It was almost 10 years ago exactly that a friend lent me The 4-Hour Work Week. I remember feeling like my life would never be the same. Since then:
- I moved from Silicon Valley to Chicago, conducting "Geographic Arbitrage" by freelancing for SV companies
- I built passive revenue streams, including an online-dating advice blog that amassed about $150,000
- I used my newfound freedom to get a book deal. That book debuted in the top 20 on all of Amazon.
- I've since moved to Colombia to concentrate more on being a content creator. I'm working on another book, and I host a podcast.
After all of this value that Tim Ferriss has created in my life, how has he been rewarded? He's gotten about $4 from me.
Fortunately, Tim has millions of fans, so he does fine financially. You could say he's made much more because I've listened to ads on his podcast, and maybe even bought a few things with his Amazon affiliate links.
But still, to me, something seems f*cked up about that. He should have gotten more than $4 from me. (From when I bought The 4-Hour Body, the only book of his I've purchased.)
You could suggest that I buy more of his books (I don't want them), and even Tim himself says it's no big deal.
But my point is that media is so broken that an economically-rational person (which I strive to be) can get a ton of value from someone, without giving anything in return.
And that actually makes Tim's request difficult. It's extremely difficult as a content creator to get value for creating value for other people. So, it's extremely difficult to dedicate one's efforts on this.
There are many facets to this issue, but one thing is clear: as it becomes easier to trade value for value, there will be a sea change in how media is funded. And that will change the nature of the media that is produced.
I see STEEM as one potential fix for these barriers to value exchange. What do you think?