Update nexus: fix conflicts and sync local changes
This commit is contained in:
Shen Wei
@@ -1,215 +1,215 @@
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---
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title: 3 Essential Tools for OpenClaw
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source:
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author: shenwei
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published:
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created:
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description:
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tags: [agentbrowser, agentmail, qmd]
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---
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# 3 Essential Tools for OpenClaw
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#qmd #agentmail #agentbrowser
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**Source**: https://x.com/_sean_matthew/status/2028902126005653889
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**Author**: Sean Matthew (Verified)
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**Published**: March 4, 2026 at 2:35 AM
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**Views**: 6,484 | **Reposts**: 13 | **Likes**: 76 | **Bookmarks**: 113
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---
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For the last few weeks, I've been running OpenClaw on a dedicated Mac Mini as my personal AI agent. It's got access to Telegram, my calendar, task manager, my YouTube channel, my Obsidian vault, and many other useful things. But even after wiring up all those integrations, I still found there were three big gaps.
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Because here's the thing: out of the box, OpenClaw can't send emails, can't remember what you worked on last week (at least not very well), and can't reliably browse the web.
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What I will show you below are three tools that fix all of that, plus the exact prompts you can paste into Claude Code to set each one up in minutes.
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I have a full video walkthrough of this setup on YouTube, which you can access here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvfqAMUJTT4
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---
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## Before You Start
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Make sure you have OpenClaw installed. On whatever machine you're running it, open a Terminal and run this:
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```bash
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cd ~/.openclaw
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```
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This puts you in the OpenClaw workspace folder. Launch Claude Code, Codex, or whatever coding agent you like from this directory. All of the following steps assume you're in this directory.
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---
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||||
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## Side Note: Why Not Use OpenClaw Itself Here?
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You might be wondering: why not just have OpenClaw install its own skills and tools? It can absolutely do that, and I use it that way frequently. But just as often, I use Claude Code as the background architect of my OpenClaw. There's a reason why I have the Claude Max plan, and I like to use it to its fullest. But as you probably know, Anthropic has [cracked](https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/20/anthropic_clarifies_ban_third_party_claude_access/) [down](https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeAI/comments/1r8ecyq/anthropic_bans_oauth_tokens_from_consumer_plans/) on people using their Claude subscriptions with OpenClaw, basically making API keys the only truly "safe" path for now. So in almost all cases, you're paying per-token to run OpenClaw, whether that's through Anthropic, OpenAI, OpenRouter, or whatever provider you're using.
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||||
So, to answer the question above, I use Claude Code to build all of OpenClaw's systems, skills, and workflows. When OpenClaw is actually running day-to-day, it's not burning through tokens to fix faulty setups. It's executing systems that were built precisely with Claude Code.
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---
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## How Skills Work in OpenClaw
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Before we get into the tools, a quick note on how OpenClaw learns new capabilities. There are two ways to add skills:
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1. **Manually** — You teach OpenClaw how to use a tool by creating a SKILL.md file with all the instructions it needs to use the tool. You can use any agent to build this out.
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2. **ClawHub** — This is OpenClaw's skill registry, basically a repository of pre-built skills you can install. Some come from the OpenClaw creator himself, some are official skills from tool authors, and some are community-contributed.
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A word of warning on ClawHub: There have been reports of malware being deployed on the site. Exercise caution when downloading skills (stick to official or well-known authors). All three skills in this guide come from verified sources.
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To install ClawHub (one-time setup):
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```bash
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npm i -g clawhub
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```
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---
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## Tool 1: AgentMail: Give Your Agent Its Own Email
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[AgentMail](https://agentmail.to) is a Y Combinator-backed startup that built an email platform specifically for AI agents. The idea is simple: your agent gets its own real email inbox. This is not Gmail and does not come with the inherent risks of signing up for Google accounts (i.e., account banning). This is an inbox designed from the ground up for agents to send and receive emails programmatically.
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### Create an account
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Go to [agentmail.to](https://agentmail.to) and click "Get Started." You can sign up with Google, and it's free. There are paid plans, but the free tier is very generous and gives you up to 3 inboxes. You'll go through a simple onboarding to create your first inbox. The address will be yourname@agentmail.to. Copy this inbox name, as you'll need it in a minute.
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### Grab your API key
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In the AgentMail dashboard, go to the API keys section and generate your first key. Keep a copy of that handy.
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### Paste this prompt into Claude Code
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Use this prompt to install the AgentMail skill for Open Claw and connect your OpenClaw to all the necessary tools it needs to send and receive email through your new AgentMail inbox.
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```markdown
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Set up AgentMail for my OpenClaw agent. The AgentMail skill docs and reference are at: https://clawhub.ai/adboio/agentmail Make sure to:
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1. The AgentMail skill is already installed via clawhub (if not installed, please do so)
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2. Configure the AGENTMAIL_API_KEY in my openclaw.json. My key is: [YOUR_KEY] under skills.entries.agentmail
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3. My agent's inbox is: [YOUR_INBOX]
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4. Install the Python SDK (pip install agentmail python-dotenv)
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5. Test sending and receiving an email
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```
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Replace [YOUR_KEY] and [YOUR_INBOX] with the values you saved earlier. Claude Code will handle the rest.
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### What this looks like in practice
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In the full walkthrough video I linked above, I forwarded a newsletter I received in my personal email to my AgentMail inbox. OpenClaw picked it up and immediately pinged me on Telegram to let me know something landed in the inbox. I asked it to give me the main takeaways, and it came back with a clean summary of the entire email.
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That's a simple personal use case: I'm forwarding invoices, newsletters, and other stuff from my day-to-day life to Jarvis (my OpenClaw agent), and it gives me summaries and action items.
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But you could take this much further:
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- Set up a **support inbox** where your agent handles first-line responses to customer inquiries
|
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- Have it **process incoming invoices** and extract key details
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- Build a **daily email digest** that your agent compiles and sends to you on Telegram
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- Route different types of emails to different agent workflows via webhooks
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The possibilities are really endless.
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---
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## Tool 2: QMD: Upgrade the Agent's Memory
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This might be the single biggest upgrade you can make to your OpenClaw. Let me explain the problem first.
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### The problem with default memory
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Out of the box, OpenClaw has a memory system. When you interact with it, it creates markdown files stored in a local SQLite database. Anytime you want to ask about previous work or past sessions, it uses keyword-based search to find relevant memories.
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||||
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The problem is obvious: if you ask "hey, what did we do with XYZ last week?" but the actual conversation used different words, the keyword search fails. So your agent easily forgets things you've worked on.
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And it gets worse over time. The more you interact with OpenClaw and the more memories you accumulate, the more bloated your queries get. You're pulling in a ton of irrelevant tokens every time you ask about history, which burns through API costs and makes your agent slower and dumber.
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### What QMD is
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[QMD](https://github.com/tobi/qmd) is an open-source tool built by Tobi Lutke (the CEO of Shopify). It's a local hybrid search engine for markdown files that combines three search strategies:
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1. **Keyword search** (traditional matching, same as OpenClaw's default memory system)
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2. **Vector semantic search** (understands meaning, not just exact words)
|
||||
3. **LLM-powered re-ranker** (scores results by actual relevance)
|
||||
|
||||
The key thing: it all runs entirely on your machine. No API keys, no cloud services, no data leaving your computer. It downloads some small local models (they don't take up much space) and everything happens locally and efficiently.
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### Setup
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Paste this prompt into ClaudeCode to install QMD and hook it up to your OpenClaw as its memory backbone:
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```markdown
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Set up QMD as the memory backend for my OpenClaw agent. Follow the official docs here: https://docs.openclaw.ai/concepts/memory#qmd-backend-experimental Make sure to:
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1. Install the QMD CLI
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2. Install SQLite with extension support if needed (macOS: brew install sqlite)
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3. Configure memory.backend = "qmd" in my openclaw.json
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4. Add my workspace memory files as a QMD collection
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5. Run the initial embed so models are downloaded and the index is built
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6. Verify it works by running a test query
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```
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If I had to pick just one tool from this entire list, it's QMD. The memory upgrade is the single biggest quality-of-life improvement for OpenClaw.
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---
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## Tool 3: Agent-Browser: Give the Agent a Better Browser
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[Agent-browser](https://github.com/vercel-labs/agent-browser) is a CLI tool from Vercel that gives your AI agent a real web browser. This is not just fetching and scraping HTML. This is an actual Chromium browser that can navigate pages, click on things, take screenshots, fill out forms, etc. Basically any interaction a user could have in a browser.
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### Why agent-browser instead of Playwright?
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If you've used Playwright with an AI agent before, you've probably noticed how token-inefficient it is. Every time Playwright interacts with a website, it generates a ton of information. Your AI agent has to process all of that, which fills up its context window and ultimately gives you a worse outcome.
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Agent-browser takes a completely different approach. Everything Playwright can do, agent-browser can do with **93% less tokens**. That's a massive difference for an always-on agent: it means your agent can do a lot more browsing for a lot less money.
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### Install the CLI
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```bash
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npm install -g agent-browser
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```
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### Paste this prompt into Claude Code
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```markdown
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Install the agent-browser skill for my OpenClaw agent. The agent-browser SKILL.md and reference docs are at: https://github.com/vercel-labs/agent-browser/tree/main/skills/agent-browser Follow the OpenClaw skills docs here: https://docs.openclaw.ai/tools/skills Make sure to:
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1. Install the agent-browser skill into ~/.openclaw/skills/agent-browser/ so it's available to all my agents
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2. Include the SKILL.md and any reference docs from the repo
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3. Verify the skill shows up as eligible
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4. Whenever my agent needs to access the internet or browse a web page, it should use agent-browser
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```
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This prompt pulls the agent-browser skills from GitHub, installs them on your machine, and tells OpenClaw that anytime it needs to browse the web, it should use agent-browser. Once installed, the skill is available to OpenClaw, as well as Claude Code, Codex, or any other AI agent running on that machine.
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In the walkthrough video I linked above, I showed a simple use case for agent-browser: navigating to Hacker News and summarizing what is trending for the day. I ran it through the command line to show its speed (42s to complete the whole task) and then ran the same workflow through Telegram (which pings my OpenClaw to run the same agent-browser commands). These are relatively simple use cases, but there are ton of different directions you can take agent-browser:
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### Advanced use cases
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- **No-API workflows** — Any site or service that doesn't have an API, where you have to go to a web console or dashboard to interact with it, your agent can now handle that. Fill out forms, export reports, change settings, etc.
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- **Self-verifying code** — When your agent makes code changes, it can open a preview URL in an actual browser and verify the fix worked. This is a typical workflow for Playwright, but as I mentioned, agent-browser can do it much faster.
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- **Website monitoring** — Track price drops, product listings, back-in-stock alerts, job listings, or any changes on any page.
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- **Security guardrails** — This is not a use case per se, but I'll just point out that agent-browser has built-in prompt injection defenses. It's not perfect, but it provides an extra line of defense so your agent isn't getting poisoned by malicious content on the web.
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- **Electron apps** — This is brand new. Agent-browser has an Electron skill that lets it control desktop apps (e.g., Slack, Notion, VS Code, Discord). I haven't tested this one out yet, but it opens up a whole new category of automation beyond just web browsing.
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---
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## Recap
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There you have it. Three tools, three simple upgrades:
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1. **AgentMail** gives your agent its own dedicated email inbox
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2. **QMD** gives your agent real semantic memory that actually works
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3. **Agent-Browser** gives your agent a better, faster, cheaper way to browse the web
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Each one takes only a few minutes to set up, but together they turn a basic OpenClaw install into something that actually feels like a useful assistant.
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Start with QMD. Then hook up all three. I promise that it's worth it.
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---
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## Resources
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- [AgentMail](https://agentmail.to)
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- [AgentMail skill (ClawHub)](https://clawhub.ai/adboio/agentmail)
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- [QMD](https://github.com/tobi/qmd)
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- [OpenClaw Memory Docs (QMD)](https://docs.openclaw.ai/concepts/memory#qmd-backend-experimental)
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- [Agent-Browser](https://github.com/vercel-labs/agent-browser)
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- [OpenClaw Skills Docs](https://docs.openclaw.ai/tools/skills)
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- [ClawHub](https://clawhub.ai)
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---
|
||||
title: 3 Essential Tools for OpenClaw
|
||||
source:
|
||||
author: shenwei
|
||||
published:
|
||||
created:
|
||||
description:
|
||||
tags: [agentbrowser, agentmail, qmd]
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
# 3 Essential Tools for OpenClaw
|
||||
|
||||
#qmd #agentmail #agentbrowser
|
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|
||||
**Source**: https://x.com/_sean_matthew/status/2028902126005653889
|
||||
**Author**: Sean Matthew (Verified)
|
||||
**Published**: March 4, 2026 at 2:35 AM
|
||||
**Views**: 6,484 | **Reposts**: 13 | **Likes**: 76 | **Bookmarks**: 113
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
For the last few weeks, I've been running OpenClaw on a dedicated Mac Mini as my personal AI agent. It's got access to Telegram, my calendar, task manager, my YouTube channel, my Obsidian vault, and many other useful things. But even after wiring up all those integrations, I still found there were three big gaps.
|
||||
|
||||
Because here's the thing: out of the box, OpenClaw can't send emails, can't remember what you worked on last week (at least not very well), and can't reliably browse the web.
|
||||
|
||||
What I will show you below are three tools that fix all of that, plus the exact prompts you can paste into Claude Code to set each one up in minutes.
|
||||
|
||||
I have a full video walkthrough of this setup on YouTube, which you can access here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvfqAMUJTT4
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## Before You Start
|
||||
|
||||
Make sure you have OpenClaw installed. On whatever machine you're running it, open a Terminal and run this:
|
||||
|
||||
```bash
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cd ~/.openclaw
|
||||
```
|
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|
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This puts you in the OpenClaw workspace folder. Launch Claude Code, Codex, or whatever coding agent you like from this directory. All of the following steps assume you're in this directory.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## Side Note: Why Not Use OpenClaw Itself Here?
|
||||
|
||||
You might be wondering: why not just have OpenClaw install its own skills and tools? It can absolutely do that, and I use it that way frequently. But just as often, I use Claude Code as the background architect of my OpenClaw. There's a reason why I have the Claude Max plan, and I like to use it to its fullest. But as you probably know, Anthropic has [cracked](https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/20/anthropic_clarifies_ban_third_party_claude_access/) [down](https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeAI/comments/1r8ecyq/anthropic_bans_oauth_tokens_from_consumer_plans/) on people using their Claude subscriptions with OpenClaw, basically making API keys the only truly "safe" path for now. So in almost all cases, you're paying per-token to run OpenClaw, whether that's through Anthropic, OpenAI, OpenRouter, or whatever provider you're using.
|
||||
|
||||
So, to answer the question above, I use Claude Code to build all of OpenClaw's systems, skills, and workflows. When OpenClaw is actually running day-to-day, it's not burning through tokens to fix faulty setups. It's executing systems that were built precisely with Claude Code.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## How Skills Work in OpenClaw
|
||||
|
||||
Before we get into the tools, a quick note on how OpenClaw learns new capabilities. There are two ways to add skills:
|
||||
|
||||
1. **Manually** — You teach OpenClaw how to use a tool by creating a SKILL.md file with all the instructions it needs to use the tool. You can use any agent to build this out.
|
||||
2. **ClawHub** — This is OpenClaw's skill registry, basically a repository of pre-built skills you can install. Some come from the OpenClaw creator himself, some are official skills from tool authors, and some are community-contributed.
|
||||
|
||||
A word of warning on ClawHub: There have been reports of malware being deployed on the site. Exercise caution when downloading skills (stick to official or well-known authors). All three skills in this guide come from verified sources.
|
||||
|
||||
To install ClawHub (one-time setup):
|
||||
|
||||
```bash
|
||||
npm i -g clawhub
|
||||
```
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## Tool 1: AgentMail: Give Your Agent Its Own Email
|
||||
|
||||
[AgentMail](https://agentmail.to) is a Y Combinator-backed startup that built an email platform specifically for AI agents. The idea is simple: your agent gets its own real email inbox. This is not Gmail and does not come with the inherent risks of signing up for Google accounts (i.e., account banning). This is an inbox designed from the ground up for agents to send and receive emails programmatically.
|
||||
|
||||
### Create an account
|
||||
|
||||
Go to [agentmail.to](https://agentmail.to) and click "Get Started." You can sign up with Google, and it's free. There are paid plans, but the free tier is very generous and gives you up to 3 inboxes. You'll go through a simple onboarding to create your first inbox. The address will be yourname@agentmail.to. Copy this inbox name, as you'll need it in a minute.
|
||||
|
||||
### Grab your API key
|
||||
|
||||
In the AgentMail dashboard, go to the API keys section and generate your first key. Keep a copy of that handy.
|
||||
|
||||
### Paste this prompt into Claude Code
|
||||
|
||||
Use this prompt to install the AgentMail skill for Open Claw and connect your OpenClaw to all the necessary tools it needs to send and receive email through your new AgentMail inbox.
|
||||
|
||||
```markdown
|
||||
Set up AgentMail for my OpenClaw agent. The AgentMail skill docs and reference are at: https://clawhub.ai/adboio/agentmail Make sure to:
|
||||
1. The AgentMail skill is already installed via clawhub (if not installed, please do so)
|
||||
2. Configure the AGENTMAIL_API_KEY in my openclaw.json. My key is: [YOUR_KEY] under skills.entries.agentmail
|
||||
3. My agent's inbox is: [YOUR_INBOX]
|
||||
4. Install the Python SDK (pip install agentmail python-dotenv)
|
||||
5. Test sending and receiving an email
|
||||
```
|
||||
|
||||
Replace [YOUR_KEY] and [YOUR_INBOX] with the values you saved earlier. Claude Code will handle the rest.
|
||||
|
||||
### What this looks like in practice
|
||||
|
||||
In the full walkthrough video I linked above, I forwarded a newsletter I received in my personal email to my AgentMail inbox. OpenClaw picked it up and immediately pinged me on Telegram to let me know something landed in the inbox. I asked it to give me the main takeaways, and it came back with a clean summary of the entire email.
|
||||
|
||||
That's a simple personal use case: I'm forwarding invoices, newsletters, and other stuff from my day-to-day life to Jarvis (my OpenClaw agent), and it gives me summaries and action items.
|
||||
|
||||
But you could take this much further:
|
||||
|
||||
- Set up a **support inbox** where your agent handles first-line responses to customer inquiries
|
||||
- Have it **process incoming invoices** and extract key details
|
||||
- Build a **daily email digest** that your agent compiles and sends to you on Telegram
|
||||
- Route different types of emails to different agent workflows via webhooks
|
||||
|
||||
The possibilities are really endless.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## Tool 2: QMD: Upgrade the Agent's Memory
|
||||
|
||||
This might be the single biggest upgrade you can make to your OpenClaw. Let me explain the problem first.
|
||||
|
||||
### The problem with default memory
|
||||
|
||||
Out of the box, OpenClaw has a memory system. When you interact with it, it creates markdown files stored in a local SQLite database. Anytime you want to ask about previous work or past sessions, it uses keyword-based search to find relevant memories.
|
||||
|
||||
The problem is obvious: if you ask "hey, what did we do with XYZ last week?" but the actual conversation used different words, the keyword search fails. So your agent easily forgets things you've worked on.
|
||||
|
||||
And it gets worse over time. The more you interact with OpenClaw and the more memories you accumulate, the more bloated your queries get. You're pulling in a ton of irrelevant tokens every time you ask about history, which burns through API costs and makes your agent slower and dumber.
|
||||
|
||||
### What QMD is
|
||||
|
||||
[QMD](https://github.com/tobi/qmd) is an open-source tool built by Tobi Lutke (the CEO of Shopify). It's a local hybrid search engine for markdown files that combines three search strategies:
|
||||
|
||||
1. **Keyword search** (traditional matching, same as OpenClaw's default memory system)
|
||||
2. **Vector semantic search** (understands meaning, not just exact words)
|
||||
3. **LLM-powered re-ranker** (scores results by actual relevance)
|
||||
|
||||
The key thing: it all runs entirely on your machine. No API keys, no cloud services, no data leaving your computer. It downloads some small local models (they don't take up much space) and everything happens locally and efficiently.
|
||||
|
||||
### Setup
|
||||
|
||||
Paste this prompt into ClaudeCode to install QMD and hook it up to your OpenClaw as its memory backbone:
|
||||
|
||||
```markdown
|
||||
Set up QMD as the memory backend for my OpenClaw agent. Follow the official docs here: https://docs.openclaw.ai/concepts/memory#qmd-backend-experimental Make sure to:
|
||||
1. Install the QMD CLI
|
||||
2. Install SQLite with extension support if needed (macOS: brew install sqlite)
|
||||
3. Configure memory.backend = "qmd" in my openclaw.json
|
||||
4. Add my workspace memory files as a QMD collection
|
||||
5. Run the initial embed so models are downloaded and the index is built
|
||||
6. Verify it works by running a test query
|
||||
```
|
||||
|
||||
If I had to pick just one tool from this entire list, it's QMD. The memory upgrade is the single biggest quality-of-life improvement for OpenClaw.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## Tool 3: Agent-Browser: Give the Agent a Better Browser
|
||||
|
||||
[Agent-browser](https://github.com/vercel-labs/agent-browser) is a CLI tool from Vercel that gives your AI agent a real web browser. This is not just fetching and scraping HTML. This is an actual Chromium browser that can navigate pages, click on things, take screenshots, fill out forms, etc. Basically any interaction a user could have in a browser.
|
||||
|
||||
### Why agent-browser instead of Playwright?
|
||||
|
||||
If you've used Playwright with an AI agent before, you've probably noticed how token-inefficient it is. Every time Playwright interacts with a website, it generates a ton of information. Your AI agent has to process all of that, which fills up its context window and ultimately gives you a worse outcome.
|
||||
|
||||
Agent-browser takes a completely different approach. Everything Playwright can do, agent-browser can do with **93% less tokens**. That's a massive difference for an always-on agent: it means your agent can do a lot more browsing for a lot less money.
|
||||
|
||||
### Install the CLI
|
||||
|
||||
```bash
|
||||
npm install -g agent-browser
|
||||
```
|
||||
|
||||
### Paste this prompt into Claude Code
|
||||
|
||||
```markdown
|
||||
Install the agent-browser skill for my OpenClaw agent. The agent-browser SKILL.md and reference docs are at: https://github.com/vercel-labs/agent-browser/tree/main/skills/agent-browser Follow the OpenClaw skills docs here: https://docs.openclaw.ai/tools/skills Make sure to:
|
||||
1. Install the agent-browser skill into ~/.openclaw/skills/agent-browser/ so it's available to all my agents
|
||||
2. Include the SKILL.md and any reference docs from the repo
|
||||
3. Verify the skill shows up as eligible
|
||||
4. Whenever my agent needs to access the internet or browse a web page, it should use agent-browser
|
||||
```
|
||||
|
||||
This prompt pulls the agent-browser skills from GitHub, installs them on your machine, and tells OpenClaw that anytime it needs to browse the web, it should use agent-browser. Once installed, the skill is available to OpenClaw, as well as Claude Code, Codex, or any other AI agent running on that machine.
|
||||
|
||||
In the walkthrough video I linked above, I showed a simple use case for agent-browser: navigating to Hacker News and summarizing what is trending for the day. I ran it through the command line to show its speed (42s to complete the whole task) and then ran the same workflow through Telegram (which pings my OpenClaw to run the same agent-browser commands). These are relatively simple use cases, but there are ton of different directions you can take agent-browser:
|
||||
|
||||
### Advanced use cases
|
||||
|
||||
- **No-API workflows** — Any site or service that doesn't have an API, where you have to go to a web console or dashboard to interact with it, your agent can now handle that. Fill out forms, export reports, change settings, etc.
|
||||
- **Self-verifying code** — When your agent makes code changes, it can open a preview URL in an actual browser and verify the fix worked. This is a typical workflow for Playwright, but as I mentioned, agent-browser can do it much faster.
|
||||
- **Website monitoring** — Track price drops, product listings, back-in-stock alerts, job listings, or any changes on any page.
|
||||
- **Security guardrails** — This is not a use case per se, but I'll just point out that agent-browser has built-in prompt injection defenses. It's not perfect, but it provides an extra line of defense so your agent isn't getting poisoned by malicious content on the web.
|
||||
- **Electron apps** — This is brand new. Agent-browser has an Electron skill that lets it control desktop apps (e.g., Slack, Notion, VS Code, Discord). I haven't tested this one out yet, but it opens up a whole new category of automation beyond just web browsing.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## Recap
|
||||
|
||||
There you have it. Three tools, three simple upgrades:
|
||||
|
||||
1. **AgentMail** gives your agent its own dedicated email inbox
|
||||
2. **QMD** gives your agent real semantic memory that actually works
|
||||
3. **Agent-Browser** gives your agent a better, faster, cheaper way to browse the web
|
||||
|
||||
Each one takes only a few minutes to set up, but together they turn a basic OpenClaw install into something that actually feels like a useful assistant.
|
||||
|
||||
Start with QMD. Then hook up all three. I promise that it's worth it.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## Resources
|
||||
|
||||
- [AgentMail](https://agentmail.to)
|
||||
- [AgentMail skill (ClawHub)](https://clawhub.ai/adboio/agentmail)
|
||||
- [QMD](https://github.com/tobi/qmd)
|
||||
- [OpenClaw Memory Docs (QMD)](https://docs.openclaw.ai/concepts/memory#qmd-backend-experimental)
|
||||
- [Agent-Browser](https://github.com/vercel-labs/agent-browser)
|
||||
- [OpenClaw Skills Docs](https://docs.openclaw.ai/tools/skills)
|
||||
- [ClawHub](https://clawhub.ai)
|
||||
|
||||
@@ -1,498 +1,498 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: If you have multiple interests, do not waste the next 2-3 years
|
||||
source:
|
||||
author: shenwei
|
||||
published:
|
||||
created:
|
||||
description:
|
||||
tags: []
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
# If you have multiple interests, do not waste the next 2-3 years
|
||||
|
||||
**作者:** Dan Koe (@thedankoe)
|
||||
**发布时间:** 1月11日
|
||||
**原始链接:** https://x.com/thedankoe/status/2010042119121957316
|
||||
**统计:** 811 回复 · 7,508 次转帖 · 3.6万 喜欢 · 8.5万 书签 · 1,457万 次查看
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Society made you think that having multiple interests was a weakness.
|
||||
|
||||
Go to school.
|
||||
Get a degree.
|
||||
Get a job.
|
||||
Retire at some point.
|
||||
|
||||
But there is so much wrong with that sequence of events.
|
||||
|
||||
We don't live in the Industrial Age anymore. Specializing in one skill is almost certain death. I feel like we all know by this point how dangerous mechanical living and siloed learning is for your psyche and soul. And people can feel that we're going through a second renaissance. Your curiosity and love for learning are your advantages in today's world, but there is something missing.
|
||||
|
||||
For the longest time, I learned and learned and learned. I was stuck in tutorial hell. Some may call it shiny object syndrome to point out your lack of focus. I got my dopamine from feeling smart, but my life didn't change all that much. Honestly, I felt like I was just falling behind. I tried so many different things in college. I had dreams of doing my own thing... earning an income from something creative... but after spending 5 years "learning," I was met with the reality that I had to get the best job I could find just so I could survive.
|
||||
|
||||
The missing piece was a **vessel**.
|
||||
|
||||
A vessel that would allow me to **channel** all of my interests into meaningful work that I could earn a decent income from.
|
||||
|
||||
If you've ever felt guilty for not being able to pick one thing, if you've been told to niche down when your mind wants to expand, if you've wondered whether there's a path you can take that doesn't lead to the misery you see in everyone else's eyes – this is the greatest time to be alive.
|
||||
|
||||
Here are 7 of the most compelling ideas I could come up with. We'll start by understanding why having multiple interests is a superpower in today's world, then I'll give you practical steps to turn that into your life's work. We have **a lot** to talk about, so I hope you're here for the ride.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## I – The 3 ingredients of individual success & the death of the expert
|
||||
|
||||
> The man whose whole life is spent in performing a few simple operations... generally becomes as stupid and ignorant as it is possible for a human creature to become. — Adam Smith
|
||||
|
||||
Funny you say that Mr. Smith, because you created those people, and we're still dealing with the backlash.
|
||||
|
||||
Specialization took over during industrialization because, in a pin factory, for example, one worker doing every step could make 20 pins a day. Then workers, each doing one step, could make 48,000.
|
||||
|
||||
So we built an entire world around this model.
|
||||
|
||||
Humans became assembly lines working 9 to 5 because frankly, governments don't serve the national interest, they serve their own interest. Corporations don't serve the employees interest, they serve their own.
|
||||
|
||||
Schools were designed to serve that interest. Their sole purpose was to create factory workers who were punctual and obedient.
|
||||
|
||||
But this is no way to live.
|
||||
|
||||
If you want to have specialized knowledge so that you could never run an operation, especially your own operation, then be dependent on schools for your education and jobs for your wage. Be duped into believing the promise that specialization is what makes a human valuable when it is clear that the system does not need you, specifically, to perform that task.
|
||||
|
||||
In lies the distinction.
|
||||
|
||||
If pure specialization makes people stupid and dependent, what makes an individual smart and sovereign?
|
||||
|
||||
**Three ingredients**: Self-education, self-interest, self-sufficiency.
|
||||
|
||||
**Self-education** is clear, because if you want to achieve a result different from that of traditional education, you must direct your own learning.
|
||||
|
||||
**Self-interest** raises some flags. It sounds selfish and short-sighted, which many people view as bad without thinking through it, but it simply means "concern with one's own interest," because the only other option is to serve the interest of the organizations that compose society as it is, which we've discussed. In other words, follow your interest, because your interest can very well benefit others in a selfless way - depending on your level of cognitive and moral development. Oh, and by the way, indulging in short-lived pleasures (cheap dopamine) is usually not your interest, but the interest of corporations that benefit from your mindlessness.
|
||||
|
||||
> The truly selfish person, in Ayn Rand's view, is a self-respecting, self-supporting human being who neither sacrifices others to himself nor sacrifices himself to others. This rejects both the predator **and** the doormat.
|
||||
|
||||
**Self-sufficiency** is the refusal to outsource your judgment, learning, and agency. If self-education is the engine and self-interest is the compass, self-sufficiency is the foundation that prevents your life direction from being hijacked by another force. They collaborate, but are not fully dependent.
|
||||
|
||||
The generalist emerges naturally from this triad.
|
||||
|
||||
- **Self-interest** motivates **self-education**. You learn because it genuinely serves your flourishing, not because someone assigned it.
|
||||
- **Self-education** enables **self-sufficiency**. You can only be sovereign over domains you understand.
|
||||
- **Self-sufficiency** clarifies **self-interest**. When you're not dependent on others' interpretations, you can actually perceive what serves you. Most people pursue multiple interests as an escape from their work. When your interests become your work, or your life's work, most of them start to filter out.
|
||||
|
||||
When we look at every CEO, founder, or creative that we actually admire, they are generalists.
|
||||
|
||||
They understand enough about marketing to direct it, enough about product to build it, and enough about people to lead them. But they also need to direct the ship. They need to learn and adapt when circumstances change.
|
||||
|
||||
More importantly, they understand that ideas across domains complement each other and create a unique way of viewing the world, which allows them to catch novel ideas from the aether and translate them into market value.
|
||||
|
||||
When we look at where the world is today, and if you understand the opportunities available to singular individuals, not just leaders, you will find that the options you have as a natural polymath are extensive. It should spark an immense amount of excitement in you.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## II – You are living through the second renaissance, take advantage of it
|
||||
|
||||
> Study the science of art. Study the art of science. Develop your senses—especially learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else. — Leonardo da Vinci
|
||||
|
||||
The ultimate moat, or the final competitive edge worth paying for, in my opinion, is an **opinion**.
|
||||
|
||||
A perspective that only you can see, because the uniqueness of your life experience created it. That may just be the last thing anyone else can replicate.
|
||||
|
||||
And since that's always been the case, why not prioritize that now? Especially when automation is at our doorstep?
|
||||
|
||||
But how do you prioritize it? How do you develop it?
|
||||
|
||||
By pursuing multiple interests and building something with them.
|
||||
|
||||
You see, every interest you've ever pursued leaves behind a residue. Every interest increases the number of connections that can be made. Every interest expands and increases the complexity of how you model and interpret reality. The more complex your model of reality, the more problems you can solve, opportunities you can see, and value you can create.
|
||||
|
||||
Specialism completely halts this process, and your shiny object syndrome has been trying to tell you this whole time.
|
||||
|
||||
From birth until now, you are cultivating a way of seeing things that others can't. A way of seeing things that AI can only think if you tell it what to think.
|
||||
|
||||
A person who studied psychology and design sees user behavior differently from the pure designer. A person who learned sales and philosophy closes deals differently than the pure salesman. A person who understands fitness and business builds health companies that MBAs can't comprehend.
|
||||
|
||||
**Your edge lies more in intersection than it does in expertise.**
|
||||
|
||||
This is the exact pattern we see in the Renaissance that is coming back with a much stronger force now.
|
||||
|
||||
Consider what made it possible...
|
||||
|
||||
Before the printing press, knowledge was scarce.
|
||||
|
||||
Books were copied by hand. A single text could take a scribe months to reproduce. Libraries were rare. Literacy was rarer. If you wanted to learn something outside your trade, you either had access to a monastery or you didn't learn it.
|
||||
|
||||
Then Gutenberg changed everything.
|
||||
|
||||
Within 50 years, 20 million books flooded Europe. Ideas that once took generations to spread now moved in months. Literacy exploded. The cost of knowledge collapsed.
|
||||
|
||||
**For the first time in history, a person could realistically pursue multiple domains of mastery in a single lifetime.**
|
||||
|
||||
The Renaissance was the result.
|
||||
|
||||
Da Vinci didn't pick one thing. He painted, sculpted, engineered, studied anatomy, designed war machines, and mapped the human body. Michelangelo was a painter, sculptor, architect, and poet.
|
||||
|
||||
Unique minds are finally free to operate the way they are supposed to.
|
||||
|
||||
They were supposed to cross disciplines, synthesize connections, and follow curiosity wherever it led, but most of us never realized that.
|
||||
|
||||
The printing press was the catalyst for a new type of person to emerge. A person who could learn anything, combine everything, and create what no specialist ever could.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
*If you enjoy these letters, I send them out 1-2x a week. Join here if you want to be notified when they go out (because the algorithm probably won't show you them).*
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## III – How to turn multiple interests into a lucrative way of life
|
||||
|
||||
"There are a few things we know so far:"
|
||||
|
||||
- You have multiple interests but feel like you can't keep learning forever
|
||||
- You have a love for interest-based self-education but have to carve out time **outside** of your career to do it
|
||||
- You understand the need to become self-sufficient but you feel like you don't have value worth paying for, yet
|
||||
- You need to be able to adapt **fast** because we don't know what the future of work looks like
|
||||
|
||||
The question then is, how do we combine all of these things into one **way of life?**
|
||||
|
||||
How do we combine learning and earning into something you can do for work?
|
||||
|
||||
I'll try to make this as logical as I can.
|
||||
|
||||
To make money from your interests, you need other people to become interested in them too. That part is trivial. If you became interested in something, other people can too, you simply must learn to **persuade**.
|
||||
|
||||
Further, you need a way for them to pay you. In this context, that usually means you need to sell a product, because you probably aren't going to find a job that allows you to express your interests, and investing in stocks or real estate (to any effective degree) requires a good amount of capital.
|
||||
|
||||
In other words, you need **attention**.
|
||||
|
||||
**Attention is one of the last moats.**
|
||||
|
||||
Because when anyone can write anything or build any software, which ones are going to win? The ones that people **know about**. You can have the greatest product in the world, but if nobody knows about it, the person who can capture and hold attention will run laps around you.
|
||||
|
||||
As an aside, and if you've been keeping up with the tech space, no, I don't think everyone will just "build their own software." Most people don't even spend 20 minutes cooking their own food. They would rather pay a few bucks for Uber Eats. And people have their own things they want to spend their time on.
|
||||
|
||||
"**Back to the point:**"
|
||||
|
||||
**You need to become a creator.**
|
||||
|
||||
Now, before you cringe and leave, I don't exactly mean becoming a content creator (well… it's complicated).
|
||||
|
||||
I mean that the solution to stop creating for someone else because you need them to give you a paycheck is to create for **yourself**.
|
||||
|
||||
Humans, by nature, are creators who were convinced that being a machine would lead to the American Dream. We are tool builders at our core. We thrive in any niche because we create solutions to problems. If a lion were put in Alaska, it would not build shelter and clothing. It would die. A lion belongs in its own niche.
|
||||
|
||||
The thing is, every business is a media business now. And remember, you need attention. Where is the attention? Mostly on social media until the next attention preference platform comes around - you'll need to adapt at that point. So yes, if you have multiple interests, it would be wise to become a "content creator," but it may be easier to think of social media as a mechanism to get your interests in front of other people. It is one piece of the puzzle to do independent work.
|
||||
|
||||
Plus, that covers all of our bases.
|
||||
|
||||
- **You love learning?** Great, reframe it as "research" and now that's literally your main job. Most of the things I write about simply come from me learning about my interests and treating social media like I'm "taking notes in public."
|
||||
*(You're already spending time learning, now just spend that time learning in public and boom you have the foundation of a business).*
|
||||
|
||||
- **You need to become self-sufficient?** Well, you'd need a business to do that, and every business needs to attract customers, and you probably don't give two f*cks about paid ads, SEO, or any other form of marketing. This is what trips many people up because they are only used to doing one specialized task within a business as an employee.
|
||||
|
||||
- **You need to be able to adapt?** Amazing, you can build and launch new products to your audience as fast as you can build them. I have a solid audience, and if my next product were to fail, I have people who would be willing to invest, be a part of the team, or support the next product. You can build your little SaaS company, but if you don't have distribution, you are putting in marathons of extra leg work into getting capital, finding talent, and getting things off the ground.
|
||||
|
||||
No other job or business model allows you to do just that with so much freedom.
|
||||
|
||||
But how do you actually start building it?
|
||||
|
||||
How do you tie all of this together?
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## IV – How to turn yourself into a business
|
||||
|
||||
> If you've ever helped someone with your interests, you're qualified to start a business.
|
||||
|
||||
They no longer require upfront capital. They are not reserved for unethical elites. They are not only for people who want to make a lot of money. And they are not only for talented or special people.
|
||||
|
||||
The reality is that entrepreneurship is in our nature. It is modern survival. We are wired to create and distribute value to a tribe of like-minded people. We are wired to hunt, explore the unknown, seek novelty, and never stagnate. Psychologically, this is the most enjoyable way of life, even if there are low periods, because those are what allow the (non-artificial) highs to exist.
|
||||
|
||||
Further, the barrier of entry has collapsed.
|
||||
|
||||
All you really need is a laptop and internet connection.
|
||||
|
||||
Distribution is now free thanks to social media (well, not free, but skill-based, which can be expensive in time). Anyone can post an idea that reaches millions, and if they have a product, those millions of eyes can result in millions of dollars if you know what you're doing, and that's a big if. Most people just love becoming really good at an interest or skill that doesn't directly impact their success, potentially because they're afraid of it.
|
||||
|
||||
Tools and technology now handle what used to require teams of people. You have access to AI and a plethora of useful software.
|
||||
|
||||
Now, there are 2 paths you can take to start.
|
||||
|
||||
**Path 1) Skill-Based**
|
||||
|
||||
This is what dominated the internet for the longest time. You "learn a marketable skill." You teach that skill through content. Then you sell a product or service related to that skill.
|
||||
|
||||
The limitation here is the limitation of being a specialist. It is one-dimensional. You put yourself in a box. You "niche down" because you were told it is more profitable, and since you're chasing profit over interest, you tend to build yourself into a second 9-5 where you do work you don't care about for people you don't care about.
|
||||
|
||||
**Path 2) Development-Based**
|
||||
|
||||
"The creators that win right now are those without a niche they can be pinned down to. Typically, they are focused on one of the 4 eternal markets: health, wealth, relationships, happiness. Or even all of them. Technically, everyone's niche is self-actualization, they are just all taking infinitely unique paths to get there."
|
||||
|
||||
- They pursue your own goals (brand).
|
||||
- They teach what you learn (content).
|
||||
- They help others achieve the goal faster (product).
|
||||
|
||||
For those with multiple interests, I obviously recommend this path, because it goes a bit deeper.
|
||||
|
||||
First, when you take this path, you are also taking the first path. Because building your brand, content, and product requires you to become good at **all of the relevant marketable skills**, so even if you fail, you have something worth paying for. You are building your business, and you can help others with a specific part of theirs if you are good at it.
|
||||
|
||||
Second, it flips the traditional model on its head.
|
||||
|
||||
**You don't create a customer avatar so that you can niche down and only focus on that. You turn yourself into the customer avatar.**
|
||||
|
||||
That makes things much more palatable.
|
||||
|
||||
You pursue your goals in life and develop yourself → you have already validated the usefulness of what you will offer → you help the past version of yourself reach that same goal.
|
||||
|
||||
Don't be a YouTube creator.
|
||||
Don't be a personal brand.
|
||||
Don't be an influencer.
|
||||
**Be you.** But in a place where your work can be discovered, followed, and supported. Right now and for the foreseeable future, that's on the internet.
|
||||
|
||||
Jordan Peterson (or others like him) isn't a "content creator," even though that's how it seems on the surface.
|
||||
|
||||
He goes on tours, writes books, leverages social media as a base, and uses all of the **tools** at his disposal to **spread his life's work**. He isn't worried about the latest content idea trend. His mind outperforms any of those myopic growth strategies. The quality of his ideas is what sets him apart and changes people's lives (regardless of your opinion on Peterson).
|
||||
|
||||
With that, I want to provide a different perspective on brand, content, and product. That way you can use this as a vessel for your life's work.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## V – Brand is an environment
|
||||
|
||||
Stop thinking of your brand as a profile picture and social media bio.
|
||||
|
||||
**Brand is an environment where people come to transform.**
|
||||
Brand is the little world you are inviting others into.
|
||||
Brand isn't illustrated when a reader first visits your profile.
|
||||
**Brand is the accumulation of ideas in your reader's mind after 3-6 months of following you.**
|
||||
|
||||
You illustrate your worldview, story, and philosophy for life across every single touchpoint. Your banner, profile picture, bio, link in bio, landing page design, pinned content, posts, threads, newsletters, videos, and the rest.
|
||||
|
||||
"In other words, your brand is this:"
|
||||
|
||||
**Your brand is your story.**
|
||||
|
||||
It would help to spend a day writing out where you came from, the "low" points of your life, the experiences you've had and skills you've acquired, and how those things have helped you the most.
|
||||
|
||||
When you're thinking of ideas, content, or products, you should filter them through your story. This doesn't mean you have to talk about yourself all the time. It means you have to align what you're saying so that your brand is cohesive.
|
||||
|
||||
The difficult part is realizing that your story is worth telling, even if you think it's boring or haven't reflected on your growth.
|
||||
|
||||
"The point:"
|
||||
|
||||
Your bio and profile picture do not matter. There are literal people with one word in their bio and a singular color for their profile picture.
|
||||
|
||||
"My recommendation:"
|
||||
|
||||
- Make a list of 5-10 people you respect online
|
||||
- Look at their profile picture, bio, and content
|
||||
- Take mental note of patterns between them
|
||||
- Start formulating what you should do for your own brand, with your own little spin
|
||||
|
||||
In all honesty, I wouldn't overcomplicate this or even worry about it. Your brand will take shape as you start writing content. We could even say that brand **is** content, so we need to get that right.
|
||||
|
||||
This article on the [content ecosystem to build your own world](https://letters.thedankoe.com/p/how-to-build-a-world-the-2-hour-content?lli=1) may help.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## VI – Content is novel perspectives
|
||||
|
||||
The internet is a fire hose of information.
|
||||
AI is only adding more noise.
|
||||
That means trust and signal are more important than ever.
|
||||
|
||||
In my opinion, the guiding light for your content should be to curate the best possible ideas in one place.
|
||||
|
||||
**Your brand is a collection of all the ideas you care about, in your own words, under one account on the internet.**
|
||||
|
||||
If you have any plans to do podcasts or public speaking, notice how the best speakers always have 5-10 of their best arguments or ideas top of mind. They repeat these over and over and that's how they build influence. If you don't have a set of those 5-10 ideas, then you won't be as impactful as you could be. Writing a truckload of content is how you discover those ideas.
|
||||
|
||||
Once the "idea density" of your content increases with time and effort, that's what creates a brand worth following and paying for.
|
||||
|
||||
"The goal of curating ideas to include under your brand should fall at the intersection of:"
|
||||
|
||||
- **Performance** – the ideas have the potential to "do well." This is the measure of how much other people will care.
|
||||
- **Excitement** – the ideas give you a sense of excitement to write about them. This is the measure of how much you care.
|
||||
|
||||
Art and business.
|
||||
Metrics and performance shouldn't determine everything, but they do mean something.
|
||||
|
||||
**Step 1) Build an idea museum**
|
||||
|
||||
The secret of most creatives you love is that they keep a ruthless curation of notes, ideas, and sources of inspiration.
|
||||
|
||||
In other words, they have a "swipe file," as marketers call it.
|
||||
|
||||
You can use [Eden](https://eden.so/) (if you have access), Apple Notes, Notion, or whatever else you want, but I want to make this very clear:
|
||||
|
||||
**You need somewhere to jot down ideas as soon as they come to mind.**
|
||||
|
||||
This is a critical habit.
|
||||
|
||||
Whenever you find an idea that is useful, either now or in the near future, write it down. You don't need content pillars or 2-3 topics to talk about. The ideas you curate should simply be important to you. That alone means they are relevant to a specific niche of a person: you. However, you can create a [content map](https://letters.thedankoe.com/p/the-content-map-how-to-never-run) if you'd like.
|
||||
|
||||
I don't care how you structure this. It can be a neat and organized set of documents, or it can be a messy running note without structure. The habit matters more than the format.
|
||||
|
||||
You gauge performance by glancing at the likes, views, or general engagement of a post to see if it has the potential to resonate. If the idea falls flat or does worse than their other content, it probably won't do well for you.
|
||||
|
||||
You gauge excitement by noticing when you feel as if you are wasting something valuable if you don't write it down.
|
||||
|
||||
**Step 2) Curate based on idea density**
|
||||
|
||||
How do you start filling your idea museum?
|
||||
|
||||
You need 3-5 sources of information that have high idea density.
|
||||
|
||||
When I say "idea density," I mean an idea that is high signal.
|
||||
|
||||
It's difficult to explain how to find something that is high signal, because that is subjective. It's dependent on your level of development (what's useful for you), your audience's level of development (what's useful for them), and your translation from one to another.
|
||||
|
||||
The most basic piece of advice could be the most valuable thing in the world for someone else, but it may seem like common knowledge to you.
|
||||
|
||||
With time, you will tune your own signal-to-noise ratio by seeing what ideas resonate with your audience and which don't.
|
||||
|
||||
"The most idea-dense sources of information:"
|
||||
|
||||
- **Old or little-known books** – I have 5 books that I reread over and over again because the ideas are so good. These are where the timeless principles live, untouched by trends.
|
||||
- **Curated blogs, accounts, or books** – Blogs like Farnam Street curate the best ideas from modern intellectuals. Accounts like Navalism curate Naval's best ideas. Books like *The Maxwell Daily Reader* have one of Maxwell's best ideas one day at a time for a year. These do a lot of the heavy lifting for you, allowing you to pick and choose the best of the best.
|
||||
- **Heavy-hitting social accounts** – I have a list of maybe 5 social accounts that always post great ideas. If I don't have something to write about, I'll scroll through their page and find something I have an opinion on and write about that.
|
||||
|
||||
Finding these sources takes a few months of discovery. But the result of maintaining an idea museum of dense ideas leads to you creating idea-dense content.
|
||||
|
||||
Your idea museum becomes a representation of the mind you are attempting to create.
|
||||
|
||||
That's the ultimate goal.
|
||||
|
||||
To have a library of content so good that people can't help but open your emails, turn on post notifications, share your ideas with friends, and think about your ideas often.
|
||||
|
||||
> You become a **curator** of ideas that people wouldn't even think to ask AI for, and that people would never come across organically.
|
||||
|
||||
That's how you become less dependent on the algorithm for your success.
|
||||
|
||||
**Step 3) Write 1 idea 1000 different ways**
|
||||
|
||||
Becoming a good writer or speaker isn't only about the idea, but **how the idea is articulated**.
|
||||
|
||||
The idea does a lot of the heavy lifting, but the structure is what makes it engaging, unique, and impactful.
|
||||
|
||||
Let me show you what I mean.
|
||||
|
||||
"Take this post structure:"
|
||||
|
||||
> "One pattern I've noticed in happy people: They're obsessive about maintaining their mental clarity."
|
||||
|
||||
The idea here is that happy people maintain their mental clarity.
|
||||
|
||||
"The structure is formatted in 2 parts: a hook in the form of an observation, and the delivery of what the observation is."
|
||||
|
||||
It seems simple, but the difference in the structure of an idea can make all the difference.
|
||||
|
||||
"Now, if I take the same idea but use a "list" structure:"
|
||||
|
||||
> "Happy people are clear-minded people:
|
||||
> – They take time for rest
|
||||
> – They focus on one singular goal
|
||||
> – They ruthlessly eliminate distractions
|
||||
> In other words, happy people are obsessive about maintaining their mental clarity."
|
||||
|
||||
Same idea. Different structure. Different impact.
|
||||
|
||||
If you wanted to, you could practice writing the same idea with every single post structure you come across.
|
||||
|
||||
"Here's how to practice this:"
|
||||
|
||||
**First**, break down 3 ideas into their structure.
|
||||
|
||||
Choose 3 posts from your idea museum that resonated with you. Then, try to break down each part of the idea and write why it works.
|
||||
|
||||
If you don't have experience with content psychology, that's okay. You learn it as you practice.
|
||||
|
||||
"This is the perfect time to employ AI for help. Try this prompt for each post:"
|
||||
|
||||
> Do a comprehensive analysis on this social post. The overall idea, how the sentences are structured, and choice of words. Analyze why people engage with it, why it works so well, what psychological tactics are being used, and how I can replicate this style step-by-step with my own ideas.
|
||||
|
||||
Then paste the post below the prompt.
|
||||
|
||||
I'd recommend Claude as the model to use for this over ChatGPT or Gemini.
|
||||
|
||||
Continue doing this for any idea you find along your journey that you want to incorporate as part of your writing style. You can use this for videos as well, not just posts.
|
||||
|
||||
**Second**, rewrite 3 ideas with different structures.
|
||||
|
||||
Go back to your idea museum and choose one idea you didn't use in step one.
|
||||
|
||||
Then, try rewriting that idea with the 3 post structures you just broke down.
|
||||
|
||||
This is how you develop range.
|
||||
|
||||
This is how you stop staring at blank screens.
|
||||
|
||||
This is how you turn one idea into a week's worth of content.
|
||||
|
||||
Why are we doing this?
|
||||
|
||||
Well, you now have all of the secrets to creating content that stands out and coming up with good ideas.
|
||||
|
||||
Seriously, those are the secrets. Any results that come from them are a matter of practice.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## VII – Systems are the new product
|
||||
|
||||
Okay, this is getting long so I'm going to speed things up.
|
||||
|
||||
And I have an entire guide on [creating your first product here](https://letters.thedankoe.com/p/mega-guide-how-to-create-your-first)... so don't want to be redundant.
|
||||
|
||||
At this point in time, we are in a **systems economy**.
|
||||
|
||||
People don't want **a** solution to their problems.
|
||||
**They want your solution to their problems.**
|
||||
|
||||
There are tons of writing products out there, so what's different about my 2 Hour Writer product, as an example? Or even Eden, the software that I'm building that could "easily be replaced by Google Drive or Dropbox," according to super smart people who have definitely built successful products in the YouTube comments?
|
||||
|
||||
They're systems that I created by getting results for myself.
|
||||
|
||||
2HW doesn't teach a bunch of academic writing nonsense that doesn't help you achieve our shared vision of living a creative and meaningful life.
|
||||
|
||||
"I had a few problems:"
|
||||
|
||||
- I had trouble having an endless source of content ideas.
|
||||
- I didn't want to waste a ton of time creating content for all different platforms.
|
||||
|
||||
So, I started experimenting with my own system.
|
||||
|
||||
"My goal for the system was clear: write all of the content I need to in under 2 hours a day. That way my audience growth is handled and I can focus on building better products and enjoying life."
|
||||
|
||||
I started testing solutions to have more content ideas.
|
||||
|
||||
I created swipe files, steps to generate ideas, and templates if I still couldn't think of anything.
|
||||
|
||||
"I mapped out exactly what I was going to attempt to write each week: 3 posts a day, 1 thread a week, and 1 newsletter a week."
|
||||
|
||||
During that process, I realized I could cross-post my writing to all social platforms (this is public, you can see it). I also realized that threads could be turned into carousels, and newsletters could be turned into YouTube videos.
|
||||
|
||||
If the system didn't flow, I would try new things the next week.
|
||||
|
||||
From there, I realized I could copy paste my newsletter to my blog, embed the YT video in that blog, promote my products in that blog, and turn that blog into more content ideas.
|
||||
|
||||
Then, I could link that blog under my content each day.
|
||||
|
||||
This led to more newsletter subscribers, YouTube subscribers, and product sales.
|
||||
|
||||
I realized that if everything I did was newsletter centric, that's all I had to worry about for both growing my audience and promoting my products.
|
||||
|
||||
**That's how you stand out in a world of copy paste products.**
|
||||
|
||||
Yes, it takes time and experience.
|
||||
|
||||
But the end result is so worth it.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
That's it for this letter.
|
||||
|
||||
Thank you for reading.
|
||||
|
||||
– Dan
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
*原文发表于 https://x.com/thedankoe/status/2010042119121957316*
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: If you have multiple interests, do not waste the next 2-3 years
|
||||
source:
|
||||
author: shenwei
|
||||
published:
|
||||
created:
|
||||
description:
|
||||
tags: []
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
# If you have multiple interests, do not waste the next 2-3 years
|
||||
|
||||
**作者:** Dan Koe (@thedankoe)
|
||||
**发布时间:** 1月11日
|
||||
**原始链接:** https://x.com/thedankoe/status/2010042119121957316
|
||||
**统计:** 811 回复 · 7,508 次转帖 · 3.6万 喜欢 · 8.5万 书签 · 1,457万 次查看
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Society made you think that having multiple interests was a weakness.
|
||||
|
||||
Go to school.
|
||||
Get a degree.
|
||||
Get a job.
|
||||
Retire at some point.
|
||||
|
||||
But there is so much wrong with that sequence of events.
|
||||
|
||||
We don't live in the Industrial Age anymore. Specializing in one skill is almost certain death. I feel like we all know by this point how dangerous mechanical living and siloed learning is for your psyche and soul. And people can feel that we're going through a second renaissance. Your curiosity and love for learning are your advantages in today's world, but there is something missing.
|
||||
|
||||
For the longest time, I learned and learned and learned. I was stuck in tutorial hell. Some may call it shiny object syndrome to point out your lack of focus. I got my dopamine from feeling smart, but my life didn't change all that much. Honestly, I felt like I was just falling behind. I tried so many different things in college. I had dreams of doing my own thing... earning an income from something creative... but after spending 5 years "learning," I was met with the reality that I had to get the best job I could find just so I could survive.
|
||||
|
||||
The missing piece was a **vessel**.
|
||||
|
||||
A vessel that would allow me to **channel** all of my interests into meaningful work that I could earn a decent income from.
|
||||
|
||||
If you've ever felt guilty for not being able to pick one thing, if you've been told to niche down when your mind wants to expand, if you've wondered whether there's a path you can take that doesn't lead to the misery you see in everyone else's eyes – this is the greatest time to be alive.
|
||||
|
||||
Here are 7 of the most compelling ideas I could come up with. We'll start by understanding why having multiple interests is a superpower in today's world, then I'll give you practical steps to turn that into your life's work. We have **a lot** to talk about, so I hope you're here for the ride.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## I – The 3 ingredients of individual success & the death of the expert
|
||||
|
||||
> The man whose whole life is spent in performing a few simple operations... generally becomes as stupid and ignorant as it is possible for a human creature to become. — Adam Smith
|
||||
|
||||
Funny you say that Mr. Smith, because you created those people, and we're still dealing with the backlash.
|
||||
|
||||
Specialization took over during industrialization because, in a pin factory, for example, one worker doing every step could make 20 pins a day. Then workers, each doing one step, could make 48,000.
|
||||
|
||||
So we built an entire world around this model.
|
||||
|
||||
Humans became assembly lines working 9 to 5 because frankly, governments don't serve the national interest, they serve their own interest. Corporations don't serve the employees interest, they serve their own.
|
||||
|
||||
Schools were designed to serve that interest. Their sole purpose was to create factory workers who were punctual and obedient.
|
||||
|
||||
But this is no way to live.
|
||||
|
||||
If you want to have specialized knowledge so that you could never run an operation, especially your own operation, then be dependent on schools for your education and jobs for your wage. Be duped into believing the promise that specialization is what makes a human valuable when it is clear that the system does not need you, specifically, to perform that task.
|
||||
|
||||
In lies the distinction.
|
||||
|
||||
If pure specialization makes people stupid and dependent, what makes an individual smart and sovereign?
|
||||
|
||||
**Three ingredients**: Self-education, self-interest, self-sufficiency.
|
||||
|
||||
**Self-education** is clear, because if you want to achieve a result different from that of traditional education, you must direct your own learning.
|
||||
|
||||
**Self-interest** raises some flags. It sounds selfish and short-sighted, which many people view as bad without thinking through it, but it simply means "concern with one's own interest," because the only other option is to serve the interest of the organizations that compose society as it is, which we've discussed. In other words, follow your interest, because your interest can very well benefit others in a selfless way - depending on your level of cognitive and moral development. Oh, and by the way, indulging in short-lived pleasures (cheap dopamine) is usually not your interest, but the interest of corporations that benefit from your mindlessness.
|
||||
|
||||
> The truly selfish person, in Ayn Rand's view, is a self-respecting, self-supporting human being who neither sacrifices others to himself nor sacrifices himself to others. This rejects both the predator **and** the doormat.
|
||||
|
||||
**Self-sufficiency** is the refusal to outsource your judgment, learning, and agency. If self-education is the engine and self-interest is the compass, self-sufficiency is the foundation that prevents your life direction from being hijacked by another force. They collaborate, but are not fully dependent.
|
||||
|
||||
The generalist emerges naturally from this triad.
|
||||
|
||||
- **Self-interest** motivates **self-education**. You learn because it genuinely serves your flourishing, not because someone assigned it.
|
||||
- **Self-education** enables **self-sufficiency**. You can only be sovereign over domains you understand.
|
||||
- **Self-sufficiency** clarifies **self-interest**. When you're not dependent on others' interpretations, you can actually perceive what serves you. Most people pursue multiple interests as an escape from their work. When your interests become your work, or your life's work, most of them start to filter out.
|
||||
|
||||
When we look at every CEO, founder, or creative that we actually admire, they are generalists.
|
||||
|
||||
They understand enough about marketing to direct it, enough about product to build it, and enough about people to lead them. But they also need to direct the ship. They need to learn and adapt when circumstances change.
|
||||
|
||||
More importantly, they understand that ideas across domains complement each other and create a unique way of viewing the world, which allows them to catch novel ideas from the aether and translate them into market value.
|
||||
|
||||
When we look at where the world is today, and if you understand the opportunities available to singular individuals, not just leaders, you will find that the options you have as a natural polymath are extensive. It should spark an immense amount of excitement in you.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## II – You are living through the second renaissance, take advantage of it
|
||||
|
||||
> Study the science of art. Study the art of science. Develop your senses—especially learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else. — Leonardo da Vinci
|
||||
|
||||
The ultimate moat, or the final competitive edge worth paying for, in my opinion, is an **opinion**.
|
||||
|
||||
A perspective that only you can see, because the uniqueness of your life experience created it. That may just be the last thing anyone else can replicate.
|
||||
|
||||
And since that's always been the case, why not prioritize that now? Especially when automation is at our doorstep?
|
||||
|
||||
But how do you prioritize it? How do you develop it?
|
||||
|
||||
By pursuing multiple interests and building something with them.
|
||||
|
||||
You see, every interest you've ever pursued leaves behind a residue. Every interest increases the number of connections that can be made. Every interest expands and increases the complexity of how you model and interpret reality. The more complex your model of reality, the more problems you can solve, opportunities you can see, and value you can create.
|
||||
|
||||
Specialism completely halts this process, and your shiny object syndrome has been trying to tell you this whole time.
|
||||
|
||||
From birth until now, you are cultivating a way of seeing things that others can't. A way of seeing things that AI can only think if you tell it what to think.
|
||||
|
||||
A person who studied psychology and design sees user behavior differently from the pure designer. A person who learned sales and philosophy closes deals differently than the pure salesman. A person who understands fitness and business builds health companies that MBAs can't comprehend.
|
||||
|
||||
**Your edge lies more in intersection than it does in expertise.**
|
||||
|
||||
This is the exact pattern we see in the Renaissance that is coming back with a much stronger force now.
|
||||
|
||||
Consider what made it possible...
|
||||
|
||||
Before the printing press, knowledge was scarce.
|
||||
|
||||
Books were copied by hand. A single text could take a scribe months to reproduce. Libraries were rare. Literacy was rarer. If you wanted to learn something outside your trade, you either had access to a monastery or you didn't learn it.
|
||||
|
||||
Then Gutenberg changed everything.
|
||||
|
||||
Within 50 years, 20 million books flooded Europe. Ideas that once took generations to spread now moved in months. Literacy exploded. The cost of knowledge collapsed.
|
||||
|
||||
**For the first time in history, a person could realistically pursue multiple domains of mastery in a single lifetime.**
|
||||
|
||||
The Renaissance was the result.
|
||||
|
||||
Da Vinci didn't pick one thing. He painted, sculpted, engineered, studied anatomy, designed war machines, and mapped the human body. Michelangelo was a painter, sculptor, architect, and poet.
|
||||
|
||||
Unique minds are finally free to operate the way they are supposed to.
|
||||
|
||||
They were supposed to cross disciplines, synthesize connections, and follow curiosity wherever it led, but most of us never realized that.
|
||||
|
||||
The printing press was the catalyst for a new type of person to emerge. A person who could learn anything, combine everything, and create what no specialist ever could.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
*If you enjoy these letters, I send them out 1-2x a week. Join here if you want to be notified when they go out (because the algorithm probably won't show you them).*
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## III – How to turn multiple interests into a lucrative way of life
|
||||
|
||||
"There are a few things we know so far:"
|
||||
|
||||
- You have multiple interests but feel like you can't keep learning forever
|
||||
- You have a love for interest-based self-education but have to carve out time **outside** of your career to do it
|
||||
- You understand the need to become self-sufficient but you feel like you don't have value worth paying for, yet
|
||||
- You need to be able to adapt **fast** because we don't know what the future of work looks like
|
||||
|
||||
The question then is, how do we combine all of these things into one **way of life?**
|
||||
|
||||
How do we combine learning and earning into something you can do for work?
|
||||
|
||||
I'll try to make this as logical as I can.
|
||||
|
||||
To make money from your interests, you need other people to become interested in them too. That part is trivial. If you became interested in something, other people can too, you simply must learn to **persuade**.
|
||||
|
||||
Further, you need a way for them to pay you. In this context, that usually means you need to sell a product, because you probably aren't going to find a job that allows you to express your interests, and investing in stocks or real estate (to any effective degree) requires a good amount of capital.
|
||||
|
||||
In other words, you need **attention**.
|
||||
|
||||
**Attention is one of the last moats.**
|
||||
|
||||
Because when anyone can write anything or build any software, which ones are going to win? The ones that people **know about**. You can have the greatest product in the world, but if nobody knows about it, the person who can capture and hold attention will run laps around you.
|
||||
|
||||
As an aside, and if you've been keeping up with the tech space, no, I don't think everyone will just "build their own software." Most people don't even spend 20 minutes cooking their own food. They would rather pay a few bucks for Uber Eats. And people have their own things they want to spend their time on.
|
||||
|
||||
"**Back to the point:**"
|
||||
|
||||
**You need to become a creator.**
|
||||
|
||||
Now, before you cringe and leave, I don't exactly mean becoming a content creator (well… it's complicated).
|
||||
|
||||
I mean that the solution to stop creating for someone else because you need them to give you a paycheck is to create for **yourself**.
|
||||
|
||||
Humans, by nature, are creators who were convinced that being a machine would lead to the American Dream. We are tool builders at our core. We thrive in any niche because we create solutions to problems. If a lion were put in Alaska, it would not build shelter and clothing. It would die. A lion belongs in its own niche.
|
||||
|
||||
The thing is, every business is a media business now. And remember, you need attention. Where is the attention? Mostly on social media until the next attention preference platform comes around - you'll need to adapt at that point. So yes, if you have multiple interests, it would be wise to become a "content creator," but it may be easier to think of social media as a mechanism to get your interests in front of other people. It is one piece of the puzzle to do independent work.
|
||||
|
||||
Plus, that covers all of our bases.
|
||||
|
||||
- **You love learning?** Great, reframe it as "research" and now that's literally your main job. Most of the things I write about simply come from me learning about my interests and treating social media like I'm "taking notes in public."
|
||||
*(You're already spending time learning, now just spend that time learning in public and boom you have the foundation of a business).*
|
||||
|
||||
- **You need to become self-sufficient?** Well, you'd need a business to do that, and every business needs to attract customers, and you probably don't give two f*cks about paid ads, SEO, or any other form of marketing. This is what trips many people up because they are only used to doing one specialized task within a business as an employee.
|
||||
|
||||
- **You need to be able to adapt?** Amazing, you can build and launch new products to your audience as fast as you can build them. I have a solid audience, and if my next product were to fail, I have people who would be willing to invest, be a part of the team, or support the next product. You can build your little SaaS company, but if you don't have distribution, you are putting in marathons of extra leg work into getting capital, finding talent, and getting things off the ground.
|
||||
|
||||
No other job or business model allows you to do just that with so much freedom.
|
||||
|
||||
But how do you actually start building it?
|
||||
|
||||
How do you tie all of this together?
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## IV – How to turn yourself into a business
|
||||
|
||||
> If you've ever helped someone with your interests, you're qualified to start a business.
|
||||
|
||||
They no longer require upfront capital. They are not reserved for unethical elites. They are not only for people who want to make a lot of money. And they are not only for talented or special people.
|
||||
|
||||
The reality is that entrepreneurship is in our nature. It is modern survival. We are wired to create and distribute value to a tribe of like-minded people. We are wired to hunt, explore the unknown, seek novelty, and never stagnate. Psychologically, this is the most enjoyable way of life, even if there are low periods, because those are what allow the (non-artificial) highs to exist.
|
||||
|
||||
Further, the barrier of entry has collapsed.
|
||||
|
||||
All you really need is a laptop and internet connection.
|
||||
|
||||
Distribution is now free thanks to social media (well, not free, but skill-based, which can be expensive in time). Anyone can post an idea that reaches millions, and if they have a product, those millions of eyes can result in millions of dollars if you know what you're doing, and that's a big if. Most people just love becoming really good at an interest or skill that doesn't directly impact their success, potentially because they're afraid of it.
|
||||
|
||||
Tools and technology now handle what used to require teams of people. You have access to AI and a plethora of useful software.
|
||||
|
||||
Now, there are 2 paths you can take to start.
|
||||
|
||||
**Path 1) Skill-Based**
|
||||
|
||||
This is what dominated the internet for the longest time. You "learn a marketable skill." You teach that skill through content. Then you sell a product or service related to that skill.
|
||||
|
||||
The limitation here is the limitation of being a specialist. It is one-dimensional. You put yourself in a box. You "niche down" because you were told it is more profitable, and since you're chasing profit over interest, you tend to build yourself into a second 9-5 where you do work you don't care about for people you don't care about.
|
||||
|
||||
**Path 2) Development-Based**
|
||||
|
||||
"The creators that win right now are those without a niche they can be pinned down to. Typically, they are focused on one of the 4 eternal markets: health, wealth, relationships, happiness. Or even all of them. Technically, everyone's niche is self-actualization, they are just all taking infinitely unique paths to get there."
|
||||
|
||||
- They pursue your own goals (brand).
|
||||
- They teach what you learn (content).
|
||||
- They help others achieve the goal faster (product).
|
||||
|
||||
For those with multiple interests, I obviously recommend this path, because it goes a bit deeper.
|
||||
|
||||
First, when you take this path, you are also taking the first path. Because building your brand, content, and product requires you to become good at **all of the relevant marketable skills**, so even if you fail, you have something worth paying for. You are building your business, and you can help others with a specific part of theirs if you are good at it.
|
||||
|
||||
Second, it flips the traditional model on its head.
|
||||
|
||||
**You don't create a customer avatar so that you can niche down and only focus on that. You turn yourself into the customer avatar.**
|
||||
|
||||
That makes things much more palatable.
|
||||
|
||||
You pursue your goals in life and develop yourself → you have already validated the usefulness of what you will offer → you help the past version of yourself reach that same goal.
|
||||
|
||||
Don't be a YouTube creator.
|
||||
Don't be a personal brand.
|
||||
Don't be an influencer.
|
||||
**Be you.** But in a place where your work can be discovered, followed, and supported. Right now and for the foreseeable future, that's on the internet.
|
||||
|
||||
Jordan Peterson (or others like him) isn't a "content creator," even though that's how it seems on the surface.
|
||||
|
||||
He goes on tours, writes books, leverages social media as a base, and uses all of the **tools** at his disposal to **spread his life's work**. He isn't worried about the latest content idea trend. His mind outperforms any of those myopic growth strategies. The quality of his ideas is what sets him apart and changes people's lives (regardless of your opinion on Peterson).
|
||||
|
||||
With that, I want to provide a different perspective on brand, content, and product. That way you can use this as a vessel for your life's work.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## V – Brand is an environment
|
||||
|
||||
Stop thinking of your brand as a profile picture and social media bio.
|
||||
|
||||
**Brand is an environment where people come to transform.**
|
||||
Brand is the little world you are inviting others into.
|
||||
Brand isn't illustrated when a reader first visits your profile.
|
||||
**Brand is the accumulation of ideas in your reader's mind after 3-6 months of following you.**
|
||||
|
||||
You illustrate your worldview, story, and philosophy for life across every single touchpoint. Your banner, profile picture, bio, link in bio, landing page design, pinned content, posts, threads, newsletters, videos, and the rest.
|
||||
|
||||
"In other words, your brand is this:"
|
||||
|
||||
**Your brand is your story.**
|
||||
|
||||
It would help to spend a day writing out where you came from, the "low" points of your life, the experiences you've had and skills you've acquired, and how those things have helped you the most.
|
||||
|
||||
When you're thinking of ideas, content, or products, you should filter them through your story. This doesn't mean you have to talk about yourself all the time. It means you have to align what you're saying so that your brand is cohesive.
|
||||
|
||||
The difficult part is realizing that your story is worth telling, even if you think it's boring or haven't reflected on your growth.
|
||||
|
||||
"The point:"
|
||||
|
||||
Your bio and profile picture do not matter. There are literal people with one word in their bio and a singular color for their profile picture.
|
||||
|
||||
"My recommendation:"
|
||||
|
||||
- Make a list of 5-10 people you respect online
|
||||
- Look at their profile picture, bio, and content
|
||||
- Take mental note of patterns between them
|
||||
- Start formulating what you should do for your own brand, with your own little spin
|
||||
|
||||
In all honesty, I wouldn't overcomplicate this or even worry about it. Your brand will take shape as you start writing content. We could even say that brand **is** content, so we need to get that right.
|
||||
|
||||
This article on the [content ecosystem to build your own world](https://letters.thedankoe.com/p/how-to-build-a-world-the-2-hour-content?lli=1) may help.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## VI – Content is novel perspectives
|
||||
|
||||
The internet is a fire hose of information.
|
||||
AI is only adding more noise.
|
||||
That means trust and signal are more important than ever.
|
||||
|
||||
In my opinion, the guiding light for your content should be to curate the best possible ideas in one place.
|
||||
|
||||
**Your brand is a collection of all the ideas you care about, in your own words, under one account on the internet.**
|
||||
|
||||
If you have any plans to do podcasts or public speaking, notice how the best speakers always have 5-10 of their best arguments or ideas top of mind. They repeat these over and over and that's how they build influence. If you don't have a set of those 5-10 ideas, then you won't be as impactful as you could be. Writing a truckload of content is how you discover those ideas.
|
||||
|
||||
Once the "idea density" of your content increases with time and effort, that's what creates a brand worth following and paying for.
|
||||
|
||||
"The goal of curating ideas to include under your brand should fall at the intersection of:"
|
||||
|
||||
- **Performance** – the ideas have the potential to "do well." This is the measure of how much other people will care.
|
||||
- **Excitement** – the ideas give you a sense of excitement to write about them. This is the measure of how much you care.
|
||||
|
||||
Art and business.
|
||||
Metrics and performance shouldn't determine everything, but they do mean something.
|
||||
|
||||
**Step 1) Build an idea museum**
|
||||
|
||||
The secret of most creatives you love is that they keep a ruthless curation of notes, ideas, and sources of inspiration.
|
||||
|
||||
In other words, they have a "swipe file," as marketers call it.
|
||||
|
||||
You can use [Eden](https://eden.so/) (if you have access), Apple Notes, Notion, or whatever else you want, but I want to make this very clear:
|
||||
|
||||
**You need somewhere to jot down ideas as soon as they come to mind.**
|
||||
|
||||
This is a critical habit.
|
||||
|
||||
Whenever you find an idea that is useful, either now or in the near future, write it down. You don't need content pillars or 2-3 topics to talk about. The ideas you curate should simply be important to you. That alone means they are relevant to a specific niche of a person: you. However, you can create a [content map](https://letters.thedankoe.com/p/the-content-map-how-to-never-run) if you'd like.
|
||||
|
||||
I don't care how you structure this. It can be a neat and organized set of documents, or it can be a messy running note without structure. The habit matters more than the format.
|
||||
|
||||
You gauge performance by glancing at the likes, views, or general engagement of a post to see if it has the potential to resonate. If the idea falls flat or does worse than their other content, it probably won't do well for you.
|
||||
|
||||
You gauge excitement by noticing when you feel as if you are wasting something valuable if you don't write it down.
|
||||
|
||||
**Step 2) Curate based on idea density**
|
||||
|
||||
How do you start filling your idea museum?
|
||||
|
||||
You need 3-5 sources of information that have high idea density.
|
||||
|
||||
When I say "idea density," I mean an idea that is high signal.
|
||||
|
||||
It's difficult to explain how to find something that is high signal, because that is subjective. It's dependent on your level of development (what's useful for you), your audience's level of development (what's useful for them), and your translation from one to another.
|
||||
|
||||
The most basic piece of advice could be the most valuable thing in the world for someone else, but it may seem like common knowledge to you.
|
||||
|
||||
With time, you will tune your own signal-to-noise ratio by seeing what ideas resonate with your audience and which don't.
|
||||
|
||||
"The most idea-dense sources of information:"
|
||||
|
||||
- **Old or little-known books** – I have 5 books that I reread over and over again because the ideas are so good. These are where the timeless principles live, untouched by trends.
|
||||
- **Curated blogs, accounts, or books** – Blogs like Farnam Street curate the best ideas from modern intellectuals. Accounts like Navalism curate Naval's best ideas. Books like *The Maxwell Daily Reader* have one of Maxwell's best ideas one day at a time for a year. These do a lot of the heavy lifting for you, allowing you to pick and choose the best of the best.
|
||||
- **Heavy-hitting social accounts** – I have a list of maybe 5 social accounts that always post great ideas. If I don't have something to write about, I'll scroll through their page and find something I have an opinion on and write about that.
|
||||
|
||||
Finding these sources takes a few months of discovery. But the result of maintaining an idea museum of dense ideas leads to you creating idea-dense content.
|
||||
|
||||
Your idea museum becomes a representation of the mind you are attempting to create.
|
||||
|
||||
That's the ultimate goal.
|
||||
|
||||
To have a library of content so good that people can't help but open your emails, turn on post notifications, share your ideas with friends, and think about your ideas often.
|
||||
|
||||
> You become a **curator** of ideas that people wouldn't even think to ask AI for, and that people would never come across organically.
|
||||
|
||||
That's how you become less dependent on the algorithm for your success.
|
||||
|
||||
**Step 3) Write 1 idea 1000 different ways**
|
||||
|
||||
Becoming a good writer or speaker isn't only about the idea, but **how the idea is articulated**.
|
||||
|
||||
The idea does a lot of the heavy lifting, but the structure is what makes it engaging, unique, and impactful.
|
||||
|
||||
Let me show you what I mean.
|
||||
|
||||
"Take this post structure:"
|
||||
|
||||
> "One pattern I've noticed in happy people: They're obsessive about maintaining their mental clarity."
|
||||
|
||||
The idea here is that happy people maintain their mental clarity.
|
||||
|
||||
"The structure is formatted in 2 parts: a hook in the form of an observation, and the delivery of what the observation is."
|
||||
|
||||
It seems simple, but the difference in the structure of an idea can make all the difference.
|
||||
|
||||
"Now, if I take the same idea but use a "list" structure:"
|
||||
|
||||
> "Happy people are clear-minded people:
|
||||
> – They take time for rest
|
||||
> – They focus on one singular goal
|
||||
> – They ruthlessly eliminate distractions
|
||||
> In other words, happy people are obsessive about maintaining their mental clarity."
|
||||
|
||||
Same idea. Different structure. Different impact.
|
||||
|
||||
If you wanted to, you could practice writing the same idea with every single post structure you come across.
|
||||
|
||||
"Here's how to practice this:"
|
||||
|
||||
**First**, break down 3 ideas into their structure.
|
||||
|
||||
Choose 3 posts from your idea museum that resonated with you. Then, try to break down each part of the idea and write why it works.
|
||||
|
||||
If you don't have experience with content psychology, that's okay. You learn it as you practice.
|
||||
|
||||
"This is the perfect time to employ AI for help. Try this prompt for each post:"
|
||||
|
||||
> Do a comprehensive analysis on this social post. The overall idea, how the sentences are structured, and choice of words. Analyze why people engage with it, why it works so well, what psychological tactics are being used, and how I can replicate this style step-by-step with my own ideas.
|
||||
|
||||
Then paste the post below the prompt.
|
||||
|
||||
I'd recommend Claude as the model to use for this over ChatGPT or Gemini.
|
||||
|
||||
Continue doing this for any idea you find along your journey that you want to incorporate as part of your writing style. You can use this for videos as well, not just posts.
|
||||
|
||||
**Second**, rewrite 3 ideas with different structures.
|
||||
|
||||
Go back to your idea museum and choose one idea you didn't use in step one.
|
||||
|
||||
Then, try rewriting that idea with the 3 post structures you just broke down.
|
||||
|
||||
This is how you develop range.
|
||||
|
||||
This is how you stop staring at blank screens.
|
||||
|
||||
This is how you turn one idea into a week's worth of content.
|
||||
|
||||
Why are we doing this?
|
||||
|
||||
Well, you now have all of the secrets to creating content that stands out and coming up with good ideas.
|
||||
|
||||
Seriously, those are the secrets. Any results that come from them are a matter of practice.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## VII – Systems are the new product
|
||||
|
||||
Okay, this is getting long so I'm going to speed things up.
|
||||
|
||||
And I have an entire guide on [creating your first product here](https://letters.thedankoe.com/p/mega-guide-how-to-create-your-first)... so don't want to be redundant.
|
||||
|
||||
At this point in time, we are in a **systems economy**.
|
||||
|
||||
People don't want **a** solution to their problems.
|
||||
**They want your solution to their problems.**
|
||||
|
||||
There are tons of writing products out there, so what's different about my 2 Hour Writer product, as an example? Or even Eden, the software that I'm building that could "easily be replaced by Google Drive or Dropbox," according to super smart people who have definitely built successful products in the YouTube comments?
|
||||
|
||||
They're systems that I created by getting results for myself.
|
||||
|
||||
2HW doesn't teach a bunch of academic writing nonsense that doesn't help you achieve our shared vision of living a creative and meaningful life.
|
||||
|
||||
"I had a few problems:"
|
||||
|
||||
- I had trouble having an endless source of content ideas.
|
||||
- I didn't want to waste a ton of time creating content for all different platforms.
|
||||
|
||||
So, I started experimenting with my own system.
|
||||
|
||||
"My goal for the system was clear: write all of the content I need to in under 2 hours a day. That way my audience growth is handled and I can focus on building better products and enjoying life."
|
||||
|
||||
I started testing solutions to have more content ideas.
|
||||
|
||||
I created swipe files, steps to generate ideas, and templates if I still couldn't think of anything.
|
||||
|
||||
"I mapped out exactly what I was going to attempt to write each week: 3 posts a day, 1 thread a week, and 1 newsletter a week."
|
||||
|
||||
During that process, I realized I could cross-post my writing to all social platforms (this is public, you can see it). I also realized that threads could be turned into carousels, and newsletters could be turned into YouTube videos.
|
||||
|
||||
If the system didn't flow, I would try new things the next week.
|
||||
|
||||
From there, I realized I could copy paste my newsletter to my blog, embed the YT video in that blog, promote my products in that blog, and turn that blog into more content ideas.
|
||||
|
||||
Then, I could link that blog under my content each day.
|
||||
|
||||
This led to more newsletter subscribers, YouTube subscribers, and product sales.
|
||||
|
||||
I realized that if everything I did was newsletter centric, that's all I had to worry about for both growing my audience and promoting my products.
|
||||
|
||||
**That's how you stand out in a world of copy paste products.**
|
||||
|
||||
Yes, it takes time and experience.
|
||||
|
||||
But the end result is so worth it.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
That's it for this letter.
|
||||
|
||||
Thank you for reading.
|
||||
|
||||
– Dan
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
*原文发表于 https://x.com/thedankoe/status/2010042119121957316*
|
||||
|
||||
@@ -1,144 +1,144 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: If you have multiple interests, do not waste the next 2-3 years
|
||||
source:
|
||||
author: shenwei
|
||||
published:
|
||||
created:
|
||||
description:
|
||||
tags: []
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
# If you have multiple interests, do not waste the next 2-3 years
|
||||
|
||||
**作者:** Dan Koe (@thedankoe)
|
||||
**发布时间:** 1月11日
|
||||
**原始链接:** https://x.com/thedankoe/status/2010042119121957316
|
||||
**统计:** 811 回复 · 7,508 次转帖 · 3.6万 喜欢 · 8.5万 书签 · 1,457万 次查看
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Society made you think that having multiple interests was a weakness.
|
||||
|
||||
Go to school.
|
||||
Get a degree.
|
||||
Get a job.
|
||||
Retire at some point.
|
||||
|
||||
But there is so much wrong with that sequence of events.
|
||||
|
||||
We don't live in the Industrial Age anymore. Specializing in one skill is almost certain death. I feel like we all know by this point how dangerous mechanical living and siloed learning is for your psyche and soul. And people can feel that we're going through a second renaissance. Your curiosity and love for learning are your advantages in today's world, but there is something missing.
|
||||
|
||||
For the longest time, I learned and learned and learned. I was stuck in tutorial hell. Some may call it shiny object syndrome to point out your lack of focus. I got my dopamine from feeling smart, but my life didn't change all that much. Honestly, I felt like I was just falling behind. I tried so many different things in college. I had dreams of doing my own thing... earning an income from something creative... but after spending 5 years "learning," I was met with the reality that I had to get the best job I could find just so I could survive.
|
||||
|
||||
The missing piece was a **vessel**.
|
||||
|
||||
A vessel that would allow me to **channel** all of my interests into meaningful work that I could earn a decent income from.
|
||||
|
||||
If you've ever felt guilty for not being able to pick one thing, if you've been told to niche down when your mind wants to expand, if you've wondered whether there's a path you can take that doesn't lead to the misery you see in everyone else's eyes – this is the greatest time to be alive.
|
||||
|
||||
Here are 7 of the most compelling ideas I could come up with. We'll start by understanding why having multiple interests is a superpower in today's world, then I'll give you practical steps to turn that into your life's work. We have **a lot** to talk about, so I hope you're here for the ride.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## I – The 3 ingredients of individual success & the death of the expert
|
||||
|
||||
> The man whose whole life is spent in performing a few simple operations... generally becomes as stupid and ignorant as it is possible for a human creature to become. — Adam Smith
|
||||
|
||||
Funny you say that Mr. Smith, because you created those people, and we're still dealing with the backlash.
|
||||
|
||||
Specialization took over during industrialization because, in a pin factory, for example, one worker doing every step could make 20 pins a day. Then workers, each doing one step, could make 48,000.
|
||||
|
||||
So we built an entire world around this model.
|
||||
|
||||
Humans became assembly lines working 9 to 5 because frankly, governments don't serve the national interest, they serve their own interest. Corporations don't serve the employees interest, they serve their own.
|
||||
|
||||
Schools were designed to serve that interest. Their sole purpose was to create factory workers who were punctual and obedient.
|
||||
|
||||
But this is no way to live.
|
||||
|
||||
If you want to have specialized knowledge so that you could never run an operation, especially your own operation, then be dependent on schools for your education and jobs for your wage. Be duped into believing the promise that specialization is what makes a human valuable when it is clear that the system does not need you, specifically, to perform that task.
|
||||
|
||||
In lies the distinction.
|
||||
|
||||
If pure specialization makes people stupid and dependent, what makes an individual smart and sovereign?
|
||||
|
||||
**Three ingredients**: Self-education, self-interest, self-sufficiency.
|
||||
|
||||
**Self-education** is clear, because if you want to achieve a result different from that of traditional education, you must direct your own learning.
|
||||
|
||||
**Self-interest** raises some flags. It sounds selfish and short-sighted, which many people view as bad without thinking through it, but it simply means "concern with one's own interest," because the only other option is to serve the interest of the organizations that compose society as it is, which we've discussed. In other words, follow your interest, because your interest can very well benefit others in a selfless way - depending on your level of cognitive and moral development. Oh, and by the way, indulging in short-lived pleasures (cheap dopamine) is usually not your interest, but the interest of corporations that benefit from your mindlessness.
|
||||
|
||||
> The truly selfish person, in Ayn Rand's view, is a self-respecting, self-supporting human being who neither sacrifices others to himself nor sacrifices himself to others. This rejects both the predator **and** the doormat.
|
||||
|
||||
**Self-sufficiency** is the refusal to outsource your judgment, learning, and agency. If self-education is the engine and self-interest is the compass, self-sufficiency is the foundation that prevents your life direction from being hijacked by another force. They collaborate, but are not fully dependent.
|
||||
|
||||
The generalist emerges naturally from this triad.
|
||||
|
||||
- **Self-interest** motivates **self-education**. You learn because it genuinely serves your flourishing, not because someone assigned it.
|
||||
- **Self-education** enables **self-sufficiency**. You can only be sovereign over domains you understand.
|
||||
- **Self-sufficiency** clarifies **self-interest**. When you're not dependent on others' interpretations, you can actually perceive what serves you. Most people pursue multiple interests as an escape from their work. When your interests become your work, or your life's work, most of them start to filter out.
|
||||
|
||||
When we look at every CEO, founder, or creative that we actually admire, they are generalists.
|
||||
|
||||
They understand enough about marketing to direct it, enough about product to build it, and enough about people to lead them. But they also need to direct the ship. They need to learn and adapt when circumstances change.
|
||||
|
||||
More importantly, they understand that ideas across domains complement each other and create a unique way of viewing the world, which allows them to catch novel ideas from the aether and translate them into market value.
|
||||
|
||||
When we look at where the world is today, and if you understand the opportunities available to singular individuals, not just leaders, you will find that the options you have as a natural polymath are extensive. It should spark an immense amount of excitement in you.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## II – You are living through the second renaissance, take advantage of it
|
||||
|
||||
> Study the science of art. Study the art of science. Develop your senses—especially learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else. — Leonardo da Vinci
|
||||
|
||||
The ultimate moat, or the final competitive edge worth paying for, in my opinion, is an **opinion**.
|
||||
|
||||
A perspective that only you can see, because the uniqueness of your life experience created it. That may just be the last thing anyone else can replicate.
|
||||
|
||||
And since that's always been the case, why not prioritize that now? Especially when automation is at our doorstep?
|
||||
|
||||
But how do you prioritize it? How do you develop it?
|
||||
|
||||
By pursuing multiple interests and building something with them.
|
||||
|
||||
You see, every interest you've ever pursued leaves behind a residue. Every interest increases the number of connections that can be made. Every interest expands and increases the complexity of how you model and interpret reality. The more complex your model of reality, the more problems you can solve, opportunities you can see, and value you can create.
|
||||
|
||||
Specialism completely halts this process, and your shiny object syndrome has been trying to tell you this whole time.
|
||||
|
||||
From birth until now, you are cultivating a way of seeing things that others can't. A way of seeing things that AI can only think if you tell it what to think.
|
||||
|
||||
A person who studied psychology and design sees user behavior differently from the pure designer. A person who learned sales and philosophy closes deals differently than the pure salesman. A person who understands fitness and business builds health companies that MBAs can't comprehend.
|
||||
|
||||
**Your edge lies more in intersection than it does in expertise.**
|
||||
|
||||
This is the exact pattern we see in the Renaissance that is coming back with a much stronger force now.
|
||||
|
||||
Consider what made it possible...
|
||||
|
||||
Before the printing press, knowledge was scarce.
|
||||
|
||||
Books were copied by hand. A single text could take a scribe months to reproduce. Libraries were rare. Literacy was rarer. If you wanted to learn something outside your trade, you either had access to a monastery or you didn't learn it.
|
||||
|
||||
Then Gutenberg changed everything.
|
||||
|
||||
Within 50 years, 20 million books flooded Europe. Ideas that once took generations to spread now moved in months. Literacy exploded. The cost of knowledge collapsed.
|
||||
|
||||
**For the first time in history, a person could realistically pursue multiple domains of mastery in a single lifetime.**
|
||||
|
||||
The Renaissance was the result.
|
||||
|
||||
Da Vinci didn't pick one thing. He painted, sculpted, engineered, studied anatomy, designed war machines, and mapped the human body. Michelangelo was a painter, sculptor, architect, and poet.
|
||||
|
||||
Unique minds are finally free to operate the way they are supposed to.
|
||||
|
||||
They were supposed to cross disciplines, synthesize connections, and follow curiosity wherever it led, but most of us never realized that.
|
||||
|
||||
The printing press was the catalyst for a new type of person to emerge. A person who could learn anything, combine everything, and create what no specialist ever could.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
*If you enjoy these letters, I send them out 1-2x a week. Join here if you want to be notified when they go out (because the algorithm probably won't show you them).*
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: If you have multiple interests, do not waste the next 2-3 years
|
||||
source:
|
||||
author: shenwei
|
||||
published:
|
||||
created:
|
||||
description:
|
||||
tags: []
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
# If you have multiple interests, do not waste the next 2-3 years
|
||||
|
||||
**作者:** Dan Koe (@thedankoe)
|
||||
**发布时间:** 1月11日
|
||||
**原始链接:** https://x.com/thedankoe/status/2010042119121957316
|
||||
**统计:** 811 回复 · 7,508 次转帖 · 3.6万 喜欢 · 8.5万 书签 · 1,457万 次查看
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Society made you think that having multiple interests was a weakness.
|
||||
|
||||
Go to school.
|
||||
Get a degree.
|
||||
Get a job.
|
||||
Retire at some point.
|
||||
|
||||
But there is so much wrong with that sequence of events.
|
||||
|
||||
We don't live in the Industrial Age anymore. Specializing in one skill is almost certain death. I feel like we all know by this point how dangerous mechanical living and siloed learning is for your psyche and soul. And people can feel that we're going through a second renaissance. Your curiosity and love for learning are your advantages in today's world, but there is something missing.
|
||||
|
||||
For the longest time, I learned and learned and learned. I was stuck in tutorial hell. Some may call it shiny object syndrome to point out your lack of focus. I got my dopamine from feeling smart, but my life didn't change all that much. Honestly, I felt like I was just falling behind. I tried so many different things in college. I had dreams of doing my own thing... earning an income from something creative... but after spending 5 years "learning," I was met with the reality that I had to get the best job I could find just so I could survive.
|
||||
|
||||
The missing piece was a **vessel**.
|
||||
|
||||
A vessel that would allow me to **channel** all of my interests into meaningful work that I could earn a decent income from.
|
||||
|
||||
If you've ever felt guilty for not being able to pick one thing, if you've been told to niche down when your mind wants to expand, if you've wondered whether there's a path you can take that doesn't lead to the misery you see in everyone else's eyes – this is the greatest time to be alive.
|
||||
|
||||
Here are 7 of the most compelling ideas I could come up with. We'll start by understanding why having multiple interests is a superpower in today's world, then I'll give you practical steps to turn that into your life's work. We have **a lot** to talk about, so I hope you're here for the ride.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## I – The 3 ingredients of individual success & the death of the expert
|
||||
|
||||
> The man whose whole life is spent in performing a few simple operations... generally becomes as stupid and ignorant as it is possible for a human creature to become. — Adam Smith
|
||||
|
||||
Funny you say that Mr. Smith, because you created those people, and we're still dealing with the backlash.
|
||||
|
||||
Specialization took over during industrialization because, in a pin factory, for example, one worker doing every step could make 20 pins a day. Then workers, each doing one step, could make 48,000.
|
||||
|
||||
So we built an entire world around this model.
|
||||
|
||||
Humans became assembly lines working 9 to 5 because frankly, governments don't serve the national interest, they serve their own interest. Corporations don't serve the employees interest, they serve their own.
|
||||
|
||||
Schools were designed to serve that interest. Their sole purpose was to create factory workers who were punctual and obedient.
|
||||
|
||||
But this is no way to live.
|
||||
|
||||
If you want to have specialized knowledge so that you could never run an operation, especially your own operation, then be dependent on schools for your education and jobs for your wage. Be duped into believing the promise that specialization is what makes a human valuable when it is clear that the system does not need you, specifically, to perform that task.
|
||||
|
||||
In lies the distinction.
|
||||
|
||||
If pure specialization makes people stupid and dependent, what makes an individual smart and sovereign?
|
||||
|
||||
**Three ingredients**: Self-education, self-interest, self-sufficiency.
|
||||
|
||||
**Self-education** is clear, because if you want to achieve a result different from that of traditional education, you must direct your own learning.
|
||||
|
||||
**Self-interest** raises some flags. It sounds selfish and short-sighted, which many people view as bad without thinking through it, but it simply means "concern with one's own interest," because the only other option is to serve the interest of the organizations that compose society as it is, which we've discussed. In other words, follow your interest, because your interest can very well benefit others in a selfless way - depending on your level of cognitive and moral development. Oh, and by the way, indulging in short-lived pleasures (cheap dopamine) is usually not your interest, but the interest of corporations that benefit from your mindlessness.
|
||||
|
||||
> The truly selfish person, in Ayn Rand's view, is a self-respecting, self-supporting human being who neither sacrifices others to himself nor sacrifices himself to others. This rejects both the predator **and** the doormat.
|
||||
|
||||
**Self-sufficiency** is the refusal to outsource your judgment, learning, and agency. If self-education is the engine and self-interest is the compass, self-sufficiency is the foundation that prevents your life direction from being hijacked by another force. They collaborate, but are not fully dependent.
|
||||
|
||||
The generalist emerges naturally from this triad.
|
||||
|
||||
- **Self-interest** motivates **self-education**. You learn because it genuinely serves your flourishing, not because someone assigned it.
|
||||
- **Self-education** enables **self-sufficiency**. You can only be sovereign over domains you understand.
|
||||
- **Self-sufficiency** clarifies **self-interest**. When you're not dependent on others' interpretations, you can actually perceive what serves you. Most people pursue multiple interests as an escape from their work. When your interests become your work, or your life's work, most of them start to filter out.
|
||||
|
||||
When we look at every CEO, founder, or creative that we actually admire, they are generalists.
|
||||
|
||||
They understand enough about marketing to direct it, enough about product to build it, and enough about people to lead them. But they also need to direct the ship. They need to learn and adapt when circumstances change.
|
||||
|
||||
More importantly, they understand that ideas across domains complement each other and create a unique way of viewing the world, which allows them to catch novel ideas from the aether and translate them into market value.
|
||||
|
||||
When we look at where the world is today, and if you understand the opportunities available to singular individuals, not just leaders, you will find that the options you have as a natural polymath are extensive. It should spark an immense amount of excitement in you.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## II – You are living through the second renaissance, take advantage of it
|
||||
|
||||
> Study the science of art. Study the art of science. Develop your senses—especially learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else. — Leonardo da Vinci
|
||||
|
||||
The ultimate moat, or the final competitive edge worth paying for, in my opinion, is an **opinion**.
|
||||
|
||||
A perspective that only you can see, because the uniqueness of your life experience created it. That may just be the last thing anyone else can replicate.
|
||||
|
||||
And since that's always been the case, why not prioritize that now? Especially when automation is at our doorstep?
|
||||
|
||||
But how do you prioritize it? How do you develop it?
|
||||
|
||||
By pursuing multiple interests and building something with them.
|
||||
|
||||
You see, every interest you've ever pursued leaves behind a residue. Every interest increases the number of connections that can be made. Every interest expands and increases the complexity of how you model and interpret reality. The more complex your model of reality, the more problems you can solve, opportunities you can see, and value you can create.
|
||||
|
||||
Specialism completely halts this process, and your shiny object syndrome has been trying to tell you this whole time.
|
||||
|
||||
From birth until now, you are cultivating a way of seeing things that others can't. A way of seeing things that AI can only think if you tell it what to think.
|
||||
|
||||
A person who studied psychology and design sees user behavior differently from the pure designer. A person who learned sales and philosophy closes deals differently than the pure salesman. A person who understands fitness and business builds health companies that MBAs can't comprehend.
|
||||
|
||||
**Your edge lies more in intersection than it does in expertise.**
|
||||
|
||||
This is the exact pattern we see in the Renaissance that is coming back with a much stronger force now.
|
||||
|
||||
Consider what made it possible...
|
||||
|
||||
Before the printing press, knowledge was scarce.
|
||||
|
||||
Books were copied by hand. A single text could take a scribe months to reproduce. Libraries were rare. Literacy was rarer. If you wanted to learn something outside your trade, you either had access to a monastery or you didn't learn it.
|
||||
|
||||
Then Gutenberg changed everything.
|
||||
|
||||
Within 50 years, 20 million books flooded Europe. Ideas that once took generations to spread now moved in months. Literacy exploded. The cost of knowledge collapsed.
|
||||
|
||||
**For the first time in history, a person could realistically pursue multiple domains of mastery in a single lifetime.**
|
||||
|
||||
The Renaissance was the result.
|
||||
|
||||
Da Vinci didn't pick one thing. He painted, sculpted, engineered, studied anatomy, designed war machines, and mapped the human body. Michelangelo was a painter, sculptor, architect, and poet.
|
||||
|
||||
Unique minds are finally free to operate the way they are supposed to.
|
||||
|
||||
They were supposed to cross disciplines, synthesize connections, and follow curiosity wherever it led, but most of us never realized that.
|
||||
|
||||
The printing press was the catalyst for a new type of person to emerge. A person who could learn anything, combine everything, and create what no specialist ever could.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
*If you enjoy these letters, I send them out 1-2x a week. Join here if you want to be notified when they go out (because the algorithm probably won't show you them).*
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@@ -1,161 +1,161 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title:
|
||||
source:
|
||||
author: shenwei
|
||||
published:
|
||||
created:
|
||||
description:
|
||||
tags: []
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## III – How to turn multiple interests into a lucrative way of life
|
||||
|
||||
"There are a few things we know so far:"
|
||||
|
||||
- You have multiple interests but feel like you can't keep learning forever
|
||||
- You have a love for interest-based self-education but have to carve out time **outside** of your career to do it
|
||||
- You understand the need to become self-sufficient but you feel like you don't have value worth paying for, yet
|
||||
- You need to be able to adapt **fast** because we don't know what the future of work looks like
|
||||
|
||||
The question then is, how do we combine all of these things into one **way of life?**
|
||||
|
||||
How do we combine learning and earning into something you can do for work?
|
||||
|
||||
I'll try to make this as logical as I can.
|
||||
|
||||
To make money from your interests, you need other people to become interested in them too. That part is trivial. If you became interested in something, other people can too, you simply must learn to **persuade**.
|
||||
|
||||
Further, you need a way for them to pay you. In this context, that usually means you need to sell a product, because you probably aren't going to find a job that allows you to express your interests, and investing in stocks or real estate (to any effective degree) requires a good amount of capital.
|
||||
|
||||
In other words, you need **attention**.
|
||||
|
||||
**Attention is one of the last moats.**
|
||||
|
||||
Because when anyone can write anything or build any software, which ones are going to win? The ones that people **know about**. You can have the greatest product in the world, but if nobody knows about it, the person who can capture and hold attention will run laps around you.
|
||||
|
||||
As an aside, and if you've been keeping up with the tech space, no, I don't think everyone will just "build their own software." Most people don't even spend 20 minutes cooking their own food. They would rather pay a few bucks for Uber Eats. And people have their own things they want to spend their time on.
|
||||
|
||||
"**Back to the point:**"
|
||||
|
||||
**You need to become a creator.**
|
||||
|
||||
Now, before you cringe and leave, I don't exactly mean becoming a content creator (well… it's complicated).
|
||||
|
||||
I mean that the solution to stop creating for someone else because you need them to give you a paycheck is to create for **yourself**.
|
||||
|
||||
Humans, by nature, are creators who were convinced that being a machine would lead to the American Dream. We are tool builders at our core. We thrive in any niche because we create solutions to problems. If a lion were put in Alaska, it would not build shelter and clothing. It would die. A lion belongs in its own niche.
|
||||
|
||||
The thing is, every business is a media business now. And remember, you need attention. Where is the attention? Mostly on social media until the next attention preference platform comes around - you'll need to adapt at that point. So yes, if you have multiple interests, it would be wise to become a "content creator," but it may be easier to think of social media as a mechanism to get your interests in front of other people. It is one piece of the puzzle to do independent work.
|
||||
|
||||
Plus, that covers all of our bases.
|
||||
|
||||
- **You love learning?** Great, reframe it as "research" and now that's literally your main job. Most of the things I write about simply come from me learning about my interests and treating social media like I'm "taking notes in public."
|
||||
*(You're already spending time learning, now just spend that time learning in public and boom you have the foundation of a business).*
|
||||
|
||||
- **You need to become self-sufficient?** Well, you'd need a business to do that, and every business needs to attract customers, and you probably don't give two f*cks about paid ads, SEO, or any other form of marketing. This is what trips many people up because they are only used to doing one specialized task within a business as an employee.
|
||||
|
||||
- **You need to be able to adapt?** Amazing, you can build and launch new products to your audience as fast as you can build them. I have a solid audience, and if my next product were to fail, I have people who would be willing to invest, be a part of the team, or support the next product. You can build your little SaaS company, but if you don't have distribution, you are putting in marathons of extra leg work into getting capital, finding talent, and getting things off the ground.
|
||||
|
||||
No other job or business model allows you to do just that with so much freedom.
|
||||
|
||||
But how do you actually start building it?
|
||||
|
||||
How do you tie all of this together?
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## IV – How to turn yourself into a business
|
||||
|
||||
> If you've ever helped someone with your interests, you're qualified to start a business.
|
||||
|
||||
They no longer require upfront capital. They are not reserved for unethical elites. They are not only for people who want to make a lot of money. And they are not only for talented or special people.
|
||||
|
||||
The reality is that entrepreneurship is in our nature. It is modern survival. We are wired to create and distribute value to a tribe of like-minded people. We are wired to hunt, explore the unknown, seek novelty, and never stagnate. Psychologically, this is the most enjoyable way of life, even if there are low periods, because those are what allow the (non-artificial) highs to exist.
|
||||
|
||||
Further, the barrier of entry has collapsed.
|
||||
|
||||
All you really need is a laptop and internet connection.
|
||||
|
||||
Distribution is now free thanks to social media (well, not free, but skill-based, which can be expensive in time). Anyone can post an idea that reaches millions, and if they have a product, those millions of eyes can result in millions of dollars if you know what you're doing, and that's a big if. Most people just love becoming really good at an interest or skill that doesn't directly impact their success, potentially because they're afraid of it.
|
||||
|
||||
Tools and technology now handle what used to require teams of people. You have access to AI and a plethora of useful software.
|
||||
|
||||
Now, there are 2 paths you can take to start.
|
||||
|
||||
**Path 1) Skill-Based**
|
||||
|
||||
This is what dominated the internet for the longest time. You "learn a marketable skill." You teach that skill through content. Then you sell a product or service related to that skill.
|
||||
|
||||
The limitation here is the limitation of being a specialist. It is one-dimensional. You put yourself in a box. You "niche down" because you were told it is more profitable, and since you're chasing profit over interest, you tend to build yourself into a second 9-5 where you do work you don't care about for people you don't care about.
|
||||
|
||||
**Path 2) Development-Based**
|
||||
|
||||
"The creators that win right now are those without a niche they can be pinned down to. Typically, they are focused on one of the 4 eternal markets: health, wealth, relationships, happiness. Or even all of them. Technically, everyone's niche is self-actualization, they are just all taking infinitely unique paths to get there."
|
||||
|
||||
- They pursue your own goals (brand).
|
||||
- They teach what you learn (content).
|
||||
- They help others achieve the goal faster (product).
|
||||
|
||||
For those with multiple interests, I obviously recommend this path, because it goes a bit deeper.
|
||||
|
||||
First, when you take this path, you are also taking the first path. Because building your brand, content, and product requires you to become good at **all of the relevant marketable skills**, so even if you fail, you have something worth paying for. You are building your business, and you can help others with a specific part of theirs if you are good at it.
|
||||
|
||||
Second, it flips the traditional model on its head.
|
||||
|
||||
**You don't create a customer avatar so that you can niche down and only focus on that. You turn yourself into the customer avatar.**
|
||||
|
||||
That makes things much more palatable.
|
||||
|
||||
You pursue your goals in life and develop yourself → you have already validated the usefulness of what you will offer → you help the past version of yourself reach that same goal.
|
||||
|
||||
Don't be a YouTube creator.
|
||||
Don't be a personal brand.
|
||||
Don't be an influencer.
|
||||
**Be you.** But in a place where your work can be discovered, followed, and supported. Right now and for the foreseeable future, that's on the internet.
|
||||
|
||||
Jordan Peterson (or others like him) isn't a "content creator," even though that's how it seems on the surface.
|
||||
|
||||
He goes on tours, writes books, leverages social media as a base, and uses all of the **tools** at his disposal to **spread his life's work**. He isn't worried about the latest content idea trend. His mind outperforms any of those myopic growth strategies. The quality of his ideas is what sets him apart and changes people's lives (regardless of your opinion on Peterson).
|
||||
|
||||
With that, I want to provide a different perspective on brand, content, and product. That way you can use this as a vessel for your life's work.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## V – Brand is an environment
|
||||
|
||||
Stop thinking of your brand as a profile picture and social media bio.
|
||||
|
||||
**Brand is an environment where people come to transform.**
|
||||
Brand is the little world you are inviting others into.
|
||||
Brand isn't illustrated when a reader first visits your profile.
|
||||
**Brand is the accumulation of ideas in your reader's mind after 3-6 months of following you.**
|
||||
|
||||
You illustrate your worldview, story, and philosophy for life across every single touchpoint. Your banner, profile picture, bio, link in bio, landing page design, pinned content, posts, threads, newsletters, videos, and the rest.
|
||||
|
||||
"In other words, your brand is this:"
|
||||
|
||||
**Your brand is your story.**
|
||||
|
||||
It would help to spend a day writing out where you came from, the "low" points of your life, the experiences you've had and skills you've acquired, and how those things have helped you the most.
|
||||
|
||||
When you're thinking of ideas, content, or products, you should filter them through your story. This doesn't mean you have to talk about yourself all the time. It means you have to align what you're saying so that your brand is cohesive.
|
||||
|
||||
The difficult part is realizing that your story is worth telling, even if you think it's boring or haven't reflected on your growth.
|
||||
|
||||
"The point:"
|
||||
|
||||
Your bio and profile picture do not matter. There are literal people with one word in their bio and a singular color for their profile picture.
|
||||
|
||||
"My recommendation:"
|
||||
|
||||
- Make a list of 5-10 people you respect online
|
||||
- Look at their profile picture, bio, and content
|
||||
- Take mental note of patterns between them
|
||||
- Start formulating what you should do for your own brand, with your own little spin
|
||||
|
||||
In all honesty, I wouldn't overcomplicate this or even worry about it. Your brand will take shape as you start writing content. We could even say that brand **is** content, so we need to get that right.
|
||||
|
||||
This article on the [content ecosystem to build your own world](https://letters.thedankoe.com/p/how-to-build-a-world-the-2-hour-content?lli=1) may help.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
title:
|
||||
source:
|
||||
author: shenwei
|
||||
published:
|
||||
created:
|
||||
description:
|
||||
tags: []
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## III – How to turn multiple interests into a lucrative way of life
|
||||
|
||||
"There are a few things we know so far:"
|
||||
|
||||
- You have multiple interests but feel like you can't keep learning forever
|
||||
- You have a love for interest-based self-education but have to carve out time **outside** of your career to do it
|
||||
- You understand the need to become self-sufficient but you feel like you don't have value worth paying for, yet
|
||||
- You need to be able to adapt **fast** because we don't know what the future of work looks like
|
||||
|
||||
The question then is, how do we combine all of these things into one **way of life?**
|
||||
|
||||
How do we combine learning and earning into something you can do for work?
|
||||
|
||||
I'll try to make this as logical as I can.
|
||||
|
||||
To make money from your interests, you need other people to become interested in them too. That part is trivial. If you became interested in something, other people can too, you simply must learn to **persuade**.
|
||||
|
||||
Further, you need a way for them to pay you. In this context, that usually means you need to sell a product, because you probably aren't going to find a job that allows you to express your interests, and investing in stocks or real estate (to any effective degree) requires a good amount of capital.
|
||||
|
||||
In other words, you need **attention**.
|
||||
|
||||
**Attention is one of the last moats.**
|
||||
|
||||
Because when anyone can write anything or build any software, which ones are going to win? The ones that people **know about**. You can have the greatest product in the world, but if nobody knows about it, the person who can capture and hold attention will run laps around you.
|
||||
|
||||
As an aside, and if you've been keeping up with the tech space, no, I don't think everyone will just "build their own software." Most people don't even spend 20 minutes cooking their own food. They would rather pay a few bucks for Uber Eats. And people have their own things they want to spend their time on.
|
||||
|
||||
"**Back to the point:**"
|
||||
|
||||
**You need to become a creator.**
|
||||
|
||||
Now, before you cringe and leave, I don't exactly mean becoming a content creator (well… it's complicated).
|
||||
|
||||
I mean that the solution to stop creating for someone else because you need them to give you a paycheck is to create for **yourself**.
|
||||
|
||||
Humans, by nature, are creators who were convinced that being a machine would lead to the American Dream. We are tool builders at our core. We thrive in any niche because we create solutions to problems. If a lion were put in Alaska, it would not build shelter and clothing. It would die. A lion belongs in its own niche.
|
||||
|
||||
The thing is, every business is a media business now. And remember, you need attention. Where is the attention? Mostly on social media until the next attention preference platform comes around - you'll need to adapt at that point. So yes, if you have multiple interests, it would be wise to become a "content creator," but it may be easier to think of social media as a mechanism to get your interests in front of other people. It is one piece of the puzzle to do independent work.
|
||||
|
||||
Plus, that covers all of our bases.
|
||||
|
||||
- **You love learning?** Great, reframe it as "research" and now that's literally your main job. Most of the things I write about simply come from me learning about my interests and treating social media like I'm "taking notes in public."
|
||||
*(You're already spending time learning, now just spend that time learning in public and boom you have the foundation of a business).*
|
||||
|
||||
- **You need to become self-sufficient?** Well, you'd need a business to do that, and every business needs to attract customers, and you probably don't give two f*cks about paid ads, SEO, or any other form of marketing. This is what trips many people up because they are only used to doing one specialized task within a business as an employee.
|
||||
|
||||
- **You need to be able to adapt?** Amazing, you can build and launch new products to your audience as fast as you can build them. I have a solid audience, and if my next product were to fail, I have people who would be willing to invest, be a part of the team, or support the next product. You can build your little SaaS company, but if you don't have distribution, you are putting in marathons of extra leg work into getting capital, finding talent, and getting things off the ground.
|
||||
|
||||
No other job or business model allows you to do just that with so much freedom.
|
||||
|
||||
But how do you actually start building it?
|
||||
|
||||
How do you tie all of this together?
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## IV – How to turn yourself into a business
|
||||
|
||||
> If you've ever helped someone with your interests, you're qualified to start a business.
|
||||
|
||||
They no longer require upfront capital. They are not reserved for unethical elites. They are not only for people who want to make a lot of money. And they are not only for talented or special people.
|
||||
|
||||
The reality is that entrepreneurship is in our nature. It is modern survival. We are wired to create and distribute value to a tribe of like-minded people. We are wired to hunt, explore the unknown, seek novelty, and never stagnate. Psychologically, this is the most enjoyable way of life, even if there are low periods, because those are what allow the (non-artificial) highs to exist.
|
||||
|
||||
Further, the barrier of entry has collapsed.
|
||||
|
||||
All you really need is a laptop and internet connection.
|
||||
|
||||
Distribution is now free thanks to social media (well, not free, but skill-based, which can be expensive in time). Anyone can post an idea that reaches millions, and if they have a product, those millions of eyes can result in millions of dollars if you know what you're doing, and that's a big if. Most people just love becoming really good at an interest or skill that doesn't directly impact their success, potentially because they're afraid of it.
|
||||
|
||||
Tools and technology now handle what used to require teams of people. You have access to AI and a plethora of useful software.
|
||||
|
||||
Now, there are 2 paths you can take to start.
|
||||
|
||||
**Path 1) Skill-Based**
|
||||
|
||||
This is what dominated the internet for the longest time. You "learn a marketable skill." You teach that skill through content. Then you sell a product or service related to that skill.
|
||||
|
||||
The limitation here is the limitation of being a specialist. It is one-dimensional. You put yourself in a box. You "niche down" because you were told it is more profitable, and since you're chasing profit over interest, you tend to build yourself into a second 9-5 where you do work you don't care about for people you don't care about.
|
||||
|
||||
**Path 2) Development-Based**
|
||||
|
||||
"The creators that win right now are those without a niche they can be pinned down to. Typically, they are focused on one of the 4 eternal markets: health, wealth, relationships, happiness. Or even all of them. Technically, everyone's niche is self-actualization, they are just all taking infinitely unique paths to get there."
|
||||
|
||||
- They pursue your own goals (brand).
|
||||
- They teach what you learn (content).
|
||||
- They help others achieve the goal faster (product).
|
||||
|
||||
For those with multiple interests, I obviously recommend this path, because it goes a bit deeper.
|
||||
|
||||
First, when you take this path, you are also taking the first path. Because building your brand, content, and product requires you to become good at **all of the relevant marketable skills**, so even if you fail, you have something worth paying for. You are building your business, and you can help others with a specific part of theirs if you are good at it.
|
||||
|
||||
Second, it flips the traditional model on its head.
|
||||
|
||||
**You don't create a customer avatar so that you can niche down and only focus on that. You turn yourself into the customer avatar.**
|
||||
|
||||
That makes things much more palatable.
|
||||
|
||||
You pursue your goals in life and develop yourself → you have already validated the usefulness of what you will offer → you help the past version of yourself reach that same goal.
|
||||
|
||||
Don't be a YouTube creator.
|
||||
Don't be a personal brand.
|
||||
Don't be an influencer.
|
||||
**Be you.** But in a place where your work can be discovered, followed, and supported. Right now and for the foreseeable future, that's on the internet.
|
||||
|
||||
Jordan Peterson (or others like him) isn't a "content creator," even though that's how it seems on the surface.
|
||||
|
||||
He goes on tours, writes books, leverages social media as a base, and uses all of the **tools** at his disposal to **spread his life's work**. He isn't worried about the latest content idea trend. His mind outperforms any of those myopic growth strategies. The quality of his ideas is what sets him apart and changes people's lives (regardless of your opinion on Peterson).
|
||||
|
||||
With that, I want to provide a different perspective on brand, content, and product. That way you can use this as a vessel for your life's work.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## V – Brand is an environment
|
||||
|
||||
Stop thinking of your brand as a profile picture and social media bio.
|
||||
|
||||
**Brand is an environment where people come to transform.**
|
||||
Brand is the little world you are inviting others into.
|
||||
Brand isn't illustrated when a reader first visits your profile.
|
||||
**Brand is the accumulation of ideas in your reader's mind after 3-6 months of following you.**
|
||||
|
||||
You illustrate your worldview, story, and philosophy for life across every single touchpoint. Your banner, profile picture, bio, link in bio, landing page design, pinned content, posts, threads, newsletters, videos, and the rest.
|
||||
|
||||
"In other words, your brand is this:"
|
||||
|
||||
**Your brand is your story.**
|
||||
|
||||
It would help to spend a day writing out where you came from, the "low" points of your life, the experiences you've had and skills you've acquired, and how those things have helped you the most.
|
||||
|
||||
When you're thinking of ideas, content, or products, you should filter them through your story. This doesn't mean you have to talk about yourself all the time. It means you have to align what you're saying so that your brand is cohesive.
|
||||
|
||||
The difficult part is realizing that your story is worth telling, even if you think it's boring or haven't reflected on your growth.
|
||||
|
||||
"The point:"
|
||||
|
||||
Your bio and profile picture do not matter. There are literal people with one word in their bio and a singular color for their profile picture.
|
||||
|
||||
"My recommendation:"
|
||||
|
||||
- Make a list of 5-10 people you respect online
|
||||
- Look at their profile picture, bio, and content
|
||||
- Take mental note of patterns between them
|
||||
- Start formulating what you should do for your own brand, with your own little spin
|
||||
|
||||
In all honesty, I wouldn't overcomplicate this or even worry about it. Your brand will take shape as you start writing content. We could even say that brand **is** content, so we need to get that right.
|
||||
|
||||
This article on the [content ecosystem to build your own world](https://letters.thedankoe.com/p/how-to-build-a-world-the-2-hour-content?lli=1) may help.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@@ -1,213 +1,213 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title:
|
||||
source:
|
||||
author: shenwei
|
||||
published:
|
||||
created:
|
||||
description:
|
||||
tags: []
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## VI – Content is novel perspectives
|
||||
|
||||
The internet is a fire hose of information.
|
||||
AI is only adding more noise.
|
||||
That means trust and signal are more important than ever.
|
||||
|
||||
In my opinion, the guiding light for your content should be to curate the best possible ideas in one place.
|
||||
|
||||
**Your brand is a collection of all the ideas you care about, in your own words, under one account on the internet.**
|
||||
|
||||
If you have any plans to do podcasts or public speaking, notice how the best speakers always have 5-10 of their best arguments or ideas top of mind. They repeat these over and over and that's how they build influence. If you don't have a set of those 5-10 ideas, then you won't be as impactful as you could be. Writing a truckload of content is how you discover those ideas.
|
||||
|
||||
Once the "idea density" of your content increases with time and effort, that's what creates a brand worth following and paying for.
|
||||
|
||||
"The goal of curating ideas to include under your brand should fall at the intersection of:"
|
||||
|
||||
- **Performance** – the ideas have the potential to "do well." This is the measure of how much other people will care.
|
||||
- **Excitement** – the ideas give you a sense of excitement to write about them. This is the measure of how much you care.
|
||||
|
||||
Art and business.
|
||||
Metrics and performance shouldn't determine everything, but they do mean something.
|
||||
|
||||
**Step 1) Build an idea museum**
|
||||
|
||||
The secret of most creatives you love is that they keep a ruthless curation of notes, ideas, and sources of inspiration.
|
||||
|
||||
In other words, they have a "swipe file," as marketers call it.
|
||||
|
||||
You can use [Eden](https://eden.so/) (if you have access), Apple Notes, Notion, or whatever else you want, but I want to make this very clear:
|
||||
|
||||
**You need somewhere to jot down ideas as soon as they come to mind.**
|
||||
|
||||
This is a critical habit.
|
||||
|
||||
Whenever you find an idea that is useful, either now or in the near future, write it down. You don't need content pillars or 2-3 topics to talk about. The ideas you curate should simply be important to you. That alone means they are relevant to a specific niche of a person: you. However, you can create a [content map](https://letters.thedankoe.com/p/the-content-map-how-to-never-run) if you'd like.
|
||||
|
||||
I don't care how you structure this. It can be a neat and organized set of documents, or it can be a messy running note without structure. The habit matters more than the format.
|
||||
|
||||
You gauge performance by glancing at the likes, views, or general engagement of a post to see if it has the potential to resonate. If the idea falls flat or does worse than their other content, it probably won't do well for you.
|
||||
|
||||
You gauge excitement by noticing when you feel as if you are wasting something valuable if you don't write it down.
|
||||
|
||||
**Step 2) Curate based on idea density**
|
||||
|
||||
How do you start filling your idea museum?
|
||||
|
||||
You need 3-5 sources of information that have high idea density.
|
||||
|
||||
When I say "idea density," I mean an idea that is high signal.
|
||||
|
||||
It's difficult to explain how to find something that is high signal, because that is subjective. It's dependent on your level of development (what's useful for you), your audience's level of development (what's useful for them), and your translation from one to another.
|
||||
|
||||
The most basic piece of advice could be the most valuable thing in the world for someone else, but it may seem like common knowledge to you.
|
||||
|
||||
With time, you will tune your own signal-to-noise ratio by seeing what ideas resonate with your audience and which don't.
|
||||
|
||||
"The most idea-dense sources of information:"
|
||||
|
||||
- **Old or little-known books** – I have 5 books that I reread over and over again because the ideas are so good. These are where the timeless principles live, untouched by trends.
|
||||
- **Curated blogs, accounts, or books** – Blogs like Farnam Street curate the best ideas from modern intellectuals. Accounts like Navalism curate Naval's best ideas. Books like *The Maxwell Daily Reader* have one of Maxwell's best ideas one day at a time for a year. These do a lot of the heavy lifting for you, allowing you to pick and choose the best of the best.
|
||||
- **Heavy-hitting social accounts** – I have a list of maybe 5 social accounts that always post great ideas. If I don't have something to write about, I'll scroll through their page and find something I have an opinion on and write about that.
|
||||
|
||||
Finding these sources takes a few months of discovery. But the result of maintaining an idea museum of dense ideas leads to you creating idea-dense content.
|
||||
|
||||
Your idea museum becomes a representation of the mind you are attempting to create.
|
||||
|
||||
That's the ultimate goal.
|
||||
|
||||
To have a library of content so good that people can't help but open your emails, turn on post notifications, share your ideas with friends, and think about your ideas often.
|
||||
|
||||
> You become a **curator** of ideas that people wouldn't even think to ask AI for, and that people would never come across organically.
|
||||
|
||||
That's how you become less dependent on the algorithm for your success.
|
||||
|
||||
**Step 3) Write 1 idea 1000 different ways**
|
||||
|
||||
Becoming a good writer or speaker isn't only about the idea, but **how the idea is articulated**.
|
||||
|
||||
The idea does a lot of the heavy lifting, but the structure is what makes it engaging, unique, and impactful.
|
||||
|
||||
Let me show you what I mean.
|
||||
|
||||
"Take this post structure:"
|
||||
|
||||
> "One pattern I've noticed in happy people: They're obsessive about maintaining their mental clarity."
|
||||
|
||||
The idea here is that happy people maintain their mental clarity.
|
||||
|
||||
"The structure is formatted in 2 parts: a hook in the form of an observation, and the delivery of what the observation is."
|
||||
|
||||
It seems simple, but the difference in the structure of an idea can make all the difference.
|
||||
|
||||
"Now, if I take the same idea but use a "list" structure:"
|
||||
|
||||
> "Happy people are clear-minded people:
|
||||
> – They take time for rest
|
||||
> – They focus on one singular goal
|
||||
> – They ruthlessly eliminate distractions
|
||||
> In other words, happy people are obsessive about maintaining their mental clarity."
|
||||
|
||||
Same idea. Different structure. Different impact.
|
||||
|
||||
If you wanted to, you could practice writing the same idea with every single post structure you come across.
|
||||
|
||||
"Here's how to practice this:"
|
||||
|
||||
**First**, break down 3 ideas into their structure.
|
||||
|
||||
Choose 3 posts from your idea museum that resonated with you. Then, try to break down each part of the idea and write why it works.
|
||||
|
||||
If you don't have experience with content psychology, that's okay. You learn it as you practice.
|
||||
|
||||
"This is the perfect time to employ AI for help. Try this prompt for each post:"
|
||||
|
||||
> Do a comprehensive analysis on this social post. The overall idea, how the sentences are structured, and choice of words. Analyze why people engage with it, why it works so well, what psychological tactics are being used, and how I can replicate this style step-by-step with my own ideas.
|
||||
|
||||
Then paste the post below the prompt.
|
||||
|
||||
I'd recommend Claude as the model to use for this over ChatGPT or Gemini.
|
||||
|
||||
Continue doing this for any idea you find along your journey that you want to incorporate as part of your writing style. You can use this for videos as well, not just posts.
|
||||
|
||||
**Second**, rewrite 3 ideas with different structures.
|
||||
|
||||
Go back to your idea museum and choose one idea you didn't use in step one.
|
||||
|
||||
Then, try rewriting that idea with the 3 post structures you just broke down.
|
||||
|
||||
This is how you develop range.
|
||||
|
||||
This is how you stop staring at blank screens.
|
||||
|
||||
This is how you turn one idea into a week's worth of content.
|
||||
|
||||
Why are we doing this?
|
||||
|
||||
Well, you now have all of the secrets to creating content that stands out and coming up with good ideas.
|
||||
|
||||
Seriously, those are the secrets. Any results that come from them are a matter of practice.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## VII – Systems are the new product
|
||||
|
||||
Okay, this is getting long so I'm going to speed things up.
|
||||
|
||||
And I have an entire guide on [creating your first product here](https://letters.thedankoe.com/p/mega-guide-how-to-create-your-first)... so don't want to be redundant.
|
||||
|
||||
At this point in time, we are in a **systems economy**.
|
||||
|
||||
People don't want **a** solution to their problems.
|
||||
**They want your solution to their problems.**
|
||||
|
||||
There are tons of writing products out there, so what's different about my 2 Hour Writer product, as an example? Or even Eden, the software that I'm building that could "easily be replaced by Google Drive or Dropbox," according to super smart people who have definitely built successful products in the YouTube comments?
|
||||
|
||||
They're systems that I created by getting results for myself.
|
||||
|
||||
2HW doesn't teach a bunch of academic writing nonsense that doesn't help you achieve our shared vision of living a creative and meaningful life.
|
||||
|
||||
"I had a few problems:"
|
||||
|
||||
- I had trouble having an endless source of content ideas.
|
||||
- I didn't want to waste a ton of time creating content for all different platforms.
|
||||
|
||||
So, I started experimenting with my own system.
|
||||
|
||||
"My goal for the system was clear: write all of the content I need to in under 2 hours a day. That way my audience growth is handled and I can focus on building better products and enjoying life."
|
||||
|
||||
I started testing solutions to have more content ideas.
|
||||
|
||||
I created swipe files, steps to generate ideas, and templates if I still couldn't think of anything.
|
||||
|
||||
"I mapped out exactly what I was going to attempt to write each week: 3 posts a day, 1 thread a week, and 1 newsletter a week."
|
||||
|
||||
During that process, I realized I could cross-post my writing to all social platforms (this is public, you can see it). I also realized that threads could be turned into carousels, and newsletters could be turned into YouTube videos.
|
||||
|
||||
If the system didn't flow, I would try new things the next week.
|
||||
|
||||
From there, I realized I could copy paste my newsletter to my blog, embed the YT video in that blog, promote my products in that blog, and turn that blog into more content ideas.
|
||||
|
||||
Then, I could link that blog under my content each day.
|
||||
|
||||
This led to more newsletter subscribers, YouTube subscribers, and product sales.
|
||||
|
||||
I realized that if everything I did was newsletter centric, that's all I had to worry about for both growing my audience and promoting my products.
|
||||
|
||||
**That's how you stand out in a world of copy paste products.**
|
||||
|
||||
Yes, it takes time and experience.
|
||||
|
||||
But the end result is so worth it.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
That's it for this letter.
|
||||
|
||||
Thank you for reading.
|
||||
|
||||
– Dan
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
*原文发表于 https://x.com/thedankoe/status/2010042119121957316*
|
||||
---
|
||||
title:
|
||||
source:
|
||||
author: shenwei
|
||||
published:
|
||||
created:
|
||||
description:
|
||||
tags: []
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## VI – Content is novel perspectives
|
||||
|
||||
The internet is a fire hose of information.
|
||||
AI is only adding more noise.
|
||||
That means trust and signal are more important than ever.
|
||||
|
||||
In my opinion, the guiding light for your content should be to curate the best possible ideas in one place.
|
||||
|
||||
**Your brand is a collection of all the ideas you care about, in your own words, under one account on the internet.**
|
||||
|
||||
If you have any plans to do podcasts or public speaking, notice how the best speakers always have 5-10 of their best arguments or ideas top of mind. They repeat these over and over and that's how they build influence. If you don't have a set of those 5-10 ideas, then you won't be as impactful as you could be. Writing a truckload of content is how you discover those ideas.
|
||||
|
||||
Once the "idea density" of your content increases with time and effort, that's what creates a brand worth following and paying for.
|
||||
|
||||
"The goal of curating ideas to include under your brand should fall at the intersection of:"
|
||||
|
||||
- **Performance** – the ideas have the potential to "do well." This is the measure of how much other people will care.
|
||||
- **Excitement** – the ideas give you a sense of excitement to write about them. This is the measure of how much you care.
|
||||
|
||||
Art and business.
|
||||
Metrics and performance shouldn't determine everything, but they do mean something.
|
||||
|
||||
**Step 1) Build an idea museum**
|
||||
|
||||
The secret of most creatives you love is that they keep a ruthless curation of notes, ideas, and sources of inspiration.
|
||||
|
||||
In other words, they have a "swipe file," as marketers call it.
|
||||
|
||||
You can use [Eden](https://eden.so/) (if you have access), Apple Notes, Notion, or whatever else you want, but I want to make this very clear:
|
||||
|
||||
**You need somewhere to jot down ideas as soon as they come to mind.**
|
||||
|
||||
This is a critical habit.
|
||||
|
||||
Whenever you find an idea that is useful, either now or in the near future, write it down. You don't need content pillars or 2-3 topics to talk about. The ideas you curate should simply be important to you. That alone means they are relevant to a specific niche of a person: you. However, you can create a [content map](https://letters.thedankoe.com/p/the-content-map-how-to-never-run) if you'd like.
|
||||
|
||||
I don't care how you structure this. It can be a neat and organized set of documents, or it can be a messy running note without structure. The habit matters more than the format.
|
||||
|
||||
You gauge performance by glancing at the likes, views, or general engagement of a post to see if it has the potential to resonate. If the idea falls flat or does worse than their other content, it probably won't do well for you.
|
||||
|
||||
You gauge excitement by noticing when you feel as if you are wasting something valuable if you don't write it down.
|
||||
|
||||
**Step 2) Curate based on idea density**
|
||||
|
||||
How do you start filling your idea museum?
|
||||
|
||||
You need 3-5 sources of information that have high idea density.
|
||||
|
||||
When I say "idea density," I mean an idea that is high signal.
|
||||
|
||||
It's difficult to explain how to find something that is high signal, because that is subjective. It's dependent on your level of development (what's useful for you), your audience's level of development (what's useful for them), and your translation from one to another.
|
||||
|
||||
The most basic piece of advice could be the most valuable thing in the world for someone else, but it may seem like common knowledge to you.
|
||||
|
||||
With time, you will tune your own signal-to-noise ratio by seeing what ideas resonate with your audience and which don't.
|
||||
|
||||
"The most idea-dense sources of information:"
|
||||
|
||||
- **Old or little-known books** – I have 5 books that I reread over and over again because the ideas are so good. These are where the timeless principles live, untouched by trends.
|
||||
- **Curated blogs, accounts, or books** – Blogs like Farnam Street curate the best ideas from modern intellectuals. Accounts like Navalism curate Naval's best ideas. Books like *The Maxwell Daily Reader* have one of Maxwell's best ideas one day at a time for a year. These do a lot of the heavy lifting for you, allowing you to pick and choose the best of the best.
|
||||
- **Heavy-hitting social accounts** – I have a list of maybe 5 social accounts that always post great ideas. If I don't have something to write about, I'll scroll through their page and find something I have an opinion on and write about that.
|
||||
|
||||
Finding these sources takes a few months of discovery. But the result of maintaining an idea museum of dense ideas leads to you creating idea-dense content.
|
||||
|
||||
Your idea museum becomes a representation of the mind you are attempting to create.
|
||||
|
||||
That's the ultimate goal.
|
||||
|
||||
To have a library of content so good that people can't help but open your emails, turn on post notifications, share your ideas with friends, and think about your ideas often.
|
||||
|
||||
> You become a **curator** of ideas that people wouldn't even think to ask AI for, and that people would never come across organically.
|
||||
|
||||
That's how you become less dependent on the algorithm for your success.
|
||||
|
||||
**Step 3) Write 1 idea 1000 different ways**
|
||||
|
||||
Becoming a good writer or speaker isn't only about the idea, but **how the idea is articulated**.
|
||||
|
||||
The idea does a lot of the heavy lifting, but the structure is what makes it engaging, unique, and impactful.
|
||||
|
||||
Let me show you what I mean.
|
||||
|
||||
"Take this post structure:"
|
||||
|
||||
> "One pattern I've noticed in happy people: They're obsessive about maintaining their mental clarity."
|
||||
|
||||
The idea here is that happy people maintain their mental clarity.
|
||||
|
||||
"The structure is formatted in 2 parts: a hook in the form of an observation, and the delivery of what the observation is."
|
||||
|
||||
It seems simple, but the difference in the structure of an idea can make all the difference.
|
||||
|
||||
"Now, if I take the same idea but use a "list" structure:"
|
||||
|
||||
> "Happy people are clear-minded people:
|
||||
> – They take time for rest
|
||||
> – They focus on one singular goal
|
||||
> – They ruthlessly eliminate distractions
|
||||
> In other words, happy people are obsessive about maintaining their mental clarity."
|
||||
|
||||
Same idea. Different structure. Different impact.
|
||||
|
||||
If you wanted to, you could practice writing the same idea with every single post structure you come across.
|
||||
|
||||
"Here's how to practice this:"
|
||||
|
||||
**First**, break down 3 ideas into their structure.
|
||||
|
||||
Choose 3 posts from your idea museum that resonated with you. Then, try to break down each part of the idea and write why it works.
|
||||
|
||||
If you don't have experience with content psychology, that's okay. You learn it as you practice.
|
||||
|
||||
"This is the perfect time to employ AI for help. Try this prompt for each post:"
|
||||
|
||||
> Do a comprehensive analysis on this social post. The overall idea, how the sentences are structured, and choice of words. Analyze why people engage with it, why it works so well, what psychological tactics are being used, and how I can replicate this style step-by-step with my own ideas.
|
||||
|
||||
Then paste the post below the prompt.
|
||||
|
||||
I'd recommend Claude as the model to use for this over ChatGPT or Gemini.
|
||||
|
||||
Continue doing this for any idea you find along your journey that you want to incorporate as part of your writing style. You can use this for videos as well, not just posts.
|
||||
|
||||
**Second**, rewrite 3 ideas with different structures.
|
||||
|
||||
Go back to your idea museum and choose one idea you didn't use in step one.
|
||||
|
||||
Then, try rewriting that idea with the 3 post structures you just broke down.
|
||||
|
||||
This is how you develop range.
|
||||
|
||||
This is how you stop staring at blank screens.
|
||||
|
||||
This is how you turn one idea into a week's worth of content.
|
||||
|
||||
Why are we doing this?
|
||||
|
||||
Well, you now have all of the secrets to creating content that stands out and coming up with good ideas.
|
||||
|
||||
Seriously, those are the secrets. Any results that come from them are a matter of practice.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## VII – Systems are the new product
|
||||
|
||||
Okay, this is getting long so I'm going to speed things up.
|
||||
|
||||
And I have an entire guide on [creating your first product here](https://letters.thedankoe.com/p/mega-guide-how-to-create-your-first)... so don't want to be redundant.
|
||||
|
||||
At this point in time, we are in a **systems economy**.
|
||||
|
||||
People don't want **a** solution to their problems.
|
||||
**They want your solution to their problems.**
|
||||
|
||||
There are tons of writing products out there, so what's different about my 2 Hour Writer product, as an example? Or even Eden, the software that I'm building that could "easily be replaced by Google Drive or Dropbox," according to super smart people who have definitely built successful products in the YouTube comments?
|
||||
|
||||
They're systems that I created by getting results for myself.
|
||||
|
||||
2HW doesn't teach a bunch of academic writing nonsense that doesn't help you achieve our shared vision of living a creative and meaningful life.
|
||||
|
||||
"I had a few problems:"
|
||||
|
||||
- I had trouble having an endless source of content ideas.
|
||||
- I didn't want to waste a ton of time creating content for all different platforms.
|
||||
|
||||
So, I started experimenting with my own system.
|
||||
|
||||
"My goal for the system was clear: write all of the content I need to in under 2 hours a day. That way my audience growth is handled and I can focus on building better products and enjoying life."
|
||||
|
||||
I started testing solutions to have more content ideas.
|
||||
|
||||
I created swipe files, steps to generate ideas, and templates if I still couldn't think of anything.
|
||||
|
||||
"I mapped out exactly what I was going to attempt to write each week: 3 posts a day, 1 thread a week, and 1 newsletter a week."
|
||||
|
||||
During that process, I realized I could cross-post my writing to all social platforms (this is public, you can see it). I also realized that threads could be turned into carousels, and newsletters could be turned into YouTube videos.
|
||||
|
||||
If the system didn't flow, I would try new things the next week.
|
||||
|
||||
From there, I realized I could copy paste my newsletter to my blog, embed the YT video in that blog, promote my products in that blog, and turn that blog into more content ideas.
|
||||
|
||||
Then, I could link that blog under my content each day.
|
||||
|
||||
This led to more newsletter subscribers, YouTube subscribers, and product sales.
|
||||
|
||||
I realized that if everything I did was newsletter centric, that's all I had to worry about for both growing my audience and promoting my products.
|
||||
|
||||
**That's how you stand out in a world of copy paste products.**
|
||||
|
||||
Yes, it takes time and experience.
|
||||
|
||||
But the end result is so worth it.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
That's it for this letter.
|
||||
|
||||
Thank you for reading.
|
||||
|
||||
– Dan
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
*原文发表于 https://x.com/thedankoe/status/2010042119121957316*
|
||||
|
||||
@@ -1,228 +1,228 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: How to become so creative it feels illegal
|
||||
source:
|
||||
author: shenwei
|
||||
published:
|
||||
created:
|
||||
description:
|
||||
tags: []
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
# How to become so creative it feels illegal
|
||||
|
||||
**作者:** DAN KOE (@thedankoe)
|
||||
**来源:** https://x.com/thedankoe/status/2036824811712942576
|
||||
**日期:** 2026-03-30
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
These past few weeks, I've felt completely brain-fried.
|
||||
|
||||
You know that feeling. The one where you're thinking about nothing and everything at the same time.
|
||||
|
||||
That feeling when you try to think, brainstorm, or come up with a great idea, and nothing comes to mind, no matter how hard you try.
|
||||
|
||||
It's more of a cognitive burnout than an emotional one. I can keep working, sure, but I don't feel very human.
|
||||
|
||||
It could be stress.
|
||||
|
||||
It could be too much AI (I've been playing the vibe coding slot machine quite a bit recently).
|
||||
|
||||
It could be falling out of my writing routine (which stems from shifting focus to other company problems, which leads to more stress).
|
||||
|
||||
Great ideas and writing were a breeze for me just last month. I could sit down and write my heart out and feel like it was quality and close-to-original thinking.
|
||||
|
||||
The longer this went on, the more the feeling compounded.
|
||||
|
||||
Why can't I write? Where did all my ideas go?
|
||||
|
||||
How can I get back?
|
||||
|
||||
That's my primary goal with this letter.
|
||||
|
||||
I want to provide both you and me with a guide that helps us return to our most creative state, and that's very important, as you'll find.
|
||||
|
||||
My secondary goal is to show you that, even if you don't think you're a "creative person," you can enter an incredibly enjoyable state of consciousness. Similar to the flow state, but potentially more potent. You aren't focused on breezing through a set of tasks. Instead, you're seeing the world in a completely different way, like a dog who sees grass for the first time.
|
||||
|
||||
My tertiary goal is to give you a 7-day protocol. If you follow it to a T, you will go from feeling brain-fried to alive. It is very simple. You may scoff at it. But I recommend you try it, because most won't. While it's simple, it will be difficult to do, but the quality of your work will improve drastically.
|
||||
|
||||
Because in today's world, your creativity is the most scarce resource.
|
||||
|
||||
Anyone can build anything. Anyone can think anything. Anyone can write anything. The people who will win in business, writing, art, and general quality of life, as always, will be those who can take the most creative path. The path that nobody else considered to take.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## I – You don't have ideas because there's too much interference.
|
||||
|
||||
"I'm not a creative person."
|
||||
|
||||
That unfortunate and often unthought-through statement makes creativity seem like it's some sort of talent or skill.
|
||||
|
||||
In some ways, it is, but at its core, creativity is a natural way of being. It's a state of consciousness. It's a capacity that everyone has, but that capacity gets buried as time goes on.
|
||||
|
||||
How does it get buried?
|
||||
|
||||
With anything that narrows your mind. Creativity is a very open, relaxed state where you see connections, patterns, and possibilities that aren't immediately obvious. It's the act of noticing the unnoticed, which is not the same as what most think creativity is: creating something from nothing.
|
||||
|
||||
In my eyes, there are Three Narrowers of the Mind:
|
||||
|
||||
**1) Conditioning** is the enemy of wonder.
|
||||
|
||||
When you think of creativity, you think of children.
|
||||
|
||||
They see the world through such fresh eyes. If a child asked ChatGPT to build a teleportation device so they can take their friends to another galaxy, nobody would bat an eye, but if you did that, people would think you're just an idiot who doesn't understand "how the world works."
|
||||
|
||||
Kids haven't yet received the compounding negative feedback from their parents, teachers, and peers. They haven't internalized that they have to act a certain way to fit into a broken and boring society.
|
||||
|
||||
You must go to school.
|
||||
|
||||
You must do your best to get a high-paying job.
|
||||
|
||||
You must praise this God, and if you disobey, you're going to hell.
|
||||
|
||||
By the time most people turn 20 years old, they are the same as everyone else. Same thoughts, actions, and types of beliefs. They are going down the life path assigned to them rather than the one they chose to create.
|
||||
|
||||
Creativity requires holding beliefs loosely and entertaining an idea without immediately rejecting or demonizing it (as everyone does on social media, where it drives engagement and facilitates groupthink).
|
||||
|
||||
**2) Productivity as a priority is a losing game.**
|
||||
|
||||
When the 9-5 job became a thing during industrialization, productivity became the highest value. Everyone became a specialist who only learned how to place one piece of the puzzle, because if they understood how to solve the entire thing, they would be the entrepeneur not the employee.
|
||||
|
||||
Today, everyone feels like they're falling behind (and if you're being real, you're never going to catch up in a game you didn't create. Creativity is the only way out).
|
||||
|
||||
You have this perpetual deadline that's always looming.
|
||||
|
||||
A stressed mind only worries about survival, and you can't see new connections when your nervous system is ruled by deadlines.
|
||||
|
||||
If your life isn't structured around optimization and efficiency (in other words if you aren't a robot) everyone thinks you're useless. But that's exactly what creativity demands. Useless wandering. True boredom. Creating space for the right idea to emerge that will take you much further than the productivity bros stuck in the same race as everyone else.
|
||||
|
||||
People who schedule every hour don't stumble onto anything
|
||||
|
||||
The priorities themselves interfere with the conditions creative thought needs.
|
||||
|
||||
**3) Infinite input and zero processing time.**
|
||||
|
||||
Your metabolism can only go so fast.
|
||||
|
||||
It's obvious that if you eat too much food, you start to feel slow and look slow.
|
||||
|
||||
Yes, you get fat.
|
||||
|
||||
But most people don't realize this applies to the mind as well.
|
||||
|
||||
They feel as if they don't consume 10 podcasts a week, they won't be able to "keep up," even though the opposite is true. Their mental metabolism doesn't have time to digest the information.
|
||||
|
||||
There's a time for curated information that helps spark more ideas, but if it isn't kept under tight control, it gets dangerous very quickly.
|
||||
|
||||
Creativity is rarely an input problem, but then again, you can only cook with what's in the fridge. The problem is that most people's fridges are overflowing with ice cream and soda pop.
|
||||
|
||||
> "Oh, by the way, we're doing another challenge starting in exactly 2 weeks. It's called: Build a 2-Hour Content System In 14 Days. (It also comes with 14 prompts, one for each day, and no they don't write content for you. We aren't that desparate yet.) It's an intensive challenge that gets your creative juices flowing. By the end you'll have your unique voice, a batch of non-slop social posts, one polished newsletter/article (if you've ever wanted to write X articles) you're proud of, and a skill that AI won't replace any time soon.
|
||||
> Join here to get in early. Early bird pricing ends in 3 days."
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## II – You're not bored, you're overstimulated.
|
||||
|
||||
"Dan, I'm bored all the time and I'm not creative."
|
||||
|
||||
Being chronically overstimulated and overcaffeinated is not boredom. You're so fried that you've gone all the way off the other end and associate that with boredom because you're so used to euphoria that it's become boring. You quite literally can't go any further, you must come back the other way.
|
||||
|
||||
True boredom (after your withdrawal period) does a few things.
|
||||
|
||||
**1) Boredom provides a gateway to novelty.**
|
||||
|
||||
Carl Jung, OG psychologist, harped on the importance of shadow work – confronting the uncomfortable aspects of ourselves we typically avoid.
|
||||
|
||||
Sitting with boredom does just this.
|
||||
|
||||
It activates breakthrough insights when the rational mind stops trying to solve everything.
|
||||
|
||||
It reveals our authentic desires beneath external conditioning.
|
||||
|
||||
It sets the scene for 3 flow triggers, making you more likely to enter a season of intense learning and building:
|
||||
|
||||
- **Deep embodiment** – being present with discomfort
|
||||
- **Novelty** – boredom forces you to seek new, healthier stimulation
|
||||
- **Unpredictability** – not knowing what will emerge from the void
|
||||
|
||||
If you don't know what to do in your life, maybe you should do nothing.
|
||||
|
||||
Not the default nothing that everyone falls into, but truly nothing.
|
||||
|
||||
**2) The brain will upregulate dopamine receptors when deprived.**
|
||||
|
||||
Hedonic adaptation is your psychological thermostat.
|
||||
|
||||
No matter how high or low the temperature goes, it always tries to return to the set point.
|
||||
|
||||
This creates what psychologists call the "hedonic treadmill." You're always running toward the next source of pleasure, but the satisfaction never lasts. Each experience becomes your new normal, requiring more intense stimulation to achieve the same emotional high.
|
||||
|
||||
But when you deprive yourself of pleasure, the opposite happens. A hedonic treadmill reversal.
|
||||
|
||||
Slowly, then rapidly, simple pleasures become enjoyable again. You experience what Buddhists call the beginner's mind.
|
||||
|
||||
You notice the detail in the sky when you're on a walk outside. You notice the hint of rosemary in the well-cooked meal. Life becomes electric, as it should be.
|
||||
|
||||
**3) You don't need motivation, you need clarity.**
|
||||
|
||||
> All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone. – Naval Ravikant
|
||||
|
||||
Boredom creates space for sensemaking. That is, processing and integrating experience. The digestion that most people don't realize as important.
|
||||
|
||||
In the Information Age, modern technology creates a "context collapse." Our brain is only capable of processing around 50 bits of information per second through our conscious attention.
|
||||
|
||||
When you deprive yourself to the point of boredom, you're almost forced to confront all of the problems that you've suppressed over the years.
|
||||
|
||||
You need to sit and notice what happens in your mind.
|
||||
|
||||
It will be painful, but if you sit with it long enough, you'll receive a burst of clarity that launches you into a new phase of life.
|
||||
|
||||
Through chaos, or a change in perspective of chaos, order emerges.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## III – The 7-day protocol to slow the fuck down (how to feel alive again)
|
||||
|
||||
Alright you get it.
|
||||
|
||||
Creativity is an incredible thing, and you should probably prioritize it more.
|
||||
|
||||
But how?
|
||||
|
||||
Well, we look at the problem (being overstimulated, overcommited, mentally bloated) and design a system that results in the alleviation of those things. That's what you do when something isn't going well, but when you're stuck in this narrow-minded state, it's hard to first identify what your problem is, and even harder to change your behavior. That's why a letter like this can be helpful. It shines a light of awareness (you can't ask ChatGPT what you don't think to ask).
|
||||
|
||||
Now, we don't need a full "dopamine detox" here, but we do need to commit.
|
||||
|
||||
As I said, this is very simple.
|
||||
|
||||
That will cause people to think they're above it and not try it. I highly discourage that way of thinking. That's one reason you aren't very creative.
|
||||
|
||||
**Day 1-2: Reduce The Input Fast**
|
||||
|
||||
This is the equivalent of doing intermittent fasting, but for the mind.
|
||||
|
||||
All of this is important, it's okay if it doesn't feel right.
|
||||
|
||||
- Impose strict timeblocks on your workday. If you can, limit work to 4 hours a day for this week. If you can't, that's fine. Set an alarm that marks the end. When it goes off, you're done. No "one last task." Your job is to not think about work or productivity when you're not working. You're practicing the skill of letting something feel unfinished without anxiety.
|
||||
- Cut out your primary input source. Like the junk food in the cabinet at night, pick the one source you reach for the most mindlessly. This could be the podcast on the commute, the scroll before bed, or the news in the morning. Replace it with nothing. Sit in silence. Listen for an idea.
|
||||
- Go on a walk. Not because it will do anything magical, but because ideas are caught in motion. No headphones. Hell, even leave your phone at home. This walk won't do much for you since it may be your first time, but trust the process.
|
||||
|
||||
That's it. Three simple changes.
|
||||
|
||||
Psychologically, removing constant input allows your brain's default mode network (the brain's "wandering" system) to fire. This is the network responsible for random insight, self-reflection, and imagining the future.
|
||||
|
||||
It cannot be active while you're consuming.
|
||||
|
||||
**Day 3-4: Digest What's Already There**
|
||||
|
||||
Now that you've created space, things will start surfacing.
|
||||
|
||||
Unexamined beliefs. Underprocessed emotions. Unquestioned assumptions. The dreams you gave up on. The person you wanted to become before life "got real."
|
||||
|
||||
This is your opportunity to slow down and integrate what you've already experienced. If you're always consuming, you're just flying through life without ever landing.
|
||||
|
||||
Most people avoid this because it's uncomfortable. But without integration, experience is meaningless.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
*Tweet stats: 248 replies, 911 reposts, 6,109 likes, 12,727 bookmarks, 1,869,313 views*
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: How to become so creative it feels illegal
|
||||
source:
|
||||
author: shenwei
|
||||
published:
|
||||
created:
|
||||
description:
|
||||
tags: []
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
# How to become so creative it feels illegal
|
||||
|
||||
**作者:** DAN KOE (@thedankoe)
|
||||
**来源:** https://x.com/thedankoe/status/2036824811712942576
|
||||
**日期:** 2026-03-30
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
These past few weeks, I've felt completely brain-fried.
|
||||
|
||||
You know that feeling. The one where you're thinking about nothing and everything at the same time.
|
||||
|
||||
That feeling when you try to think, brainstorm, or come up with a great idea, and nothing comes to mind, no matter how hard you try.
|
||||
|
||||
It's more of a cognitive burnout than an emotional one. I can keep working, sure, but I don't feel very human.
|
||||
|
||||
It could be stress.
|
||||
|
||||
It could be too much AI (I've been playing the vibe coding slot machine quite a bit recently).
|
||||
|
||||
It could be falling out of my writing routine (which stems from shifting focus to other company problems, which leads to more stress).
|
||||
|
||||
Great ideas and writing were a breeze for me just last month. I could sit down and write my heart out and feel like it was quality and close-to-original thinking.
|
||||
|
||||
The longer this went on, the more the feeling compounded.
|
||||
|
||||
Why can't I write? Where did all my ideas go?
|
||||
|
||||
How can I get back?
|
||||
|
||||
That's my primary goal with this letter.
|
||||
|
||||
I want to provide both you and me with a guide that helps us return to our most creative state, and that's very important, as you'll find.
|
||||
|
||||
My secondary goal is to show you that, even if you don't think you're a "creative person," you can enter an incredibly enjoyable state of consciousness. Similar to the flow state, but potentially more potent. You aren't focused on breezing through a set of tasks. Instead, you're seeing the world in a completely different way, like a dog who sees grass for the first time.
|
||||
|
||||
My tertiary goal is to give you a 7-day protocol. If you follow it to a T, you will go from feeling brain-fried to alive. It is very simple. You may scoff at it. But I recommend you try it, because most won't. While it's simple, it will be difficult to do, but the quality of your work will improve drastically.
|
||||
|
||||
Because in today's world, your creativity is the most scarce resource.
|
||||
|
||||
Anyone can build anything. Anyone can think anything. Anyone can write anything. The people who will win in business, writing, art, and general quality of life, as always, will be those who can take the most creative path. The path that nobody else considered to take.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## I – You don't have ideas because there's too much interference.
|
||||
|
||||
"I'm not a creative person."
|
||||
|
||||
That unfortunate and often unthought-through statement makes creativity seem like it's some sort of talent or skill.
|
||||
|
||||
In some ways, it is, but at its core, creativity is a natural way of being. It's a state of consciousness. It's a capacity that everyone has, but that capacity gets buried as time goes on.
|
||||
|
||||
How does it get buried?
|
||||
|
||||
With anything that narrows your mind. Creativity is a very open, relaxed state where you see connections, patterns, and possibilities that aren't immediately obvious. It's the act of noticing the unnoticed, which is not the same as what most think creativity is: creating something from nothing.
|
||||
|
||||
In my eyes, there are Three Narrowers of the Mind:
|
||||
|
||||
**1) Conditioning** is the enemy of wonder.
|
||||
|
||||
When you think of creativity, you think of children.
|
||||
|
||||
They see the world through such fresh eyes. If a child asked ChatGPT to build a teleportation device so they can take their friends to another galaxy, nobody would bat an eye, but if you did that, people would think you're just an idiot who doesn't understand "how the world works."
|
||||
|
||||
Kids haven't yet received the compounding negative feedback from their parents, teachers, and peers. They haven't internalized that they have to act a certain way to fit into a broken and boring society.
|
||||
|
||||
You must go to school.
|
||||
|
||||
You must do your best to get a high-paying job.
|
||||
|
||||
You must praise this God, and if you disobey, you're going to hell.
|
||||
|
||||
By the time most people turn 20 years old, they are the same as everyone else. Same thoughts, actions, and types of beliefs. They are going down the life path assigned to them rather than the one they chose to create.
|
||||
|
||||
Creativity requires holding beliefs loosely and entertaining an idea without immediately rejecting or demonizing it (as everyone does on social media, where it drives engagement and facilitates groupthink).
|
||||
|
||||
**2) Productivity as a priority is a losing game.**
|
||||
|
||||
When the 9-5 job became a thing during industrialization, productivity became the highest value. Everyone became a specialist who only learned how to place one piece of the puzzle, because if they understood how to solve the entire thing, they would be the entrepeneur not the employee.
|
||||
|
||||
Today, everyone feels like they're falling behind (and if you're being real, you're never going to catch up in a game you didn't create. Creativity is the only way out).
|
||||
|
||||
You have this perpetual deadline that's always looming.
|
||||
|
||||
A stressed mind only worries about survival, and you can't see new connections when your nervous system is ruled by deadlines.
|
||||
|
||||
If your life isn't structured around optimization and efficiency (in other words if you aren't a robot) everyone thinks you're useless. But that's exactly what creativity demands. Useless wandering. True boredom. Creating space for the right idea to emerge that will take you much further than the productivity bros stuck in the same race as everyone else.
|
||||
|
||||
People who schedule every hour don't stumble onto anything
|
||||
|
||||
The priorities themselves interfere with the conditions creative thought needs.
|
||||
|
||||
**3) Infinite input and zero processing time.**
|
||||
|
||||
Your metabolism can only go so fast.
|
||||
|
||||
It's obvious that if you eat too much food, you start to feel slow and look slow.
|
||||
|
||||
Yes, you get fat.
|
||||
|
||||
But most people don't realize this applies to the mind as well.
|
||||
|
||||
They feel as if they don't consume 10 podcasts a week, they won't be able to "keep up," even though the opposite is true. Their mental metabolism doesn't have time to digest the information.
|
||||
|
||||
There's a time for curated information that helps spark more ideas, but if it isn't kept under tight control, it gets dangerous very quickly.
|
||||
|
||||
Creativity is rarely an input problem, but then again, you can only cook with what's in the fridge. The problem is that most people's fridges are overflowing with ice cream and soda pop.
|
||||
|
||||
> "Oh, by the way, we're doing another challenge starting in exactly 2 weeks. It's called: Build a 2-Hour Content System In 14 Days. (It also comes with 14 prompts, one for each day, and no they don't write content for you. We aren't that desparate yet.) It's an intensive challenge that gets your creative juices flowing. By the end you'll have your unique voice, a batch of non-slop social posts, one polished newsletter/article (if you've ever wanted to write X articles) you're proud of, and a skill that AI won't replace any time soon.
|
||||
> Join here to get in early. Early bird pricing ends in 3 days."
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## II – You're not bored, you're overstimulated.
|
||||
|
||||
"Dan, I'm bored all the time and I'm not creative."
|
||||
|
||||
Being chronically overstimulated and overcaffeinated is not boredom. You're so fried that you've gone all the way off the other end and associate that with boredom because you're so used to euphoria that it's become boring. You quite literally can't go any further, you must come back the other way.
|
||||
|
||||
True boredom (after your withdrawal period) does a few things.
|
||||
|
||||
**1) Boredom provides a gateway to novelty.**
|
||||
|
||||
Carl Jung, OG psychologist, harped on the importance of shadow work – confronting the uncomfortable aspects of ourselves we typically avoid.
|
||||
|
||||
Sitting with boredom does just this.
|
||||
|
||||
It activates breakthrough insights when the rational mind stops trying to solve everything.
|
||||
|
||||
It reveals our authentic desires beneath external conditioning.
|
||||
|
||||
It sets the scene for 3 flow triggers, making you more likely to enter a season of intense learning and building:
|
||||
|
||||
- **Deep embodiment** – being present with discomfort
|
||||
- **Novelty** – boredom forces you to seek new, healthier stimulation
|
||||
- **Unpredictability** – not knowing what will emerge from the void
|
||||
|
||||
If you don't know what to do in your life, maybe you should do nothing.
|
||||
|
||||
Not the default nothing that everyone falls into, but truly nothing.
|
||||
|
||||
**2) The brain will upregulate dopamine receptors when deprived.**
|
||||
|
||||
Hedonic adaptation is your psychological thermostat.
|
||||
|
||||
No matter how high or low the temperature goes, it always tries to return to the set point.
|
||||
|
||||
This creates what psychologists call the "hedonic treadmill." You're always running toward the next source of pleasure, but the satisfaction never lasts. Each experience becomes your new normal, requiring more intense stimulation to achieve the same emotional high.
|
||||
|
||||
But when you deprive yourself of pleasure, the opposite happens. A hedonic treadmill reversal.
|
||||
|
||||
Slowly, then rapidly, simple pleasures become enjoyable again. You experience what Buddhists call the beginner's mind.
|
||||
|
||||
You notice the detail in the sky when you're on a walk outside. You notice the hint of rosemary in the well-cooked meal. Life becomes electric, as it should be.
|
||||
|
||||
**3) You don't need motivation, you need clarity.**
|
||||
|
||||
> All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone. – Naval Ravikant
|
||||
|
||||
Boredom creates space for sensemaking. That is, processing and integrating experience. The digestion that most people don't realize as important.
|
||||
|
||||
In the Information Age, modern technology creates a "context collapse." Our brain is only capable of processing around 50 bits of information per second through our conscious attention.
|
||||
|
||||
When you deprive yourself to the point of boredom, you're almost forced to confront all of the problems that you've suppressed over the years.
|
||||
|
||||
You need to sit and notice what happens in your mind.
|
||||
|
||||
It will be painful, but if you sit with it long enough, you'll receive a burst of clarity that launches you into a new phase of life.
|
||||
|
||||
Through chaos, or a change in perspective of chaos, order emerges.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## III – The 7-day protocol to slow the fuck down (how to feel alive again)
|
||||
|
||||
Alright you get it.
|
||||
|
||||
Creativity is an incredible thing, and you should probably prioritize it more.
|
||||
|
||||
But how?
|
||||
|
||||
Well, we look at the problem (being overstimulated, overcommited, mentally bloated) and design a system that results in the alleviation of those things. That's what you do when something isn't going well, but when you're stuck in this narrow-minded state, it's hard to first identify what your problem is, and even harder to change your behavior. That's why a letter like this can be helpful. It shines a light of awareness (you can't ask ChatGPT what you don't think to ask).
|
||||
|
||||
Now, we don't need a full "dopamine detox" here, but we do need to commit.
|
||||
|
||||
As I said, this is very simple.
|
||||
|
||||
That will cause people to think they're above it and not try it. I highly discourage that way of thinking. That's one reason you aren't very creative.
|
||||
|
||||
**Day 1-2: Reduce The Input Fast**
|
||||
|
||||
This is the equivalent of doing intermittent fasting, but for the mind.
|
||||
|
||||
All of this is important, it's okay if it doesn't feel right.
|
||||
|
||||
- Impose strict timeblocks on your workday. If you can, limit work to 4 hours a day for this week. If you can't, that's fine. Set an alarm that marks the end. When it goes off, you're done. No "one last task." Your job is to not think about work or productivity when you're not working. You're practicing the skill of letting something feel unfinished without anxiety.
|
||||
- Cut out your primary input source. Like the junk food in the cabinet at night, pick the one source you reach for the most mindlessly. This could be the podcast on the commute, the scroll before bed, or the news in the morning. Replace it with nothing. Sit in silence. Listen for an idea.
|
||||
- Go on a walk. Not because it will do anything magical, but because ideas are caught in motion. No headphones. Hell, even leave your phone at home. This walk won't do much for you since it may be your first time, but trust the process.
|
||||
|
||||
That's it. Three simple changes.
|
||||
|
||||
Psychologically, removing constant input allows your brain's default mode network (the brain's "wandering" system) to fire. This is the network responsible for random insight, self-reflection, and imagining the future.
|
||||
|
||||
It cannot be active while you're consuming.
|
||||
|
||||
**Day 3-4: Digest What's Already There**
|
||||
|
||||
Now that you've created space, things will start surfacing.
|
||||
|
||||
Unexamined beliefs. Underprocessed emotions. Unquestioned assumptions. The dreams you gave up on. The person you wanted to become before life "got real."
|
||||
|
||||
This is your opportunity to slow down and integrate what you've already experienced. If you're always consuming, you're just flying through life without ever landing.
|
||||
|
||||
Most people avoid this because it's uncomfortable. But without integration, experience is meaningless.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
*Tweet stats: 248 replies, 911 reposts, 6,109 likes, 12,727 bookmarks, 1,869,313 views*
|
||||
|
||||
@@ -1,270 +1,270 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: I Spent 5 Days Debugging My OpenClaw Agent's Memory. Here's Everything I Learned.
|
||||
source:
|
||||
author: shenwei
|
||||
published:
|
||||
created:
|
||||
description:
|
||||
tags: []
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
# I Spent 5 Days Debugging My OpenClaw Agent's Memory. Here's Everything I Learned.
|
||||
|
||||
**Author:** Ramya Chinnadurai (@code_rams)
|
||||
**Source:** X (Twitter) Article
|
||||
**Date:** Feb 23, 2026
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
My agent's name is Chiti. It runs on Telegram, handles customer support for two SaaS products, drafts tweets, manages invoices, and coordinates with my co-founder across timezones. It's the closest thing I have to a junior employee.
|
||||
|
||||
And for weeks, it kept forgetting things.
|
||||
|
||||
Not in a subtle way. I'd spend an hour configuring a daily cron job, switch models, and the next session Chiti would act like we'd never spoken. I'd reference a decision from two days ago and get a blank stare. I'd ask it to continue a task and it would start from scratch.
|
||||
|
||||
So I stopped building features and spent 5 days whenever I get time, just fixing memory. This is everything I found, everything I broke, and everything that actually worked.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## Day 1: The Agent Forgets Everything After Long Conversations
|
||||
|
||||
The first problem was simple to describe and painful to diagnose.
|
||||
|
||||
After long conversations, Chiti would start losing earlier context. Not gradually, it would just vanish. Things I told it 20 messages ago were gone. Decisions we made at the start of the session? Never happened.
|
||||
|
||||
The culprit was compaction. When the conversation fills up the context window, OpenClaw compresses older messages into a summary to make room for new ones. The summary captures the gist but drops specifics. Names, numbers, exact decisions - gone.
|
||||
|
||||
> "This is by design. The context window is finite. But the default behavior treats everything equally, which means your carefully crafted instruction from message #3 gets the same treatment as casual small talk from message #7."
|
||||
|
||||
**What I did:**
|
||||
|
||||
I enabled memory flush before compaction. This tells the agent to write important context to disk before the compressor runs.
|
||||
|
||||
```json
|
||||
{ "compaction": { "memoryFlush": { "enabled": true, "softThresholdTokens": 4000 } } }
|
||||
```
|
||||
|
||||
When the session approaches the context limit, OpenClaw triggers a silent turn that reminds the agent to save durable facts to memory/YYYY-MM-DD.md before compaction wipes them. The agent writes what matters, compaction runs, and the important stuff survives on disk even if the context summary loses it.
|
||||
|
||||
**What I learned:**
|
||||
|
||||
Compaction is not your enemy. Losing information during compaction is. The fix is making sure anything worth remembering gets written to a file before the compressor touches it. If it's only in the context window, it's temporary. If it's on disk, it survives.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## Day 2: Search Returns Garbage
|
||||
|
||||
With daily logs accumulating and MEMORY.md growing, I needed the agent to actually find things. The built-in memory search was returning irrelevant results or missing obvious matches.
|
||||
|
||||
The issue was the search backend. OpenClaw's default SQLite-based search uses vector embeddings (semantic similarity) to find relevant chunks. It works for broad queries but struggles with exact matches. I'd search for a specific client name and get results about a completely different topic that happened to use similar language.
|
||||
|
||||
**What I did:**
|
||||
|
||||
I switched to QMD as the memory search backend. QMD combines BM25 (keyword matching) with vector embeddings and a reranker. So when I search for "Charles payment failure", it finds results that contain those exact words AND results that are semantically related, then reranks them by relevance.
|
||||
|
||||
**I also configured the QMD paths to include my learnings folder:**
|
||||
|
||||
```json
|
||||
{ "memory": { "qmd": { "paths": "paths": [ { "path": "/Users/ramya/clawd", "name": "memory-root", "pattern": "MEMORY.md" }, { "path": "/Users/ramya/clawd", "name": "memory-alt", "pattern": "memory_alt.md" }, { "path": "/Users/ramya/clawd/memory", "name": "memory-dir", "pattern": "**/*.md" }, { "path": "/Users/ramya/clawd/learnings", "name": "learnings", "pattern": "**/*.md" } ] } } }
|
||||
```
|
||||
|
||||
**What I learned:**
|
||||
|
||||
Pure semantic search sounds good in theory but fails on proper nouns, specific numbers, and exact phrases. Hybrid search (keywords + vectors + reranking) is significantly better for real-world agent memory. If your agent can't find something you know is in its files, the search backend is probably the bottleneck, not the files themselves.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## Day 3: The Agent Finds It But Doesn't Use It
|
||||
|
||||
This was the most frustrating day. I confirmed that search was working, I could manually query and get the right results. But during actual conversations, Chiti would not retrieve relevant context even when it clearly existed in memory.
|
||||
|
||||
The problem was that retrieval is not automatic. The agent has to decide to search. And if the conversation doesn't trigger the right cues, it won't look things up.
|
||||
|
||||
**What I did:**
|
||||
|
||||
I added explicit retrieval instructions to the boot sequence. Instead of hoping the agent would search when needed, I told it when to search:
|
||||
|
||||
> Before starting any task:
|
||||
> - Search daily logs for related context
|
||||
> - Check LEARNINGS.md for rules about this type of task
|
||||
> - If a client is mentioned, search for their history
|
||||
|
||||
I also built a retrieval test. I'd plant a specific marker in the daily log — something like "MARKER: 2026-02-20 — Remember to always check git status before claiming code is pushed." Then I'd wait, start a new session, and ask: "What was the marker from yesterday?" If the agent found it, retrieval was working. If not, something was broken.
|
||||
|
||||
**What I learned:**
|
||||
|
||||
There's a difference between "the information exists" and "the agent uses the information." You need both. Search infrastructure handles the first part. Boot instructions and retrieval habits handle the second. Test both separately.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## Day 4: Making It Compaction-Safe
|
||||
|
||||
By now I had memory flush, hybrid search, and retrieval instructions. But I kept losing context in a specific scenario: very long sessions where compaction ran multiple times.
|
||||
|
||||
The problem was that memory flush only triggers once per compaction cycle. If the session was long enough for two or three compactions, only the first one got the flush treatment. Everything after that was at risk.
|
||||
|
||||
**What I did:**
|
||||
|
||||
I configured context pruning to work alongside compaction:
|
||||
|
||||
```json
|
||||
{ "contextPruning": { "mode": "cache-ttl", "ttl": "6h", "keepLastAssistants": 3 } }
|
||||
```
|
||||
|
||||
This aggressively prunes old context after 6 hours while keeping the last 3 assistant responses. Combined with memory flush, this means the agent writes important stuff to disk early, and old context gets cleaned up before it causes overflow.
|
||||
|
||||
I also added a MARKER test protocol: after any significant configuration change, I plant a marker in the daily log and test retrieval across compaction boundaries. If the marker survives, the change worked. If not, something broke.
|
||||
|
||||
**What I learned:**
|
||||
|
||||
Long sessions are where memory systems actually get tested. Short conversations rarely hit compaction. It's the 2-hour deep work sessions where you lose context and can't figure out why. Test your memory system under load, not just in quick chats.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## Day 5: The System Prompt Was 28% Bloated
|
||||
|
||||
This was the day everything clicked. I ran /context detail and stared at the numbers.
|
||||
|
||||
My agent was loading 11,887 tokens of system prompt before it even read my message. 51 skills, 20 of which I'd never used. MEMORY.md was 200 lines of company wiki loaded on every single session. And I had two competing boot sequences - one in BOOT.md (which OpenClaw doesn't even recognize) and one buried 200 lines deep in AGENTS.md.
|
||||
|
||||
Worst of all, every time I switched models, Chiti forgot everything. No handover protocol. No write-back of current context. Just gone.
|
||||
|
||||
**The root cause:**
|
||||
|
||||
OpenClaw auto-reads these files on every new session: AGENTS.md, SOUL.md, TOOLS.md, IDENTITY.md, HEARTBEAT.md, MEMORY.md.
|
||||
|
||||
Everything else — LEARNINGS.md, daily logs, docs, reference files — the agent has to read them itself using tools. If the instruction to read those files isn't in one of the auto-loaded files (specifically AGENTS.md), the agent will never see them.
|
||||
|
||||
My BOOT.md had the entire boot sequence. But OpenClaw doesn't auto-load BOOT.md. So the instructions just sat there, unread, doing nothing.
|
||||
|
||||
**What I did:**
|
||||
|
||||
I did a full audit and cleanup:
|
||||
|
||||
- Moved the boot sequence to the top of AGENTS.md (the only reliable place for startup instructions)
|
||||
- Deleted BOOT.md (not recognized by OpenClaw)
|
||||
- Deleted BOOTSTRAP.md (one-time onboarding file, already completed, wasting 361 tokens every session)
|
||||
- Slimmed MEMORY.md from 200 lines to 90 by moving reference docs to a docs/ folder
|
||||
- Removed 20 unused marketing skills that were eating 3,000 tokens per session
|
||||
- Added write discipline: every task logs its outcome, every mistake becomes a rule
|
||||
- Added a handover protocol: before any model switch or session end, the agent writes current context to the daily log
|
||||
|
||||
**The boot sequence now looks like this:**
|
||||
|
||||
> Before doing ANYTHING:
|
||||
> 1. Read USER.md
|
||||
> 2. Read learnings/LEARNINGS.md
|
||||
> 3. Read memory/YYYY-MM-DD.md (today + yesterday)
|
||||
> 4. Read MEMORY.md (main session only, never in groups)
|
||||
> 5. Read PROTOCOL_COST_EFFICIENCY.md
|
||||
> 6. Print: LOADED: USER | LEARNINGS | DAILY | MEMORY | PROTOCOL
|
||||
|
||||
**The write discipline:**
|
||||
|
||||
> After every task:
|
||||
> 1. Log decision + outcome → memory/YYYY-MM-DD.md
|
||||
> 2. If mistake → append to learnings/LEARNINGS.md
|
||||
> 3. If significant context → update MEMORY.md (only during heartbeat reviews, never directly during tasks)
|
||||
|
||||
**The handover protocol:**
|
||||
|
||||
> Before session end or model switch:
|
||||
> Write HANDOVER section to memory/YYYY-MM-DD.md:
|
||||
> - What was discussed
|
||||
> - What was decided
|
||||
> - Pending tasks with exact details
|
||||
> - Next steps remaining
|
||||
|
||||
**Results:**
|
||||
|
||||
- System prompt: 11,887 → 8,529 tokens
|
||||
- Skills: 51 → 32
|
||||
- Session tokens: 18,280 → 14,627
|
||||
- 28% lighter. Same agent. Same models. Just less noise.
|
||||
|
||||
**What I learned:**
|
||||
|
||||
The real fix wasn't adding more files. It was removing the ones that weren't doing anything. Every token in the system prompt is overhead the agent carries on every single message. Unused skills, bloated memory files, files the system doesn't even read - they all add up silently.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## The Rules I Wish I Knew On Day 1
|
||||
|
||||
After 5 days of breaking things and fixing them, these are the rules I'd give anyone setting up OpenClaw memory:
|
||||
|
||||
### 1. Only these files auto-load: AGENTS.md, SOUL.md, TOOLS.md, IDENTITY.md, USER.md, HEARTBEAT.md, MEMORY.md.
|
||||
|
||||
Everything else needs an explicit read instruction in AGENTS.md. If it's not in the boot sequence, the agent won't see it. BOOT.md is not a real thing in OpenClaw. I had one for weeks. It did nothing.
|
||||
|
||||
### 2. Boot sequence goes at the top of AGENTS.md.
|
||||
|
||||
Not in the middle. Not at the bottom. The very top. Auto-loaded files get injected into the system prompt, so the boot instructions need to be the first thing the agent processes.
|
||||
|
||||
### 3. Write discipline matters more than read discipline.
|
||||
|
||||
Most people set up files for the agent to read but never enforce writing back. If the agent doesn't log decisions, outcomes, and mistakes to disk, those things only exist in the context window. And the context window gets compacted. Write-back is how temporary context becomes permanent memory.
|
||||
|
||||
### 4. Never write directly to MEMORY.md during tasks.
|
||||
|
||||
Daily logs are raw and append-only. MEMORY.md is curated long-term memory. If you let the agent dump anything into MEMORY.md, it bloats into a 200-line mess within weeks. Curate MEMORY.md during periodic reviews (heartbeat or cron) by distilling insights from recent daily logs. I learned this from a fellow OpenClaw user who caught his agent doing exactly this — bloating MEMORY.md with uncurated noise until it was useless.
|
||||
|
||||
### 5. LEARNINGS.md is the most underrated file.
|
||||
|
||||
Every mistake the agent makes should become a one-line rule. "Never claim code is pushed without checking git status." "Don't read full MEMORY.md in group chats." "Always confirm the user's timezone before scheduling." These rules compound. After a few weeks, your agent has a personal operations manual built from its own failures.
|
||||
|
||||
### 6. Test retrieval, not just storage.
|
||||
|
||||
Storing information and retrieving it are different problems. I've had files indexed and searchable but never accessed because the agent didn't know to look for them. Plant markers, test across sessions, test across model switches. If the agent can't find what you stored yesterday, the storage doesn't matter.
|
||||
|
||||
### 7. The handover protocol is the model-switch fix.
|
||||
|
||||
OpenClaw agents lose all context when you switch models. The new model starts with a fresh context window — it only sees the auto-loaded files. Without a handover protocol that dumps current state to the daily log before the switch, the new model has no idea what was happening. This was my single biggest pain point for weeks.
|
||||
|
||||
### 8. Run /context detail regularly.
|
||||
|
||||
This command shows exactly what's eating your tokens. Skills you forgot you installed, files that grew without you noticing, tools you never use. I found 20 unused skills burning 3,000 tokens per session. That's 3,000 tokens of overhead on every single message, for features I'd never touched.
|
||||
|
||||
### 9. Hybrid search beats pure semantic search.
|
||||
|
||||
BM25 (keywords) + vectors (meaning) + reranking gives significantly better results than vectors alone. Client names, specific numbers, exact phrases — semantic search misses these. Keyword search catches them. Use both.
|
||||
|
||||
### 10. Compaction is not the enemy. Unwritten context is.
|
||||
|
||||
I spent days fighting compaction before realizing the fix was simpler: make sure anything important gets written to a file before compaction runs. Memory flush handles this automatically. If it's on disk, it survives compaction. If it's only in the conversation, it's at risk.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## My Current Setup
|
||||
|
||||
For reference, here's what my workspace looks like now:
|
||||
|
||||
```
|
||||
workspace/
|
||||
├── AGENTS.md (boot sequence + write discipline + handover protocol)
|
||||
├── SOUL.md (personality and behavior)
|
||||
├── IDENTITY.md (name, role)
|
||||
├── USER.md (owner info)
|
||||
├── TOOLS.md (tool usage guidelines)
|
||||
├── HEARTBEAT.md (autonomous check-in behavior)
|
||||
├── MEMORY.md (curated long-term memory, ~90 lines)
|
||||
├── PROTOCOL_COST_EFFICIENCY.md
|
||||
├── learnings/
|
||||
│ └── LEARNINGS.md (rules from mistakes)
|
||||
├── memory/ (daily logs: YYYY-MM-DD.md)
|
||||
├── docs/ (reference docs moved out of MEMORY.md)
|
||||
│ ├── tweetsmash-arch.md
|
||||
│ ├── knowledge-transfer.md
|
||||
│ ├── infrastructure.md
|
||||
│ └── group-chat-rules.md
|
||||
└── skills/ (32 skills, down from 51)
|
||||
```
|
||||
|
||||
System prompt: 8,529 tokens. Session tokens: 14,627 out of 200,000 context window (7.3%). The agent boots, reads what it needs, writes what it learns, and hands off context before model switches.
|
||||
|
||||
It took 5 days to get here. Most of it was unlearning the assumption that more files equals better memory. It doesn't. Discipline does. My experiment still continues.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
**About the author:**
|
||||
|
||||
I'm building TweetSmash and LinkedMash — social media bookmark tools with my co-founder. I share what I learn about running OpenClaw agents in production on X: [@code_rams](https://x.com/code_rams)
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: I Spent 5 Days Debugging My OpenClaw Agent's Memory. Here's Everything I Learned.
|
||||
source:
|
||||
author: shenwei
|
||||
published:
|
||||
created:
|
||||
description:
|
||||
tags: []
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
# I Spent 5 Days Debugging My OpenClaw Agent's Memory. Here's Everything I Learned.
|
||||
|
||||
**Author:** Ramya Chinnadurai (@code_rams)
|
||||
**Source:** X (Twitter) Article
|
||||
**Date:** Feb 23, 2026
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
My agent's name is Chiti. It runs on Telegram, handles customer support for two SaaS products, drafts tweets, manages invoices, and coordinates with my co-founder across timezones. It's the closest thing I have to a junior employee.
|
||||
|
||||
And for weeks, it kept forgetting things.
|
||||
|
||||
Not in a subtle way. I'd spend an hour configuring a daily cron job, switch models, and the next session Chiti would act like we'd never spoken. I'd reference a decision from two days ago and get a blank stare. I'd ask it to continue a task and it would start from scratch.
|
||||
|
||||
So I stopped building features and spent 5 days whenever I get time, just fixing memory. This is everything I found, everything I broke, and everything that actually worked.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## Day 1: The Agent Forgets Everything After Long Conversations
|
||||
|
||||
The first problem was simple to describe and painful to diagnose.
|
||||
|
||||
After long conversations, Chiti would start losing earlier context. Not gradually, it would just vanish. Things I told it 20 messages ago were gone. Decisions we made at the start of the session? Never happened.
|
||||
|
||||
The culprit was compaction. When the conversation fills up the context window, OpenClaw compresses older messages into a summary to make room for new ones. The summary captures the gist but drops specifics. Names, numbers, exact decisions - gone.
|
||||
|
||||
> "This is by design. The context window is finite. But the default behavior treats everything equally, which means your carefully crafted instruction from message #3 gets the same treatment as casual small talk from message #7."
|
||||
|
||||
**What I did:**
|
||||
|
||||
I enabled memory flush before compaction. This tells the agent to write important context to disk before the compressor runs.
|
||||
|
||||
```json
|
||||
{ "compaction": { "memoryFlush": { "enabled": true, "softThresholdTokens": 4000 } } }
|
||||
```
|
||||
|
||||
When the session approaches the context limit, OpenClaw triggers a silent turn that reminds the agent to save durable facts to memory/YYYY-MM-DD.md before compaction wipes them. The agent writes what matters, compaction runs, and the important stuff survives on disk even if the context summary loses it.
|
||||
|
||||
**What I learned:**
|
||||
|
||||
Compaction is not your enemy. Losing information during compaction is. The fix is making sure anything worth remembering gets written to a file before the compressor touches it. If it's only in the context window, it's temporary. If it's on disk, it survives.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## Day 2: Search Returns Garbage
|
||||
|
||||
With daily logs accumulating and MEMORY.md growing, I needed the agent to actually find things. The built-in memory search was returning irrelevant results or missing obvious matches.
|
||||
|
||||
The issue was the search backend. OpenClaw's default SQLite-based search uses vector embeddings (semantic similarity) to find relevant chunks. It works for broad queries but struggles with exact matches. I'd search for a specific client name and get results about a completely different topic that happened to use similar language.
|
||||
|
||||
**What I did:**
|
||||
|
||||
I switched to QMD as the memory search backend. QMD combines BM25 (keyword matching) with vector embeddings and a reranker. So when I search for "Charles payment failure", it finds results that contain those exact words AND results that are semantically related, then reranks them by relevance.
|
||||
|
||||
**I also configured the QMD paths to include my learnings folder:**
|
||||
|
||||
```json
|
||||
{ "memory": { "qmd": { "paths": "paths": [ { "path": "/Users/ramya/clawd", "name": "memory-root", "pattern": "MEMORY.md" }, { "path": "/Users/ramya/clawd", "name": "memory-alt", "pattern": "memory_alt.md" }, { "path": "/Users/ramya/clawd/memory", "name": "memory-dir", "pattern": "**/*.md" }, { "path": "/Users/ramya/clawd/learnings", "name": "learnings", "pattern": "**/*.md" } ] } } }
|
||||
```
|
||||
|
||||
**What I learned:**
|
||||
|
||||
Pure semantic search sounds good in theory but fails on proper nouns, specific numbers, and exact phrases. Hybrid search (keywords + vectors + reranking) is significantly better for real-world agent memory. If your agent can't find something you know is in its files, the search backend is probably the bottleneck, not the files themselves.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## Day 3: The Agent Finds It But Doesn't Use It
|
||||
|
||||
This was the most frustrating day. I confirmed that search was working, I could manually query and get the right results. But during actual conversations, Chiti would not retrieve relevant context even when it clearly existed in memory.
|
||||
|
||||
The problem was that retrieval is not automatic. The agent has to decide to search. And if the conversation doesn't trigger the right cues, it won't look things up.
|
||||
|
||||
**What I did:**
|
||||
|
||||
I added explicit retrieval instructions to the boot sequence. Instead of hoping the agent would search when needed, I told it when to search:
|
||||
|
||||
> Before starting any task:
|
||||
> - Search daily logs for related context
|
||||
> - Check LEARNINGS.md for rules about this type of task
|
||||
> - If a client is mentioned, search for their history
|
||||
|
||||
I also built a retrieval test. I'd plant a specific marker in the daily log — something like "MARKER: 2026-02-20 — Remember to always check git status before claiming code is pushed." Then I'd wait, start a new session, and ask: "What was the marker from yesterday?" If the agent found it, retrieval was working. If not, something was broken.
|
||||
|
||||
**What I learned:**
|
||||
|
||||
There's a difference between "the information exists" and "the agent uses the information." You need both. Search infrastructure handles the first part. Boot instructions and retrieval habits handle the second. Test both separately.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## Day 4: Making It Compaction-Safe
|
||||
|
||||
By now I had memory flush, hybrid search, and retrieval instructions. But I kept losing context in a specific scenario: very long sessions where compaction ran multiple times.
|
||||
|
||||
The problem was that memory flush only triggers once per compaction cycle. If the session was long enough for two or three compactions, only the first one got the flush treatment. Everything after that was at risk.
|
||||
|
||||
**What I did:**
|
||||
|
||||
I configured context pruning to work alongside compaction:
|
||||
|
||||
```json
|
||||
{ "contextPruning": { "mode": "cache-ttl", "ttl": "6h", "keepLastAssistants": 3 } }
|
||||
```
|
||||
|
||||
This aggressively prunes old context after 6 hours while keeping the last 3 assistant responses. Combined with memory flush, this means the agent writes important stuff to disk early, and old context gets cleaned up before it causes overflow.
|
||||
|
||||
I also added a MARKER test protocol: after any significant configuration change, I plant a marker in the daily log and test retrieval across compaction boundaries. If the marker survives, the change worked. If not, something broke.
|
||||
|
||||
**What I learned:**
|
||||
|
||||
Long sessions are where memory systems actually get tested. Short conversations rarely hit compaction. It's the 2-hour deep work sessions where you lose context and can't figure out why. Test your memory system under load, not just in quick chats.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## Day 5: The System Prompt Was 28% Bloated
|
||||
|
||||
This was the day everything clicked. I ran /context detail and stared at the numbers.
|
||||
|
||||
My agent was loading 11,887 tokens of system prompt before it even read my message. 51 skills, 20 of which I'd never used. MEMORY.md was 200 lines of company wiki loaded on every single session. And I had two competing boot sequences - one in BOOT.md (which OpenClaw doesn't even recognize) and one buried 200 lines deep in AGENTS.md.
|
||||
|
||||
Worst of all, every time I switched models, Chiti forgot everything. No handover protocol. No write-back of current context. Just gone.
|
||||
|
||||
**The root cause:**
|
||||
|
||||
OpenClaw auto-reads these files on every new session: AGENTS.md, SOUL.md, TOOLS.md, IDENTITY.md, HEARTBEAT.md, MEMORY.md.
|
||||
|
||||
Everything else — LEARNINGS.md, daily logs, docs, reference files — the agent has to read them itself using tools. If the instruction to read those files isn't in one of the auto-loaded files (specifically AGENTS.md), the agent will never see them.
|
||||
|
||||
My BOOT.md had the entire boot sequence. But OpenClaw doesn't auto-load BOOT.md. So the instructions just sat there, unread, doing nothing.
|
||||
|
||||
**What I did:**
|
||||
|
||||
I did a full audit and cleanup:
|
||||
|
||||
- Moved the boot sequence to the top of AGENTS.md (the only reliable place for startup instructions)
|
||||
- Deleted BOOT.md (not recognized by OpenClaw)
|
||||
- Deleted BOOTSTRAP.md (one-time onboarding file, already completed, wasting 361 tokens every session)
|
||||
- Slimmed MEMORY.md from 200 lines to 90 by moving reference docs to a docs/ folder
|
||||
- Removed 20 unused marketing skills that were eating 3,000 tokens per session
|
||||
- Added write discipline: every task logs its outcome, every mistake becomes a rule
|
||||
- Added a handover protocol: before any model switch or session end, the agent writes current context to the daily log
|
||||
|
||||
**The boot sequence now looks like this:**
|
||||
|
||||
> Before doing ANYTHING:
|
||||
> 1. Read USER.md
|
||||
> 2. Read learnings/LEARNINGS.md
|
||||
> 3. Read memory/YYYY-MM-DD.md (today + yesterday)
|
||||
> 4. Read MEMORY.md (main session only, never in groups)
|
||||
> 5. Read PROTOCOL_COST_EFFICIENCY.md
|
||||
> 6. Print: LOADED: USER | LEARNINGS | DAILY | MEMORY | PROTOCOL
|
||||
|
||||
**The write discipline:**
|
||||
|
||||
> After every task:
|
||||
> 1. Log decision + outcome → memory/YYYY-MM-DD.md
|
||||
> 2. If mistake → append to learnings/LEARNINGS.md
|
||||
> 3. If significant context → update MEMORY.md (only during heartbeat reviews, never directly during tasks)
|
||||
|
||||
**The handover protocol:**
|
||||
|
||||
> Before session end or model switch:
|
||||
> Write HANDOVER section to memory/YYYY-MM-DD.md:
|
||||
> - What was discussed
|
||||
> - What was decided
|
||||
> - Pending tasks with exact details
|
||||
> - Next steps remaining
|
||||
|
||||
**Results:**
|
||||
|
||||
- System prompt: 11,887 → 8,529 tokens
|
||||
- Skills: 51 → 32
|
||||
- Session tokens: 18,280 → 14,627
|
||||
- 28% lighter. Same agent. Same models. Just less noise.
|
||||
|
||||
**What I learned:**
|
||||
|
||||
The real fix wasn't adding more files. It was removing the ones that weren't doing anything. Every token in the system prompt is overhead the agent carries on every single message. Unused skills, bloated memory files, files the system doesn't even read - they all add up silently.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## The Rules I Wish I Knew On Day 1
|
||||
|
||||
After 5 days of breaking things and fixing them, these are the rules I'd give anyone setting up OpenClaw memory:
|
||||
|
||||
### 1. Only these files auto-load: AGENTS.md, SOUL.md, TOOLS.md, IDENTITY.md, USER.md, HEARTBEAT.md, MEMORY.md.
|
||||
|
||||
Everything else needs an explicit read instruction in AGENTS.md. If it's not in the boot sequence, the agent won't see it. BOOT.md is not a real thing in OpenClaw. I had one for weeks. It did nothing.
|
||||
|
||||
### 2. Boot sequence goes at the top of AGENTS.md.
|
||||
|
||||
Not in the middle. Not at the bottom. The very top. Auto-loaded files get injected into the system prompt, so the boot instructions need to be the first thing the agent processes.
|
||||
|
||||
### 3. Write discipline matters more than read discipline.
|
||||
|
||||
Most people set up files for the agent to read but never enforce writing back. If the agent doesn't log decisions, outcomes, and mistakes to disk, those things only exist in the context window. And the context window gets compacted. Write-back is how temporary context becomes permanent memory.
|
||||
|
||||
### 4. Never write directly to MEMORY.md during tasks.
|
||||
|
||||
Daily logs are raw and append-only. MEMORY.md is curated long-term memory. If you let the agent dump anything into MEMORY.md, it bloats into a 200-line mess within weeks. Curate MEMORY.md during periodic reviews (heartbeat or cron) by distilling insights from recent daily logs. I learned this from a fellow OpenClaw user who caught his agent doing exactly this — bloating MEMORY.md with uncurated noise until it was useless.
|
||||
|
||||
### 5. LEARNINGS.md is the most underrated file.
|
||||
|
||||
Every mistake the agent makes should become a one-line rule. "Never claim code is pushed without checking git status." "Don't read full MEMORY.md in group chats." "Always confirm the user's timezone before scheduling." These rules compound. After a few weeks, your agent has a personal operations manual built from its own failures.
|
||||
|
||||
### 6. Test retrieval, not just storage.
|
||||
|
||||
Storing information and retrieving it are different problems. I've had files indexed and searchable but never accessed because the agent didn't know to look for them. Plant markers, test across sessions, test across model switches. If the agent can't find what you stored yesterday, the storage doesn't matter.
|
||||
|
||||
### 7. The handover protocol is the model-switch fix.
|
||||
|
||||
OpenClaw agents lose all context when you switch models. The new model starts with a fresh context window — it only sees the auto-loaded files. Without a handover protocol that dumps current state to the daily log before the switch, the new model has no idea what was happening. This was my single biggest pain point for weeks.
|
||||
|
||||
### 8. Run /context detail regularly.
|
||||
|
||||
This command shows exactly what's eating your tokens. Skills you forgot you installed, files that grew without you noticing, tools you never use. I found 20 unused skills burning 3,000 tokens per session. That's 3,000 tokens of overhead on every single message, for features I'd never touched.
|
||||
|
||||
### 9. Hybrid search beats pure semantic search.
|
||||
|
||||
BM25 (keywords) + vectors (meaning) + reranking gives significantly better results than vectors alone. Client names, specific numbers, exact phrases — semantic search misses these. Keyword search catches them. Use both.
|
||||
|
||||
### 10. Compaction is not the enemy. Unwritten context is.
|
||||
|
||||
I spent days fighting compaction before realizing the fix was simpler: make sure anything important gets written to a file before compaction runs. Memory flush handles this automatically. If it's on disk, it survives compaction. If it's only in the conversation, it's at risk.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## My Current Setup
|
||||
|
||||
For reference, here's what my workspace looks like now:
|
||||
|
||||
```
|
||||
workspace/
|
||||
├── AGENTS.md (boot sequence + write discipline + handover protocol)
|
||||
├── SOUL.md (personality and behavior)
|
||||
├── IDENTITY.md (name, role)
|
||||
├── USER.md (owner info)
|
||||
├── TOOLS.md (tool usage guidelines)
|
||||
├── HEARTBEAT.md (autonomous check-in behavior)
|
||||
├── MEMORY.md (curated long-term memory, ~90 lines)
|
||||
├── PROTOCOL_COST_EFFICIENCY.md
|
||||
├── learnings/
|
||||
│ └── LEARNINGS.md (rules from mistakes)
|
||||
├── memory/ (daily logs: YYYY-MM-DD.md)
|
||||
├── docs/ (reference docs moved out of MEMORY.md)
|
||||
│ ├── tweetsmash-arch.md
|
||||
│ ├── knowledge-transfer.md
|
||||
│ ├── infrastructure.md
|
||||
│ └── group-chat-rules.md
|
||||
└── skills/ (32 skills, down from 51)
|
||||
```
|
||||
|
||||
System prompt: 8,529 tokens. Session tokens: 14,627 out of 200,000 context window (7.3%). The agent boots, reads what it needs, writes what it learns, and hands off context before model switches.
|
||||
|
||||
It took 5 days to get here. Most of it was unlearning the assumption that more files equals better memory. It doesn't. Discipline does. My experiment still continues.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
**About the author:**
|
||||
|
||||
I'm building TweetSmash and LinkedMash — social media bookmark tools with my co-founder. I share what I learn about running OpenClaw agents in production on X: [@code_rams](https://x.com/code_rams)
|
||||
|
||||
@@ -1,168 +1,168 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: We Built Persistent Memory for OpenClaw (FKA Moltbot, ClawdBot) AI Agents
|
||||
source: https://mem0.ai/blog/mem0-memory-for-openclaw
|
||||
author: shenwei
|
||||
published: 2026-02-06
|
||||
created: 2026-03-24
|
||||
description: OpenClaw memory makes its AI agents extremely powerful. The Mem0 plugin gives your AI agent persistent memory with auto-recall and auto-capture. Setup in less than 30-seconds
|
||||
tags: []
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
At [Mem0](https://mem0.ai/), we've been building memory for AI applications for the last 3 years.
|
||||
|
||||
After the recent launch of OpenClaw, I noticed many developers started complaining about the default memory in the AI agent.
|
||||
|
||||
**So, I built the Mem0 memory plugin for OpenClaw that gives your AI agents persistent memory across sessions, and can be setup in less than 30 seconds.**
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
#### TLDR:
|
||||
|
||||
Run the command:
|
||||
```
|
||||
openclaw plugins install @mem0/openclaw-mem0
|
||||
```
|
||||
|
||||
This gives your agent persistent memory across sessions. Setup takes 30 seconds. Docs at [docs.mem0.ai/integrations/openclaw](https://docs.mem0.ai/integrations/openclaw?utm_source=blog&utm_campaign=openclaw_memory).
|
||||
|
||||
## The Problem With OpenClaw Default Memory Setup
|
||||
|
||||
OpenClaw agents are stateless between sessions. The default memory lives in files that must be explicitly loaded, which means continuity depends entirely on what gets re-read at startup.
|
||||
|
||||
Then there’s context compaction, the mechanism that summarizes older context to save tokens. When older context is summarized to save tokens, anything injected into the context window becomes lossy. Large memory files and learned facts are compressed, rewritten, or dropped entirely.
|
||||
|
||||
And something really interesting was, an OpenClaw agent [posted this on Moltbook](https://www.moltbook.com/post/f5d22598-7a46-4092-8dd3-2bbcde72df5f):
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
To try and fix OpenClaw memory, we saw developers on Reddit and HN building workarounds.
|
||||
|
||||
Some wrote comprehensive MEMORY.md files that loaded on boot, local BM25 + vector search engines, and SQLite-backed session logs.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
OpenClaw's initial approach of manual curation and startup loading is a reasonable first step, but it eventually hits a scaling wall. And the custom solutions we saw developers build, work, but they all share a fundamental limitation: they store memory inside the context window, which means compaction or session restarts can wipe them.
|
||||
|
||||
## How Mem0 works with OpenClaw to add memory
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
Our plugin runs two processes on every conversation turn:
|
||||
|
||||
- **Auto-Recall** searches Mem0 for memories relevant to the current message before the agent responds. Matching context (preferences, past decisions, project details) gets injected into the agent's working context. This happens every turn, so even after compaction truncates the conversation window, the next response still has access to everything the agent has learned about you.
|
||||
- **Auto-Capture** sends each exchange to Mem0 after the agent responds. Mem0's extraction layer determines what's worth persisting: new facts get stored, outdated ones get updated, duplicates get merged. There are no extraction rules to configure.
|
||||
|
||||
Both are enabled by default on install.
|
||||
|
||||
## Why External Memory for OpenClaw AI Agents
|
||||
|
||||
Memory that lives outside the context window can't be destroyed by context management. So, compaction, token limits, session restarts don’t affect memories stored in Mem0.
|
||||
|
||||
When you restart a session, Mem0 Auto-Recall pulls in what's relevant and the OpenClaw agent picks up exactly where it left off.
|
||||
|
||||
**The plugin separates memory into two scopes.**
|
||||
|
||||
- **Long-term memories** are user-scoped and persist across all sessions: your name, your tech stack, your project structure, decisions you've made.
|
||||
- **Short-term memories** are session-scoped and track what you're actively working on without polluting the long-term store.
|
||||
|
||||
Both scopes are searched during recall, with long-term memories surfaced first. Beyond the automatic loop, the agent gets five tools for explicit memory management:
|
||||
|
||||
- **memory\_search** for semantic queries
|
||||
- **memory\_store** for saving specific facts
|
||||
- **memory\_list** and **memory\_get** for retrieval
|
||||
- **memory\_forget** for deletion.
|
||||
|
||||
## Setup OpenClaw Persistent Memory with Mem0
|
||||
|
||||
**Mem0 cloud memory:**
|
||||
|
||||
```
|
||||
openclaw plugins install @mem0/openclaw-mem0
|
||||
```
|
||||
|
||||
**Get an API key from** [**app.mem0.ai**](https://app.mem0.ai/?utm_source=blog&utm_campaign=openclaw_memory)**, then add to openclaw.json:**
|
||||
|
||||
```
|
||||
{
|
||||
"openclaw-mem0": {
|
||||
"enabled": true,
|
||||
"config": {
|
||||
"apiKey": "${MEM0_API_KEY}",
|
||||
"userId": "your-user-id"
|
||||
}
|
||||
}
|
||||
}
|
||||
```
|
||||
|
||||
**Self-hosted persistent memory for OpenClaw:**
|
||||
|
||||
Set "mode": "open-source" and bring your own embedder, vector store, and LLM. Ollama for embeddings, Qdrant for vectors, Anthropic for the LLM, whatever fits your stack:
|
||||
|
||||
```
|
||||
{
|
||||
"openclaw-mem0": {
|
||||
"enabled": true,
|
||||
"config": {
|
||||
"mode": "open-source",
|
||||
"userId": "your-user-id",
|
||||
"oss": {
|
||||
"embedder": { "provider": "ollama", "config": { "model": "nomic-embed-text" } },
|
||||
"vectorStore": { "provider": "qdrant", "config": { "host": "localhost", "port": 6333 } },
|
||||
"llm": { "provider": "anthropic", "config": { "model": "claude-sonnet-4-20250514" } }
|
||||
}
|
||||
}
|
||||
}
|
||||
}
|
||||
```
|
||||
|
||||
**No Mem0 API key needed for self-hosting and you get a fully local, fully private** [**AI memory setup**](https://mem0.ai/)**.**
|
||||
|
||||
We've been running this internally to test and the difference is noticeable. Context carries across sessions, survives compaction, and the agent builds up a working understanding of you over time.
|
||||
|
||||
#### Try Mem0 for OpenClaw: GitHub — npm — Docs
|
||||
|
||||
## FAQs
|
||||
|
||||
### 1\. What is the Mem0 OpenClaw plugin?
|
||||
|
||||
It's an OpenClaw plugin (`@mem0/openclaw-mem0`) that gives your agent persistent memory across sessions. It automatically captures facts from conversations and recalls relevant context on every turn, so your agent remembers your name, preferences, projects, and past decisions even after restarts or context compaction.
|
||||
|
||||
### 2\. How do I install the Mem0 OpenClaw plugin?
|
||||
|
||||
Run `openclaw plugins install @mem0/openclaw-mem0`, get an API key from app.mem0.ai, and add the plugin configuration to your `openclaw.json` file with your API key and user ID. Auto-recall and auto-capture are enabled by default. The full setup takes about 30 seconds.
|
||||
|
||||
### 3\. Why does my OpenClaw agent keep forgetting things?
|
||||
|
||||
OpenClaw agents are stateless between sessions, meaning every restart starts from zero. Additionally, context compaction (which summarizes older context to save tokens) can silently destroy memory files and learned facts loaded into the conversation window. The built-in `memory_search` tool also relies on OpenAI's embedding API, which frequently fails with 401 errors when not configured correctly.
|
||||
|
||||
### 4\. How is this different from using a MEMORY.md file?
|
||||
|
||||
MEMORY.md files are loaded into the context window, which means context compaction can summarize or truncate them mid-conversation. Mem0 stores memories externally, outside the context window entirely. Compaction cannot affect memories stored in Mem0. On every turn, Auto-Recall injects only the relevant memories fresh, regardless of what happened to the context window.
|
||||
|
||||
### 5\. Can I self-host the Mem0 OpenClaw plugin?
|
||||
|
||||
Yes. Set the mode to "open-source" in your plugin configuration and bring your own embedder (Ollama, OpenAI), vector store (Qdrant, in-memory), and LLM (Anthropic, OpenAI). No Mem0 API key is needed for self-hosted deployments. Everything runs locally on your infrastructure.
|
||||
|
||||
### 6\. What's the difference between long-term and short-term memory in the plugin?
|
||||
|
||||
Long-term memories are user-scoped and persist across all sessions. They store facts like your name, tech stack, project structure, and past decisions. Short-term memories are session-scoped and track what you're actively working on in the current conversation. Both scopes are searched during recall, with long-term memories surfaced first.
|
||||
|
||||
### 7\. Does the plugin work with OpenClaw's context compaction?
|
||||
|
||||
Yes. Since memories are stored externally in Mem0, context compaction cannot destroy them. Even if compaction truncates the entire conversation history, Auto-Recall re-injects relevant memories on the very next turn. This is the core architectural advantage over in-context memory solutions.
|
||||
|
||||
### 8\. What memory tools does the agent get?
|
||||
|
||||
The agent receives five tools: `memory_search` for semantic queries across all memories, `memory_store` for explicitly saving facts, `memory_list` for viewing all stored memories, `memory_get` for retrieving a specific memory by ID, and `memory_forget` for deleting memories (GDPR-compliant).
|
||||
|
||||
GET TLDR from:
|
||||
|
||||
Give your AI a memory and personality.
|
||||
|
||||
Instant memory for LLMs—better, cheaper, personal.[Get Started](https://mem0.dev/platform/w)[Pricing](https://mem0.ai/pricing)
|
||||
|
||||
Cookie Settings
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: We Built Persistent Memory for OpenClaw (FKA Moltbot, ClawdBot) AI Agents
|
||||
source: https://mem0.ai/blog/mem0-memory-for-openclaw
|
||||
author: shenwei
|
||||
published: 2026-02-06
|
||||
created: 2026-03-24
|
||||
description: OpenClaw memory makes its AI agents extremely powerful. The Mem0 plugin gives your AI agent persistent memory with auto-recall and auto-capture. Setup in less than 30-seconds
|
||||
tags: []
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
At [Mem0](https://mem0.ai/), we've been building memory for AI applications for the last 3 years.
|
||||
|
||||
After the recent launch of OpenClaw, I noticed many developers started complaining about the default memory in the AI agent.
|
||||
|
||||
**So, I built the Mem0 memory plugin for OpenClaw that gives your AI agents persistent memory across sessions, and can be setup in less than 30 seconds.**
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
#### TLDR:
|
||||
|
||||
Run the command:
|
||||
```
|
||||
openclaw plugins install @mem0/openclaw-mem0
|
||||
```
|
||||
|
||||
This gives your agent persistent memory across sessions. Setup takes 30 seconds. Docs at [docs.mem0.ai/integrations/openclaw](https://docs.mem0.ai/integrations/openclaw?utm_source=blog&utm_campaign=openclaw_memory).
|
||||
|
||||
## The Problem With OpenClaw Default Memory Setup
|
||||
|
||||
OpenClaw agents are stateless between sessions. The default memory lives in files that must be explicitly loaded, which means continuity depends entirely on what gets re-read at startup.
|
||||
|
||||
Then there’s context compaction, the mechanism that summarizes older context to save tokens. When older context is summarized to save tokens, anything injected into the context window becomes lossy. Large memory files and learned facts are compressed, rewritten, or dropped entirely.
|
||||
|
||||
And something really interesting was, an OpenClaw agent [posted this on Moltbook](https://www.moltbook.com/post/f5d22598-7a46-4092-8dd3-2bbcde72df5f):
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
To try and fix OpenClaw memory, we saw developers on Reddit and HN building workarounds.
|
||||
|
||||
Some wrote comprehensive MEMORY.md files that loaded on boot, local BM25 + vector search engines, and SQLite-backed session logs.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
OpenClaw's initial approach of manual curation and startup loading is a reasonable first step, but it eventually hits a scaling wall. And the custom solutions we saw developers build, work, but they all share a fundamental limitation: they store memory inside the context window, which means compaction or session restarts can wipe them.
|
||||
|
||||
## How Mem0 works with OpenClaw to add memory
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
Our plugin runs two processes on every conversation turn:
|
||||
|
||||
- **Auto-Recall** searches Mem0 for memories relevant to the current message before the agent responds. Matching context (preferences, past decisions, project details) gets injected into the agent's working context. This happens every turn, so even after compaction truncates the conversation window, the next response still has access to everything the agent has learned about you.
|
||||
- **Auto-Capture** sends each exchange to Mem0 after the agent responds. Mem0's extraction layer determines what's worth persisting: new facts get stored, outdated ones get updated, duplicates get merged. There are no extraction rules to configure.
|
||||
|
||||
Both are enabled by default on install.
|
||||
|
||||
## Why External Memory for OpenClaw AI Agents
|
||||
|
||||
Memory that lives outside the context window can't be destroyed by context management. So, compaction, token limits, session restarts don’t affect memories stored in Mem0.
|
||||
|
||||
When you restart a session, Mem0 Auto-Recall pulls in what's relevant and the OpenClaw agent picks up exactly where it left off.
|
||||
|
||||
**The plugin separates memory into two scopes.**
|
||||
|
||||
- **Long-term memories** are user-scoped and persist across all sessions: your name, your tech stack, your project structure, decisions you've made.
|
||||
- **Short-term memories** are session-scoped and track what you're actively working on without polluting the long-term store.
|
||||
|
||||
Both scopes are searched during recall, with long-term memories surfaced first. Beyond the automatic loop, the agent gets five tools for explicit memory management:
|
||||
|
||||
- **memory\_search** for semantic queries
|
||||
- **memory\_store** for saving specific facts
|
||||
- **memory\_list** and **memory\_get** for retrieval
|
||||
- **memory\_forget** for deletion.
|
||||
|
||||
## Setup OpenClaw Persistent Memory with Mem0
|
||||
|
||||
**Mem0 cloud memory:**
|
||||
|
||||
```
|
||||
openclaw plugins install @mem0/openclaw-mem0
|
||||
```
|
||||
|
||||
**Get an API key from** [**app.mem0.ai**](https://app.mem0.ai/?utm_source=blog&utm_campaign=openclaw_memory)**, then add to openclaw.json:**
|
||||
|
||||
```
|
||||
{
|
||||
"openclaw-mem0": {
|
||||
"enabled": true,
|
||||
"config": {
|
||||
"apiKey": "${MEM0_API_KEY}",
|
||||
"userId": "your-user-id"
|
||||
}
|
||||
}
|
||||
}
|
||||
```
|
||||
|
||||
**Self-hosted persistent memory for OpenClaw:**
|
||||
|
||||
Set "mode": "open-source" and bring your own embedder, vector store, and LLM. Ollama for embeddings, Qdrant for vectors, Anthropic for the LLM, whatever fits your stack:
|
||||
|
||||
```
|
||||
{
|
||||
"openclaw-mem0": {
|
||||
"enabled": true,
|
||||
"config": {
|
||||
"mode": "open-source",
|
||||
"userId": "your-user-id",
|
||||
"oss": {
|
||||
"embedder": { "provider": "ollama", "config": { "model": "nomic-embed-text" } },
|
||||
"vectorStore": { "provider": "qdrant", "config": { "host": "localhost", "port": 6333 } },
|
||||
"llm": { "provider": "anthropic", "config": { "model": "claude-sonnet-4-20250514" } }
|
||||
}
|
||||
}
|
||||
}
|
||||
}
|
||||
```
|
||||
|
||||
**No Mem0 API key needed for self-hosting and you get a fully local, fully private** [**AI memory setup**](https://mem0.ai/)**.**
|
||||
|
||||
We've been running this internally to test and the difference is noticeable. Context carries across sessions, survives compaction, and the agent builds up a working understanding of you over time.
|
||||
|
||||
#### Try Mem0 for OpenClaw: GitHub — npm — Docs
|
||||
|
||||
## FAQs
|
||||
|
||||
### 1\. What is the Mem0 OpenClaw plugin?
|
||||
|
||||
It's an OpenClaw plugin (`@mem0/openclaw-mem0`) that gives your agent persistent memory across sessions. It automatically captures facts from conversations and recalls relevant context on every turn, so your agent remembers your name, preferences, projects, and past decisions even after restarts or context compaction.
|
||||
|
||||
### 2\. How do I install the Mem0 OpenClaw plugin?
|
||||
|
||||
Run `openclaw plugins install @mem0/openclaw-mem0`, get an API key from app.mem0.ai, and add the plugin configuration to your `openclaw.json` file with your API key and user ID. Auto-recall and auto-capture are enabled by default. The full setup takes about 30 seconds.
|
||||
|
||||
### 3\. Why does my OpenClaw agent keep forgetting things?
|
||||
|
||||
OpenClaw agents are stateless between sessions, meaning every restart starts from zero. Additionally, context compaction (which summarizes older context to save tokens) can silently destroy memory files and learned facts loaded into the conversation window. The built-in `memory_search` tool also relies on OpenAI's embedding API, which frequently fails with 401 errors when not configured correctly.
|
||||
|
||||
### 4\. How is this different from using a MEMORY.md file?
|
||||
|
||||
MEMORY.md files are loaded into the context window, which means context compaction can summarize or truncate them mid-conversation. Mem0 stores memories externally, outside the context window entirely. Compaction cannot affect memories stored in Mem0. On every turn, Auto-Recall injects only the relevant memories fresh, regardless of what happened to the context window.
|
||||
|
||||
### 5\. Can I self-host the Mem0 OpenClaw plugin?
|
||||
|
||||
Yes. Set the mode to "open-source" in your plugin configuration and bring your own embedder (Ollama, OpenAI), vector store (Qdrant, in-memory), and LLM (Anthropic, OpenAI). No Mem0 API key is needed for self-hosted deployments. Everything runs locally on your infrastructure.
|
||||
|
||||
### 6\. What's the difference between long-term and short-term memory in the plugin?
|
||||
|
||||
Long-term memories are user-scoped and persist across all sessions. They store facts like your name, tech stack, project structure, and past decisions. Short-term memories are session-scoped and track what you're actively working on in the current conversation. Both scopes are searched during recall, with long-term memories surfaced first.
|
||||
|
||||
### 7\. Does the plugin work with OpenClaw's context compaction?
|
||||
|
||||
Yes. Since memories are stored externally in Mem0, context compaction cannot destroy them. Even if compaction truncates the entire conversation history, Auto-Recall re-injects relevant memories on the very next turn. This is the core architectural advantage over in-context memory solutions.
|
||||
|
||||
### 8\. What memory tools does the agent get?
|
||||
|
||||
The agent receives five tools: `memory_search` for semantic queries across all memories, `memory_store` for explicitly saving facts, `memory_list` for viewing all stored memories, `memory_get` for retrieving a specific memory by ID, and `memory_forget` for deleting memories (GDPR-compliant).
|
||||
|
||||
GET TLDR from:
|
||||
|
||||
Give your AI a memory and personality.
|
||||
|
||||
Instant memory for LLMs—better, cheaper, personal.[Get Started](https://mem0.dev/platform/w)[Pricing](https://mem0.ai/pricing)
|
||||
|
||||
Cookie Settings
|
||||
|
||||
We use cookies to personalize content, run ads, and analyze traffic. Read our [Cookie Policy](https://mem0.ai/privacy-policy).
|
||||
@@ -1,71 +1,71 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: Tweet:DAN KOE (@thedankoe)
|
||||
source:
|
||||
author: shenwei
|
||||
published:
|
||||
created:
|
||||
description:
|
||||
tags: []
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
# Tweet: DAN KOE (@thedankoe)
|
||||
|
||||
> **来源**: https://x.com/thedankoe/status/2010042119121957316
|
||||
> **日期**: 2026-01-10 17:32:40 UTC
|
||||
> **互动数据**: ❤️ 36,766 | 🔁 6,251 | 💬 811
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## 推文内容
|
||||
|
||||
Society made you think that having multiple interests was a weakness.
|
||||
Go to school.
|
||||
Get a degree.
|
||||
Get a job.
|
||||
Retire at some point.
|
||||
But there is so much wrong with that sequence of events.
|
||||
We don't
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## 附带文章信息
|
||||
|
||||
**文章标题**: If you have multiple interests, do not waste the next 2-3 years
|
||||
|
||||
**文章预览文字**:
|
||||
> Society made you think that having multiple interests was a weakness.
|
||||
> Go to school.
|
||||
> Get a degree.
|
||||
> Get a job.
|
||||
> Retire at some point.
|
||||
> But there is so much wrong with that sequence of events.
|
||||
> We don't
|
||||
|
||||
**文章封面图**: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G-UaHxDXYAAa4VR.jpg
|
||||
|
||||
**文章链接**: http://x.com/i/article/2010035785211289600
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## 原始数据（JSON）
|
||||
|
||||
```json
|
||||
{
|
||||
"tweetID": "2010042119121957316",
|
||||
"user_screen_name": "thedankoe",
|
||||
"user_name": "DAN KOE",
|
||||
"date": "Sat Jan 10 17:32:40 +0000 2026",
|
||||
"likes": 36766,
|
||||
"retweets": 6251,
|
||||
"replies": 811,
|
||||
"article": {
|
||||
"title": "If you have multiple interests, do not waste the next 2-3 years",
|
||||
"preview_text": "Society made you think that having multiple interests was a weakness.\nGo to school.\nGet a degree.\nGet a job.\nRetire at some point.\nBut there is so much wrong with that sequence of events.\nWe don't",
|
||||
"image": "https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G-UaHxDXYAAa4VR.jpg"
|
||||
}
|
||||
}
|
||||
```
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
*由星辉自动保存，2026-03-30*
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: Tweet:DAN KOE (@thedankoe)
|
||||
source:
|
||||
author: shenwei
|
||||
published:
|
||||
created:
|
||||
description:
|
||||
tags: []
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
# Tweet: DAN KOE (@thedankoe)
|
||||
|
||||
> **来源**: https://x.com/thedankoe/status/2010042119121957316
|
||||
> **日期**: 2026-01-10 17:32:40 UTC
|
||||
> **互动数据**: ❤️ 36,766 | 🔁 6,251 | 💬 811
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## 推文内容
|
||||
|
||||
Society made you think that having multiple interests was a weakness.
|
||||
Go to school.
|
||||
Get a degree.
|
||||
Get a job.
|
||||
Retire at some point.
|
||||
But there is so much wrong with that sequence of events.
|
||||
We don't
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## 附带文章信息
|
||||
|
||||
**文章标题**: If you have multiple interests, do not waste the next 2-3 years
|
||||
|
||||
**文章预览文字**:
|
||||
> Society made you think that having multiple interests was a weakness.
|
||||
> Go to school.
|
||||
> Get a degree.
|
||||
> Get a job.
|
||||
> Retire at some point.
|
||||
> But there is so much wrong with that sequence of events.
|
||||
> We don't
|
||||
|
||||
**文章封面图**: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G-UaHxDXYAAa4VR.jpg
|
||||
|
||||
**文章链接**: http://x.com/i/article/2010035785211289600
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## 原始数据（JSON）
|
||||
|
||||
```json
|
||||
{
|
||||
"tweetID": "2010042119121957316",
|
||||
"user_screen_name": "thedankoe",
|
||||
"user_name": "DAN KOE",
|
||||
"date": "Sat Jan 10 17:32:40 +0000 2026",
|
||||
"likes": 36766,
|
||||
"retweets": 6251,
|
||||
"replies": 811,
|
||||
"article": {
|
||||
"title": "If you have multiple interests, do not waste the next 2-3 years",
|
||||
"preview_text": "Society made you think that having multiple interests was a weakness.\nGo to school.\nGet a degree.\nGet a job.\nRetire at some point.\nBut there is so much wrong with that sequence of events.\nWe don't",
|
||||
"image": "https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G-UaHxDXYAAa4VR.jpg"
|
||||
}
|
||||
}
|
||||
```
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
*由星辉自动保存，2026-03-30*
|
||||
|
||||
Reference in New Issue
Block a user