You Get What You Give
I'm about to do something I have never done before, and it arrives with a lesson on how to live well:
I'm launching a paid tier of this newsletter.
Six dollars for two extra deep-dive letters, every month.
The pace of the free letters will stay the same; nobody loses anything.
It's an odd feeling because since the first video on the channel—May 2023—I have not once asked anybody to subscribe, like the video, or donate their hard-earned cash.
Ok, Saint Paul.
I'm not saying this to larp as a monk under a vow of poverty.
After all, I'm fortunate enough to do Youtube full-time through the support of sponsors, and above all, you the wonderful viewer.
Thank you.
My point is I don't like to beg for something I never earned.
I roll my eyes when creators, even before the video, run a beggar's script asking for a subscription or a buy-me-a-coffee tip.
Why should I?
What have you given me?
My philosophy on Youtube has always been to produce useful and interesting content, and if a viewer wants to subscribe, they will.
I don't need to nag it like a salesman.
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Reflecting on it the past few days, this applies everywhere in life.
If I make terrible videos that waste your time, I don't deserve to be watched.
If I am bitter and entitled in the dating arena, I don't deserve a wife.
If I do not work hard and make sacrifice, I don't deserve a successful business.
Even relationships, which we insist "aren't transactional" very much follow this principle: if you give love, you get love. If you give effort, you get effort.
If one party offers one hundred while the other offers zero, the load is not borne equally and the house collapses.
My online presence is no different.
It's as Lenin said:
"He who does not post good content, neither shall he eat."
Some have even emailed me asking for a link to donate, and while I'm super grateful, it puzzles me: Why? What have I done?
This is the answer to that.
If you'd like to support the channel and actually get something in return, you can subscribe to the full-access pass in the next letter that drops.
Or right now, if you want to get it out the way:
You can pay monthly, or annually at a 17% discount.
Links and Recommendations
5 Benefits of Boredom - Psychology Today (link)
This was my first contact with the transformative power of boredom, something we try so hard to crush nowadays.
In the age of infinite content, I can see boredom becoming on par with things like exercise and diet—so called "magic pills" against modernity, because they really are that valuable to a healthy, happy life.
My favourite snippet, on boredom and the search for novelty:
Great achievements are facilitated with dissatisfaction with the status quo.
Goldberg (2009) writes that the great globe-trotting Christopher Columbus would have never embarked on his great voyage had he not been temperamentally dysphoric and had Prozac been available in those days.
Academy of Ideas - (link)
Goldmine of a channel.
15 years of philosophy: there's introductions to major schools, commentary on modern society, and how to use it all to live more meaningfully.
I'm still very much a philosophy noob, so the intros here have been a great help.
Some dismiss them as superficial, but that's exactly the point; rather than let pride push you into the deep end, it's ok to humble yourself and accept a beginner's guide.
It's a bit doom and gloom, but isn't that why we love philosophy in the first place?
A Sand County Almanac - Aldo Leopold (Affiliate link)
Nature writing is an underrated genre.
Around 80% of the world lives in urban areas, so we tend to forget the land we once came from, only falling in love again on the occasional hike or camp. It's never enough.
This is Aldo Leopold's travel memoir/conservation treatise.
There's sketches, stories, and philosophy, and if it doesn't make you itch to set off on a forest trail, nothing else will.
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