Other Life

Default Friend writes a personal advice newsletter, defaultfriend.substack.com. We discuss how Default met two different boyfriends through Twitter, how she networked her way into tech without tech skills, some copywriting tips for creators, and my idea to create an arranged marriage agency (she's now on the team helping to build it).➡️  If you'd like an arranged marriage (arranged by us), signup here real quick: https://defaultefriend.typeform.com/to/BCsFKG16➡️  If you're trying to get serious about your own intellectual work, request an invitation to IndieThinkers.org.➡️  If you just want to support what I'm doing and get some cool stuff, consider becoming a patron at patreon.com/jmrphy.

Marriage is crazy. You’re right to think, “I’m not sure. What if it doesn’t work out? I lose so many options, etc.” It’s an impossible-to-guarantee decision with huge downsides. But if you do it right, the upside arguably approaches infinity. People postpone marriage for the same reason they're becoming less religious: we've lost the capacity for faith.➡️  I might build an arranged marriage agency: defaultefriend.typeform.com/to/BCsFKG16➡️  Submit a question for the podcast at otherlife.co/contact✦ Big thanks to my patrons who help me keep the lights on! Consider becoming one at patreon.com/jmrphy

Biz Sherbert is a fashion theorist inspired by Mark Fisher, who's figured out how to make academic theory resonate with millions of people on TikTok.➡️  Biz's blog: sherbert.biz➡️  Biz on Instagram: @markfisherquotes➡️  Biz on TikTok: BimboTheoryHow Biz is building a career publishing social theory on TikTokJustin Murphy: How exactly does fashion theory go viral on TikTok?Biz Sherbert: The one that really got big was a video explaining the history of the e-girl heart, which is just a little heart that's drawn onto the cheek of e-girls. It's a really popular makeup style in that group. It actually comes from an 18th-century and earlier European cosmetic tradition of trying to cover up deformities on the face, scars and deformities from smallpox. I think that just hit a sweet spot for people because e-girls are so well known on that platform.I started getting emails from journalists, asking me to provide insight on GenZ TikTok fashion. I've done that a couple times on Cottagecore, Dark Academia, the viral strawberry dress, Simping... They basically will write a story and they'll just look up "Cottagecore." And they'll see a couple people from " the hashtag that are on the top of the hashtag and interview them. Every single person who's found my videos has looked up "Dark Academia" or "Cottagecore" or something, and seen one of my video essays at the top of the hashtag. On the GenZ marriage postponement problemBiz Sherbert: If anyone wants to marry me from the podcast, who's listening, you can DM me @markfisherquotes on Instagram.Justin Murphy: I bet you'll get at least a couple. Just make sure they're not theorycels.➡️  Contact me or submit questions you want me to answer on the podcast at otherlife.co/contact.➡️  If you're working on your own intellectual project, request an invitation to IndieThinkers.org.➡️  Or support the show by becoming a patron at patreon.com/jmrphy.

Max Nussenbaum is an author and entrepreneur who currently runs the On Deck Writing Fellowship, a new Silicon Valley take on modern education and career acceleration. We talk about how On Deck is helping writers become entrepreneurs; how Max bought a mansion in Detroit when he was 23; why JFK is overrated; what cults teach us about community building; and optimal strategy for Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (which Max was on).➡️  On Deck Writing Fellowship is open: beondeck.com/writers➡️  Max on Twitter: @maxnussOn buying a mansion with no money...Max Nussenbaum: We were 23-year-olds when we decided to buy this mansion at a tax auction. And we asked a bunch of other people, we knew some of whom had fixed up houses themselves: "Hey, is it crazy for four 23 year olds who don't know anything about construction to buy a mansion, that's a total tear-down, and try to fix it up themselves?" And that is crazy, just to be clear, like I think in objective reality. And every single person we talked to was like, "Nah, do it, go ahead." It's just like that kind of place. So we purchased, it was just a mansion that had been abandoned.  Was a total wreck. It was a seven-bedroom, 3,500 square-foot mansion in what... in 1920 was the richest neighborhood in America. Purchased at tax auction for just over $8,000 that we raised from a Kickstarter...Justin Murphy: Wait, $8,000 total? Max Nussenbaum: Yes, now that's very misleading because we ultimately put over $200,000 into actually fixing up the house. We formed an LLC, found an outside investor. It was essentially a very micro-scale, real estate development project because obviously we did not have anywhere close to $200-grand ourselves. So the $8,000 figure is misleading, but yeah, eight grand and the house was ours. It needed a new roof, new plumbing, new electrical, new wiring, new everything. Justin Murphy: What was the business model though? Max Nussenbaum: It was literally a basic real estate plan. We're going to rehab this house, we're going to rent it out to other young people, as a co-living, co-working space and there's going to be rental income and then eventually we're going to sell it and it's going to be worth a lot more. I would guess it's probably worth $400-$450,000, which would be about double what we spent and put into it.It would have been totally worth it, even if we never made any profits from it.How Max is building the On Deck Writing Fellowship... Max Nussenbaum: I joined [On Deck] to launch a writer fellowship, which is basically for anyone who's writing publicly and independently for the web. I think independent writers are essentially a form of micro entrepreneur, right? If you want to start a newsletter there's so much, you have to learn how to do that goes into that other than just being good at writing.But if you go Google, how to find users, how to get users for your SaSS product, you'll find tons of resources. If you were going to look up how to get readers for your email newsletter, there's really just a comparative dearth of information. And a lot of what you would find is like, assuming your email newsletter is the first part of a sales funnel from a company.And it's going to tell you how to do SEO keyword research, which is...  If you're an independent writer who wants to speak or write from the heart about something, you are interested in, that's not really the right approach for you at all. ➡️  If you'd like to join my Discord server, request an invitation here: otherlife.co/join/➡️  Become a patron at patreon.com/jmrphy

Sudarshan Sridharan is a 20-year-old co-founder of the wildfire prediction startup Fion.tech, and co-creator of the Gen Z Mafia. We discuss: How to launch a tech startup when you're only 20; how VCs want deal flow but college kids want party flow; how awkward outcasts can "flip the switch" to start networking; how to use Twitter; and the benefits of being silent and elevating others.➡️  Suds' startup predicting wildfires: Fion.tech➡️  Fion is hiring engineers and enterprise sales (email suds@fion.tech)➡️  Follow Sudarshan on Twitter @itzsudsAs soon as I understood, "OK, I talk to much," people don't like this about me, like I lacked social awareness. Then I started really just honing in on that stuff when I was like 16-17ish. By the time I got to college, I immediately flipped the switch from being this kid that was just running businesses and trading stocks to "Yo, I'm a party promoter."Like I literally just showed up to school, carrying around a bag of king-sized Skittles around my dorm, and anybody who was like, "Yo, can I get some Skittles?" I'd be like, "Give me your Snapchat." And so naturally that first day I got... 200 people added me and then one guy was like, "Hey, come to this party."I went to that party. And then I started posting those parties on my Snapchat. So within the first week of school, I had 2000 people who added me, like freshmen who are looking for parties. Very quickly I knew, like how VCs want deal flow, kids want party flow. So if I just give them all these parties, people are gonna like me. From there I realized, "OK, I've got this following. I should probably be using it." So I started like just posting, basically like my Snapchat became my blog, a blog of my life and I learned very quickly how to push content, and that might seem not that important, but I think community building is a lot of... finding people of a general demographic and then adding value to them.✦ To join my Discord server, request an invitation here: otherlife.co/join✦ Big thanks to my patrons. Become one at patreon.com/jmrphy

Brett Goldstein writes the newsletter SocialStudies.news, teaching social science to founders and covering Tech Twitter. We talk about the untapped riches of social science for creators and founders, and how to think about branding and growing content-creation projects from niche academic disciplines. We also talk co-living and hype-house business models, as Brett calls in from OnDeck's Launch House in Tulum, Mexico.The number of different stories in a single newsletter seems inversely correlated to how shareable it is. That’s why newsletters are becoming Wikipedia pages: comprehensive one-stop shops on particular concepts or entities.If indie creators optimize for growth, they’ll just morph into normal businesses. That’s great if you want that, but leaving some optimization on the table probably gives: More longevity (it’s more fun) and uniqueness (personality is a moat).Understand sprezzatura. If it looks like you invested a ton of effort, people are less impressed with your content. They expected better. Crappy production quality sets the expectation bar low, which means your audience gets more dopamine per insight.➡️ Brett's newsletter, SocialStudies.news➡️ Brett on Twitter @thatguyBG➡️ The OnDeck Fellowship at beondeck.com✦ If you're working on your own long-term intellectual project, request an invitation to IndieThinkers.org.

Gen Z Mafia is a Discord server incubating teenage billionaires. I talk with one of the ringleaders about community design, Gen Z psychology, and business models.What is the Gen Z Mafia and what kind of projects are people working on?How to make your community open and also filter for quality.Is Gen Z Mafia a business model?Are they more interested in venture capital or bootstrapped businesses?What do Gen Zers see that older folks don't?

Especially for people like me—if you write mostly about abstract intellectual topics that are not directly useful—writing should be the way you build your audience and not the way you monetize your audience. After you’ve built an email list through consistently publishing your writing for free, you can monetize in other ways, which make more sense and will earn you more money in the long-run. I wrote a blog post about this at otherlife.co/should-you-start-a-substack.➡️ Contact me or submit questions you want me to answer on the podcast at otherlife.co/contact.➡️ If you're working on your own intellectual project, request an invitation to IndieThinkers.org.➡️ If you just like what I'm doing, consider becoming a patron at patreon.com/jmrphy.

I spoke with David Kadavy about what he's learning self-publishing non-fiction books. Really practical and useful for anyone thinking about writing a book. He shares a lot of insider knowledge on Amazon's publishing system, whether and how you should use paid ads, and much more. Check out his work at https://kadavy.net/ and follow him on Twitter at @kadavy.I want to encourage people to publish a book tonight. I actually did this. You can put whatever name you want in the author field, you can publish a 500-word anything tonight, you can run some ads on it, you can try to get a friend to buy it. See what happens, watch your ranking, go through the process. You can unpublish it, if you want. But once you go through that process and once you see your book up on Amazon and you're like, that was scary easy. It really gets your gears going. I have books that are 4,000 words. I've got how to write a book. It's available as a free blog post, but it still makes me thousands of dollars.My strategy was very much: Write about whatever I'm interested in, create content about anything that interests me or anything. Then review, the search traffic and just see what search terms are coming in. Through that process, you can begin to find the things that are interesting to people, and that people will pay for.Eventually you have to make tough choices where you see an opportunity and you can't follow it. So this online dating blog that I was talking about, I made a $150,000 off of this site during its lifetime. I killed it, several months ago. 'Cause sometimes you got to burn your boats, especially if you're a person who's curious.➡️ If you're working on your own intellectual projects, request an invitation to IndieThinkers.org.➡️ Become a patron of the podcast at patreon.com/jmrphy.

A talk I gave to Gen Z Mafia (Gen Z Mafia). Thanks to Emma Salinas (@emmalsalinas) for all the great questions.Works Cited:Hard-Forking RealityOn Liberal PacificationIndieThinkers.orgWhere are the hottest countercultures today? What will happen to academia? What is my advice for young people? What Schelling points will emerge after academia? Why has academia has become left-wing since the 1990s? Can we make society more accepting of weird thinkers? Why do many of the countercultures today have a right-wing tendency? What caused the Left to gain dominance over mainstream institutions? Which conspiracy theories are directionally compelling? Should aspiring authors self-publish or try to get a traditional book deal? What will post-pandemic politics look like? What it's like living with two evolutionary psychologists? How will psychedelic drugs affect politics? What is my long-term vision for IndieThinkers.org?