When AI researchers Tristan Harris and Aza Raskin tried to explain generative AI to journalists in early 2022 —when just a few hundred researchers and early adopters were toying with the new tech and long before it became mainstream— journalists would nod along while being shown how a prompt would generate a never-before-seen image. “Oh … Continue reading The Rubber Band Effect
Category: Creator Economy
Writing with a Nemesis: Using ChatGPT to Strengthen Your Arguments
Are you getting tired of ChatGPT's endless regurgitation of SEO-optimized articles and social media posts? Even ChatGPT is getting tired of that. Too many people use the trendy AI as a text generator. Too few use it as a highly capable writing partner that never sleeps. When I first ran into ChatGPT, I swore I'd never … Continue reading Writing with a Nemesis: Using ChatGPT to Strengthen Your Arguments
MicroConf US ’23 Recap — What Happens When 250 SaaS Founders Meet
This week, I got on my first post-COVID trip and headed to Denver, Colorado for MicroConf 2023. It. Was. Awesome. Unsurprisingly, being in the same room with 250 other bootstrapped SaaS founders is one of the nerdiest things you can do. And it was as enlightening as it was nerdy. I just arrived back home … Continue reading MicroConf US ’23 Recap — What Happens When 250 SaaS Founders Meet
Artificial Scarcity Damages the Creator Economy
Artificial scarcity is a trendy marketing tactic. I see limited-time sales, contests, and first-come-first-serve discounts —only 5 copies left at $20!!— all over the place. And it bothers me — because what's being sold are digital products: eBooks, courses, and software subscriptions. In a world where marginal cost —how much it costs you to create … Continue reading Artificial Scarcity Damages the Creator Economy
How I Stay Consistent
This week marks the 200th episode of my podcast. For over three years now, I've been sharing my thoughts with my fellow founders, creators, and makers — every single week, without fail. Today, I want to share how I stay consistent: how I have invented systems to keep me accountable, how I come up with … Continue reading How I Stay Consistent
Don’t Fall for the Follower Count Trap
"When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure." These are the famous words of economist Charles Goodhart, who introduced this concept in 1975. The idea is that when a particular metric is used to describe progress toward some goal, people tend to optimize their behavior to meet that target. That … Continue reading Don’t Fall for the Follower Count Trap
Diversify Your Creator Portfolio
As a creative entrepreneur, it has become important to diversify your portfolio and have multiple irons in the fire. Many successful creators end up having a podcast, a newsletter, a YouTube channel, and a solid online presence. They might not start out with all this, but they work towards it intentionally. If you aim to … Continue reading Diversify Your Creator Portfolio
On Art and Artifice
When generative AI systems can create artworks that win Fine Arts competitions, we have reached a point where bleeding-edge technological experiments start seeping into the larger cultural conversation. https://twitter.com/GenelJumalon/status/1564651635602853889 Experience this article as a podcast, a YouTube show, or as a newsletter: That conversation is mainly driven by voices of caution and dissent — it's … Continue reading On Art and Artifice
Why Reading Fiction Is Important for Entrepreneurs
I recently heard a saying: "leaders read, and readers lead." It made me reflect on my reading choices over the last few years and what I have discovered from switching things up a little. A few years ago, you would have been unable to find any fiction in my library. All I consumed were non-fiction … Continue reading Why Reading Fiction Is Important for Entrepreneurs
Open-Source and Bootstrapping
This week, a few remarkable things happened in the open-source scene. First, Mapbox decided to change the license on their popular Mapbox-gl-js library, used by many to power their fancy in-app maps. They went from the very permissive BSD license to one that contains these fragments: "This license allows developers with a current active Mapbox … Continue reading Open-Source and Bootstrapping