If you have a wide range of interests, don't waste your time in the next 2-3 years.

Author: DAN KOE

Compiled by: randomarea

introduction

Society may lead you to believe that having a wide range of interests is a flaw.

go to school.

Received the degree.

Find a job.

Retire at some point.

But this order of life has too many problems.

We no longer live in the industrial age. Betting everything on a single skill is almost tantamount to slow suicide. I think we all know how dangerous a mechanical lifestyle and siloed learning can be to our minds and souls. People can also sense that we are experiencing a "second Renaissance." Your curiosity and thirst for knowledge are an advantage in the contemporary world—but one piece of the puzzle is missing.

For a long time, I was constantly learning, learning, and learning. I was trapped in "tutorial hell." Some people would call it "shiny object syndrome" to point out my lack of focus. I got dopamine from feeling smart, but my life didn't change much. Honestly, I felt like I was just falling further behind. I tried so many different things in college. I dreamed: of doing my own thing… of earning an income through creative work… but after five years of "learning," reality hit me: to survive, I had to find the best job I could get.

The missing piece is a "carrier".

A vehicle that allows me to channel all my interests into meaningful work and earn a decent income from it.

If you've ever felt guilty for not being able to "choose one thing"; if you've ever been told to "narrow down" but your brain just wants to keep expanding; if you've ever wondered if there's a path that doesn't lead to the kind of suffering others see you in—then now is the best time of your life.

Here are seven of the most compelling arguments I can think of. We'll start by understanding why having a wide range of interests is a superpower in today's world; then I'll provide actionable steps to turn it into your life's work. We have a lot to discuss, so I hope you'll sit back and enjoy the ride.

I — The Three Elements of Personal Success and the End of the "Expert"

“A person who spends his whole life repeating a few simple tasks…he usually becomes as dull and ignorant as possible.” — Adam Smith

Mr. Smith, you have a very clever way of putting it—because these are the very people you created, and we are still suffering the consequences.

Specialization took over society during the industrialization period: in a needle manufacturing factory, a worker could make 20 needles a day if he completed all the processes from start to finish; when the process was broken down into multiple steps and different workers did a small part of the process, the total output could reach 48,000 needles.

So we built the whole world around this model.

Humanity has become a nine-to-five assembly line. Ultimately, governments serve their own interests, not the national interest; companies serve their own interests, not the employee interest.

The school was designed precisely to serve this structure of interests. Its sole purpose was to mass-produce punctual, compliant factory workers.

But this is not the kind of life a human being should live.

If you aspire to possess such "expertise" that you'll never be able to run a business—especially your own—you'll become reliant on schools for education and jobs for a salary. You'll be tricked into believing that specialization is what makes you "valuable." But the reality is clear: the system doesn't need "you" as the specific person to perform that task.

That's the difference.

If pure specialization makes people dull and dependent, then what makes an individual intelligent and autonomous?

The three elements are: self-education, self-interest, and self-sufficiency.

Self-education is very clear: if you want results that differ from traditional education, you must take the lead in your own learning.

Self-interest sounds alarming. It seems selfish and short-sighted; many people dismiss it as "bad" without a second thought. But it simply means "concern for one's own interests." Because the alternative is to serve the interests of the organizations that constitute the existing society—as we've already discussed. In other words, follow your interests because they are likely to benefit others in a selfless way—depending on your level of cognitive and moral development. Incidentally: indulging in fleeting pleasures (cheap dopamine) is usually not in your interest, but rather in the interest of the companies that profit from your numbness.

According to Ayn Rand, a truly selfish person is one who is self-respecting and independent: neither sacrificing others for oneself nor sacrificing oneself for others. This rejects both the roles of 'predator' and 'doormat'.

Self-sufficiency means refusing to outsource your judgment, learning, and agency. If self-education is the engine and self-interest is the compass, then self-sufficiency is the foundation: it prevents your life's direction from being hijacked by external forces. The three work together, but are not entirely dependent on each other.

A generalist will naturally emerge in this triadic structure.

Self-interest drives self-education.

You learn because it truly serves your growth and prosperity, not because someone assigns you homework.

Self-education fosters self-sufficiency.

You can only maintain autonomy within the domain you understand.

Self-sufficiency clarifies self-interest.

Only when you stop relying on others' explanations can you truly see what's in your best interest. Most people pursue multiple interests to escape work; when your interests become your job or your life's work, most of those interests will naturally be filtered out.

When we observe the CEOs, founders, or creators we truly admire, we find that they are almost all generalists.

They know enough about marketing to provide directional guidance; they know enough about products to build them from scratch; they know enough about people to lead teams. But they also have to steer the ship—they must learn and adapt when the environment changes.

More importantly, they understand that cross-disciplinary ideas can complement each other, forming a unique worldview. This allows them to capture new ideas from the "ether" and translate them into market value.

If you see the current trajectory of the world and understand the opportunities available to individuals (not just leaders), you'll discover that as a natural polymath, you have a multitude of paths to choose from. This should excite you.

II — You are living through the Second Renaissance: Seize the Opportunity

"Study the science of art, and the art of science. Train your senses—especially how to 'see.' Realize that everything is interconnected." — Leonardo da Vinci

In my view, the ultimate moat—or the last competitive advantage worth paying for—is perspective.

A perspective that only you can see, shaped by your unique life experiences. It may be the last thing that no one else can replicate.

Since it has always been this way, why not prioritize it now? Especially now that automation is already at our doorstep.

But the question is: how do you prioritize it? How do you develop it?

The answer is: pursue multiple interests and use them to build something.

You see, every interest you pursue leaves a residue. Each interest increases the number of connections you can make. Each interest expands and increases the complexity of how you model and interpret reality. The more complex your reality model, the more problems you can solve, the more opportunities you can see, and the more value you can create. Specialization will completely stop this process, and your "new-chasing syndrome" keeps reminding you of this.

From birth until now, you are cultivating a "way of seeing the world" that no one else has. A way of thinking that AI can only "think" when you tell it how to think.

People who have studied psychology and design see user behavior differently than pure designers; people who have studied sales and philosophy see closing deals differently than pure salespeople; people who understand fitness and business can build health companies that even MBAs can't understand.

Your strengths come more from "intersections" than from "expert proficiency" in a single field.

This is exactly the pattern we saw in the (historical) Renaissance—and now it has returned with even greater force.

Think about what made the Renaissance possible...

Before the invention of the printing press, knowledge was extremely scarce.

Books were copied by hand. A single text could take a scribe months to complete. Libraries were scarce, and literate people were even fewer. If you wanted to learn something outside your field of study, you either had access to a monastery or you couldn't learn it at all.

Then, Gutenberg changed everything.

Within 50 years, 20 million books flooded into Europe. Ideas that once took generations to spread could now go viral in months. Literacy rates skyrocketed, and the cost of knowledge collapsed.

For the first time in history, it is truly possible for a person to pursue mastery of multiple fields throughout their life.

Thus, the Renaissance was born.

Leonardo da Vinci did not "choose only one thing." He painted, sculpted, designed engineering projects, studied anatomy, designed war machines, and drew human atlases. Michelangelo was a painter, sculptor, architect, and poet.

Unique minds can finally function the way they are meant to.

They should be interdisciplinary, interconnected, and allow curiosity to take them anywhere—but most of us never realize that.

The printing press was a catalyst: it gave rise to a new kind of person—one who could learn anything, combine everything, and create things that no specialist could create.

III — How to turn multiple interests into a profitable lifestyle

So far, we already know a few things:

• You have a wide range of interests, but you feel that you can't just keep studying one thing forever.

• You love self-education based on your interests, but you have to squeeze in time for it outside of your career.

• You understand the necessity of "self-sufficiency," but you also feel that you are not yet "worth others paying for."

• You need to adapt quickly because we have no idea what the future of work will look like.

So the question is: how do we combine all of these into a lifestyle?

How can we integrate "learning" and "making money" into something you can use to work?

I will try my best to present it in a logical manner.

To make money from your interests, you first need to get others interested in them too. This part is simple: if something interests you, it will interest others as well. You just need to learn how to persuade them.

Next, you need to find a way to get them to pay you. This usually means you need to sell products—because you're unlikely to find a job that fully expresses your interests; while investing in stocks or real estate (to achieve a reasonable scale) requires a significant amount of capital.

In other words, you need attention.

Attention is one of the last remaining moats.

Because when anyone can write anything or build any software, who wins? The winner is the one who "gets noticed." You can have the best product in the world, but if nobody knows about it, the person who can capture and hold that attention will leave you miles behind.

By the way: if you've been following the tech world, you'll know—no, I don't think everyone "makes their own software." Most people don't spend 20 minutes cooking. They'd rather spend a few dollars more on Uber Eats. People have their own things they want to do with their time.

Back to the topic:

You need to become a creator.

Before you frown and quit—I don’t entirely mean “being a content creator” (well… that’s complicated).

What I mean is: if you don't want to keep creating for others just because you need them to pay you a salary, then the solution is to create for yourself.

Humans are born creators, but we are convinced that turning ourselves into machines is the path to the "American Dream." Our essence is that of toolmakers. We thrive in any ecological niche because we create solutions to problems. If you put a lion in Alaska, it won't build shelters or clothes; it will simply die. Lions belong to their own ecological niche.

The key point is: every business now is essentially a media business. Remember, you need attention. Where is that attention? Primarily on social media—until the next generation of "attention-preference platforms" emerges; and you'll have to adapt then. So, yes, if you have broad interests, it's wiser to think of yourself as a "content creator"; but perhaps an easier way to understand it is: treat social media as a mechanism to get your interests seen by more people. It's just one piece of the puzzle for independent work.

Moreover, this perfectly covers all of our previous requirements.

You love learning? Great, redefine it as "research," then it literally becomes your main job. Most of what I write is simply because I'm learning about my interests and using social media as a way to "take public notes."

(You were already spending time learning; now just change that time to "learning in public," and bang—you've laid the foundation for a business.)

You need to be self-sufficient? Then you need a business; and every business needs to attract customers; and you probably don't care (two f*cks) about paid advertising, SEO, or any other form of marketing. This is exactly why many people get stuck: because they've always been used to being employees, doing a specific task in a company.

You need to adapt quickly? Great—you can launch new products to your audience as quickly as you build them. I have a stable audience; even if the next product fails, there will be people willing to invest, join the team, or support the next product. You can also run your small SaaS company, but if you don't have distribution channels, you have to run an extra marathon: securing funding, finding talent, and getting things moving.

No other job or business model allows you to do all this with such a high degree of freedom.

But how exactly should you begin?

How do you tie all of this together?

IV — How to turn yourself into a business

Unfortunately, "entrepreneurship" and "business" have become offensive terms, making many people feel unqualified to take that path, to the point that they don't even notice opportunities when they arise.

If you have ever helped others with your interests, then you are qualified to start a business.

Starting a business no longer requires a large amount of start-up capital. It is no longer the exclusive domain of "unscrupulous elites." It is not just for those who want to make a lot of money. Nor is it just for those who are "talented" or "special."

The reality is: entrepreneurship is in our nature. It's a modern way of life. We are "programmed" to create and distribute value to a group of like-minded people; programmed to hunt, explore the unknown, pursue novelty, and never stop. From a psychological perspective, this is the most enjoyable way of life—even with its lows, because lows are precisely the prerequisite for (unartificial) highs.

Furthermore, the entry barrier has collapsed.

All you really need is a laptop and an internet connection.

Thanks to social media, distribution is now virtually free (strictly speaking, not free, but "skill-driven," and skills often require time to acquire). Anyone can publish an idea that reaches millions of people; if you have a product and know what you're doing, those millions of eyes could potentially turn into millions of dollars—of course, "knowing what you're doing" is a huge prerequisite. Most people are simply passionate about honing a particular interest or skill to a high level, but it doesn't directly affect their success; perhaps they're afraid to face "success" itself.

Tools and technologies today can handle tasks that previously required a team. You can use AI, and there's a wealth of useful software available.

Now, you have two starting paths.

Path 1) Skill-Based

This path has long dominated the internet: you "learn a tradable skill"; you teach that skill through content; and then you sell products or services related to that skill.

Its limitation is the limitation of "specialist": a single dimension. You're putting yourself in a box. The reason you "narrow your field" is because someone tells you it's more profitable; and when you pursue profit rather than interest, you often create a second 9-to-5 job for yourself: doing work you don't care about, serving people you don't care about.

Path 2) Development-Based

The best creators today are those who don't have a single, definitive niche. They typically focus on one of four perpetual markets: health, wealth, relationships, happiness—or even all of them. Strictly speaking, everyone's niche is self-actualization; it's just that everyone's path to it is different.

• You pursue your own goals (brand).

• You teach what you have learned (the content).

• You help others achieve their goals (products) faster.

For people with broad interests, I would obviously recommend the second path, as it goes deeper.

First, when you take this path, you're actually also taking the first path. Because building a brand, content, and product forces you to master all the relevant tradable skills; so even if you fail, you still have the ability to "pay for" them. You're building your own business; if you do a certain part of it well enough, you can also help someone else with a certain part of it.

Second, it reverses the traditional model.

Instead of first “creating a customer profile” to narrow your focus and serve only that one target audience, you become the customer profile yourself.

This makes everything sound much more natural.

You pursue and develop your life goals → You have proven that what you are providing is indeed useful → You help the "past version of yourself" achieve the same goals faster.

Don't become a YouTube creator.

Don't build a "personal brand".

Don't become an influencer.

Be yourself. But place yourself in a place where your work can be discovered, noticed, and supported. Now, and for the foreseeable future, that place is the internet.

Jordan Peterson (or someone similar) is not a "content creator," although he may appear to be.

He tours speaking engagements, writes books, uses social media as a base, and leverages every tool at his disposal to spread his life's work. He's not worried about the latest "content idea trends." His mind outperforms short-sighted growth strategies. The quality of his thoughts sets him apart and changes people's lives (regardless of your opinion of Peterson).

Based on this, I would like to offer a different perspective on "brand, content, and product." In this way, you can view it as a vehicle for your life's work.

V — A brand is an environment

Stop equating "brand" with profile pictures and social media bios.

A brand is an environment where people come to complete a transformation.

A brand is a small world you invite others into.

A brand is not something that is "displayed" only when a reader clicks into your homepage for the first time.

A brand is a collection of ideas that readers accumulate in their minds after following you for 3-6 months.

You will present your worldview, story, and philosophy of life at every touchpoint: banners, avatars, bios, links in the bio, landing page design, pinned content, posts, threads, newsletters, videos, and so on.

In other words, your brand would probably look something like this:

Your brand is your story.

You might as well take a day to write it down: where you come from, where the "low point" in your life was, what you have experienced, what skills you have acquired, and how these things have helped you the most.

When you're brainstorming ideas, content, or products, you should filter them with your story. This doesn't mean you have to constantly talk about yourself, but rather that everything you say should align to keep your brand consistent.

The difficulty lies in realizing that your story is worth telling—even if you find it boring or haven't seriously reflected on your own growth.

The key point is:

Your bio and profile picture don't matter. There are genuinely some people whose bios consist of only one word and whose profile picture is only one color.

My suggestion:

• List 5-10 people you respect online.

• Take a look at their profile picture, bio, and content.

• Remember what they have in common.

• Start brainstorming how you can build your own brand and add your own little changes.

To be honest, I don't overcomplicate it, and I'm not even worried about it. Your brand will naturally take shape when you start writing content. We could even say: the brand is the content, so we have to get the content right.

This article might help you: How to build your own content ecosystem .

VI — Content is a fresh perspective

The internet is an information fire hose.

AI will only add more noise.

This means that trust and signals are more important than ever before.

In my view, your content should be guided by a "guiding lighthouse": curating the best ideas possible in one place. Your brand is all the ideas you care about that you've gathered online, in your own words, under one account.

If you're planning to do a podcast or give a public speech, pay attention: the best speakers always have 5-10 of their strongest arguments or ideas in mind. They repeat these ideas constantly, building their impact. If you don't have those 5-10 ideas, you won't be as impactful as you could be. Writing a lot of content is how you discover these ideas.

As your content increases its "idea density" over time and with effort, it creates a brand that is worth paying for and even worth following.

Incorporating ideas into your brand's curatorial goals should occur at the intersection of the two:

• Performance – this idea has the potential to “perform well.” It measures how much others will care.

• Excitement – this is the feeling that gives you the thrill of writing. It measures how much you care.

Art and commerce.

Metrics and performance shouldn't determine everything, but they do mean something.

Step 1) Establish an "idea museum"

The secret of most creators you admire lies in their extremely rigorous curation of notes, ideas, and sources of inspiration.

In other words, they have what marketers often call a "swipe file" (materials/inspiration library).

You can use Eden (if you have permission), Apple Notes, Notion, or any tool you want, but I want to make this very clear:

You need a place where you can jot down ideas as soon as they come to mind.

This is a key habit.

Whenever you come across an idea that's "useful now" or "will be useful in the near future," write it down. You don't need content pillars, nor do you need 2-3 fixed topics. The ideas you curate only need to be important to you. This alone means they resonate with a specific group of people—yourself. Of course, you can also create a "content map" if you wish: the-content-map-how-to-never-run .

I don't care what structure you use. It can be a neat and organized document, or it can be a messy, constantly updated set of notes. Habit is more important than format.

You can assess a post's potential to resonate by glancing at likes, views, or overall engagement. If an idea receives a lukewarm response or is significantly less engaging than other content, it's unlikely to perform well for you.

You can assess excitement by observing a feeling: when you feel that "not writing it down would be a waste of something precious," it often means that it deserves to be included.

Step 2) Curating around "idea density"

How do you begin filling your museum of ideas?

You need 3-5 sources of information with a high "idea density".

By "idea density," I mean high-signal ideas.

It's difficult to explain how to find high-signal content because it's highly subjective. It depends on your stage of development (what works for you), your audience's stage of development (what works for them), and your ability to translate "your understanding" into "something they can use."

The most basic advice may be the most valuable thing in the world to one person; but to you, it may just seem like common sense.

Over time, you'll adjust your signal-to-noise ratio by observing which ideas resonate with your audience and which don't.

The most "idea-dense" information source:

• Old or obscure books—I have five books that I reread repeatedly because the ideas in them are so good. Timeless principles reside there, untouched by trends.

• Curated blogs, accounts, and books—like Farnam Street, which curates the best of modern thought; accounts like Navalism, which curate Naval's best ideas; and books like The Maxwell Daily Reader, which breaks down one of Maxwell's best ideas into 365 days, giving you one for each day—do a lot of "filtering" for you, allowing you to choose the best from the best.

• High-quality social media accounts—I have a list of about five accounts that consistently post great ideas. If I'm unsure what to write, I browse their pages, find something I agree with, and then write it down.

Finding these sources takes months of exploration. But maintaining a high-density museum of ideas will lead you to one result: you'll start producing high-density content.

Your idea museum will become the outward manifestation of the kind of mind you are trying to create.

This is the ultimate goal.

The goal is to have a content library so good that people can't help but open your emails, turn on post notifications, share your ideas with friends, and think about your ideas often.

You will become an "idea curator": curating ideas that people wouldn't even think to ask AI, ideas that people would never stumble upon through natural browsing.

This will make your success less dependent on algorithms.

Step 3) Write down 1000 ways to express one idea.

Becoming a good writer or speaker is not just about "the idea itself," but more about "how you express that idea."

The idea carries a lot of weight, but it is the structure that makes it attractive, unique, and impactful.

Let me give you an example.

Suppose you use this post structure:

I've observed a pattern in happy people: they are extremely focused on keeping their minds clear.

The idea here is that happy people keep their minds clear.

The structure is divided into two parts: a "hook" that is presented in the form of an observation, and the specific delivery of that observation.

It may seem simple, but the difference in the structure of the ideas can make all the difference.

Now, if I express the same idea using a "list" structure:

Happy people are those with clear minds.

• They will allow time for rest.

• They focused on a single goal.

• They will eliminate interference without hesitation.

In other words, happy people are extremely dedicated to keeping their minds clear.

Same idea. Different structure. Different effect.

If you're willing, you can practice "writing the same idea" using every post structure you encounter.

The practice method is as follows:

Step 1: Deconstruct the structure of the 3 ideas.

Choose three posts from your museum of ideas that resonate with you. Then try to break down each part and write down why it works.

If you don't have experience with content psychology, that's okay. You'll learn through practice.

Now is a great time to let AI help. You can try this suggestion word for each post:

Please conduct a comprehensive analysis of this social media post: its overall core idea, sentence structure, and word choice. Analyze why people interact with it, why it works, what psychological strategies are used, and how I can replicate this style step by step for my own ideas.

Then paste the post content below the prompt.

If you have to choose a model, I would recommend Claude over ChatGPT or Gemini.

Any ideas you encounter along the way, as long as you want to incorporate them into your writing style, can be analyzed using this method. It also applies to videos, not just text posts.

Step 2: Rewrite the three ideas using different structures.

Go back to your idea museum and choose an idea you didn't use in "Step One". Then try rewriting it using the three post structures you just dissected.

This is how you expand your range of expression.

This is how you stop staring blankly at a screen.

This is how you turn an idea into a week's worth of content output.

Why do this?

Because by now, you've mastered all the secrets to "creating outstanding content" and "coming up with great ideas."

Really, that's all the secret. Everything else is just a product of practice.

VII — The system is a new product.

Okay, this is already quite long, so I'll speed things up from here on out.

And I already have a complete guide on “how to create your first product”: mega-guide-how-to-create-your-first … so I don’t want to repeat too much here.

At this point in time, we are living in a "systems economy".

People don't want a "solution".

They want your solution.

There are many writing products on the market. So, what makes my 2 Hour Writer (2HW) different? Or Eden—the software I'm building; to some "very smart people who have definitely built successful products in the YouTube comment section," it "can be easily replaced by Google Drive or Dropbox."

They are different because they are systems I built by obtaining results firsthand.

2HW won't teach a bunch of academic writing nonsense—that kind of stuff won't help you achieve our shared vision: to live a creative and meaningful life.

I had a few questions:

• I find it difficult to consistently generate content ideas.

• I don't want to waste a lot of time creating content for different platforms separately.

So I started experimenting with my own system.

The system's goal is clear: to write all the content I need in less than two hours each day. This way, my audience growth will be "automated," allowing me to focus my energy on building better products and enjoying life.

I started testing various solutions for "how to get more content ideas".

I created a swipe file, steps to generate ideas, and templates to use when I'm still stuck.

I have a clear plan for what I need to write each week: 3 posts per day; 1 thread per week; 1 newsletter per week.

In this process, I realized I could simultaneously publish my writing to all social media platforms (which are public and visible to everyone). I also realized that threads can become carousels, and newsletters can become YouTube videos.

If this system doesn't work well, I'll try something new next week.

Then I realized: I could directly copy and paste the newsletter into my blog, embed the YouTube video into that blog post, promote my product in that blog post, and turn that blog post into a source of more content ideas.

Then, I can put that blog link below my content every day.

This will lead to more newsletter subscriptions, YouTube subscriptions, and product sales.

I realized that if everything I did revolved around the newsletter, then whether it was growing the audience or promoting the product, I only needed to focus on that one thing.

This is how you can stand out in a world saturated with "copy-and-paste products".

Yes, it takes time and experience.

But the final result was well worth it.

That's all for this letter.

Thank you for reading.

—Dan

First of all, if you've read this far, I like you. You're willing to read a long article.

If you'd like to support this letter, you can consider joining the paid tier. What I offer includes: a full course on "How to Start a One-Person Company," prompts for "Resetting Your Life," and writing strategies I use when I'm experiencing creative blocks.