Honest movements sell you less

Isn't it quite interesting, that probably asides from, I don't know, Naval, on Twitter, most accounts just try to sell you more? Here's the thing: there's no money in less.

Less is the subtraction of. It's the minimizing of. How could I possibly profit from selling you less of something?

Fasting is arguably one of the best ways to lose weight, but no sensible weight loss company will put their name behind fasting because there are no products in fasting. Fasting is the antithesis to consumption.

It's why I'm somewhat skeptical of the "second brain" movement that tells you—more, more, more. Write absolutely everything down. Of course when you do this, you'll have an inordinate amount of data, so you'll need some organization system. This is where the cross-sell comes in. "Take my course." There's no course to sell if the idea is just to do...nothing, when you encounter novel but likely useless information.

In general, I've found this message to not be so popular. Consumers also like to be sold narratives because it's like any other piece of content in the media world: it's entertaining, novel, and more interesting than dull reality. Consumers largely don't like minimalism because discipline is boring. More, more, more.

I also find that people much prefer the fictional fantastical over the banal, bland truth. Religious texts and narratives are much closer to Game of Thrones than they are to flat reality. Yet their adherents number in the billions.

As a person who has a product to sell myself, this take somewhat hinders me. The plain truth isn't as interesting and doesn't drive as much conversion as the hyperbolic representation of the state of things. With the truth, there's really only one day's worth of content. With the fantastical, the well of content flows endlessly.

This isn't to say you wouldn't benefit from health products and procedures or from a second brain. There are some people who truly do need the extreme forms of these products. But is it you? The answer to that question is much more nuanced than corporations will have you believe. It's also likely just "no."

But of course neither you nor the market benefit from a lack of transaction. It's just kind of fun buying things and believing they will change your life right? So screw it. Let it be. Why do I have to sit here and ruin everyone’s fun?