They are in no particular order.
Reason #1: Michael Ellsberg
His contrarian writing on his Facebook wall has been my guilty pleasure since 2012, as I enjoyed his equally contrarian book, The Education of Millionaires. Discussion topics mirrored my displeasures with how a lot of things work in the world, even though they often lack logic. His posts could be your guilty pleasure too.
Oh, and I love testing how my own distribution on Facebook works out. Writing long-form guilty pleasures like this helps me test the theory.
Reason #2: James Altucher
I have a habit of either getting stuck (specifically implementing a shitty idea for too long), or letting incompetent and snake oil advisers mislead me. I hit a record low in terms of morale last summer, which is when I found his daily podcast. I resumed listening to his interview show after the quality improved. I found out about his idea muscle exercise, and I got out of problems a lot quicker than even 8 months ago.
He publishes daily on his Facebook profile, and also leverages the Linkedin crowd, which is another reason why I’m writing.
Reason #3: Publishing Long-Form Posts Make Me Stand Out
Writing 300 word snippet is easy. The clickbait, viral articles are classic examples.
Writing 3,000 words takes a lot more work – both thought and research.
I gotta give credit to Peep Laja on this.
People with brains and courage to spill the thoughts in this matter are rare commodities. I want to be in this group.
Reason #4: Gary Vaynerchuk
Yes, I know. He’s known for motivating you into doing shit rather than gossiping about how you’re gonna do ‘em. He built his fan base by talking how he did shit though, if you examine closely. First he did it with Wine Library TV. Then Twitter. Now his own blog, email list, and Medium (in case you don’t know what it is, it’s blog publishing platform, founded by two co-founders of Twitter, where your posts get found a lot easier) account.
Which leads me to the next point – these posts will also be published on Medium. A lot of tech savvy eyeballs.
Reason #5: Sharing My Writing Encourages Me To Think
There’s a saying that “ideas are worth a dime a dozen.” However, if you really do it, you can probably only think of 3 good ideas at a time.
Thinking is therapeutic for me. Also, Charlie Munger agrees with me in his almanack. If you don’t know who Charlie Munger is, look him up on Google (on another note, I think you’ve been living under a rock). In his almanack, he mentions a Henry Ford quote of how schools produce droves of scholars who could recall information (later to be replaced by robots) every year his plants could hire, so he can focus his time on the thing most are reluctant to do – thinking.
On top of the “ideas are a dime a dozen” saying, there’s another: “Execution is everything.”
Execution is important, but I argue most get it wrong too. It’s the execution of the good ideas that matters. Executing bad ideas yield the same result as not even executing. Yes, you usually don’t get to good ideas unless you tried out the bad ones, but why can’t you question the choices before making them?
Critical thinking allows me to do that. I’m born with a brain for a reason, so I may as well use it. After all, I don’t want to be an easily replaceable commodity.
Reason #6: Attracting Similar Thinkers
Interacting with similar thinkers who understand me is therapeutic. Wasting my time on trolls who don’t understand sucks, which leads me to the next reason…
Reason #7: Filtering Trolls Out Of My Circles
As Taylor Swift famously said: “haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate…” I know there are haters who are watching me closely. However, I don’t know who they are. Posting these long-form posts brings the trolls out, which helps me remove them from my life. I’m already pressed for time to think, reflect, and share the thoughts. Dealing with trolls ranks very low on my priorities.
Reason #8: The Interaction Creates New Discussion Topics
I wouldn’t have to think of new things to ramble about. Smart commenters do the job for me.
Reason #9: Outside Feedback
Outside feedback improves my idea muscle, which leads to coming up with better ideas in the future.
Reason #10: You Could Use A More Educational Guilty Pleasure
Let’s face it, why are you browsing on the internet right now? You could use a more educational guilty pleasure than some crappy viral video. I’m inspiring you to think about ideas that the society wants you to overlook. Ideas are the currency of the 21st century. The viral videos make you less able to think. Your choice.
So this post doesn’t have 3,000 words (more like 1,000). I hope you had fun reading. Feel free to comment, as they may be used in my next post.