Hey there.
Are You Working for the Algorithm?
Years ago, there was a man with a boat.
He wanted to sail it around the world and invited people to come with him. Not as passengers, exactly because they paid him for the privilege of working on the boat. They learned, contributed, belonged to something real.
I remember thinking he was the smartest person alive.
Imagine that: people paying you to work for you.
Now look at us.
Most of us running our own businesses are working in and for ourselves ; and for Substack, Instagram, LinkedIn, and whatever platform happens to be ascendant this quarter. We churn out “content” in the hope that enough eyeballs land on it to justify the time we’ve spent creating it.
There was a time when that worked.
I’m not convinced it does anymore.
If the algorithm doesn’t like the set of your jaw, you’ll be left sitting on the sidelines, wondering where all the likes, bings, and dings went. Wondering what you did wrong. Wondering whether you should try again , just once more , with a slightly different angle.
I turned off notifications a long time ago.
I didn’t want to be trained.
But trained I am. And so are many of us.
We’ve collectively bought into a system that asks us to invest enormous amounts of time, energy, and attention into something that increasingly resembles winning the lottery.
Post again. Maybe this one hits.
Tweak the hook. Change the tone. Try a different format.
Just one more time.
It’s addictive. And like most addictions, it feels productive while it’s happening. Then you look up and wonder where the years went.
What makes this particularly insidious is that the labour feels voluntary. We tell ourselves we’re “building an audience” or “showing up consistently” or “playing the long game.” But the game keeps changing, and the rules are never explained.
Turn off the notifications and you realise how much of your nervous system was quietly on standby. Waiting to be approved. Waiting to be rewarded. Waiting to be seen.
This isn’t a moral failing. It’s conditioning.
And the house always wins.
So I find myself wondering: is anyone out there trying to build something different?
Not another platform. Not another growth hack. Not a better way to game the system.
But actual programs and ways of working ,designed to help people get off the hamster wheel rather than run faster on it.
Work that compounds through depth instead of reach.
Work that values participation over performance.
Work that doesn’t require you to be perpetually visible to remain viable.
If someone is building that, quietly or otherwise, I’d sign up in a split second.
