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Curator Economy, Not Creator Economy
"Publishing" is a word that no longer makes sense. What is missing in the "creator economy" is a strong curatorial element. Good work must be created, and it must be identified, amplified, and stored for the future.
The Driftless
Jul 6
The Driftless
Written by
Tom Beck
Essays from an untouched corner of the internet.
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The Driftless
Oct 3
Writing Through Denial
For six years, I've been abandoning successful writing platforms the moment they started working—not because they failed, but because it wasn't the specific success I was looking for. I thought I was chasing better opportunities. I was actually running from my natural form.
The Driftless
Jul 27
Why Artists Can't Get Paid
An exploration of the structural problems that keep artists financially struggling despite unprecedented tools for creation and distribution. From winner-take-all dynamics to the passion premium, this essay maps the many pitfalls that prevent creative work from becoming sustainable careers - and why tech platforms promising to solve these problems often make them worse.
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The Driftless
Mar 15
Fiction in the Age of the Phone
Why do we happily consume endless nonfiction on our phones but reach for physical books when we want fiction? I explore the fundamental tension between how we experience digital content and how fiction works in our minds.
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The Driftless
Feb 9
Farcaster is a Car
What if Farcaster isn't just another social network with crypto features, but something entirely new—like the automobile was to horse-drawn carriages? This essay explores how Farcaster could transform social media by enabling users to build their own contextual experiences while maintaining a consistent identity across the web, just as cars transformed not just how we move, but how we live.
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The Driftless
Sep 17
Why You Should Not Set Goals
In one of the most interesting books I've ever read, Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned: The Myth of the Objective, authors Kenneth O. Stanley and Joel Lehman dismantle the widely-held view that to accomplish anything of importance, you must first set it as an objective—a specific goal with clear, legible, preceding steps. Our reliance on objectives is everywhere, from education to business, government to finance, and even science, art, and technology. Even the word objective encompasses a dual ...
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The Driftless
Jul 6
Curator Economy, Not Creator Economy
"Publishing" is a word that no longer makes sense. What is missing in the "creator economy" is a strong curatorial element. Good work must be created, and it must be identified, amplified, and stored for the future.
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The Driftless
Jun 1
In Praise of Going Slow
Instead of 10x Thinking, consider /10 Thinking. What if, instead of going 10 times bigger or 10 times faster, you went 10 times smaller? Or 10 times slower? What would you create?
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The Driftless
May 8
Is There an Ideal Writing Pace?
A lot of writing advice boils down to the same idea: go fast. But writing pace, like voice, is an individualized component, and that exploring different paces can unlock your best work.
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The Driftless
Apr 1
Against the Creator Economy
There is a Catch-22 in the “creator economy” and it goes like this: publish consistently at a high velocity (preferably every day) so that you get enough eyeballs so that enough people subscribe so that enough people pay you so that you can create full-time so that you have enough time to publish co
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