I really enjoyed ’s reflections on crowdfunding his work: craigmod.com/essays/success
One favorite detail comports with my experience: not feeling “beholden” to members, but that they “formalize” my activities—a sense of seriousness and earnest responsibility.
Conversation
Interesting to see how much more serious Craig is about promoting and enriching his membership program than I am. I wonder sometimes about how much I “leave on the table” by keeping mine at greater distance—but I’m terrified of the “cage” he describes, and I feel its proximity.
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On cynical days, I fear that almost everyone everywhere (incl me) is accidentally spending most of their time pursuing fake goals (being an artist -> “doing” a membership program), and that one must summon tremendous obstinacy, determination, and inconvenience to do otherwise!
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As a silly example, I’m pretty sure that the majority of my patrons would actually prefer that I focus on building and releasing software for them to use, rather than “distilling generalizable insight” or whatever. And it would be so much easier to do! Takes daily will to resist.
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I think it’s so so valuable and it’s experimenting with how to make work as an independent artist possible.
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Interesting point, I’ve always wondered why it’s easier to explain something to another person (even if it’s just a text message) compared to explaining to self. Formalization is one part of it, skin in the game is another, but there seems to be a missing element there too.
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