How the Power of Choices is Influencing the Creator Economy
An opinion piece regarding newsletters and the tragedy of commons.
Photo Credit: Solen Feyissa on Unsplash
Just before bed last night, I clicked through more than 20 newsletters and saw an advertisement for a series on Epic about Billy the Kid. I remember Billy the Kid from when I was young, but I couldn’t recognize Epic. Turns out, it’s another premium subscription channel.
At that point, I turned my computer off with three thoughts in mind.
First, I’m overwhelmed by the amount of newsletters, websites and publications that bombard my emails every day because I have either signed up for or just clicked on them. My guess is I receive over 150 emails daily, with some sites reaching me two, three or more times per day. Top ones I subscribe to include The Washington Post, Marketing and Morning Brew, and Substack newsletters.
Second, I checked the number of premium channels I can get on my Spectrum cable, and there are 15 premium pay options. That doesn’t include the internet ones, such as Apple TV, Amazon Prime and Netflix.
Finally, I decided that every month I’m going to make my selections of new material vs. old material a zero sum game. Any new additions have to be replacements, in terms or both time and money.
So, goodbye Netflix, and hello MIT Technology publication this month. A bit nerdy, I know, LOL.
Also, I am going to read at least one good book per month, which will be recommended by others to expand the way I think. This month I will be reading “The Candy House” by Jennifer Egan. Let me know in the comments what I should read next!
Fast forward to this morning, I woke up and kept asking myself, “Why do I have to do this?” and “How did we get here where the onus is on us?”
I told our editor, Ariana, I wanted to write an opinion piece on this because I thought the topic might be driving more people crazy than me. We all seem to be overloaded with choices to the point where we are all paralyzed in making any new ones, and we don’t really feel happy about them. All of them…
For years, psychologists have told us that more and more choices can paralyze us and are not necessarily better for our lives. When was the last time you selected the new flavor of moose crunch ice cream at your favorite store instead of your usual order?
What’s even worse is that adding more choices may create a community effect, in which everyone’s individual choices are making it harder to gather the same results.
Flashback to my college economics lecture, where I was told about the Tragedy of Commons theory and how an individual’s right decision might be the wrong decision for the community as a whole. This is especially true when there is a free resource, like Substack, which costs nothing to post on. What looked like a wonderful advantage at first, as a platform for this newsletter, has now become a liability as thousands of newsletters do the same. It makes it harder and harder for this newsletter to get proper attention.
So, what is the solution? Will the creator economy revert to what the old star-based economy is, in which most of the money goes to the top one percent that everyone tells you to subscribe to?
I really don’t know, but it probably has to do with some co-operative approach and aggregation from leading types. Also, there will have to be types that encourage you, such as good teachers, to get out of your comfort zone and look in different places for different thoughts, which might expand how you enjoy life.
One thing we do know is that by the time you eat vanilla ice cream 50 days in a row, you probably aren’t getting the same enjoyment out of it.
Here at Don’t Count Us Out Yet, we will continue to aggregate thought leaders’ pieces and takes from both sides of the six areas in Web 3.0 we cover. If you think the information we offer is too one-sided, please call us out on it. Now, I have to go figure out what newsletters from MIT I want to start reading.
For Further Information:
Here is an article by The New York Times about the paralyzation of too many choices.
Here is a rundown of the Tragedy of Commons theory.
Best,
Craig