- Episode AI notes
- The internet and creator economy provide a platform for individuals with niche interests to find like-minded individuals and connect with their tribe.
- Creating content for specific individuals you respect leads to more fulfilling and genuine creations.
- Prioritizing basic needs before pursuing creative pursuits is important for overall well-being.
- Chaos can fuel creativity and lead to more authentic and raw art.
- Surrounding yourself with like-minded individuals and building a supportive network can enhance personal and professional growth.
- Finding inspiration from others in fitness and character serves as motivation and a reminder of personal values.
Embracing multiple developmental stages and balancing existential concerns with personal improvement is valuable for personal growth. Time 0:00:00
Embracing the Creator Economy for Finding Your Tribe Summary: The internet and creator economy are beneficial for individuals with niche interests, as it provides a platform for them to find like-minded individuals. For the speaker, the transition from having a small following on YouTube to exploring different content creation mediums was influenced by their educational experiences and the desire to explore their creative side. They found podcasts to be a great way to delve into their own thoughts and engage with entrepreneurship.
Speaker 1
And also, I think it’s really good for nerds. Like, when I say nerd, I mean like someone who’s super, super interested and maybe a subject that not everyone else is. And it’s like hard to find your tribe. So I think the internet is really cool. And the creator economy is really great for putting yourself out there and like finding your tribe, so to speak. I have quite a few things that come to mind. Just going back to the beginning, how did you shift from the 19 YouTube followers to sub stack and all of your nerd escape on the internet? Yeah, great question. I think there’s been an evolution throughout middle and high school. I went through the typical public high school, like STEM emphasis and math. And I kind of like lost touch with that writing creative side. And when I went to college, it was definitely like an exploration phase that kind of led me to the podcasting. I had a podcast where I interviewed entrepreneurs and creators and it was called the Y behind X figuring out what is the, what is what makes them tick. And I had a podcast about spirituality. I think I use these as ways to explore my own mind and just the way that I thought about things. And I have like what drew me to getting back into like media and content as well as just like more and more through the entrepreneurship lens.Create for Those You Respect Summary: Focusing on creating content for people you respect rather than mass audiences leads to more fulfilling and genuine creations. Creating content with the sole purpose of getting the most views can result in a sense of artificiality and cringe-worthy outcomes. By being intentional about creating for specific individuals and envisioning direct interactions with them, one can avoid the pitfall of manufactured content and instead produce more authentic work.
Speaker 1
I think there’s probably times in my life where I would have done that if I had more access to the internet and fell down that rabbit hole. But when I think about creating, one thing I realize is that it’s a lot more fun to create for people that you respect yourself. I think a lot of the mass content that is created with huge audiences, it feels very top down where you’re almost gaming the algorithm and you’re trying to get the most views as possible. So you’re making your content as mass consumable as possible. And there’s been times in the past few years where I’ve tried doing that and going viral and TikTok or whatever. But the times that have been most fulfilling for me have been when I’m figuring out my personal branding or content strategy, I think about very specific people in my life. I have a notion that can I write their names down and I say, these are the people that I want to create for when I’m writing or when I’m podcasting or whatever. I’m imagining myself talking to them directly. And if it feels too manufactured or feels like it’s this digital stage, that’s what like results in cringe. When you look back at your past work and you’re like, dang, that’s cringe. I think that’s usually the result of you not creating content for people that you actually respect. And for me, being really intentional about who I’m making it for is important. That’s gold.Prioritizing Basic Needs Before Creative Pursuits Summary: The concept of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs emphasizes the importance of satisfying basic needs before pursuing higher creative needs. It’s considered normal to prioritize physical, mental, and financial well-being over creative endeavors. Many financially stable individuals in tech still engage in side projects because they have the energy to pursue creative endeavors. Prioritizing health and basic needs before pursuing full-time creative work seems to be a popular and effective approach for living creatively.
Speaker 1
I am a pretty big believer in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Maybe not exactly that model, but just the concept that you have to satisfy certain basic needs before you move on to higher creative needs. I think a lot of people, there’s this tension of, do I pursue my passion or do I do what’s more practical? I think it’s completely fair to just go all in on your creative stuff, but as humans, we need our basic needs met. So I think it’s totally normal to put creative things on hold in order to really take care of yourself and meet your own needs in terms of physical wellbeing, mental wellbeing, financial Wellbeing. I live in SF now. I see a lot of people who are very financially stable working in tech, but then have side projects because they just have a lot more free energy to be thinking about these creative endeavors. I want to double click on two things you said. So the first is Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. And that for the most part being, you know, something you get behind, making sure that you’re healthy and taking care of yourself as a first priority. I absolutely agree. Do you think that the side gig versus full-time job is sort of the most popular or effective way that you’ve seen people live creatively?Creativity in Chaos and Structure Summary: Chaos can fuel creativity, leading to more authentic and raw art. Some artists thrive in a lifestyle devoted solely to their art, while others prefer a structured approach with risk management. Both methods can be successful, as seen through personal experiences and observations.
Speaker 1
Do creative projects need to get relegated to the side of professional job? Or is there a little bit more fluidity that you’ve seen both in your own story and or some of your friends? I think with chaos comes creativity. And there’s a lot to be said about art being more authentic and raw when it comes from a place of chaos and struggle and maybe like greediness. So I think, you know, like the starving artists stereotype that type of person, they’re more like all consumed by their art. They don’t have other main jobs to like think about. I do think that’s like totally a lifestyle and an option that works. Like I’ve seen people just like quit their jobs and then go all in and they do really well. So I think that’s an approach that works for a lot of people. I think personally, I’m kind of a hedger and I like to make structure and approach things with risk management, I guess. So that’s my current approach. Yes, perfect segue. Second thing I’m going to ask is, you know, in your own persona and things that you’re working on through your job, I want toSurround Yourself with Accountability and Creativity Summary: Creating a co-living space with roommates who prioritize accountability and creativity can be beneficial for personal growth and motivation. Surrounding oneself with like-minded individuals working in tech and pursuing creative endeavors can lead to increased productivity and inspiration. Intentionally building a supportive structure by emulating successful individuals and sharing knowledge and learnings with friends can contribute to personal and professional development.
Speaker 1
Yeah. One thing I’ve done is I put together, I don’t, I still don’t know what to call it, but I guess like it’s a co-living space. It’s really just me and a few roommates. But I kind of intentionally tried to make this a place where accountability and creativity is like very emphasized. There’s four of us and we’re all, you know, working in tech, we’re all like very interested in some kind of creative endeavor, whether it’s like side projects or videos or YouTube, one Person like writes novels, one person is trying to build out a blog. I think like surrounding yourself with that kind of accountability. We’ll say you’re the product of the five people you spend your most time with. That’s one way. I think for the next year, how long are leases? I really want to intentionally like build, yeah, the structure around me. I’m pretty inspired also by like Mr. Beast. He’s like one of the biggest YouTubers right now. But he said that as he was coming up and growing on YouTube, he had a few friends that he would share everything with, like huge share, all the tips and all the learnings from his like very, Very early YouTube stages.Inspirational sources in fitness and character Summary: The speaker finds inspiration for fitness from their younger brother, who displays more motivation and discipline than them, as shown by sending daily snapshots to keep each other accountable. They admire a friend from college for their character and selflessness, which serves as a reminder of the values they aim to embody. The speaker believes that the sources of inspiration in one’s life can vary depending on the context or life stage.
Speaker 1
And I’m very inspired by them for fitness. I would actually say my younger brother because he recently got into fitness in part because I kind of got him into it. I would say that he has like more motivation and discipline than I do now. He’s a freshman in college and he sends me daily snapshots because that’s what college students do. That’s what they do. Yeah. Just like sometimes it just like kicks me in the butt like dang, like this 18 year old kid is like more motivated than me. I need to like get on it. So yeah, accountability is really huge with him. And then for character, I would say one of my friends from college, we went through a lot of similar life experiences and formative experiences together. And I just really admire his character and like selflessness and being an SF, very like kind of a bubble of a place to live in. A lot of people working on very ambitious things. It’s good to remind myself of those like values and the kind of like person that I want to be. I love that you have category, you have a person for each category. Definitely think that last one is just great insight, especially so much of our lives are context dependent, dependent on whatever season or life stage, whatever you want to call it.Embracing Multiple Developmental Stages for Personal Growth Summary: Different developmental stages such as premodern, modern, postmodern, and integral are all valuable for personal growth, and it’s important to embrace and include all of them. Balancing existential concerns with the need for personal improvement is emphasized, with a focus on simplifying and building habits, especially in terms of physical fitness and real-world experiences.
Speaker 1
And there’s postmodern, which has more of a focus on equality and more world centric, more relativistic. And then the last one is like integral, which is seeing natural hierarchy and systems of systems and like pluralism. And these are all like human characteristics, valuable things to develop. So none of these are supposed to be like better than the other. It’s more about using and including like all of these stages. For me, I’m a very like existential person. I think about moralities and ethical things and philosophy. And sometimes you just need to like remember that you’re like a tribal person. There’s like things like focusing on yourself and working on improving yourself as a person. You know, one of my favorite phrases is like, if you’re so smart, why aren’t you happy? And I have felt very attacked by that in a good way. One of the ways that I’ve been learning to have better quality of being is like focusing in that mind’s body connection. And instead of overthinking, building all these theories is just simplifying it, focusing on your body, focusing on one or two or three things at a time in terms of habit. That’s why I’m really emphasizing like physical fitness right now. Like I’m thinking about the work and creative routines, social life routines. And yeah, I think spending time in the physical world is really great.
