Each time we finish a section of the book, I’m going to send you a handful of short Dispatches from the Workbench: updates on decisions, things I’m trying, and invitations I’m sharing that I hope will be useful to you and inform how the work evolves.
In today’s Dispatch:
The social bait and switch
What you can do about it
Bait and switch
In the last Dispatch, I told you I was breaking up with traditional marketing and social platforms.
Look, I’m not making a lifestyle choice here. I’m not slipping away into the mountains to lead a monastic lifestyle of peace and raw presence. I’ll still be online, but with the right amount of effort.
Any content that doesn’t flow naturally from The Unremarkable Entrepreneur (my artistic expression) or invite people to join the Order of Unremarkable Creators (how I serve others), simply doesn’t get made.
Here’s why:
Platforms are now pay-to-play
They demand absolute clarity
Or they demand ‘attention slop’
Social platforms hooked us on the promise of connection and opportunity. Anyone with an internet connection could be economically mobile, because anyone could be seen, heard, and known.
The trade was clear. We build their platform, they help us find our people. So we gave our creative labour willingly, only to be rewarded with a massive bait and switch. Today, the choice is stark: pay to boost your posts (something every platform is begging me to do) or work for them for free, creating attention slop that keeps people locked in so the platform can sell more ad space.
Someone up there is flying first class because they conditioned us to care about scratching out a handful of likes.
Make no mistake, the platforms know your fiscal value to them, and in order to squeeze it from you, they’ve built a toll booth between you and your audience. Refuse to pay with money or creative energy, and you’ll just have to take a 60% drop in organic reach on the chin.
By the way, the slop works on me too! I frequently find myself absent-mindedly scrolling for no reason other than habit. Can these 20 people really fit into a tiny smart car for $10,000? I better stick around to find out.
Another challenge is that the modern algorithm doesn’t understand human discovery; it only understands categorisation. To post outside the narrow bucket of how the platform has categorised you is like throwing a brick in a washing machine. The algorithm breaks. It doesn’t know who to show your work to, so your distribution flatlines.
There’s a bizarre split personality in play here. The system demands absolute clarity from you (which most of us don’t have because we’re evolving humans), but then demands you create cheap slop that keeps people on the platform.
Which is it, guys: clarity or crap? I can’t do both!
The Honest Tension
I am left with one realistic option: pay-to-play.
I want to say I’ll refuse that too. But here’s the honest tension: how do I reach the person who actually needs my work, knowing that my organic posts will never reach them?
One day I might accept that my work doesn’t need to travel. But right now, I know there’s someone sitting on the other side of the world waiting for permission to be unremarkable. So I’ll dance with the devil on my own terms, even if that means working with imperfect systems that are actively working against me and then putting a price tag on the solution.
And if I have to pay-to-play, I’ll suck it up to reach the other 1%.
My promise to you is this: I’ll be mindful of the compromises I’m willing to make, if any. And I’ll always be honest about it.
So what can you do about it?
I’m in it with you, so I can’t give you answers, but I’ve started the Order of Unremarkable Creators for those who are frustrated by building in the shadows and pressing against a rigged system.
It is a space to practise and shape your craft in good company. We meet virtually on a Monday, amplify each other’s work on Wednesday, and share observations on Friday (Wednesday and Friday are entirely chat-based, by the way).
We are a small group for now, but it’s a place to truly be seen, heard, and known. If you know anyone who would benefit from joining us, please introduce us or share this link with them: https://join.unremarkable.co/ouc
That’s a wrap for today’s Dispatch. If you need anything or you’ve got any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
I’m always here if you need me.
Dan
