500 words about life, work and OnlyFans
Where we are and where we’re going
Part 1: Doing
Everything people do must be grounded in meaning.
There are at least two different ways of looking at meaning:
1. Find a way to make what we do meaningful
2. Quit doing what is meaningless
Part 2: Being
Being is more important than doing.
You’ll do lots of different things. You’ll only ever be you.
Therefore try, as best you can, not to threaten your being with your doing.
This is easier said than done. It may be life’s hardest work.
Part 3: Searching
My daily bread and butter for ~20 years has been digital. (Digital content, digital marketing, digital media, digital analytics.)
The two great promises of the Internet were:
- It would open up the world to you. You could work for anyone, anywhere.
- It would mean no more dark corners. You would have data that showed you the effectiveness of everything you did.
Number 1 is true, but with consequences.
Number 2 is false. There are more dark corners than ever. We scan and parse data that’s fundamentally unreliable in search for the truth and meaning we seek.
This impossible quest has created a generation of people who are dazed, confused and frustrated.
Part 4: Faltering
Being habitually dazed, confused and frustrated in our day to day poses a major threat to our being.
And the most important part of this is not the micro (You). It’s the macro (Everyone).
We are not single nodes who are dazed and confused, trying to find our way back to a sure footing within a stable bigger entity.
The bigger entity is fraying because ALL nodes are dazed and confused.
Downstream of everyone being dazed, confused and frustrated we get:
- Pension funds making bad investments in risky crypto ventures
- Journalists flocking to Substack from the sinking ship of legacy media
- Nurses in Australia leaning on old stereotypes to build OnlyFans followings and make up for their earnings shortfall
- Debt that can never be repaid without governments everywhere devaluing every dollar, euro and yen
Part 5: Building
There’s no way back.
If we experienced stability in the past we can never get back there. (And there’s no guarantee we actually did have stability in the past; Daniel Kahneman’s work has told us about the difference between our remembering self and our experiencing self.)
The only way is onwards.
Everyone will have a different next step.
We really need two things.
On the one hand, to level up both our individual independence on the one hand. Whether that’s by building knowledge, awareness, skills, businesses or an OnlyFans following is up to you.
On the other hand, to level up the strength of our connections: a sort of inter-independence.
We are individuals, we often feel alone, and we must rely on ourselves more than we rely on anyone else.
But we are never alone and we need each other now as much or more than ever.
We are, as we’ve ever been: All for one. One for all.
Take your next step. And good luck.
