If you have diverse interests, please don't waste the next two to three years.

Author: @thedankoe

Translation: @frankyleon725

Society makes you think that having multiple interests is a weakness.

Go to school, get a degree, find a job, retire at some point.

But there are too many issues with this series of things.

We no longer live in the industrial age. Specializing in one skill is almost equivalent to slow death. I think everyone now understands how dangerous mechanical living and isolated learning are for your mind and soul. People can also feel that we are experiencing a second Renaissance.

Your curiosity and love of learning are your advantages in today’s society, but there’s a missing key link:

For a long time, I kept learning, learning, and learning. I fell into “tutorial hell.” Someone might point out your lack of focus through “Bright Object Syndrome” (SOS). I got dopamine from feeling smart, but life didn’t change much. Honestly, I felt I was just falling further behind. In college, I tried too many different things. I dreamed of starting my own business… earning income from creative work… but after five years of “learning,” reality pushed me to find a job that could support my livelihood.

What was missing was a vessel.

A vessel that allows me to channel all my interests into meaningful work and earn a decent income from it.

If you’ve ever felt guilty for not being able to focus on just one thing; if you’re asked to “niche down” but your mind wants to expand; if you’ve wondered whether there’s a way to avoid the pain you see in others’ eyes—then now is the best time.

Below are the seven most convincing points I can think of. We’ll start by understanding why having multiple interests is a superpower in today’s world, then provide practical steps to turn it into your life’s career. We have a lot to discuss, and I hope you’re ready to go together.

The Three Pillars of Individual Success and the Decline of Experts

If a person only engages in a few simple tasks throughout their life… they usually become extremely foolish and ignorant.

— Adam Smith

Interestingly, Mr. Smith, you created these people, and we are still suffering the aftereffects.

During the industrialization process, specialization and division of labor emerged—for example, in a paperclip factory, one worker could only make 20 paperclips a day by completing all steps. But if each worker only did one step, 48,000 paperclips could be produced.

So we built the entire world around this model.

Humans became assembly-line workers from nine to five because the government serves not the national interest but their own interests. Companies serve not the interests of employees but those of the bosses.

Schools were designed to serve this model. Their only goal is to cultivate punctual, obedient factory workers.

But this is not the right way to live.

If you want to acquire expertise but can never operate any business independently—especially your own—then you can only rely on school education and earning through work; being fooled: specialization is a reflection of human value.

The fact is: this system doesn’t need “you” to perform the task at all.

That’s the difference.

If pure specialization makes people stupid and dependent, then what can make someone smart and independent?

Three key elements: self-education, self-interest, self-sufficiency.

(Original: Self-education, self-interest, self-sufficiency)

Self-education is obvious—if you want different results from traditional education, you must take charge of your learning.

Self-interest might sound unappealing; it seems selfish and shortsighted, and many people see it as a flaw without hesitation. But it simply means “focusing on your own benefit,” because the alternative is serving the interests of the organizations that make up society, as we’ve discussed. In other words, follow your interests, because your interests can also benefit others selflessly—depending on your cognition and moral level.

By the way, indulging in short-term pleasures (cheap dopamine) is usually not your interest but for companies that profit from your ignorance.

According to Ann Rand, truly selfish people are those who are self-respecting and self-reliant, neither sacrificing others’ interests nor their own. This negates both predators and bullies.

Self-sufficiency means refusing to outsource your judgment, learning ability, and autonomy. If self-education is the engine, and self-interest is the compass, then self-sufficiency is the foundation that prevents your life’s direction from being hijacked by external forces. The three work together but are not entirely dependent.

Generalists embody these three elements.

Self-interest drives self-education.

You learn because it truly serves your growth, not because someone assigned you a task.

Self-education empowers self-sufficiency.

You only have sovereignty over the fields you understand.

Self-sufficiency clarifies self-interest.

When you no longer rely on others’ interpretations, you can truly perceive what benefits you. Most people treat multiple interests as a way to escape work. When your interests become work or a career, most interests are naturally filtered out.

Looking back at every CEO, founder, or creator we truly admire—they are all polymaths.

They master marketing enough to guide marketing; master product enough to build products; understand human nature enough to lead teams. But they still need to steer, constantly learning and adjusting as environments change.

More importantly, they understand that ideas from different fields can complement each other and create a unique way of viewing the world, allowing them to capture novel ideas from nothingness and turn them into market value.

Look at today’s world: if you understand the opportunities available to a single individual (not just leaders), you’ll find that being a natural polymath offers vast possibilities. That should excite you immensely.

II You Are Living in the Second Renaissance—Seize It

Study the science of art; study the art of science. Cultivate your senses—especially learn how to see. Understand that everything is interconnected.

— Leonardo da Vinci

In my view, the ultimate moat, or the most worthwhile competitive advantage, is a perspective.

This is a view only you can see because it stems from your unique life experiences. Perhaps it’s something no one else can replicate.

Since it’s always been so, why not prioritize developing it now? Especially with automation just around the corner.

How to determine priorities and develop it?

By pursuing multiple interests and combining them to create things.

Look, every interest you pursue leaves a trace; each interest increases the number of connections you can build; each interest expands and increases the complexity of how you construct and interpret reality. The more complex your model of reality, the more problems you can solve, opportunities you see, and value you create. Specialization completely blocks this process, and your “Bright Object Syndrome” has been trying to tell you this all along.

Since birth, you’ve been cultivating a perspective others can’t understand: one that only when you tell AI how to think can it think.

People who study psychology and design see user behavior very differently from pure designers. Those who study sales and philosophy close deals very differently from pure salespeople. People who understand fitness and business create healthy companies that even MBAs find hard to understand.

Your advantage lies more in cross-disciplinary knowledge than in deep specialization.

This is exactly the pattern we saw during the Renaissance, and it’s making a comeback now.

Think about what makes this possible…

Before the invention of the printing press, knowledge was scarce.

Books were handwritten, and a single book could take months for a scribe to complete. Libraries were rare, literacy was even rarer. If you wanted to learn something outside your field, you had to go to a monastery or just look on with envy.

Then Gutenberg changed everything.

In just fifty years, twenty million books flooded into Europe. Ideas that once took generations to spread could now reach everywhere in months. Literacy rates exploded, and the cost of knowledge plummeted.

For the first time in history, it became possible for a person to truly pursue mastery in multiple fields within a lifetime.

This is how the Renaissance came about.

Da Vinci didn’t pick just one thing. He painted, sculpted, engineered, studied anatomy, designed war machines, drew human figures. Michelangelo was a painter, sculptor, architect, and poet.

Their unique minds could finally operate freely, functioning as they were meant to.

They should have crossed disciplines, integrated knowledge, and followed curiosity into unknown realms, but most of us never realize this.

The printing press was the catalyst for the emergence of a new kind of human. These people can learn everything, combine everything, and create things even experts can never produce.

III How to Turn Broad Interests into Prosperous Livelihoods

Currently, we know the following:

You have multiple interests but can’t just learn without practicing forever.

You love self-education based on interests but can only carve out time after work.

You understand the need for self-interest but feel you’re not yet worth paying for.

You need to develop rapid adaptability because we cannot predict future work modes.

The question is: how to fuse these into a lifestyle?

How to combine learning and earning so that it sustains you?

I’ll try to clarify the logic:

To make money from your interests, you need to make others interested. It’s simple: if you’re interested in something, others will be too—you just need to learn how to persuade them.

Moreover, you need a way for them to pay. In this context, it usually means selling products because you’re unlikely to find a job that allows you to express your interests, and investing in stocks or real estate (to a meaningful extent) requires substantial capital.

In other words, you need attention.

Attention is one of the last moats.

Because when anyone can code or develop any software, who wins? Those with widely recognized products. You can have the best product in the world, but if no one knows about it, then the person who can attract and retain users’ attention will be far ahead.

By the way, if you follow the tech scene, you’ll know. I don’t think everyone will “build their own software.” Most people aren’t even willing to spend 20 minutes cooking; they prefer to spend a few more bucks on takeout. Everyone has their own things they want to spend time on.

Back to the point:

You need to become a creator.

Before you get tired of quitting, I don’t mean just “content creator” (well… that’s a bit complicated).

I mean, stop creating for others (because you need their salaries), and start creating for yourself.

be a creator and create for yourself

Humans are born creators, yet we once believed machines could realize the American Dream. We are essentially tool makers. We thrive in every niche because we can create solutions to problems. If you put a lion in Alaska, it won’t build shelter or clothes; it will die. Lions have their own ecosystems.

The reality is, every company is a media company. But remember, you need attention! Where does attention come from? Currently, mainly from social media, until the next attention platform appears—then you’ll need to adapt. So, if you have broad interests, becoming a “content creator” is wise. Simply put: treat social media as a platform to showcase your interests to others; it’s a piece of the puzzle needed for independent work.

And this covers all our needs.

You love learning? Great, redefine it as “research,” and now it’s your main focus. Most of what I write is just “public notes” on social media while I explore my interests.

(You’re already spending time learning; now just spend that time on social platforms to learn, and you’ll have a foundation for entrepreneurship.)

You need to be self-sufficient? Then you need a business. Every business needs to attract customers. You might not care about paid ads, SEO, or other marketing. This is where many go wrong—they’re used to working as employees doing one specific task.

You need adaptability? Great, you can iterate quickly like developing products and launch new offerings to your audience. I have a steady following, so if the next product fails, there are still people willing to invest, join the team, or support the next one. You can build your small SaaS company, but without distribution channels, you’ll need to spend extra effort on fundraising, recruiting, and launching.

No other job or business model gives you this much freedom.

But how to truly get started?

How to connect all these pieces?

IV How to Turn Yourself into a Business

Unfortunately, “entrepreneurship” and “business” have become pejorative terms, making people think they’re unqualified to walk this path, so when opportunities come, they don’t even notice.

If you’ve ever helped others with your interests, you’re qualified to start a business.

They no longer require upfront capital. They’re no longer only for unscrupulous elites. They’re not just for those wanting to make big money, nor only for talented or special people.

The reality is, entrepreneurship is our innate nature—modern survival depends on it. We are born to create value and pass it on to like-minded people. We are naturally curious, eager to explore the unknown, pursue novelty, and never stop. Psychologically, this is the most joyful way of life, even with lows, because those lows give birth to (non-man-made) peaks.

Moreover, the entry barriers have collapsed.

All you need is a laptop and internet.

Today, social media makes content distribution free (well, not free, but skill-based, and mastering it can be time-consuming). Anyone can post an idea that reaches millions. If they have a product, that attention can translate into millions of dollars—provided you know how to leverage these skills. But that’s a big “if.” Most people are just passionate about interests or skills unrelated to success, perhaps because they’re afraid of failure.

Now, tools and technologies can handle work that once required teamwork. You can leverage AI and a wealth of practical software.

There are two starting paths now.

First: Skill-oriented

This has long dominated the internet: learn a market-recognized skill, then use content to showcase that skill, and finally sell related products or services.

The limitation is it’s expert-based, one-sided. You narrow your path! You niche down—because others say it’s more profitable. Chasing profit over interest often turns you into a second nine-to-five, doing work you don’t care about, for people you don’t care about.

Second: Development-oriented

Now, successful creators are those without fixed niches. They usually focus on one of four eternal markets: health, wealth, relationships, happiness—or all. Strictly speaking, everyone’s positioning is self-actualization; it’s just that their paths to achieve goals vary wildly.

They help you reach your goals (brand).

They teach what they learn (content).

They help others achieve their goals faster (products).

For broad interests, I obviously recommend this path more, because it develops deeper.

First, while walking this path, you’re also walking the first. Because building your brand, content, and products requires mastery of all related market skills, even if you fail, you’ll have something worth paying for. You’re building your business, and if you’re good at a certain area, you can also help others solve specific problems in their ventures.

Second, it disrupts traditional models.

You don’t create customer personas just to narrow your target market or focus on a niche; instead, you become the person in the customer persona.

This makes things easier to understand.

Pursue your life goals and keep improving → Verify the value of what you offer → Help your past self achieve the same goals.

Don’t be a YouTube creator;

Don’t build a personal brand;

Don’t do;

Be yourself. But you need a place where your work can be discovered, followed, and supported. Now and in the foreseeable future, that place is the internet.

Jordan Peterson (or similar figures) appears to be a “content creator,” but actually isn’t.

He tours, writes books, uses social media as a base, and spreads his lifelong work with every tool. He doesn’t care about the latest content trends; his thinking far surpasses any shortsighted growth strategy; what truly makes him stand out and change lives is the quality of his ideas (regardless of what you think of Peterson).

Therefore, I want to offer a new perspective on branding, content, and products. So you can treat it as the vessel for your lifelong career.

V – Brand Is an Environment

Stop viewing your brand merely as an avatar and social media bio.

A brand is an environment where people come seeking transformation;

A brand is a small world you invite others into;

A brand is not what visitors see when they first visit your homepage;

A brand is the sum of impressions accumulated in their minds after 3-6 months of following you.

At every touchpoint, you showcase your worldview, story, and philosophy. Banners, avatars, bios, links, landing pages, pinned content, posts, threads, newsletters, videos, etc.

In other words, your brand is this:

Your brand is your story.

Spend a day writing down your origins, lows, experiences, skills gained, and how they’ve helped you. It will be very helpful.

When you brainstorm ideas, content, or products, use your story to filter them. This doesn’t mean you have to talk about yourself all the time, but you must adjust your expression to keep your brand consistent.

The hardest part is realizing your story is worth telling—even if you think it’s boring or haven’t reflected on your growth.

Key points:

Bios and avatars aren’t important. Some people have only one word in their bios, and a single color as their avatar.

My advice:

List 5-10 people you respect online.

Look at their avatars, bios, content.

Notice the patterns.

Start thinking about how to craft your own brand and incorporate your unique style.

Honestly, I think it’s unnecessary to overcomplicate this. When you start creating content, your brand naturally takes shape. We can even say that the brand is the content, so focus on making good content first.

VI – Content Is a New Perspective

The internet is a fire hydrant of information.

AI only adds more noise.

This means trust and signals are more important than ever.

In my view, the principle of content should be: gather the highest quality ideas in one place. Your brand is the collection of all the ideas you cherish, in plain language—a single account on the internet.

If you plan to do podcasts or public speaking, note that the best speakers always remember 5 to 10 of their most powerful points or ideas. They emphasize these repeatedly—that’s their secret to influence. If you don’t have these 5 to 10 ideas, your influence won’t be as big as it could be.

Creating大量内容正是你发现这些想法的途径。

随着时间和努力，你的内容“创意密度”不断提升，这才能打造出一个值得关注和付费的品牌。

精心策划品牌相关创意的目标应该体现在以下几个方面：

表现力——想法有潜力“火”。这是衡量别人关心的程度。

兴奋度——这些想法让你充满写作的热情，这体现了你对它们的重视程度。

艺术与商业。

指标和绩效不应该决定一切，但它们确实具有一定的意义。。

第一步：建立想法博物馆

你所欣赏的大多数创意人士的秘诀在于，他们会精心整理笔记、想法和灵感来源。

换句话说，他们有一个“素材库”，营销人员称之为“素材库”。

你可以使用 Eden（如果你有权限的话）、Apple Notes、Notion 或任何你喜欢的工具，但我想明确一点：

你需要一个地方随时记下想法。

这是一个至关重要的习惯。

每当你想到一个有用的想法，无论是现在还是不久的将来，都把它记下来。你不需要什么内容支柱或者两三个话题,你收集的想法只需要对你来说重要即可。当然你也可以创建一个内容地图，如果你愿意的话。

我不在乎你如何整理这些内容。它可以是一套整齐有序的文档，也可以是毫无章法的杂乱笔记——习惯比格式更重要。

你可以通过查看帖子的点赞数、浏览量或整体互动情况来判断其表现，看看它是否有可能引起共鸣。如果这个创意反响平平，或者表现不如他们的其他内容，那么它可能对你来说效果不佳。

你可以通过观察自己是否觉得如果不把某些有价值的东西写下来就会浪费掉来衡量兴奋程度。

第二步：根据想法浓度进行筛选

如何开始充实你的创意博物馆？

你需要 3-5 个信息密度高的信息来源。

我所说的“想法浓度”，指的是有说服力的信息。

很难解释如何找到高浓度信息，因为这很主观。它取决于你的发展水平（对你有用的信息）、你的受众的发展水平（对他们有用的信息），以及你如何将两者结合起来。

一条最基本的建议，对别人来说可能是世界上最有价值的东西，但对你来说可能却是常识。

随着时间的推移，你会通过观察哪些想法能引起受众的共鸣，哪些不能，来调整自己的信噪比。

信息最丰富的来源：

老书或鲜为人知的书籍——我有五本书反复阅读，因为它们的思想实在太棒了。这些书里蕴藏着永恒的真理，不受潮流的影响。

精选博客、账号或书籍——像 Farnam Street 这样的博客精选了当代知识分子的精华思想。像 Navalism 这样的账号精选了 Naval 的精华思想。像《麦克斯韦每日读本》这样的书籍，每天收录麦克斯韦的一个最佳观点，持续一年。这些资源为你省去了很多繁琐的工作，让你能够从中挑选出最精华的内容。

有影响力的社交账号——我有一个包含大约五个社交账号的列表，它们总是发布很棒的观点。如果我没有写作素材，我会浏览它们的页面，找到一些我感兴趣的内容，然后就此写出来。

找到这些灵感来源需要几个月的探索但维护一个汇集丰富想法的“灵感库”最终会让你创作出同样充满灵感的内容。

你的灵感库会成为你试图塑造的思维模式的体现。

这才是最终目标。

拥有一个如此优质的内容库，让人们忍不住打开你的邮件、开启帖子通知、与朋友分享你的想法，并经常思考你的看法。

你将化身为奇思妙想的策展人，甄选那些世人从未想起向 AI 追问的灵感，以及在生活中永远难邂逅的想法。

这样你就能减少对算法的依赖，从而获得成功。

第三步：用 1000 种方式写同一种想法

成为一名优秀的作家或演说家，不仅在于拥有想法，还在于如何表达想法。

创意本身就足以支撑很多工作，但正是其结构使其引人入胜、独具特色且富有影响力。

让我来解释一下我的意思。

以这个帖子为例：

我注意到快乐的人身上有一个共同点：他们非常注重保持头脑清醒。

这里的观点是，快乐的人更容易保持头脑清晰。

文章结构分为两部分：以观察为引子，以及对观察结果的阐述。

这看似简单，但思想结构的差异却能产生巨大的影响。

现在，如果我采用同样的思路，但使用“列表”结构：

快乐的人头脑清晰：

– 他们会抽出时间休息

– 他们专注于一个单一的目标

– 他们会毫不留情地消除干扰

换句话说，快乐的人非常注重保持头脑清晰。

同样的意思，不同的结构，不同的影响。

如果你愿意的话，你可以练习用同样的思路去写你遇到的每一种文章结构。

以下是练习方法：

首先，将 3 个想法分解成它们的结构。

从你的创意库中选择 3 篇引起你共鸣的文章。然后，尝试分析每个想法的各个部分，并阐述其有效的原因。

如果你没有内容心理学方面的经验，那也没关系。你可以在实践中学习。

现在正是利用人工智能提供帮助的最佳时机，尝试在每篇文章中使用以下提示：

请对这篇社交媒体帖子进行全面分析，包括整体思路、句子结构和用词。分析人们为何会参与互动，为何这篇帖子如此有效，运用了哪些心理策略，以及我如何才能将这种风格与自己的想法一步步结合起来。

然后将帖子内容粘贴到提示下方。

我推荐使用 Claude 作为模板，而不是 ChatGPT 或 Gemini。

继续这样做，将你在写作过程中发现的任何想要融入写作风格的想法都记录下来。这种方法不仅适用于帖子，也适用于视频。

第二步，用不同的结构重写三个想法。

回到你的“创意库”，选择一个你在第一步中没有用到的想法。

然后，尝试用你刚才分析的三种文章结构重写这个想法。

这就是拓展思路的方法。

这就是告别对着空白屏幕发呆的方法。

这就是将一个想法转化为一周内容的方法。

我们为什么要这样做？

因为你现在已经掌握了创作出脱颖而出的内容和产生好点子的所有秘诀。

说真的，这就是秘诀。至于能否取得任何成果，都取决于实践。

VII 系统是新产品

OK，本文到这里已经很长了，我们要加速了。

当前，我们处于系统经济。

人们不想要问题的解决方案。

他们只想要你对他们问题的解决方案。

市面上有很多写作产品，那我的 2 Hour Writer 有什么不同？或者我正在建的 Eden 软件，据 YouTube 评论区超级聪明的人说，“很容易被 Google Drive或 Dropbox取代”？

这些系统是我通过自身实践获得成效而创建的。

2HW 不会教你一堆毫无意义的学术写作废话，这些废话并不能帮助你实现我们共同的愿景——过上富有创造力和意义的生活。

我曾有一些问题：

我一直苦于没有源源不断的创意。

我不想浪费大量时间为各种不同的平台创作内容。

于是，我开始尝试建立自己的系统。

我的系统目标很明确：每天用不到两小时的时间完成所有需要的内容写作。这样一来，我的受众增长问题就能迎刃而解，我可以专注于打造更好的产品，享受生活。

我开始测试各种方法来获取更多内容创意。

我创建了素材库、创意生成步骤，以及模板（以防我还是想不出什么好点子）。

我详细规划了每周的写作任务：每天三篇博文，每周一个主题帖，以及每周一份简报。

在这个过程中，我意识到我可以将我的文章同步发布到所有社交平台（这是公开的，你可以查看）。

我还意识到，主题帖可以转换成轮播图，简报可以转换成 YouTube 视频。

如果系统运行不畅，我会在下周尝试新的方法。

由此，我意识到我可以把简报的内容复制粘贴到博客上，在博客中嵌入 YouTube 视频，在博客中推广我的产品，并将博客内容转化为更多灵感。

然后，我每天都可以在文章下方添加博客链接。

这带来了更多的简报订阅者、YouTube 订阅者和产品销量。

我意识到，如果我所做的一切都以简报为中心，那么在拓展受众和推广产品方面，我就只需要专注于此。

这就是在充斥着复制粘贴产品的时代脱颖而出的秘诀。

没错，这需要时间和经验，但最终的成果绝对值得。

这封信就到这里。

感谢你的阅读。

顺颂时祺

-Dan

-Franky