After my treatise on email newsletters last week I was greeted by this AI slop article at the top of my RSS feed Monday morning and it got me thinking about creativity and producing some type of content. Specifically, what is the purpose of the content you’re trying to produce?

Is it about money?

As I said last week, I get at least one comment a month in some form where someone says they like my content because I don’t sell all the time. In 99.9% of these cases the person is not a paying member and hasn’t purchased a book or course or anything from me. They simply appreciate my advice/ideas and that I don’t sell hard all the time.

While I don’t plan on changing that, I also find it ironic when someone reaches out saying they read my stuff all the time and love what I have to say but doesn’t love it enough to send a few dollars my way to make sure that the content keeps coming. I’ve got kids that need to eat, and a dog, and I like to live in a house with a functioning roof. Sure fridge boxes are fun forts, but I don’t want to live in a world where it’s my only viable option for shelter.

Capitalism though dupes us into a world where if you have money, you must be successful¹. In many ways it doesn’t matter how exactly you made the money, if you have it the idea was valid. Take the AI spammers in the article linked above, they’re pounding out hundreds of videos a week to brute force the algorithm of social media sites so that they can earn money. It doesn’t matter if the shit they put out is bad, contributes to disinformation, harms well-thought-out discussions, or downright makes people hate themselves more.

They’re making money and teaching people do the same with their tools so it must be good.

In my mind it’s another vote to leave any social media that is governed by an algorithm behind, even YouTube which is the only social media that is governed by an algorithm that I participate in.

YouTube often gets a pass because it’s a “productive” form of media². I’ve used it to learn about car repairs and then save myself thousands of dollars by doing them myself. I’ve learned programming methods from YouTube, and a number of other worthwhile things. But if I scroll through my history of watched videos, most of the stuff I watch is mindless drivel that merely distracts me in the moment³.

But this mindless content I watch brings in revenue for the YouTuber generating it. Yet another software review might be the best way for me to make money on YouTube, or to get consistent traffic to my site. It’s the lowest value content I could put out, but it makes money. If I want to turn this creative business into something I can do fulltime, which we’re told should be the goal of all creators, then I should get on producing more mindless software reviews.

Is it about creativity and growth?

Writing isn’t about making money though, because I lose hundreds of dollars a month writing and yet I still keep writing. My writing is about understanding my thoughts, it’s about introspection and helping someone who’s wrestling with the same ideas I’m wrestling with.

Every piece of writing is a time capsule. It assembles fragments of its own world and sends them onward to a reader who exists in a different one, not just in space but also in time. Even writing privately in a journal presupposes a future self who will be reading it-and a future at all. – Saving Time Pg 278

Jenny Odell captures one of my favourite things about writing, the time capsule it provides for future me. Day to day I don’t feel like I’ve grown much. I don’t feel like I’m a 20% better person today than I was last week. I want to be that 20% better person, but day to day I’m a fallible human that yells at his kids and doesn’t treat his wife with the grace he should.

Looking back over my history of writing and working out my thoughts I can see that I’ve been on a consistent journey of growth. I’ve been bolder in speaking out about injustices I see, knowing that I can get away with saying many things others can’t because I’m a white dude who has daily struggles but starts life miles better than others in this world.

This is why I work to express my creativity, to share in my growth. Sure some money is nice, and yes it would be wonderful to sit and read every day and write about what I read as my sole responsibility, but if that doesn’t happen I’m content in my work. It pays well, I set my own schedule and the technical direction for the company. I get as much vacation as I want, and I get to drive my kids to skating and dance and do their hair and have dance parties with them.

I’ve got a good life so some future dream of getting to think more shouldn’t ruin what I do have for me. Being content in the circumstances I have is one place I know I’ve grown. Years ago I pushed hard with more courses and reading and writing for many other sites in an effort to make this “side hustle” a full business and it almost wrecked my family. I neglected the work that paid the bills and we were almost on the street by the time I realised that I’d fallen for the side hustle->business rhetoric out there.

You can have a solid career that’s interesting enough, and pays the bills without it being the thing that fulfils your life. In fact, if work is your sole source of meaning in life, what will you do if you get laid off? I’d be content working at the bike shop, and still riding bikes and hanging out with my family.

You can also have a hobby that you don’t turn into a business. I can make furniture for my house without trying to sell a bunch and having a word working shop. I can make a piece or two for people that ask without ramping up marketing.

I can also read books and write about what I’m learning without turning into a content machine and writer.

I can be content with the learning I do without falling back into the side hustle rhetoric. I don’t have to sell sell sell so you don’t have to get a bunch of crappy emails and popups trying to convince you that my next idea is the best one you’ll ever read about and you should give me hundreds of your hard earned dollars so you too can become as successful as me.

Which one is important to you?

For all the James Clear’s we here about that started blogging then wrote a book there are far more people who started blogging, didn’t see a financial reward immediately and then stopped.

If you want to start some creative outlet, make it about that. About working your thoughts out and finding your voice. Make it about sharing what you’re learning. Don’t fall into the trap hustle culture pushes on us that everything you do should be a way to earn extra money. Do it because it makes you a better person.

[^3]: The Death of Expertise talks more about how we assume that expertise in one area translates to expertise in all areas even if they’re entirely unrelated.

1. The Death of Expertise talks more about how we assume that expertise in one area translates to expertise in all areas even if they’re entirely unrelated. ↩︎
2. This video I watched a few weeks ago has had me thinking about how useless YouTube is. ↩︎
3. I do watch a bunch of video game content while riding my indoor trainer. This is entertainment watching and I don’t count is as a “bad” way to use YouTube. ↩︎