and I mean that in the best way.
There’s something revolutionary about deciding that care, not scale, is the real metric of value.
📌 Does the future belong to those who are brave enough to be slow?
⬖ Drafted with one eye on craft and the other on Frequency of Reason: https://bit.ly/4jTVv69
Finally someone said it out loud.
Give up the mindless consuming.
Give up the mindless creating.
Start being weird, tasteful & yourself!
Wow! Blown away by the elegance of that piece, Dan.
A very important topic to present in a world where AI is becoming the norm for creation (I love it, but it's a supportive tool, not a replacement for me).
The guidance you were able to share in that 8 minutes of reading time is quite astonishing. I'm just starting over on my journey in online entrepreneurship, after spending 7 years helping another Founder grow their business.
This has really helped me clarify that I'm heading in the right direction. Leading with my personal story of the last 25+ years, and combining it with my experiences in leadership and online business growth over the last 10 years.
Thank you for such an inspirational and heart-felt article. Truly awesome!
The most compelling story (to yourself and others) is the one that’s discovered by embarking on your own hero’s journey - an emergent, risky adventure born out of action, discovery, and iteration.
https://open.substack.com/pub/amitdhakad/p/the-cleanest-goodbye-there-is-fog?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=60i1r1
Hey Dan, thanks for this piece.
I’ve been wrestling with similar questions lately... especially as I try to build and share things that don’t fit the “fast & optimized” paradigm. In a world that keeps speeding up, choosing thoughtful creation feels almost subversive. But maybe that’s the point.
I’ve come to believe that quality is a long game worth playing. It’s harder, often invisible at first, but it compounds. As they say… “Gradually, then suddenly.”
Your words were a timely reminder that it’s worth staying the course... even if it means being offbeat for a while.
https://substack.com/@journeyofthemystic
Being true and wierd is the new currency
This was absolutely insightful. Very beautiful to read!
It felt like I was being spoken to directly and it was just what I needed after a very long hiatus on creating and struggling with how I can do so in today’s world where AI can easily do what I do.
Is the drop off here intentional? “I think my newsletters are pretty good now, and while they're much better than what they used to be, I'll look back in a year…”
Been asking myself lately, how can I show more of my humanity?
"Story. Drama. Novelty. Myth and meaning. We pay good money for it, too."
Feels like the right answer.