On spending $48 million per year on videos, the defining decade and identity
Edition #049
Hey friends, hope you're having a great Sunday!
This week I've been focusing on a couple of exciting projects.
The first is building a comprehensive personal site that better reflects where I'm heading with my business. After spending the last 4+ years building sites for other people I'm now focused on building a place for me to share ideas and a site that will become a valuable tool to the community.
The second project is essentially the next stage of becoming a full stack creator. Over the course of 2021 I've been working towards a transition from freelancer to full stack creator. Like most things worthwhile in life, the transition has not been easy.
After spending a lot of my free time this year learning, exploring, writing, and creating things, I'm finally in a place where I have the mental clarity to make unique content.
Having struggled in the past with a vision for what I want to create I've finally settled on a mission to follow:
Exploring how we can live better & build profitable independent businesses.
In essence I will be focusing on the skills, tools and strategies we can use to improve our lives and build independent businesses.
Here are this weeks finds:
I.
🎥 On spending $48m per year on videos
(Video)
🎬 This interview with Mr Beast provides a fascinating look at how he operates his Youtube empire. Currently his yearly spending on videos is over $48,000,000 which is insane. I can't imagine anyone else spends anywhere near that amount.
What stood out to me most in this video is how simple Jimmy's (Mr Beast) mission is, he simply wants to make the best videos on the internet and help people.
The most interesting part that most people overlook when they see modern-day Mr Beast is that he started making videos at 13. The 69,000,000+ subscribers he currently has is the result of nearly 10 years of work trying to make the best videos possible.
II.
📚 On the defining decade
(Book)
📌 Initially I thought this book would be a corny self-help for twentysomethings type book but turns out it's actually a great guide to not feel lost in your 30s and 40s from a clinical psychologist.
The book touches on a lot of areas that most people in their 20s struggle with. Without trying to tell you what to do this book gently nudges you in the right direction to set your career and life up for success in your 20s.
Full book notes coming soon.
III.
⭐️ On keeping your identity small
(Article)
💻This post from Paul Graham makes an interesting point on why conversations on politics and religion are useless.
With topics like religion you don't need any expertise to have an opinion about it so everyone thinks they are an expert. But take a topic like Javascript and you need a level of understanding to even participate in a discussion
What separates religion and politics from other topics is that they become part of your identity. Once that's the case you'll become defensive when your identity is challenged by another viewpoint.
In the essay Paul argues that we should keep our identities small as "The more labels you have for yourself, the dumber they make you."
One interesting idea
"You have no responsibility to live up to what other people think you ought to accomplish. I have no responsibility to be like they expect me to be. It's their mistake, not my failing.” - Richard Feynman (Surely you're joking Mr Feynman)
End note
If you enjoyed this edition of the Sunday Filter then I’d love it if you could share it with a few friends. You can send them over here to sign up or share it on Twitter.
Have a great week!
- Stephen