I'm still digesting Jason Goldberg's interview that I posted yesterday. I woke up this morning thinking he said something along these lines « there are two types of people; people who create and people who complain ». He might have said 'watch' or 'consume' instead of 'complain'. But I like that version better it's more dramatic.

It reminded me of the most useful rule of thumb I know: the 1% rule. This is not about the richest 1%. It's about the top 1% creators. It's about how only a tiny fraction of people create stuff (put things out there for discussions) and the rest edit, like, share or consume it. When you start thinking about this too much; you end up crazy like me and start a blog to even out your personal equation and try not to consume too much.

In Internet culture, the 1% rule is a rule of thumb pertaining to participation in an internet community, stating that only 1% of the users of a website actively create new content, while the other 99% of the participants only lurk. Variants include the 1-9-90 rule (sometimes 90–9–1 principle or the 89:10:1 ratio),[1]which states that in a collaborative website such as a wiki, 90% of the participants of a community only view content, 9% of the participants edit content, and 1% of the participants actively create new content. (wikipedia)

It also reminded me of being optimistic by default. When you hear new ideas, you always think about the upsides before the downsides. I was listening to an interview with Tim Draper this morning and they mentioned being optimistic got him into a lot of trouble. But also got him into a lot of great opportunities – like investing in Tesla or buying 20M$ worth of cryptocurrencies 5 years ago. Tim says when evaluating a new technology he's optimistic by default until he is proven wrong. This is certainly not a sustainable way of investing, running businesses or living your life. You can't be eternally optimistic and not care about the consequences.

But what if you simply act like you don't care? Think about it; it's not about the actual moves you make, it's more about the environment you set up around you. It's the conversations you start with friends and colleagues; the interest you have into others projects; the way you can brainstorm with no filter; the way you can throw ideas without being afraid you're wrong; the way you can create stuff knowing it might look stupid one year from now. All of this you can do without spending a single dollar. It creates a whole new world around you. It certainly draws people to you. And then, you can apply the pessimist filter.

To create, you have to optimistic. To be an optimist, you have to constantly be creating.

And I believe you can work on these two things. It's like a muscle you can train. And the good news is, on this scale, you don't need a lot of money to be considered in the top 1%!