There’s a Catch-22 in the creator economy, and it goes like this:

Publish consistently and relentlessly, so that you get enough attention, so that you get enough followers, so that you can monetize your work, so that you can create full-time, so that you can publish consistently and relentlessly.

/cameron for content experiments. I help Creators grow faster @ seemore.tv + /seemore. Posts at creator3x3.com.
Dev + Veteran + HBS. 
seemore.tv/cameron 🫡

Writer ✍️ paragraph.xyz/@driftless | Creepy stories 👁️ unnerv.ing | Poems ⚡️ /writers 

Indeed, and this is an apt way to frame it. I once called this "the Patreon catch-22 hustle," but of course it's not just Patreon. 

I agree with @cameron that there are structural issues here and we need different business models for creative work. 

If you'd like to say more, Tom... what prompted this cast?

Writer, senior editor, music journalist, labor/commons advocate, GenX eldergoth, Zorbsplainer. Cohost of /slowcore-hq. https://tinyurl.com/Black-Stone-Wordsmith

It is absurd for sure. I've been thinking about systemic issues surrounding creative labor and money for years. I also agree with what you wrote in your response to Cameron above: there's more to the story. 

I think web3 is our best hope for better (non-burnout) paths for writers, but we've still got a long way to go.

Thanks, Danica. I was thinking about some of my future moves. Where I should publish my writing and how often. It got me thinking about how absurd the recommended publishing cadence is for most platforms for creative work. 

It's a path to burnout that I've been feeling—and noticing in others.