Day 12: Do Things That Don’t Scale

Hey there,

The next few days of tips will cover distribution — or getting the word out.

Today’s tip shows:

1. Why writing creates opportunities

2. How to maximize these opportunities

 

Let’s dive in:

An asymmetric object has aspects that are not equal.

 

 

An opportunity with an asymmetric upside has a small downside risk but a large upside potential.

Naval Ravikant lists some asymmetric opportunities:

 

Writing is an asymmetric opportunity that anyone can take.

Writing has low downside risk but an unbounded upside.

It’s an asymmetric opportunity primarily because of the people you can meet through your writing.

Do Things That Don’t Scale

Paul Graham famously wrote that you should Do Things That Don’t Scale when building a startup.

Do the same for your writing.

This means that you should actively search for people who might be interested in reading your writing and directly send them the post.

Here are some examples:

• Ask someone you admire in your industry if they’d be willing to give feedback on your latest post

• Search for an expert on the topic that you covered. Send them your post and ask for their thoughts

• Send your writing to 3 friends or colleagues. Ask them for their opinion and start a discussion

• Find people on social media that talk about your post’s topic. Respond to them with your thoughts and a link to your post

 

Writing is an asymmetric opportunity. Make the most of it by meeting new people through your writing!

 

Go Deeper:

1. Check out “Copy of Writing Tips Email Sequence” for a copy of every email in this series

2. Check out Cohort Resources for all resources

3. Explore the Notion Home for cohort-specific information, like the Leaderboard