History repeats itself. That is because no matter how much we’ve progressed on a tech and industry levels, thousands of years later we still are dealing with the same issues.
We don’t know how to govern ourselves, allocate our resources, live a good life, treat each other, drink our beverages without straws.
I came across a Tweet the other day that was ranting about how everything is a Ponzi. The reason being that everyone pretends that what they’re doing is of high value when in reality the majority of the things we do have no real value whatsoever.
This got me thinking about a different issue. One that is related to what I currently am doing. Philosophy content creation. Whatever that means.
In my attempts to figure things out, many told me that in order to grow my audience, my content has to create value for them.
As someone with a philosophy background, I rolled my sleeves up and started digging.
After a year of intensive research, I was able to finally put together a comprehensive philosophical reading list on value.
A couple more years and I might have a better understanding of what it actually means.
The point is, after several thousands of years, we still don’t have the least bit of an idea what value actually means. There are more theories of value than the number of PSG shirts sold after Messi signed with them.
Really, what is value? What does it even mean for something to have value? Is value to be found in an object’s utility; aka whether or not it is useful for us? Or is it to be found in some metaphysical grounding, making something valuable just because?
So many questions. Especially for someone like myself, trying to make a living online by selling digital products and offering synchronous and asynchronous philosophy courses.
The other day I was doing some paperwork, and the officer asked me what I did for a living. I told him I taught philosophy online.
He couldn’t process the information and asked what else I did, and wondered who might sign up for such courses.
To which I responded: people who want to dialogue, and could spare $150 to voluntarily participate in an activity that will trigger their existential crisis.
He laughed.
I might not know what value means. The word itself, philosophically, is too broad to be tucked under one category. Good/bad, beautiful/ugly, right/wrong. Etc.
In my case, people may derive ‘value’ from the philosophical texts I teach, from the way I teach and approach the material, from the way the classes are run, because they get the chance to ‘socialize’ virtually with others, or for other personal reasons I am not aware of.
Instead of wondering whether it’s all Ponzi and nothing that we do is of value, or what value means, a more practical heuristic could be as follows:
Whatever it is that you want to put out there, make sure it reflects who you really are. Find your own voice and way of doing things, and share them the way you make sense and relate to the subject matter.
Without realizing it, you’d be giving others an idea about how to do the same in their own way.
So next time you’re in doubt, ask yourself: how would I have approached the subject, and what kind of content would I be interested in?
Or like Charlie Chaplin once said:
Link to the article on Medium.
You can also find me on Twitter @decafquest.