Category: Blog

Many people now talk about clubhouse and his possible competitors created by the main social networks.

It is undeniable that companies like facebook have the power to realize such product, right? But why?

The reasoning behind developing something that’s already out in the market has many faces.
First, it’s because of users.
Social networks want to keep you in their loop as much as possible, because, as you would expect, you are their revenue, your attention is the coin.

Secondly: They could even do better, because they can leverage the immense community they’ve built over time, so, if they do it right, they might be able to crush the competition.

It doesn’t always go like this, think about the old google plus, now dead. It was born as an anti-facebook. Google had all the possibile power and played many cards to see how many people would use it, but in the end here we are: Facebook 1, Google 0.

For a big brand like FB, following the competition is a way to minimize losing users. But for normal brands it’s not always useful.
Your users choose you for your style, your direction, your goal.
If you align your craft to a competitor, yes, you might get to a different place, but at the same time “your people” might not follow you anymore.

It’s important to be different, and accept that not all roads should merge. Not all roads should aim for the gigantic goal of being “complete”.
We like imperfection.

When you talk your body express how you feel. Your words and tone of voice define your style and inclination.

But what about other mediums? Mail, chat, etc. Are you using your voice if the people you’re writing to are the same of a meeting?

You can be recognized, identifiable, with little tweaks and build meaningful connections only with some extra work.

Because if people like you when you talk, they’ll love you when you write, expressing those same traits that they are fond of.

Most modern social networks and often some website implement this feature called endless scrolling.

Basically you get new information to read or buy as long as you scroll.
Even those that don’t implement this kind of scrolling have expanded their list to a number so big that it _feels_ like endless.

Why do that? First and foremost it’s to remove friction.
If you need to act on a button to read more after a while you would give up.
But more importantly is the fact that we are not aware of the flow nor of how much time it passes. That’s why it’s so critical for social networks to implement such “attention-robbing” mechanism.

I always wonder if we will adapt to this or not. Right now we need some extra software to be aware of how much time we spend on website. We didn’t change ourselves, we changed our devices.
Is it easier? Yes

Is it better? I don’t know. But if you have the chance to realize how much time you spend on something, then it’s also worth trying to fix it for yourself first and with devices later.

I should admit it: I’ve been almost depressed lately.

I’m not saying “depressed” fully because I know the whole implications of depression and it would mean ignoring all the pain that people that go through that kind of path feel.

But yeah, I’ve been underwhelming to say the least.
The reason: Too much “undefined” work, and too less “direction”.

This made me realize that, as remote workers and also as general workers, that these two elements are critical for a well being.
We need them to thrive and move forward.

Defined work “knowing exactly what to do and how to do it” helps us being happy or not with the result. If there is no expectation, how do you judge the work you’ve done?
If nobody checks out your work, how do you know if it was good or not?

Secondly: Direction, as known as “knowing where to go”, makes it really easier to put one important thing in front of another, to set a vision.

So, back to the title: is there a solution?

To me it always goes back to asking for help, first and foremost.
But even asking for help isn’t enough sometimes.
I too had an hard time defining my problem and honestly I do believe we live in a culture when we’re not used to sharing such difficult moments.

So what? The second step is to ask for help again and share the issues. And the third and final step is to be aware that we’ll all eventually move on.
That all the stress will be fixed one step at a time because if there is no much definition one thing that might cause it is the fact that you’re too much far off the result so it’s hard to “see” it .

One step each time will make you closer to what you should be doing.
One simple, small, step

I don’t understand suicide. It’s awful, it’s terrible, it doesn’t leave a trace.
Yet, it’s a message of failure.

Failure of the system, of the society as a whole, failure of the circle of support that should be resembled by family and friends.
Failure to notice.

Today a person I once met committed suicide and it’s terrible.
I’m sad, even though we weren’t really friends, but I’m even more sad because he was young, less than 30yo.

I don’t know the “WHY”. Even when we do know the “WHY” from people who left some notes, we still don’t know “how was it possible”.
Because if we know, we could’ve stopped it.

When I think about suicide I always think that it’s linked to one fact: Belonging and opportunities.

The sense of belonging to this world and the people around us, to have a place, is critical for our well being. We do take it for granted if we don’t have problems, but it’s a dealbreaker.
It changes how you feel in the world itself.

Opportunities on the other sides are some form of hope. If you think you still have opportunities (to change, to create, to build), you would conclude that it’s not worth it to die, you can defer it and try to change things.

At that age the world is your oyster. You have infinite opportunities, your brain is active, you can learn anything you want, change jobs, change life.

If you don’t see those opportunities though, it’s harder.
Yet we are gifted with thousands of opportunities, options available to us at no cost and only one requirement: The courage to take a leap.

Opportunities are rarely “near” us. They’re not “easy or fast”. They need some leap of faith to get there, and some time we fail anyway.
But when we don’t, well, in those times it’s when our life changes.

Because we only need one good opportunity to change our life.