It’s hard to mow a lawn with a pair of scissors.
Take a break and recharge your batteries.
Dear Friends
I hope you all are safe from the second wave and taking good care of yourself.
You did not miss the last Sunday’s edition, I was on a holiday and that is why you did not receive this email last Sunday.
It is important to switch off from the world for a while and introspect.
While I was doing that, I came across some great reads which I am sharing with you all, hope this brightens your Sunday.
But before we get into it, if you are new to this newsletter consider subscribing to it.
"It’s hard to recognise that trying too hard can be troublesome, but the fact is that applying the wrong amount of effort to a problem (be it too little or too much) will always produce inferior results. It’s hard to mow a lawn with a pair of scissors, but it’s equally ineffective to tidy your bedroom with a bulldozer."
Though the hustle culture would have us believe that the more the merrier, it's not always true. Especially when it comes to the effort-outcome paradigm. This is a big learning I have had over and over again over the years. Sometimes when we feel cluttered and stuck the solution is not to grind harder and move faster. Sometimes we need to slow down and take a step back to resolve the problems. Read this article to understand better about how overwork is not equivalent to more outcome.
I am not sure if I am happy with Substack as a platform anymore or not.
"The money that Substack and its writers are generating — and how that money is split up and distributed — is of intense interest to media makers and observers, for obvious reasons. But the general thrust isn’t any different from other digital media platforms we’ve seen over the last 15 years or so."
Substack is yet again engrossed in a controversy, this time for its new business model - Substack Pro. Under this, it onboards writers to create newsletters on their platform for a specific sum of money for the first year along with 15% revenue from the subscriber base for the first year. Followed up by the normal revenue model second year onwards. Many established creators on Substack feel that the company is promoting people from a certain ideological spectrum more than the others. Read this article by Vox to know more in detail about the ongoing discourse. You can also read this article, which talks about the same with a more nuanced perspective.
"Journalism is under threat. And not only from authoritarian governments. You can’t have reporters, editors, and news producers unless you have a business model that sustains them. Business models mean money, and right now it’s becoming harder and harder for news organisations to find ways to keep newsrooms staffed and the lights on. And let’s face it, the status quo is pretty miserable for a lot of readers who are bombarded with ads and frustrated by paywalls. If newspapers go out of business or can’t afford to cover city hall, we all lose."
This article talks about the crisis in the field of journalism in an increasingly media-oriented world. Traditional journalism is at a vulnerable stage right now, and even the ones that are adapting to the online world are facing novice problems. Can this crisis be solved by propounding a middle path between free access and a paywall? This article is here with an experiment to find out that.
"Journalism must be profitable for high-quality content to be created, but that shouldn't come at the expense of access to truthful content. Content does not need to be free, but it needs to be accessible and affordable. That is why we are launching this test: can we find a business model that is inexpensive enough for consumers to use daily yet profitable enough for Publishers to invest in quality Journalism?"
This article is an extension of the ideas introduced in the previous article and informs you better about the urgency of the problem.
“Acknowledging that computers themselves are not inherently creative should not come as a surprise. Instead, this truth identifies an opportunity for computers to more fully assume the role of co-creator — not idea-generator, but actualiser. Furthermore, it is worth acknowledging that human creativity and innovation is not a solitary sport. In fact, most great digital innovations are the product of a commitment to collaboration and the melding of many different perspectives.”
Do you ever wonder about what creativity will look like, in a world dominated by automation and technology? Will computers replace organic creativity and completely change our understanding of creativity or will it enhance our creative possibilities? This article recounts the history of technology and its dialectical relationship with creativity and dwells deep into the concepts of standardisation, moldability, and abstraction and their impact on creative technology.
"In spite of “failing,” we were still helping creators earn about $2 million a month to pay rent, top off their children’s college funds, or even just to buy a few cups of coffee. Knowing that our platform made a big financial difference for our customers impacted my priorities and how I decided to move forward."
This article starts by stating that Creators deserve to get paid. And that today, earning is not singular, not simply product oriented. Crowdfunding is on the rise and most probably the way to the future. Gumroads is one such platform that works based on crowdfunding for sustaining its creators. And it's going headstrong even after being downsized and almost being shut down.
“The hit YouTuber, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, is working with a $2 million investment fund that will offer creators up to $250,000 in exchange for a stake in their channels. The fund, called Juice Funds, is part of a new company that Donaldson is a minority owner of called Creative Juice, which was announced this afternoon in The Information.”
MrBeast is investing a whopping 2 million dollars in a new company called Creative Juice which is aimed towards providing “equity-based financing for YouTube creators, including valuing and investing in YouTube channels.” Read this article, to find out more.
“Ads let you earn income from the most fans at the lowest price. In the US, YouTubers earn about $3 CPM (cost per thousand views) from ads after the platform’s 45% cut. That’s why many YouTubers need 100,000+ fans to make a living on the platform. If you only rely on ads, you’re leaving a lot of money on the table from fans who are willing to pay much more.”
Read this article, to find out how you can optimise your income as a creator from multiple sources by fully capitalising on your subscriber’s spending potential.
“Over 8.2 TB in size - of MobiKwik users has been put on sale over the dark web with an asking price of 1.5 Bitcoin which is approximately equal to INR 65 Lakhs. This data leak contains Know Your Customer (KYC) details, passport details, addresses, email ids, phone numbers, and aadhar card details of around 10 Crore Indians and violates their right to privacy.”
Read this microblog by the Internet Freedom Foundation that addresses the recent data breach by MobiKwik which provides mobile-based payments and their implications. MobiKwik has denied the claims but independent sources have verified the availability of the data on the dark web. In a world increasingly facilitated by technology, we as users must be as vigilant of our internet rights as our other rights. You can also take a look at this blog, for a more detailed understanding.
“As a founder, your job is like the janitor’s; you clean up after others.” And to run a tight ship means not letting problems accumulate. “I miss hearing the words ‘washroom main paani nahi aa raha’,”
This week on Pepper Spotlight, the weekly podcast by Pepper Content, I had with me Varun Duggirala to give us an hour of gyaan, stories, and mind-blowing realisations about the content market. It is one of the most enlightening conversations I have had in the last few months. We talked about his podcast- ‘Advertising is dead’, his newsletter-’Unschooled’, his creative agency-’Glitch’, all in all about his entire creative process and work ethic.
Here is a very fun sassy idea for Pepper Content’s new product- Pepper Type, an insult generator, with a twist. All you need to do is write a short description of the person you want to insult, and the software will provide you with the meanest burns! I won’t say more about it, do give it a try, and let me know if insults could be made any meaner!
“MemePay sahi hai. Twitter is talking about it, the next generation loves it and it’s an unfunny person’s worst nightmare-- yes, we’re talking about memes. Presenting MemePay: Upload your meme, get it valued based on our Galaxy Neural Network (patent pending) and start making payments online!”
Yes! You read that right! RazorPay launched its one-of-a-kind meme-based monetisation service. Now you can shut up all of your friends who think you are lame, by making money out of your lameness! Check it out right now, before Elon Musk tweets something about it and it explodes!
Lastly, if you are a small-business owner or an uprising artist who struggles with monetizing your products or services proportionately, then have a look at this Instagram thread.
That is all for this week.
If you have come across an interesting series, blog or a podcast or a YouTube video, please share it in the comments section.
Also if you are frequent reader of the newsletter, share it with your friends once in a while so that they get read some cool things from the internet.