Lifelog

I once heard of a good definition of product-market fit:

When something is pulling you forward and seemingly showing results on its own, it’s tending towards product-market fit.

When you’re having to push hard on something yet results don’t always show, it’s likely to not have product-market fit.

It makes so much sense, yet sometimes we blind ourselves to the pull signals we get from reality. Because we’re fixated with making something else successful, something we think should be successful. Some story we made up in our heads, that a particular product is what we want to succeed by, not the product that’s actually showing results.

So for August, I’m setting the broad intentions of doing what pulls me forward.

I wrote in my July recap that 2 projects are pulling me forward:

• Outsprint design consultancy
• Plugins For Carrd

If there’s anything this month that I want to do well in, it’s this one thing:

My upcoming consultancy gig in August.

It’s with a non-profit organisation, something I’ve always wanted. My consulting clients are 99% government, but my heart is always with social causes and working directly with non-profits. This is also about something I love - helping vulnerable families, growing community, education. There’s also potential for repeat projects, so it’s a job that I desire to overdeliver on, so that we can have a longer working relationship. It’s a $30k project, and I’m super grateful that it allows me to extend my runway to continue working on my indie products.

For my Carrd plugins, it’s continuing to pull me forward. Yet I continue to not give it the attention it deserves. Why? It’s weird. I wonder if it’s because it started as a side project. Perhaps I’m still in the side project mode on this one, so I deprioritize it? Yet it’s not the lack of interest or passion. I do enjoy working on it. If someone asks a question about Carrd, I drop my work and help. That can’t be something that can’t be forced or faked.

And when I asked myself, “What would the product look like it this was your main project?” So many ideas come to me. Ideas I want to work on, features I want to create, plugins I’m excited to build.

And I will.

So, two missions, one month.

Onwards.

– Revenue:
Current MRR: US$109 (all from Lifelog)
One-off revenue: ~US$281
Total revenue: ~US$390
Total profit (excl. salary): ~US$350

– Costs:
Heroku: $9/m
Table2site: $8/m
Carrd: $7.40/m (US$89/y)
Domains: ~$16/m (~US$200/y)

Twitter stats - Jul vs Jun
– Tweets: 1293 vs 1376
– Tweet impressions: 183k vs 304k
– Likes: 2.8k vs 3.2k
– Engagement rate: 4.9% vs 4.4%
– Profile visits: 38.2k vs 69.9k
– New followers: 141 vs 217
– Link clicks: 203 vs 528

July went by in a blink. Many days, just making it through the day felt like the most productive thing I could do. It was hard getting motivated to do anything. Most days, I scraped by.

I planned to build fun and creative projects to kickstart my momentum in July. But looks like I still needed more rest, so my break continued. And I did the bare minimum.

But the nice thing about doing monthly recaps is that I often realised I did more than I assumed.

Lots are happening for my design consultancy business Outsprint. New opportunities coming my way. Emails, phone calls, coffees, meetings. I attribute a substantial part of this to my content distribution on LinkedIn. It definitely is bringing me more visibility. If anything, it’s a reminder that I exist, and people who might have thought about working with me are getting reminded. It’s also timely that many of my clients (governments and nonprofits) are slowly emerging out of crisis mode and starting to re-think about improvement and innovation. Grateful for this business in my portfolio of businesses, that it’s still the sole breadwinner after all these years.

Plugins For Carrd continue to do well on it’s own momentum. Getting more enquiries, interest and feature suggestions. It sells. It continues to give me energy working on it.

These 2 products are pulling me forward, while for the rest, I find I’m having to push hard on them, without much progress. These are the signals from reality. Am I listening? Or am I still trying to bang my head on a brick wall chasing what I thought I wanted?

Much to ponder over.

Single-feature, whimsical projects like Random cat API inspires me more than complex apps that make millions.

It’s strange, but there’s an elegance to the simplicity and clarity of the product. Just an API to grab a random cat photo on the internet. People love cat pics, and this just makes it easier for developers who want to add some random fun to their websites and apps.

I LOVE IT.

Creative. Random. Fun. Funny. Looks totally useless but actually super useful.

All elements that check off the list of what I would deem as the kind of product I would love to make and be known for.

Because while other entrepreneurs are trying to make money and be famous, I just want a lifestyle that’s optimized for freedom. Freedom to do creative shit like that. Freedom to not worry about next month’s groceries.

Maybe I should make something like that a random dog API. Or random delicious burger API. The robots API that I use for Lifelog is another good example that I love.

Or a writing prompt a day API?

What other good instances of single feature but whimsical micro-SaaS projects you know?

“Sometimes the most productive thing you can do is eliminate the task.
Downsize. The rooms you don’t have, don’t need to be cleaned.
Donate. The items you don’t own, don’t need to be organized.
Delete. The projects you don’t take on, don’t need to be finished.
Is this a problem that needs to be solved?
Or is it a problem that can be eliminated all together?” – James Clear

I’ve always tried to do too much.
I’ve always thought I can do everything.
I’ve always believed I can achieve what I aim for.
I’ve always felt the most productive checking off all my to-dos.

The solution was always:

DO more. Take on more. Push more.
Work harder. Work longer hours. Work weekends.
Increase capacity. Increase limits. Increase sacrifice.

They say, when you only have a hammer, every problem is a nail. And that’s so true with this.

My blindspot is always about saying no, declining work, rejecting opportunities, asking for less.

Elimination as a productivity strategy is alien to me… somehow.

How then does one get better at this?

Find one task on my to-do list, and delete it.
Find one idea on my list of product ideas, and delete it.
Find one item in my room that I’ve not used in 1 year, and discard it.
Find one account you follow who’s no longer adding value to your feed, and unfollow.
Find one inactive account who follows you, and block-unblock it to make it unfollow me.

Every day, just eliminate ONE thing. Something. Anything.

I think this is a good practice to try.

I snore in my sleep. Somehow my nasal passage close up when I sleep, so I often end up just breathing through the mouth because it’s easier.

All my life I had an issue with my nasal passages constricting, and mouth breathing is normal for me. I used to be a long distance runner so that make it even more habitual.

But I know snoring is probably affecting my sleep, and likely my wife too (though she’s a heavy sleeper, she sometimes complains about it). Sleep is social. Being unable to breath properly wakes me up a few times without me being aware – that affects my sleep quality.

I’ve tried mouth taping before, but I’ll rip them off unconsciously while asleep. I think the reason it failed is that while it forces nose breathing, the tape didn’t solve the issue of constricted nasal passages. I got to get oxygen somehow, and my nose isn’t allowing me to, and my mouth is taped. Not a good place to be when asleep. So the tape goes off, inevitably.

So when @therealbrandonwilson recommended this nose device Mute by Rhinomed, I’m so intrigued I bought a trial pack right away. Few products trigger an instant purchase, but this was affordable and simple enough that trialling it was a nobrainer.

How it works: Like nasal strips, but instead of applying the strip on the skin of your nose bridge, you insert the device into your nose that props open your nostril. It’s made of soft plastic, and adjustable. I’m not sure if it’ll feel comfortable enough for sleep, but worth a try. Some stats I see on their site:

78% of users could sleep better
75% of users snored less
73% of users’ partners reported a reduction in snoring severity

What’s interesting is that this company also makes another similar product called Turbine for athletes to increase airflow by 38%! Wow.

I’m psyched to try this. Maybe this could finally help me with my snoring.

Will report back!

I’ve been lacking the discipline to manage my sleep habits and hacks. And that takes about 10-15% off my sleep score. It’s a trend I’ve been observing.

So if I’m not pushing, my sleep gets a 10-15% hit. Imagine if I give up all my sleep habits entirely! I’ll probably go to negative.

This is what I did when my scores were consistently 80s, and occasional 90s:

Sleep habits
----------
Sleep at least 7h
Alarm to sleep on time at 9:30pm
Cold shower before sleep
Wind down before sleep
Thermal comfort - 24ºC AC for me
Nightly meditation
No snoozing when alarm goes off

Food
----------
Dinner by 7pm
Regular water intake through the day
No drinking after dinner/8pm
1-2 coffee naps per day
Max 3 coffees per day
No coffee after 3pm
No junk food
No tea
Magnesium supplements

Light
----------
No screentime after dinner
Warm light for all screens
Daylight alarm
Daylight in morning

Exercise
----------
Morning walks
Body weight exercises

This is what I no longer do(❌) or do daily(⚠️), and as a result, get 60s or occasional 70s:

Sleep habits
----------
⚠️ Sleep at least 7h
❌ Alarm to sleep on time at 9:30pm
Cold shower before sleep
Wind down before sleep
Thermal comfort - 24ºC AC for me
⚠️ Nightly meditation
❌ No snoozing when alarm goes off

Food
----------
⚠️ Dinner by 7pm
⚠️ Regular water intake through the day
❌ No drinking after dinner/8pm
⚠️ 1-2 coffee naps per day
Max 3 coffees per day
No coffee after 3pm
⚠️ No junk food
⚠️ No tea
Magnesium supplements

Light
----------
❌ No screentime after dinner
Warm light for all screens
Daylight alarm
⚠️ Daylight in morning

Exercise
----------
⚠️ Morning walks
⚠️ Body weight exercises

It’s TELLING, isn’t it?

Sleep is an infinite game. And with infinite games, you got to put in effort every single day. Without which, everything slides downwards. Entropy ensues. There’s no rest, no break.

At least now I’ve listed it out. I know what I have to do.

The issue is finding the energy to do them, amidst the recent struggles of life.

Coming from a sports training background, I’ve always focused on weaknesses. Not because of some puritan joy of self-flagellation, but that I followed the weakest link principle:

We are only as strong as our weakest link.

It’s the idea that all our different qualities come together like a metal chain – endurance, strength, technique, mental fortitude. During a performance, or a competition, your results are a collective synthesis of these different qualities. They are all interlinked. And a weak link will bring down the performance more than a strength props it up. It’s like forgetting to do leg day, and all you got are huge biceps but soft calves. Or you got a great engine in your car, but your driving skills suck. People tend to focus on playing to their strengths because it makes them feel good, and ignore their weaknesses because it makes them feel inadequate.

There’s also the law of diminishing returns – your strengths will only improve so much by training it, while training your weaknesses actually lead to more % gains in performance.

Yet here’s the caveat: in private, during training, you work on your weaknesses. But in public, when performing or competing, leverage on your strengths. The context where you amplify what matters.

I used to train really hard for sport climbing. I was serious. I got into finals of national opens. Never got to represent my country, but the training obviously worked. So that weakest link principle was something that I believed in. And as I moved on from the sport, I brought along that same sense of drive, competitiveness and craze. Even now, in entrepreneurship.

Being a creator, my strengths are being resourceful, learning fast, creativity, design. For weakest links, I targeted the areas that I was weak in as an indie solopreneur – first coding, then marketing, storytelling.

"Improve your weaknesses only until they stop getting your way.
Then triple down on your strengths.
You’ll only find your 100x leverage point in what you’re best at."
– @thatroblennon

I’m no where near the proficiency of enterprise developers or professional marketers, but just enough to be dangerous. They stopped getting in my way. I can stop coding for months, then jump right back in without any fear or hesitation. After doing building in public, posting content daily for the past 1-2 years, I feel the same too about marketing.

They are no longer holding me back as much as it used to.
I feel calmer, way less anxious about my competency in those areas.
I feel more confident in being able to form a more balanced chain, now that my weak links are evened out.

Of course, there’s always room for improvement, and of course I will continue to learn and grow in them as I stay in the game.

But I feel it had crossed a threshold, and it’s now time to “triple down” on my strengths to find that “100x leverage point”.

Back to my why.

Back to creating audaciously. Calmly.

I feel calmer about the road ahead now.

Hope feels brighter now.
Optimism feels closer now.

I’m back.

In my single-minded obsession to hitting my goal, reaching that desired future, I’m no longer alive in the present.

"Everyone on this side of twitter is hustling, building a better future.
With each success, you goals get bigger.
But be careful if in doing so, you’ve become tired of the present.
Better to enjoy each day than always be chasing a goal that moves as fast as you do."
– @thatroblennon

I love how the tweet talks about becoming “tired of the present”.

So true for me.

I want so much to get to that future, that I tire of the present as someone tires of eating the same food every day. I’m bored of the present. There’s nothing here that I want. I want that future where there’s all the things.

And that, is the root of my unhappiness now.

They say, practice patience. I don’t know about patience for the desired future.

I know that the present is the only thing I have. If I’m not alive to the now, I won’t be alive to that future when it arrives. If I’m tired of the present, I’ll waste all the years leading up to it for just one second of satisfaction.

It’s always NOW. One moment to the next.

This is an important reminder.

Present > past/future
Journey > destination
Process > outcome
Means > ends

/description I’ve forgotten my why.

The past 1-2 years had been focused on growth, customer acquisition, marketing, building an audience. Most importantly, revenue and profits.

But I sense that I’m hitting diminishing returns running in pure marketing mode. Flogging a dead horse. Thus I’m not getting the results I seek. That brought a lot of disappointment and frustration.

I got to break through this vicious loop somehow.

And I think the way is to get back to my why.

Why did I start indie hacking in the first place? Why do I love about making products?

Because I enjoy giving my novel take on things.
Because I enjoy the creative process.
Because I enjoy making things.
Because I enjoy helping others.
Because I enjoy giving delight.
Because I enjoy serving.

I create, therefore I am.

Marketing should complement this why, not take over it. Revenue is a side effect of doing these well, not the mission. Building in public is the process, but actually building the thing is the destination. Maker mode, not marketing mode.

I’ve forgotten my why. And it’s time to get back to it.

I know what to do now. I do.

And I will.

I have 3 astrologers whom I consult with. Yeah I don’t talk about this much, because astrology is so misrepresented. But since I’m going to meet one of them later, I thought I could talk about it.

White Star is one of the first I met, while in Bali. She’s a healer, seer and clairvoyant from the native American Indian tradition, and through her I understood my past lives and how they shaped my present one. She told me stories of how I was a priest in ancient Egypt, and in another life, a Celtic one, and one in the Himalayas. My most recent one was a Japanese soldier who died in WW2. It’s fascinating to hear, and gave me a lot of food for thought on how some of the stories parallel my present life, and how certain themes repeat. I go to her for big magic readings like these.

Kelvin comes from an ancestry of spirit mediums. He father and grandfather were all mediums who helped people communicate with loved ones who passed away. He uses tarot cards and crystals in his readings, but he also has a strong intuitive sense. Through him I understood how family ties and relationships affect my marriage, career. He explained how my relationship with my mother affects my view of marriage, and how my relationship with my father affects my career. He also helped us with geomancy of my house - setting up the space in our house for the right energy and luck. He also does numerology and birth readings, and through him my wife and I came up with a auspicious name for my son. His readings are practical, and immediately applicable to daily life.

Nancy is our latest astrologer. She’s the true blue mathematician of the stars, showing us how she calculated our sun and moon Zodiac signs, our ascendents and how it all affects our life. I was surprised on how she got some of my traits and life events right even though I never shared it. I go to her for overview of the year, the opportunities and pitfalls I got to look out for as the stars move into different alignments.

It all sounds woo woo if you’re not into this. Truth is, I’m not crazy about astrology either. I do recognise that the logical pragmatism of modern science has limits. I know that we don’t know for sure how astrology works. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. But that doesn’t imply truth either. I don’t take everything I hear wholesale as unquestionable truth. But I’m open to listening to different perspectives, angles I’ve never thought about before.

And that’s what these readings do for me - it sheds light on potential blindspots which I might have missed. It prompts me to look out for opportunities which I might not be looking out for. It might all be a self fulfilling prophecy you say, but I’m not interested in the truth of how events came about, but that it did and I benefited from it. Ultimately, the readings help me reflect:

If this was true, how would I know to be sure? What other real life and real world indicators are there that corroborates with it? (And vice versa if it was false)

Is this something I’m dealing with already? Does it feel familiar? How does it prompt me to think about it in a different way?

What can I learn from this?

A common way of running a portfolio of small bets, is to have parallel products, spin-offs from a single origin product, offshoots of one big bet:

- 1 main product
- Sell by-products e.g. templates used
- Sell a cohort-based course on how you built it
- Build a paid community for the course
- One-off coaching

This makes sense, because they build off the audience of the previous product, and serves to amplify one another. It's a bit like how Pieter Levels @levelsio did it - his most successful, revenue-generating products are centered around digital nomad and remote work:

- Nomadlist - a digital nomad directory of cities to live in
- RemoteOK - remote work job board
- Rebase - immigration-as-a-service agency

He started with Nomadlist, and branched out from there to the others. He built a lot of other non-related ones too, but seems like the ones that worked are related.

The scary realisation from all this is: I run a portfolio of disparate products, across different industries.

- Lifelog - writing for creator
- Sheet2Bio - link-in-bio using Google Sheets
- Plugins For Carrd - software downloads for Carrd
- Keto List Singapore - keto directory for Singapore
- Sweet Jam Sites - web dev for JAMstack sites
- Outsprint - design consulting for govs

There's not a single spin-off so far! ALL are different niches!

Am I crazy?

How I think about it (or rationalize post-hoc):

It's like investing. You diversify to mitigate risk. Diversify across different types of assets with different risk profiles - from bonds to real estate to stocks to crypto. All have different levels of risk, in different industries.

This can bring more resilience, or even antifragility.

That's what I'm trying to do with my products. To treat my products as financial assets in an investment portfolio. I'm investing my time, energy and creativity into my investment, not capital outlay.

For example, during the pandemic, business was bad for Outsprint as the government were busy fire-fighting the crisis, and had no time, budget or bandwidth for service improvements and innovation. Yet there were lots of good opportunities for products, especially stuff related to remote work, or helped people made a side hustle during lockdowns. My own COVID-related side projects for social good did really well during the pandemic, even though most were not revenue-generating. Plugins For Carrd did pretty okay the past 2 years too. I had little consulting but could focus more on working on my products. Thankfully I got products during this time when my gigs ran dry. At least there's still *something*!

And now it's the pandemic is almost over, but recession and inflation is here. Business is better now for Outsprint as the government are back to normal functioning. But with consumer spending potentially affected, it might be bad for products in general. I see more churn, less sign-ups (despite my low conversions I see it too!).

So depending on the external forces at play, different products perform differently, and it kind of evens out.

Looking ahead, I think I'm good on the diversity so I can start more spin-offs to build off from momentum of existing products that's pulling me in. Plugins For Carrd is one. Outsprint is another. Lifelog has lots of potential for spin-offs too - cohort-based course, templates, writing tools, etc.

Having a blend of diversity and similarity is also mitigating risk!

Perhaps all these inner struggles I’ve been having about my lack of results comes down to one thing:

Expectations.

I expected to have succeeded by now.
I expected to have hit my goals yesterday.
I expected to have my hard work rewarded last year.

Expect, expect expect.

And when it doesn’t happen according to expectations, I deem myself to have failed.

"You don’t fail. Your expectations deceive you."
– @jdnoc

Yes. I’ve really just been deceived. By myself. Shot myself in the foot.

I guess it’s because I’ve never done anything this long before without reaching my target. Looking back, the hardest things I’ve set out to achieve in my short life so far, I’ve done it within a year or two. Stuff like winning a school marathon, acing my finals where I previously failed, breaking into a new job without any formal training by just learning on the job. In contrast, I’ve been indie hacking since 2018-ish? Almost 5 years since.

This can’t go on. I’m just making myself miserable. Let’s get back to a beginner’s mindset. Where ignorance is bliss. The openness and fearlessness that children have.

"Naive enough to start.
Naive enough to keep going.
Naive enough to ship.
Naive enough to make a difference."
– @jdnoc

Strategic naivety, it is.

As a freelance consultant, I’m basically selling my time for money. There’s no passive income here at all. Every dollar earned from freelancing is time spent working.

And it’s easy to burn out from it, because it’s always hard to say no to projects and money. That’s what happened in my first 1-2 years. I took on everything that came my way. There were even occasions where I ran 2 projects concurrently! Eventually that led to burn out.

A few things I did that helped me earn without burnout:

• First step: Start saying no. Don’t overlap projects. Do one at a time. Plan some downtime in between each one. Overwork is the most common reason for burnout. As a freelancer it’s hard, I know. But learn how to say no is an important skill as a self-employed person.

• Charge more/raise prices. In the first year, I was only charging a third of what I’m currently charging. Definitely under-priced. That led to needing more projects, more work, and thus more likelihood of burnout. It was only after the first year where I got more confident as a consultant that I felt I could raise prices. And as I upgraded myself, learned new skills (e.g. coding), I continued raising prices - 3 times over the decade.

• Set an annual financial target to earn enough, and stop work once I hit it. You can never earn enough. Envision a lifestyle you want, calculate the money needed to support that lifestyle, and stop once you hit it that year.

• Timebox your work year. Earn enough within 9 months, take 3 months off to recover. That’s what I did for a few years when the income was good. The 3 months were liberating - I could do whatever I wanted. And I chose that time to learn coding, work on my indie products, take long vacations.

• Best hack: be selective of clients/projects. Bad clients lead to burnout 10x faster. Over time I started to spot red flags before signing up a client. You might feel you’re turning away money, but it’s really not worth the psychological harm.

What else have you tried that helped you prevent burnout as a freelancer?

This feels like a good question to ponder, as therein lies the opportunity for growth:

"Heuristic for activities to do more of:

• Things you don’t always feel like doing
• Things you never regret doing after

For me, that’s:

• Exercising
• Meditating
• Foam rolling
• 30-minute calls with new people
• Taking walks without my phone

What would you add?"

– @dickiebush

No point doing things that I don’t feel like doing but sometimes regret doing after – it’s a lose-lose.

No point doing things that I feel like doing but regret doing after – it’s probably vices.

No point reflecting about doing things that I feel like doing and don’t regret after – these get done one their own volition, without any additional push. I can think of passion hobbies, traveling.

So… what are things I don’t always feel like doing but never regret doing after?

- Sleeping early
- Eating right
- Exercise
- Running
- Meditate
- Being in Nature
- Swimming in the sea
- Having downtime
- Doing hand craft
- Sketching
- Listening to music
- Walking without destination
- Meeting up with close friends
- Watching less TV
- Less smartphone screentime
- Less work
- Less junk food
- Less junk media

What else should I add to the list?

"Many people stop doing the right thing because they’re measuring it on the wrong timeline." – @AlexHormozi(https://twitter.com/AlexHormozi/status/1548088808754724865)

I know that making a living from internet products is the right path for me.

But perhaps I got the timeline wrong.

The frustration I feel with my lack of results is totally the consequence of misunderstanding the timeline.

I've seldom done something this long without reaching the objective I set. Seldom in all 4 decades of my life. In the past when I set my mind to it, I mostly can achieve it within 1-2 years, tops.

In school.
In sports.
In career.

"Patience with results, impatience with actions" - @Naval

Adding further fuel to the fire of frustration, I've always had problems with the patience. It's an uphill struggle practising this virtue. I know it's important, but it's just so hard.

The most challenging part is the right things in life and business often have no certain timelines. 10 months, or 10 years? It's anyone's guess. So it's hard to know what's the "right" timeline. In my case, I'm sure it's wrong, since it's giving me so much grief.

Perhaps then, being intentional about setting expectations is key. The horror is that I've never once sat down to set expectations. I've always assumed results will speedily arrive once I put myself to it. I've never quite asked myself:

- How long do I expect it to take?
- What if it takes way longer than expected?
- How long am I willing to commit?
- Do I have what it takes?
- Am I willing to trade off time for the reward?

Good time then, to think about this.

Interesting observation and opinion about inflation in the U.S. from inflationchart.com (made by @levelsio) –

Inflation is actually 19%, not 9%.

Actual numbers are being downplayed.

"You’re now losing 19% of your money to inflation per year or 1.43% per month. At this rate, in 4 years over 50% of your money has evaporated."

That’s slightly over double of the forecast.

It looks scary.

I’m no expert economist, but I can go with the idea that the numbers don’t always reflect reality, and that downstream, real prices of goods might increase even more than 19%, but some might decrease too.

Perhaps the real impact on the ground depends on what you spend most of your money on:

Inflated prices:
- Housing
- Food & beverage
- Textbooks
- Childcare
- Healthcare

Deflated prices:
- Clothing
- Software
- Toys
- Cellphone service
- TV

Sadly, we can’t avoid food and drinks, housing, healthcare. The costs of our core consumption goes up, while the nice-to-have goes down.

That’s the counterintuitive thing - when times are tough, we intuitively cut down on the luxury spending, nice-to-have spending, when it’s actually the basics that need to be reviewed.

Of course, those are U.S. inflation numbers. Singapore’s forecast of inflation for 2022 is ~5%. Lower, but perhaps will rise as the year progresses. Which makes me wonder how much exactly that 5% is downplayed… If by the same multiple as the US (i.e.e double - 9% to 19%), then it’s like 10% or more? Caveat: Pure conjecture there, but concerning nonetheless…

I don’t understand the economics too deeply, but my main noob takeaway are:

- find ways to earn more (at least 20% more) instead of just saving as whatever money you hold will decrease in value
- review spending on consumption basics that’s most affected by inflation
- even investing in crypto isn’t a hedge against inflation that high anymore

What else can we do to hedge ourselves against inflation this high?

- Ask (good) questions as a tweet. Awesome for engagement
- If someone RTs/QTs my tweet, go to his/her profile and like/reply. Make friends.
- Auto-DM feature paired with a free gift - great way to grow following!
-

Sam Harris on the meaning of life, to sad guitar music (https://youtu.be/srxDtefn740):

"One thing people tend to realize is that they wasted a lot of time when life was normal. It’s not just what they it’s not just what they did with their time; it’s not just that they spent too much time working or compulsively checking email. It’s that they cared about, the wrong things. They regret what they cared about. Their attention was bound up in petty concerns a year after year when life was normal… We all know this epiphany is coming… The horror is that we succeed - we managed to never really connect with the present moment and find fulfilment there."

Damn. Daaaaaamn. This was so good. I needed this. The emotive soundtrack behind the speech hit the spot for sure.

It really got me thinking:

Am I caring about the wrong things?

In work and career.
In family and relationships.
In health and wellness.
In life in general.

How would I know?

In most cases, you would know when say, a loved one dies, or some huge crisis happens. I don’t want to need those events to be able to reflect on it. It might be too late by then. I want to avoid the horror of succeeding in never having that epiphany until it’s too late.

How can I know if I’m caring about the wrong things, right now?

Some ideas:

• Intuition. Something feels off in life or whatever area you’re thinking. You’re not feeling the most aligned, congruent and on board with it. With how things are unfolding. A nagging suspicion things can be better.
• I’m not getting results I want. Data and feedback is showing that no matter how hard I work, it isn’t working. I could be doing it wrong, or I should be doing something else - in which case I should either change my approach, or switch games entirely.
• When was last time I felt joyful and happy? Truly happy. Not the kind of happy where you feel a peak but momentary elation of achieving a goal, but that sweet, deep, lingering aftertaste from doing, from the process. What are the things that give me that kind of goalless joy now?

Ultimately, it all seems to point back to mindfulness, awareness, presence.

When I’m mindful, when I’m embodied in my body, when I’m present to everything inwards and outwards. That’s when I can know with a higher probability if I’m caring about the wrong things.

The present moment contains the truth of whether what we care about is right or wrong.

Liquid Death is one brand that's fascinated me recently.

It's just water sold in a can. But it's not just water, it's MAN water. It's badass water. The can is designed to look like beer cans, with heavy metal-inspired font and designs, combined with marketing taglines like "Murder your thirst". You look cooler and hotter holding that can, than a clear plastic bottle of mineral water.

[Liquid Death ad](https://static-prod.adweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Liquid-Death-five-cans-lineup-2022-1024x538.png)

It's a product that's 100% branding. No one buys it for the water inside.

I'm fascinated because before bottled water felt like one of those 'dead' product categories. Differentiation is dead there. Where every brand looks the same. Where the main product is a commodity. Where the core experience of consuming it is 99.9% similar (because come on, distilled water and mountain spring water tastes the same to the average bear). It looked like that's all to it forever more, with nothing left to innovate in this product space. Yet along came this irreverent brand and is killing it.

It made me wonder: What other 'dead' product categories—physical or digital—are out there, waiting to be disrupted this way? Which boring products out there do we take for granted?

A few I can think of:

Milk
Ice cream
Bread
Meat
Vegetables
Airlines
Office supplies
Printers
Credit cards
Ecommerce stores
Web browsers (Chrome, Edge)
Email clients
Smartphones (surprise, surprise)

*Do you agree with the categories above? What did I miss?*

*More importantly, what's some 'dead' product spaces that indie hackers can work on?*

Reason for cancellation: To manage finances more closely and thus couldn't fit in the subscription.

But tbh I feel bad taking his money when he no longer use the site much. So it's a good thing in the end I guess.

That brings current MRR to $99, the first time it went below $100 since achieving it during Christmas last year. Sigh. 😔

NASA just released the [first images](https://webbtelescope.org/news/first-images/gallery) from the James Webb Space Telescope, our latest, newest, upgraded space camera after Hubble. And man did it not disappoint.

Here's an image of the "Cosmic Cliffs" in the Carina Nebula, located 7600 light-years away:


What a show-stopper of an image! 🤩🤩🤩

And the more I stare at this and ponder the implications, the more all my teeny weeny day-to-day worries melt away.

We're so infinitesimally small in something so infinitely vast.

People talk about leaving behind a legacy, but seriously...

Who will remember us when our Sun blows up?
Who even knows about us in this vast Universe?
Does anything *really* matter?

All is but an almost non-existent blimp in the infinite space-time of the Universe.

And instead of finding this nihilistic and depressing, I find this perspective, this overview effect, a relief. A cathartic release, almost.

It's like a creator realising that nobody cares about what you did or wrote today. You can see it as:

"Yaaay nobody cares! 🤸‍♂️ I'm free to experiment and do whatever I want!"

or

"Urgh nobody cares. 😭 This sucks, I suck."

I'm going for the former.

We're tiny. Nobody cares.

So now I can attribute and truly take ownership of my own meaning, take my own care, just for my own time, my own life, in my tiny speck of space within this vast cosmos.

It doesn't matter, so that it can now matter.