The sole aim of content creation should be adding value first and then seeking the rewards of a huge fan base — not the other way around. But then again, the paradoxical question arises: how will you add value when so few people follow you and read your content? It looks like a deadlock, but it actually isn’t. We’ll come back to this in a couple of minutes.
The LinkedIn Problem
If you’ve been paying attention lately, the feed on LinkedIn gets worse day by day — shadowed by shallow articles, Udemy course completion certifications, and endless “20 people you need to follow” or “30 articles to read this weekend” posts. Similar things happen on book-reading channels with lists like “24 must-read books for 2024.”
I’ve read a bunch of self-help books — Atomic Habits, Thinking Fast and Slow, Indistractable, The 1% Solution — and every one of them says the same thing loud and clear: the brain is lazy. To build a new and lasting habit, you need to trick it with small changes over 21 days or a month, then fix another, and so on.
For someone like me who comes to LinkedIn to find inspiration — to find people doing amazing work in technology and computer science — it gets hard to find real value. I end up settling for people-pleasing posts and a world of highly superficial articles that add nothing. This is tiring. It’s taken a toll on my attention span, and probably yours too.
Creating for Yourself First
As Naval said on a recent podcast, he does things because he genuinely loves them. Creators — however big or small — should be selfish, at least work-wise. Doing what you want to do, not what people like. You might disagree, and sure, there are tradeoffs. But the creator will be happier, more peaceful, and able to produce their best work because they are intrinsically motivated.
The line that stuck with me: “It’s better to have 10 followers who you really respect than to have a million monkeys following you.”
My Love-Hate with LinkedIn
I have a complicated relationship with LinkedIn. I hate the parts that are inversely value-driven — but it’s also one of the ways I discover incredibly smart people working day in and day out solving real problems in the world. So I stay.
So here are 20 people you should definitely check out this weekend: . . .
Lol, no way I’m doing that. I’ll bring them over for a deep 30-minute conversation on the Byte Ventures podcast instead.
The sole aim of me writing or producing anything will be to add value — at least intrinsically — without chasing follower counts. I’ve felt this while hosting 10-15 guests on my channel. And yes, this is debatable — because for you, this might not be the value you’re seeking, and that’s exactly how it should work. You’ll follow a creator not for the success handbook he’ll mail you once you comment your email, but for his true self and genuine perspective.
If you agree with most of what I believe, I wouldn’t mind earning an honest follower.
And before ending — I hope I’ve answered the initial paradoxical question: not having a huge following doesn’t stop you from creating value. You do it one step at a time.