My (aspirational) online philosophy
For as long as I can remember, I’ve had computers around me. With a digitally inclined older brother who I loved to emulate, my parents often remarked that I “skipped the LEGO phase and went straight to computers.” One of my fondest early memories is standing behind my brother, watching over his shoulder as he played EverQuest (1999).
Since then, I’ve spent over three decades in front of magical screens. I’ve consumed a lot of beautiful, amazing, wondrous digital things: games, software, art and more.
But I haven’t created much. I would love to do more creating.
So here’s to making a change, starting with my (aspirational) online philosophy:
Maintain a good consumption-to-creation ratio
This ratio is defined as how much time you spend on things like scrolling social media or watching YouTube, versus creation-related activities such as writing a blog post or working on a side project.
While I understand that what I consume can inspire what I create, it’s too easy to be content with passive and endless consumption, rather than creating. Consuming feels good in the moment, but leaves nothing to show for it months or years down the line.
Create for yourself to benefit others
I believe there’s both intrinsic and extrinsic value to creating.
The act of creating takes thought, time and effort. Much like a physical workout prompts physical growth and leaves you energized, exerting your mental muscles in that manner grows them and is a satisfying, dopamine-inducing act. Even if not a single person sees what you’ve created, you’ll have benefitted from doing the thinking that produced the creating (but hopefully they do).
Regarding extrinsic motivators: if you are a smart and intelligent person with great ideas, but you don’t put anything out there, the opportunities you have in life are limited to the people you happen to be exposed to.
But if you create things and put them somewhere online where anyone can encounter them, your scope for opportunity is infinite.
Resist the temptation to make numbers go up
A necessary component of creating for yourself. Whenever there was any interest in something I’ve created, I found myself doing more of those interest-generating things rather than the things that organically occurred to me. It’s easy to fall into the trap of working on what you think others want, and it’s a dangerous feedback loop that results in worse, and less rewarding creations:
- It creates a divide between who you really are and how you represent yourself to others online
- It makes the creation process arduous - you’ll be second-guessing yourself, wondering if this or that is the right tone or style, rather than focusing on what you truly want to say
- It will bias you to value quantity over quality. I would much rather have a tight-knit network of people that I enjoy, respect and can learn from rather than a large following that lacks those qualities (not that these are mutually exclusive)
Make friends
Time online is better with others. Just like in the physical world.
Publish on your own site, syndicate everywhere
I’ve always felt odd publishing work on a platform I do not control. But these platforms are where people typically read things.
I think the POSSE approach addresses this well. You have a site (like I do here) where you publish what you create, and you share a link to that on the various platforms people are on. This way you have ownership and control of your online creations, while still reaching people where they are.
Have opinions
When I consume something, I should try and figure out what my opinion is. Don’t be passive, take a stance.
Even if you’re making the effort to create something, but you’re hedging, you’re not being rigorous with your thinking and that leads to poorer, less interesting creations. Less interesting to write, and less interesting to read. Also, AI is the master of hedging, and you don’t want to sound like AI.
Opinions take research and force you to think.
Conclusion
There’s nothing new here that hasn’t been said in dozens of popular self-help/creative books. But these are my words that I’ve taken the time to put from keyboard to digital paper.
Having gone through the process of thinking, editing and then publishing this to share with you all, I hope that I have a better chance of sticking to this aspirational online philosophy. More creating, less consuming. More friends, less doomscrolling. More opinions, less hedging.
Thanks to my wife Rania and my friend Dan, who both helped me edit this.