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I'm begging you to start writing essays (even if you hate writing) — Transcript

by Dan Koe · 4,748 words · 726 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00I am begging you to start writing more
0:02essays or to just start writing essays
0:05if you haven't already. And no, I'm not
0:07talking about the essays that you were
0:09told to write in school. I am talking
0:12about one of the greatest tools to learn
0:14faster, think deeper, improve the
0:17articulation of your ideas and beliefs,
0:19and avoid being replaced by AI. Yes, I'm
0:22serious. But those specifically are the
0:25selfish personal benefits of writing.
0:27That's what you and I get from the act
0:30of putting words on paper. But there is
0:32something a lot deeper. The modern
0:34information environment is breaking our
0:36ability to think, and most people don't
0:39even notice, and even more don't even
0:41care. Essays might be one of the last
0:43forms of content that actually develops
0:45your capacity to make sense of reality.
0:48Because right now we're living through
0:50the largest scale production of fake
0:52thinking in history. And the
0:54consequences of this are quite high, as
0:56you'll find out in this video. And only
0:59a select few of you will actually care
1:01enough to take advantage of it and
1:03profit from it. So in this video, I want
1:05to show you how this fake thinking
1:08epidemic, as we'll call it, and if it
1:11goes on as it is right now, which is in
1:13a bad downward direction, will not only
1:16make your own life worse, but will
1:18potentially lead to the collapse of
1:20civilization. And then at the end, I
1:23want to help you write your first essay
1:25so that you can fix one of the most
1:27precious resources that you have, which
1:29is your mind. And of course, turning it
1:32into a career or a side income doesn't
1:34hurt either. So the first point here is
1:36that the internet isn't dead, but it's
1:39killing us. And we'll start with a quote
1:41from Daniel Schmachtenberger. Actually,
1:43every quote in this video is going to be
1:45from Daniel Schmachtenberger. The
1:47written word as the primary type of
1:49media was probably required for
1:51democracy to work because it required
1:53the capacity to pay attention to an idea
1:55for long enough to understand it. Now
1:57the point of this section is that social
1:59media and AI are quite literally a
2:01threat to civilization, and I know you
2:03don't see it as that because all you see
2:04it as is this little app on your phone
2:07that you use every day. And I know it
2:09sounds insane. Like how could
2:10doom-scrolling Instagram Reels
2:12eventually lead to the collapse of
2:14society? How could watching a little
2:16person dance on TikTok hurt? How could
2:18reading someone's 5-second,
2:20280-character opinion polarizing opinion
2:23on Trump on Twitter/X ruin the world?
2:26That's just something that you do
2:28on your lunch break. The reason is
2:30because you only focus on yourself. You
2:33only think about your own little bubble
2:35of life, and you don't think about the
2:37impact or the consequences of the little
2:40unconscious actions that you've picked
2:42up over time. And so, when you zoom out
2:44beyond yourself to see what's really at
2:46play, it's hard to unsee. Now, there are
2:49three layers to this, so stick with me
2:51because we're going to go deep, and I
2:53promise that it will change the way that
2:55you think about not only writing and
2:57essays, but just long-form content in
3:00general and social media and how
3:02actually impactful those things can be.
3:04So, the first layer is that the
3:06epistemic commons is being poisoned. So,
3:09your question then is what is the
3:11epistemic commons? And you can think of
3:13it as the water supply, but for
3:15information. So, that's social media,
3:18that's the news, that's wherever you get
3:20information from a public resource. So,
3:23as an example, most people watch the
3:25news to stay informed or to educate
3:28themselves, but if you look closely, you
3:30can just see that they're getting
3:31complacent. They're not thinking at all.
3:33Their lives aren't changing for the
3:35better. In fact, more people are just
3:37becoming more jaded, more polarized, and
3:39more violent. Whenever you post on
3:41social media or whenever someone creates
3:43a TV show or movie or whenever someone
3:45produces music on Spotify, the epistemic
3:48commons or public information
3:50environment grows. Now, this obviously
3:53gets very complex and it requires a
3:54certain level of systems thinking to
3:57completely understand, but if the
3:58content you publish in public hurts more
4:01than it helps and is not counterbalanced
4:04by content that does help, our
4:06intellectual water source becomes
4:07contaminated. So, why is that bad?
4:10Because the information that you or any
4:12individual consumes influences your
4:15identity, right? If you've watched any
4:17of my other videos on identity or the
4:19self or personality or the psychology
4:21behind it all, you understand that your
4:23identity is created through this
4:25feedback loop of information that leads
4:27to conditioning or information that
4:30leads to action and once repeated leads
4:32to conditioning and that becomes who you
4:35are. So, your identity, which is shaped
4:37by the information that you consume,
4:39influences your behavior and thus your
4:42trajectory in life. It determines the
4:44outcome of your life. You think
4:45something as simple as reading a little
4:46social media post doesn't determine
4:48where you end up in life, you were
4:50wrong. Now, beyond that, the form of
4:53information that you consume, so a
4:55short-form tweet or long-form books or
4:58articles or podcasts, that trains your
5:01attention span. It also trains your
5:03tolerance for complexity and ability to
5:06hold contradictions and the capacity for
5:08nuance. And I mean, that's why you learn
5:11in the first place, right? That's why
5:13you intentionally consume information.
5:15It's to equip yourself with the
5:17knowledge and cognitive capacity and
5:19ability to get what you want in life.
5:22But, that's just it. Before you can
5:24solve any problem that is a
5:25civilizational threat in climate,
5:27governance, AI alignment, public health,
5:30or the rest, you need a population
5:32capable of understanding the problem
5:34coherently. 99% of people don't even
5:37know what these problems entail because
5:39they're happy drooling over the cat
5:41video on their phone. So, the takeaway
5:43that we'll touch on later and throughout
5:44this video is this: Does what you
5:47consume or create lead to a beneficial
5:50behavior change in yourself and others,
5:52or are you unconsciously soaking in
5:54information that silently makes your
5:56life worse and poisons the information
5:59environment by what you contribute to
6:00it? So, that's just layer one. Now, as a
6:03very quick reminder, the Build a 2-hour
6:06content system in 14 days, I know that's
6:08a heck of a name for a cohort/challenge,
6:10that starts
6:11very soon. I put out this video a bit
6:13too late, so you're on the timer. Link
6:16in the description if you want to join
6:17that. So, if you are interested in
6:19turning intentional, thoughtful writing
6:22into some form of a career or side
6:24income, or simply realize that you do
6:26have ideas worth putting out into the
6:29public, consider joining before the
6:31start date. Now, that leads to point
6:33number two, which are the three forces
6:35breaking civilization's ability to
6:37think. Another quote from Daniel
6:39Schmachtenberger, as technology is
6:41empowering our choices and we are
6:42getting something like the power of
6:44gods, you have to have something like
6:45the love and the wisdom of gods to wield
6:48that, or you self-destruct. So, with
6:50that quote, I want to finally introduce
6:52you to who I think is one of the
6:54greatest thinkers of our time, Daniel
6:56Schmachtenberger. He doesn't post much
6:58on social media. I I think he hasn't
6:59posted in years, actually, but he does
7:01make the occasional appearance on a
7:03podcast if you just search for him on
7:05YouTube. But, when you listen to them,
7:07you can instantly tell that he is a very
7:10deep and profound thinker that is calm,
7:14nuanced, and non-polarizing. And, he has
7:17dedicated his life to what he calls the
7:19metacrisis, and while it's much deeper
7:22than what we're talking about in this
7:23video of just posting content on social
7:25media or writing essays, that's what
7:27we're personally focused on here,
7:29because that's what I want to talk about
7:30today. So, in a nutshell, Daniel
7:32Schmachtenberger believes that there are
7:33three converging forces that can result
7:36in three different outcomes. Two of
7:38those outcomes being catastrophic, and
7:40the three forces that are converging are
7:43threats to civilization and society. So,
7:45the three threats, or what he calls
7:48generator functions, are first,
7:50rivalrous dynamics, which are win-lose
7:52games where one party's gain requires
7:55another's loss. So, think arms races or
7:58corporate competition or social media
8:00content and academic publishing, like
8:02hoarding data to publish first. The
8:04second is substrate consumption.
8:06Substrate is what something needs to
8:08exist, like soil for plants, attention
8:10for media or trust for markets. When
8:13systems consume their foundation faster
8:15than they can regenerate, that's bad.
8:17So, you can think depleting topsoil that
8:19took millennia to form and the attention
8:22economy consuming human cognitive
8:24capacity faster than it recovers. And
8:26the third threat is exponential
8:28technology. So, tools and systems that
8:30improve themselves at accelerating
8:31rates, out pacing human wisdom. You can
8:34think AI doubling in capacity, automated
8:36weapons, and social media algorithms
8:38evolving faster than we can study their
8:41psychological impacts. So, when those
8:43three things converge, they can result
8:46in civilizational collapse. So, nuclear
8:48war, unaligned AI, ecological
8:50destruction, or engineered pandemics.
8:53Or, outside of civilizational collapse,
8:55they can result in dystopian control.
8:57So, think total surveillance, just being
8:59surveilled all the time, or digital
9:02authoritarianism, or just the
9:03elimination of agency and the ability to
9:06make your own choices. So, he calls
9:08these two outcomes attractors. Those are
9:10the two attractors that we're trying to
9:12avoid heading towards. And they are kind
9:15of like the basins that a lot of complex
9:18societies already fall into if you look
9:21around the world. Now, the third
9:23attractor, or the good outcome here, is
9:25a world where sense making, shared
9:27understanding, and aligned incentives
9:30exist. Now, when we look at the
9:31internet, AI, and social media, it's
9:33pretty easy to see this playing out. As
9:36an example, content creators compete for
9:38attention, so they optimize for
9:40engagement rather than transformation,
9:42which is the rival risk dynamics part.
9:44Because the algorithm doesn't measure
9:45transformation, it measures how much
9:47someone viewed the thing or liked the
9:50thing or shared the thing. So, creators
9:53are much more likely to abandon truth or
9:56transformation for whatever will make
9:58people react. That's an obvious problem.
10:01So, when engagement is optimized and
10:03someone consumes that information, like
10:05you watching this video, it does not
10:07require thinking or understanding. So,
10:09the viewer's mental muscle, thinking
10:12muscle, atrophies. AI accelerates
10:14content production. Yes, but it also
10:17accelerates imitation. And when there is
10:19only destructive content to imitate, you
10:22can see where that goes. So, AI itself
10:24isn't the issue. The issue is that it
10:26can mimic what looks like real thinking
10:28without requiring any cognitive effort
10:31from either the creator or the consumer.
10:33So, the default outcome here is that the
10:35epistemic commons or mental water supply
10:38becomes poisoned incredibly fast because
10:40it's optimized for content that looks
10:42like it should shift your thinking, but
10:44structurally it cannot. So, that's layer
10:46two, which leads to layer three, which
10:49is what you can actually do about it and
10:51how you can profit from it in a
10:53meaningful way. So, point number three
10:54is why essays may be the last bastion of
10:57real thinking. And another quote,
10:59"Wisdom is not algorithmic and cannot be
11:02made algorithmic." Now, for the past few
11:04decades, a certain type of content has
11:07dominated the internet. Specifically,
11:09content that delivers conclusions
11:11without requiring thought. In other
11:13words, it's fast food for the mind. So,
11:15we're going to call this category of
11:17media or information fast content.
11:20Because social media companies use the
11:22same psychological triggers to get you
11:24addicted as fast food companies who
11:26realized fat, sugar, and salt were a
11:29scarce good that our brains aren't wired
11:31to have an abundance. Finding those
11:33resources spike dopamine because they
11:35eat it in survival. So, on the fast
11:37content end of the spectrum, you have
11:39BuzzFeed listicles, rage tweets,
11:42AI-generated summaries, hot takes,
11:44engagement-optimized threads, and TikTok
11:46explainers that give you the feeling of
11:48understanding in 30 seconds. It makes
11:51sense why everyone thinks they're an
11:52expert these days. Now, on the slow
11:54content end of the spectrum, or content
11:56that requires you to think and
11:58potentially change your way behavior,
12:00you have essays, long-form non-optimized
12:03conversations, certain books, certain
12:05lectures, and even tweets crafted in a
12:08way that make you think to receive the
12:10insight. Now, I personally want to focus
12:12on essays, but all of this type of
12:14content is good, and that's actually
12:16what we go over in the challenge that I
12:18mentioned, link in the description. So,
12:19why essays? Because they are something
12:22that you can produce alone and leverage
12:25to take advantage of the meaning economy
12:27we're heading into. And essays are the
12:29most scalable and durable form. A
12:31meaningful conversation can shift one
12:33person, but it lives and dies in the
12:35memory of the participants. An essay
12:37develops the readers' and writers'
12:39thinking capacity, and it can do that
12:41for thousands of people across thousands
12:43of years. More on that in a bit. And on
12:45top of that, most people, including me,
12:48including you, walk around with opinions
12:50that they've never thought through. They
12:52feel like they believe something, but
12:54they've never sat down and tried to
12:56write out exactly what they believe. And
12:59they especially haven't tried to write
13:00it down in a way that would survive a
13:03smart person's criticism. And it also
13:05doesn't hurt that some of the world's
13:07most respected minds were forged through
13:09the act of writing essays. So, Paul
13:11Graham for the tech bros, or Isaac
13:13Newton for the science bros, or Jordan
13:15Peterson in his prime, or Nietzsche, or
13:17Emerson, or a lot of people. The
13:20defining factor of an essay is that AI
13:22cannot write one. Now, for understanding
13:24what an essay actually is, it helps to
13:27distinguish an essay from an article.
13:29Articles are answers, while essays are
13:32arguments. Articles package existing
13:34knowledge, while essays change the
13:36author's beliefs. Articles start with
13:38the conclusion, while essays figure it
13:40out. Articles inform or educate, while
13:43essays are an act of thinking. Articles
13:45communicate what's already there, while
13:47essays discover what isn't. Now, this
13:49video isn't to say that you should never
13:50write an article, and it's also not to
13:53say that essays and articles don't
13:56overlap in some way. What I'm trying to
13:58say is that you should write with the
14:00intention of refining what you believe
14:03and actually impacting the other person
14:05on the other side. Now, if you think
14:07about it, only a human can write an
14:09essay, because a robot doesn't have a
14:11situated point of view. It does not have
14:13direct experience. It can simulate the
14:15perspective you tell it to adopt, but it
14:17lacks the beliefs, biases, and emotions
14:20that lead you to think and question in a
14:22particular direction. And honestly, I
14:24use AI a lot, it would be nearly
14:26impossible to pass off all of that
14:28context. It would need to be hooked into
14:30your brain, like Neuralink,
14:32at all times in order to understand
14:35every passing moment, every experience,
14:37how you get information. It would have
14:39to understand all of your memories, all
14:42of your unconscious, everything that
14:43leads to you being who you are today.
14:45That's why I've been saying for the
14:46longest time that you are the niche. You
14:49are the most valuable resource, your
14:51point of view. I've talked about that in
14:53multiple videos. So, AI doesn't have
14:55access to that, because every passing
14:56moment influences your point of view.
14:58And in order to have a meaningful point
15:01of view, worth writing about or worth
15:02talking about, you can't be sitting at
15:04your desk all day on Claude 24/7. You
15:08have to engage in novel experiences. You
15:10have to live life. You can't live the
15:12optimized, efficient productivity life
15:15of just staring at your laptop all day.
15:17So, while everyone is just locked in to
15:19the agents, the new agents, the open
15:21claw
15:23getting them to just
15:24build a bunch of nonsense that is going
15:26to get them nowhere. You have to
15:28actually reject that, go out, experience
15:31life, build a good life, and then bring
15:34that online because nobody else is doing
15:36that. That's how you become unique. And
15:38now I think the more important point
15:39here is that I've recently realized that
15:43AI destroys the magic of surprise and
15:46discovery. In other words, it destroys
15:48creativity. Sure, AI can be creative in
15:51some ways, but this is a crucial point.
15:53You can tell AI to share something
15:55novel, but then you are anticipating it.
15:58It is no longer novel. It's no longer a
15:59surprise. You destroyed any chance of
16:02stumbling upon a discovery. In other
16:04words, you destroyed any chance of
16:05actually discovering it. It may give you
16:07good material to write about, but it was
16:09not from your own creative ability and
16:11thinking. So, the more I use AI, the
16:14more useful I find it because it's
16:15incredibly useful. But on the other edge
16:18of the sword, I find that it exhausts
16:20creativity extremely fast because
16:22creativity is kind of sparse. Again, it
16:24requires you to go out, do things,
16:26experience something novel, and then you
16:28have a little bit to write about. But
16:30with AI, you can just give it to the AI,
16:33and then it does everything for you, and
16:35now like you are empty creatively. You
16:38didn't take the time to actually sit
16:40with it, understand it, think through
16:41it. So, as someone who is still very
16:44pro-AI, I can't help but believe that
16:46the most relevant content on the
16:49internet going forward will be in essay
16:51form, slow content. And I don't only
16:53mean long form, I mean
16:56anything that is the opposite of what an
16:58article is, like we went over. So, that
17:00leads to point number four, which is
17:02about the meaning economy and how to
17:04thrive in it. So, we talked about this
17:06in a future video that was called the
17:08future of work and the new high-income
17:10skill stack, and it got a decent amount
17:12of views, but I still think it's vastly
17:13underrated and more people should go
17:15watch it. It's like five videos ago that
17:18I posted. But in that video, I talk
17:19about the meaning economy. And this
17:22meaning economy, so to say, has been
17:23emerging for a few years now. And AI has
17:26only accelerated this and made this more
17:29of a thing. I would argue that I'm a
17:31part of the meaning economy and many
17:33value creators, which we'll touch on in
17:35a bit, form this meaning economy or at
17:37least the starts of it. So, why is this
17:39important? Because meaning is the
17:41scarcest commodity in civilization right
17:43now. Before industrialization, we
17:45praised gods in the sky. During
17:47industrialization, we made productivity
17:50our god. Today, more is our god. More
17:53money, more information, more content.
17:55We have more stuff and less purpose than
17:58ever. So, in my eyes, meaning will be
18:01sold at a premium. People will crave it
18:03more than they already do. Because most
18:06people in today's world feel lonely,
18:08feel empty, feel like they don't have
18:10any purpose, feel like they're not
18:11working towards anything greater than
18:13themselves. They're just stuck on their
18:15computer all day, hoping that pulling
18:17the AI slot machine or doing the
18:19repetitive task that they were assigned
18:21leads to something good. And so, who
18:23better to provide that meaning than
18:25those who shape the epistemic commons or
18:28the mental water supply or the
18:29information environment? It's the value
18:32creators who fight against the poisoning
18:35of the water supply. Now, the question
18:37here is, how is meaning created or
18:39experienced? Because we need to
18:41understand that before we can actually
18:43replicate it, I guess. When attention is
18:45fragmented, scattered, and pulled in
18:47competing directions, that's psychic
18:49entropy. It feels like anxiety, boredom,
18:52and restlessness. It's chaos. When
18:54attention is invested in a complex,
18:56challenging activity with clear
18:58feedback, that's psychic negentropy. It
19:00feels like flow, purpose, and meaning.
19:03It's order. So, meaning isn't something
19:05you find out there in the world. It's a
19:07state of consciousness that emerges when
19:10your attention is ordered towards
19:11something complex enough to fully engage
19:14you. If you are level 10, a level one
19:16challenge is boring and a level 20
19:18challenge is daunting, but a level 11
19:21challenge is just enough to lock you in.
19:24So, in other words, meaning is the
19:26experience
19:27of ordered consciousness. Now, along the
19:30same vein, meaning is created through
19:32the process of ordering consciousness.
19:36The act of ordering consciousness, or
19:38taking chaos and creating structure, or
19:40wrestling with complexity until it
19:42coheres, results in meaning. Obviously,
19:45if the experience of ordered
19:46consciousness is meaningful. So, if
19:48you've ever been stuck in a rut, or
19:50wrestled with where your life should go,
19:52and eventually receive this like burst
19:54of clarity that launches you into this
19:56intense season of life, you've directly
19:58experienced this. So, what does this
20:00have to do with content, essays,
20:02writing, et cetera? One is that fast
20:04content, or entropic, pre-digested,
20:07algorithmic, AI-generated content, skips
20:09the ordering process and delivers
20:11pre-packaged conclusions. The reader's
20:13consciousness stays and becomes more
20:15disordered. They received information,
20:18but didn't generate meaning. That's why
20:20they feel informed, but empty. Two is
20:22that slow content, so essays, genuine
20:25thinking in public, or insight that
20:26requires effort, requires both the
20:28writer and the reader to engage in the
20:31ordering process. The writer orders
20:33their own consciousness through the act
20:35of writing. The reader reorders their
20:37thoughts by properly digesting the
20:39thinking. So, what's the opportunity
20:41here? The main thing is that the world
20:43doesn't need more rage-bait posters and
20:47mainstream news channels. It also
20:49doesn't need more people competing to
20:50become the most productive person in the
20:52world and trying to build the next
20:54billion-dollar AI company. Instead, it
20:56needs ordinary people who make sense of
20:58their own minds and document them in
21:00public. Now, previously, I've called
21:02these types of people value creators. I
21:04quite literally have a video called the
21:06value creator, or the rise of the value
21:08creator. And now I call them value
21:10creators because they're very distinct
21:12from your typical influencer or personal
21:14brand. It's a person who chooses a
21:16positive trajectory for their life,
21:18cares deeply about the interests and
21:20skills that help move the needle toward
21:22that, and passes their journey down from
21:24their point of view to others who can
21:26relate and benefit from it. By all
21:28measures, I believe this is a
21:29future-proof and deeply meaningful way
21:31to live. Sure, you aren't creating a
21:33tangible physical product to show that
21:35you've actually done something or that
21:37you have a real job, but you are causing
21:39a greater cascade. That is, you are
21:41providing the root. You're providing the
21:43information that influences identity,
21:45that influences behavior, that
21:47influences the flourishing or
21:48destruction of civilization. And in my
21:51eyes, even building rockets isn't that
21:53impactful. That's honestly why I do what
21:56I do, or maybe not why I chose to do
21:58this. I kind of again stumbled upon it.
22:01But I found that this was just a deeply
22:03meaningful way to live. It's very
22:05purposeful. It feels good. So that leads
22:07to point number five, which is how to
22:09think in public and why it's the most
22:11valuable skill you can develop. Now it's
22:13kind of funny here, because with this
22:14video it's just a polished package,
22:16right? There's cuts. They cut out
22:18everything. But the outline of this
22:20video or the newsletter, subscribe to my
22:22Substack if you want these before they
22:24go out on YouTube, this was incredibly
22:26difficult to write and just think
22:28through. I actually had three other
22:30drafts of why you should write essays
22:32that I scrapped entirely because they
22:34just didn't feel right. But by sticking
22:36with the challenge and really trying to
22:38synthesize a point of view that I
22:40actually aligned with and that I felt
22:42was true and impactful has changed my
22:44mind. It's helped me articulate and
22:47cohere or make something coherent in my
22:49mind. And if this video changes your
22:51mind or your behavior in some way, that
22:54brings even more meaning into my life
22:56and yours. And now I hope you can
22:58experience that same feeling. So we need
23:00to get a bit practical here. I want you
23:02to try writing your first essay of some
23:05form, even if it's difficult. It's
23:06supposed to be difficult, especially if
23:08you're not a writer. So, I put a few
23:10points together. These are going to be
23:11rapid-fire, so it's not too long, but
23:13this should get you started, right? You
23:15don't need that much to just start take
23:18out a piece of paper and start writing,
23:19or to open up an app and start writing.
23:21So, here's how you write an essay. First
23:23is write to discover, not to perform,
23:26because most social media engagement
23:27comes from packaging anyway. And you can
23:30learn about that later. So, start with a
23:31concept, viewpoint, question,
23:33experience, thought, or something that
23:35bothers you, or just a topic. An essay
23:37begins with uncertainty and an open
23:40mind. Two is write about what genuinely
23:42interests you. Focus on a single main
23:44idea. Use this as a time to research and
23:47learn. Go down rabbit holes, challenge
23:49everyone's point of view. Do not accept
23:51one source as law. Three, resist the
23:54template. You'll find how you like to
23:56structure your writing as you get better
23:58at it. It's a skill, remember that. But
24:01for now, just write. Have a debate with
24:03yourself. Ask questions to keep the
24:05writing going. Then worry about the
24:06structure and ask AI for help if you
24:09want. Do the thinking first. Four, ask,
24:12"Do I actually believe this?" It's easy
24:14to write what you already believe, but
24:16the point of this is to change what you
24:18believe. This is the most difficult
24:20part. Resist the urge to act like you
24:22are absolutely right. Five, read essays
24:25and consume syntropic content. Your
24:27sense-making capacity is shaped by your
24:29inputs. You can't expect the For You
24:31page to feed you this content. You must
24:33actively search, curate, and nurture
24:36your digital feed. Six, build a body of
24:38work, not a content calendar. People
24:40don't follow creators for one piece of
24:42content. They follow for their body of
24:44coherent work. Each essay compounds on
24:47the last. AI can't replicate a coherent
24:49philosophy built through years of
24:51genuine thinking. So, that makes sense,
24:53but where do you start if you actually
24:55you to do this online? I would recommend
24:56X or Substack because that's where
24:58you're really seeing the revival of
25:00long-form content. I mean, I was
25:02runner-up in the $1 million challenge of
25:04the X articles when they brought
25:06articles back and mine went insanely
25:08viral. Substack, I think, is the most
25:10slept on social media right now because
25:12one, you own your audience, people who
25:14follow or subscribe to you, you have a
25:16list of them. Two, it's email first and
25:19if you understand anything about
25:20newsletters or email marketing, you
25:22understand how powerful that is. And
25:24three, they have a notes feed of people
25:26who actually appreciate deep and genuine
25:29thinking. So, if you need somewhere to
25:30write, I'd just start with Substack or
25:33X, depending on which one you vibe with
25:35the most. Now, I've written about that
25:37in my newsletter and I've talked about
25:38it in multiple videos before, so we're
25:40going to leave it at that. I think
25:41that's enough. And again, if you want a
25:43guided challenge to do this and you want
25:45to understand frameworks for writing and
25:48how to generate or capture ideas or how
25:50to just figure out what you want to talk
25:52about or how to phrase things in an
25:54impactful way, then consider joining the
25:57Build to Two-Hour Content System in 14
25:59Days Challenge that starts very, very
26:01soon because I got this video out late.
26:03Link in the description for that. If you
26:05don't join that, at least like and
26:07subscribe if you like this video and
26:09I'll see you in the next one. Bye.

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