generating value

July 2, 2026

We currently live in a world with a lot of rent-seeking, extracting value from others, optimizing workflows for maximum productivity, engagement, or metrics.

In case you couldn't tell, this is unsustainable. making weekly youtube videos just to keep your audience engaged and fill some content quota is terrible and only serves to pollute our information ecosystem and drown out real work.

The thing is, it all starts out so innocently. You probably start making stuff just for fun, or you sign up for twitter just to hear whats going on. But your mind slowly corrupts itself and you get the wrong ideas about life from the subculture we've created.

And it is something we've all created. It's a collective delusion. The delusion that we will somehow all make it if we optimize for the right things and prioritize engagement.

If you do that btw, all that will happen is whatever you create will be indistinguishable from everything else — a reaction channel, a clip farm, pumping out weekly content and short-form clips. You will flatten out your own rough edges which makes you unique and special, in subservience of some algorithm or metric.

I'm aware that this idea isn't exactly something new, you've probably heard about it before in some other shape or form. I do think we all need an occasional reminder because sometimes the siren call lures us in and we end up in some weird psychotic delusion.

I'm always thinking about this little bit from ari in her faq;

How can I get people to visit my website or optimise "SEO"?

TL;DR? DON'T BE A TECHBRO. Simply be yourself and create content that you're passionate about; share your website proudly, host useful content and services, contribute to the community, and share knowledge and resources.

My thesis is this; given the right action and principles, anyone can generate value for the world that drives things forward — and this isnt necessarily correlary with money, but it's okay, because as george hotz said, if you create more value than you consume, you are welcome in any well operating community.

Essentially I am advising that one functions off the proposition of generating or giving value to the world as a first principle, rather than a by-product of chasing money, good will come to them and those around them, making things a win-win game rather than a zero-sum one.

After all, what legacy do you want to leave? Do you want to be a part of the rent-seekers, extracting value from others? Or do you want to be responsible for driving things forward? Which side of history do you want to be on?

If all you do is function off the premise of extracting value from others, I hate to break it to you — but you won't ever be fulfilled. Go and try it. Live your life in complete self-interest and see where that gets you. You'll have everything, but no one to share it with. There is no love nor glory in a life like that.

The trick with this is to realize that it is the most sustainable, long-time horizon adjusted way to live. It's the most intelligent. You (generally) won't suffer from major burn-out, deep insecurity, or feel as if your soul is being corrupted. You won't be confused about things, you'll be grounded and have clarity. Once you build that vision in your head it can become obvious to you that taking shortcuts and doing the default option that everyone else is doing is a total nothing burger.

. . .

I think we vastly underestimate our own capabilities in changing things for the better. Especially in an age where doom is served to us like fast food on a silver platter.

When I talk about giving/generating value, I'm really talking about creating something from nothing. How is this possible you might ask?

It really is more simple than it seems. After all, what is this post other than a synthesis of my life experiences, emotions, and ideals bundled into a bunch of words that I decided to sit down and write for an hour on? We can say I pulled it right out of my ass, but didn't srinivasa ramanujan do the same when creating all of his mathematical breakthroughs?

I think the difference between something truly valuable and something that's just slop is really your intention and creative vision. That's why in tech circles recently there's been the whole "taste" argument. I define taste as once again, your rough edges that make you unique — which you normally want to drown out so you can blend in with the crowd.

The point is that you can make something from nothing, and it's less daunting than it seems. I think at the most basic level, you just need to want it. That's all. If you function from the premise of principles, as I said earlier, then it becomes obvious to you that this is the right way forward, and perhaps I'll even argue that its the ticket to the good life.

The way I conceptualize the value generating process in my head is two objects rubbing against each other and creating friction. The friction is the value — it is the energy. The spark creates new things. You can gather a bunch of people and bounce ideas off of each other, which as I said before, drives things forward. One person shares an insight to another, and the second person riffs off of that insight compared to their own experience — before you know it, both parties end up walking away with something new. That's the spark right there. That's value. Creating a lifestyle riddled with those serendipities — whether by organizing a community yourself or just giving space for things like that to happen is the most high signal things you can do, I think.

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P.S: I'm aware of the double standards here (I still have yet to embody this in my own life), and perhaps I am getting a bit too preachy. But it's kind of a message for myself too. Writing this post was uncomfortable as a) I have been procrastinating on writing on my blog for a while, and b), I'm basically bootstrapping this process of being a value-giving person — I'm starting out despite being not ready, which I suppose is the only way to actually start... Nonetheless, I am grateful for taking the first step and doing so flamboyantly and messily. I hope this reaches you, really. And I hope that this is just the beginning of an amazing journey.