DISCLAIMER

I haven’t put most of this into practice yet. Will update as I do.

Starting a business is mainly so I can work on my own terms. It is so I have more control over and gain more satisfaction from, my busy-ness. So what is good “work” (for me)?

The ideal “work” (or busy-ness) is an expenditure of time, energy (thought and actions) and resources, to produce something of value to other humans, for which they are willing to give me money, during the process of which I maximise the things I want to do and be. Basically, kinda Ikigai.

Master plan meta is (always?) the same - give value, get money, hopefully nudging + iterating towards better world in the process.

Path A

Let’s find a purpose from things I already like to do and problems I know I want to solve, and build towards a business on top of that. (Kinda following this video)

A.1 What problems do I want to solve?

• Finding your tribe (never having really met them)
• Knowing yourself (instead of living without ever experiencing zen)
• Procrastinating, especially on the big things
• Improv practice ~ now this is specific niche approved ~
• Learning by yourself (in a chaotic constraint-free environment)
• Improving yourself (against the inertia of good enough)
• Having a positive mindset always (especially if not kind to yourself)
• Writing more, and writing better ~ also a specific niche perhaps ~

Hmm.. wait, I’ve talked about this with other people before. My purpose is..

Helping people with technology

Let’s get a little more precise..

Helping people make meaning in their lives with technology

It still feels a little too generic, and meaning is a lot of different things to different people, even if it can technically be abstracted into a few common categories. Sounds like I’m saying I want to create value for people but in so many more words. Maybe I’m just being stubborn with this exercise, like when in a workshop my answer to “What do you wish people would say about you at your funeral?” was “Oh look, he’s not really dead!”

A.2 What can I do now, delaying gratification?

This one perhaps is self-fulfilling. Something like this blog. Or maybe a stream where I solve my own problems.. The point is that it has to be something I mostly enjoy doing, and do diligently like a practice, which makes me better over time, doubles as free value creation for others, and triples as marketing material for me. Best case that is how I gain a loyal following, being useful to some folks by building in public. Worst case I am forced to confront the solipsism of my perceived utility, and I try something else or just accept existing purposelessly.

I’m decent with tech, and I like attention enough think I would like to build in public, AI should make it less tedious too. I just need to mix it with interests and lived experience - Learning, Teaching, Improv, Meaning.. applications abound?

Now, I can start with templates. I need the same basic scaffolding for most of these projects. I can build and host it off of the mini PC (and Cloudflare).

A.3 Step 1 - Start and the rest will happen

Even before building I can design the application purpose and the necessary domain and its data models. I can standardize into a templated system to repeat stuff easily.

Path B

Let’s start at the end and work backwards:

Why is who paying you?

What are they getting? How are they getting it? What are you doing/making for them? How did they find you?

Unnatural Learning - Optimize your learning

Anyone who wants to seriously learn something and have fun doing it. Students use it free. Professionals and parents pay me.

Unnatural Teaching - (Maybe technically a manual transmission Learning app)

Anyone who wants to seriously teach something, do it well, and reduce repetition tedium.

Unnatural Living - Optimize your life

Anyone who wants to seriously live to their fullest. Personal coach, unrelentingly positive presence, perfect memory, sense maker, borderline therapy assistant, research assistant, timekeeper, manager, PA.

Path C

Dream up stuff, duck logic.

• Magnifying glass ARI device
• GREAT self-manipulator