DeveloPassion's Newsletter - Proof of Work (PoW)

Hello everyone! I’m Sébastien Dubois, your host. You’re receiving this email because you signed up for DeveloPassion’s Newsletter. Thank you for being here with me ✨

If you enjoy this newsletter, then become a supporter ❤️

Another week, another newsletter! I hope that you all had a great one 🤩

Welcome to all the new readers ❤️

This week felt a bit better. I’ve decided to see two therapists in parallel (yes, I’m crazy like that 😂). It’s the first time I do that, but find it quite interesting. They have very different styles and help me on different levels. One is analytical and methodical and provides me with practical techniques and mental models I can use to reduce my anxiety and find some peace of mind. The other uses Transactional analysis and focuses more on exploring my issues through discussion. This helps me become more aware of my biases, and understand my behavior and my unconscious ideas.

This week, I’ve signed my new freelancing contract. At least the frame agreement. Now I’m waiting for my first assignment. It’s stressful (thanks to the impostor syndrome), but I’m confident the company is a positive one with a great mindset. We’ll see how it goes!

Last but not least, the sun was out, and I could enjoy the hammock and share the experience with my baby boy. Priceless!

My marketing efforts for the Obsidian Starter Kit have paid off. I’m finally seeing some more sales flowing.

Thanks to those, I’ve crossed the $1K revenue mark:

I’ve added a few more guides (e.g., tagging, templating, meta folder) and plugins for automation. I’m far from done, though. With the hurricane I’m going through, it’s hard to find energy and time to make significant progress.

Also, I need to move forward with my other small bets. I want to introduce a paid membership for my Website, sharing deeper pieces with subscribers. Same for this newsletter. To achieve that, I’m probably going to migrate everything over to Ghost. I haven’t decided yet, but I strongly believe that getting Monthly Recurring Revenue will help me to keep going with more peace of mind; and I definitely need that right now!

Last week I discussed eventual reciprocity and the idea that accumulating helpful “pieces” that compound is the key to building trust and gently pushing people to give support in return. Today, I thought some more about this.

Each article and book that I’ve published between 2019 and 2020 has contributed a lot to my visibility in developer communities. Although each time I published a new piece, I felt like screaming in the void. I hoped for overnight success and was often left with the sound of crickets. I thought I was doing it all wrong. But I kept writing and publishing. Over time, the effects started amplifying. I started getting revenue out of my articles on Medium, and slowly increased my reach.

But beyond the audience and the direct revenue, the biggest impact of writing those articles and books is on my reputation. I keep receiving offers from startups and companies looking for experts.

Each of my articles acts as a Proof of Work (PoW). Just like with cryptographic proofs used by cryptocurrencies. Each article showcases my experience on a specific topic/problem and proves that I’ve done my homework. It goes a long way to establish me as an expert on the topics I’m covering.

Of course, experience is a spectrum, but after publishing 20+ articles on a topic, including in-depth ones, it becomes obvious that I can’t be a rookie anymore.

The compounding effect comes with time and accumulation. The more pieces about a given topic, the more proofs of work and the stronger the effect.

I witnessed this first while writing about software development and Web development. It helped me generate more and more passive income, but also helped me land freelancing contracts (including the one I’ve just signed).

I’m now doing it again with Personal Knowledge Management. But this time around, I have lower expectations for each individual article. I focus on accumulating Proofs of Work and will let the compounding effect do its magic.

In reality, the effect is already noticeable. I’ve been invited to participate in an online summit about PKM, given the idea to organize one myself, and managed to sell info products in the PKM space already. And this is quite telling because last year, nobody even knew I was interested in information management and PKM!

And the same goes with this newsletter. Each edition adds more weight to the balance.

So, what are you waiting for?. Go create your own proofs of work!

I took too many notes this week. I realized it during my weekly review on Sunday evening. It took me a long while to go through my daily notes and extract everything. That’s the other side of the PKM coin. It’s fun to capture ideas and knowledge, but it can quickly turn into work.

I don’t have regrets, though. I have clear goals with my PKM. It is work, but it is valuable for my future.

I’ve captured a few ideas around mindset shifts to make. I didn’t take note of the author, unfortunately:

Another insight that I like is the fact that motivation is not something we should wait for to take action. Motivation comes through action.

I read about the 20-20-20 rule, which I also found interesting: Every 20 minutes you spend using a screen, you look at something 20 meters away for 20 seconds.

There’s much more, but so little space here. Serious question: would you be interested in reading more of my insights? If so, I could publish additional editions dedicated to this.