The Internet is crowded.
As of January 2020, there are over 1.7 billion websites, 1 billion Instagram accounts, 30 million blogs, 31 million YouTube channels, and only one you.
2 billion people have chosen to be something for somebody else.
2 billion people have chosen to be either a Beacon or a Tabloid.
A Tabloid is a person or group of people who don’t necessarily want to make things worse, but they choose to not make anything of real value. TMZ is a Tabloid. Those thousands of self-development info-graph Instagram accounts are Tabloids. Tabloids regurgitate tricks and hacks and package information in a systematized way to increase their metrics.
A Beacon is a person or group of people that want to make things better by making better things. Beacons create useful content and they curate useful content. Daily Stoic is a Beacon. Brain Pickings is a Beacon. Tim Ferris is a Beacon. Freedom In Motion is a Beacon.
We need more Beacons. We need more illumination, and less regurgitation.
There are not 1.7 billion useful websites, 1 billion Instagram accounts that aren’t spam, 30 million blogs that aren’t just trying to hack SEO, and 31 million YouTube channels that aren’t trying to game the algorithm.
The work of a Beacon is a rare kind of work.
Will you choose to do the rare kind of work? Or will you choose to be another Tabloid?
Please choose carefully.
