Other Life

By Justin MurphySociety & Culture Science Social Sciences Philosophy

Other Life episodes

December 04, 2020 How Creators Are Creating Money for Their Communities, with Bradley Miles of Roll
After all the scams of the 2017 ICO craze, there's a new wave of genuine creators and communities creating serious value with social currencies. Bradley Miles is the CEO of a startup called Roll, which facilitates this process for creators.
➡️ https://tryroll.com/
➡️ Bradley on Twitter: @Bradley_Miles_
A few weeks ago I started talking with Bradley, who is one of the founders of a startup called Roll. What they're doing is they're trying to make it super easy for creators and communities to create their own social tokens on the blockchain, on Ethereum.
It's interesting because this was a practice that became somewhat notorious a few years ago in what's known as the ICO craze, the initial coin offerings of around 2017. There were basically just a lot of scammers. There were a lot of people who would launch a token, and would hype it up, get a bunch of people to buy into it, and then just sell it and basically profit off of the people that got in on it.
But now there's this new wave of genuine creators and durable communities that are using social tokens. And they're creating real value, and they're working and they're sustaining. And many of them are trading on the open market, for sometimes very good amounts of US dollars. And it just seems to me like a very real way in which creators and communities are generating real value and wealth potentially, in the long run, for themselves, in this autonomous bootstrapped way. So obviously I'm just super interested in that.
I'm definitely still thinking about how I might do it because I don't want to do anything like this unless I have a clear model in my mind of how it works and what I'm trying to do. So I'm still researching and thinking, but I think I'm going to launch a social currency for my community and I'm quite excited by it. I think there could be real upside and I want to take it seriously and try my best shot at making something really interesting and valuable for everyone who listens to or participates in my various projects . And I've been talking with Bradley quite a lot over the past few weeks. Thinking about it and strategizing and yeah... He's super cool, I think he's super legit. And I think he really believes in the project and he has also investors that I know and trust like Balaji Srinivasan.
I figured I'd have him on the podcast so he could share what he's doing and we can introduce the idea to the audience of the podcast and my broader community. So I'd love to hear what you think.
50 min
November 29, 2020 Tokenizing Content with Kenny Rowe of the Dalten Collective
Kenny Rowe is an Urbit engineer. He's been working on blockchain projects since 2014, ranging from MakerDao to MetaCartel Ventures. Kenny is a member of the Dalten Collective, a for-profit membership organization rooted in Urbit.
✦ The Dalten Collective on Urbit: dalten.org
✦ Join Urbit with Tlon's new hosting service: tlon.io
✦ Get in touch: otherlife.co/contact
36 min
November 17, 2020 Can We Escape? On Deleuze and Heidegger with Johannes Niederhauser
Join our 8-week seminar series on Deleuze and Heidegger, starting this Sunday, November 22.
✦ Get the reading list and learn more: otherlife.co/deleuze-vs-heidegger
➡️ Johannes Niederhauser on Twitter: https://twitter.com/JohannesAchill
➡️ Johannes Niederhauser on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDsQqlrzoc-K32DE-Wh-roA
1 hr 22 min
November 13, 2020 Video Futurism: Networked & Monetized, with Anirudh Pai of Superpeer
Neo-China arrives from the future, as a networked and monetized video platform called Superpeer. Anirudh Pai explains why he believes education will merge with the influencer economy, in the form of paid video-calling. Other topics include George Orwell, Africa, and Reed's Law (the lesser known cousin of Metcalfe's Law).
✦ Anirudh's newsletter: electricsheep.substack.com
✦ Anirudh's podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/conservative-curious/id1517105543
On where the truth takes place
Think about it like this, the most interesting conversations always happen after class. What if there was a way to bring that online and make it also shared? People don't really want everything layered over with a veneer of political correctness. A lot of people just want the truth, and the truth is often found, not in classrooms, but in the bar, two miles away where everyone gets together, just as it is in Davos...

What the West will learn from video culture in China
The consumer culture in China is radically different than anywhere else in the world. And that's namely through video. People have been doing this way longer than in the West and influencer culture, you can say, started and became popular in China.
And that's because of the array of platforms that many of these influencers had. And when we think about an influencer, it's not really just somebody who's an Instagram model. All of us have specific knowledge in one domain. And they found ways to monetize that through all these different platforms. So you can look at Youku, which is like the Chinese YouTube, they might have these private WeChat groups and they might do live streaming events with this group and they're essentially living in video. So their entire day is just hopping from different video platforms to one another. They monetize through that. And for a lot of people, that's their job. That is what they do. And that's a very respectable career.
One example of that I always remember is Sina Weibo, which is what people call the Twitter of China. To give you an idea of how early China was on their shift, in 2018 Sina Weibo did about $35 million, paying out creators with about, I think, 2 million paid subscribers overall.
And the way they made money was, they had a 70/30 revenue share, but that's pretty crazy still. That people have been doing this in the East way longer than in the West.

On Reed's Law and Superpeer's vision for networked video
So a network effect is where the marginal benefit to each user increases as another user gets added, like Facebook, but what many people don't know is Reed's law, which is that the utility of these very massive networks scale exponentially with the network as well. So what that means is, when you have a big Facebook group, people split off into microcosms, right? And so it's like almost a Petri dish where some groups come together, others go around, and they're still finding their fit. But we have these various Schelling points where people come together and that's really the reason behind the Superpeer brand approach, which is... You might have these massive communities, thousands and thousands of people, but look at how many of those people talk. It's not actually very many, right? How many of your friends on Facebook do you interact with on the daily? Probably less than 10%, right? It's not a big sum by any means. And so when you want to design something like this, one thing you have to wonder is, how can we, from top to bottom, create the best experience and make it very easy for people to connect with one another, even inside networks, and make these communities that have thousands of people even more engaged by letting various members come together in these smaller groups and create those bonds? That, I think, nobody else is doing.
1 hr 13 min
November 05, 2020 Dating and Mating Via Twitter with @Default_Friend
Default Friend writes a personal advice newsletter, defaultfriend.substack.com. We discuss how Default met two different boyfriends through Twitter, how she networked her way into tech without tech skills, some copywriting tips for creators, and my idea to create an arranged marriage agency (she's now on the team helping to build it).
➡️ If you'd like an arranged marriage (arranged by us), signup here real quick: https://defaultefriend.typeform.com/to/BCsFKG16
➡️ If you're trying to get serious about your own intellectual work, request an invitation to IndieThinkers.org.
➡️ If you just want to support what I'm doing and get some cool stuff, consider becoming a patron at patreon.com/jmrphy.
1 hr 8 min
October 30, 2020 On Marriage
Marriage is crazy. You’re right to think, “I’m not sure. What if it doesn’t work out? I lose so many options, etc.” It’s an impossible-to-guarantee decision with huge downsides. But if you do it right, the upside arguably approaches infinity. People postpone marriage for the same reason they're becoming less religious: we've lost the capacity for faith.
➡️ I might build an arranged marriage agency: defaultefriend.typeform.com/to/BCsFKG16
➡️ Submit a question for the podcast at otherlife.co/contact
✦ Big thanks to my patrons who help me keep the lights on! Consider becoming one at patreon.com/jmrphy
26 min
October 23, 2020 Making Social Theory Viral on TikTok with Biz Sherbert
Biz Sherbert is a fashion theorist inspired by Mark Fisher, who's figured out how to make academic theory resonate with millions of people on TikTok.
➡️ Biz's blog: sherbert.biz
➡️ Biz on Instagram: @markfisherquotes
➡️ Biz on TikTok: BimboTheory
How Biz is building a career publishing social theory on TikTok
Justin Murphy: How exactly does fashion theory go viral on TikTok?
Biz Sherbert: The one that really got big was a video explaining the history of the e-girl heart, which is just a little heart that's drawn onto the cheek of e-girls. It's a really popular makeup style in that group. It actually comes from an 18th-century and earlier European cosmetic tradition of trying to cover up deformities on the face, scars and deformities from smallpox. I think that just hit a sweet spot for people because e-girls are so well known on that platform.
I started getting emails from journalists, asking me to provide insight on GenZ TikTok fashion. I've done that a couple times on Cottagecore, Dark Academia, the viral strawberry dress, Simping...
They basically will write a story and they'll just look up "Cottagecore." And they'll see a couple people from " the hashtag that are on the top of the hashtag and interview them.
Every single person who's found my videos has looked up "Dark Academia" or "Cottagecore" or something, and seen one of my video essays at the top of the hashtag.

On the GenZ marriage postponement problem
Biz Sherbert: If anyone wants to marry me from the podcast, who's listening, you can DM me @markfisherquotes on Instagram.
Justin Murphy: I bet you'll get at least a couple. Just make sure they're not theorycels.

➡️ Contact me or submit questions you want me to answer on the podcast at otherlife.co/contact.
➡️ If you're working on your own intellectual project, request an invitation to IndieThinkers.org.
➡️ Or support the show by becoming a patron at patreon.com/jmrphy.
1 hr 20 min
October 16, 2020 Buying Mansions Without Money and Writer-Entrepreneurship with Max Nussenbaum of On Deck
Max Nussenbaum is an author and entrepreneur who currently runs the On Deck Writing Fellowship, a new Silicon Valley take on modern education and career acceleration. We talk about how On Deck is helping writers become entrepreneurs; how Max bought a mansion in Detroit when he was 23; why JFK is overrated; what cults teach us about community building; and optimal strategy for Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (which Max was on).
➡️ On Deck Writing Fellowship is open: beondeck.com/writers
➡️ Max on Twitter: @maxnuss
On buying a mansion with no money...
Max Nussenbaum: We were 23-year-olds when we decided to buy this mansion at a tax auction. And we asked a bunch of other people, we knew some of whom had fixed up houses themselves: "Hey, is it crazy for four 23 year olds who don't know anything about construction to buy a mansion, that's a total tear-down, and try to fix it up themselves?"
And that is crazy, just to be clear, like I think in objective reality. And every single person we talked to was like, "Nah, do it, go ahead." It's just like that kind of place. So we purchased, it was just a mansion that had been abandoned. Was a total wreck.
It was a seven-bedroom, 3,500 square-foot mansion in what... in 1920 was the richest neighborhood in America. Purchased at tax auction for just over $8,000 that we raised from a Kickstarter...
Justin Murphy: Wait, $8,000 total?
Max Nussenbaum: Yes, now that's very misleading because we ultimately put over $200,000 into actually fixing up the house. We formed an LLC, found an outside investor. It was essentially a very micro-scale, real estate development project because obviously we did not have anywhere close to $200-grand ourselves.
So the $8,000 figure is misleading, but yeah, eight grand and the house was ours. It needed a new roof, new plumbing, new electrical, new wiring, new everything.
Justin Murphy: What was the business model though?
Max Nussenbaum: It was literally a basic real estate plan. We're going to rehab this house, we're going to rent it out to other young people, as a co-living, co-working space and there's going to be rental income and then eventually we're going to sell it and it's going to be worth a lot more.
I would guess it's probably worth $400-$450,000, which would be about double what we spent and put into it.
It would have been totally worth it, even if we never made any profits from it.

How Max is building the On Deck Writing Fellowship...
Max Nussenbaum: I joined [On Deck] to launch a writer fellowship, which is basically for anyone who's writing publicly and independently for the web. I think independent writers are essentially a form of micro entrepreneur, right? If you want to start a newsletter there's so much, you have to learn how to do that goes into that other than just being good at writing.
But if you go Google, how to find users, how to get users for your SaSS product, you'll find tons of resources. If you were going to look up how to get readers for your email newsletter, there's really just a comparative dearth of information. And a lot of what you would find is like, assuming your email newsletter is the first part of a sales funnel from a company.
And it's going to tell you how to do SEO keyword research, which is... If you're an independent writer who wants to speak or write from the heart about something, you are interested in, that's not really the right approach for you at all.

➡️ If you'd like to join my Discord server, request an invitation here: otherlife.co/join/
➡️ Become a patron at patreon.com/jmrphy
1 hr 19 min
October 09, 2020 How to Build a Mafia with Sudarshan Sridharan of Fion.tech
Sudarshan Sridharan is a 20-year-old co-founder of the wildfire prediction startup Fion.tech, and co-creator of the Gen Z Mafia. We discuss: How to launch a tech startup when you're only 20; how VCs want deal flow but college kids want party flow; how awkward outcasts can "flip the switch" to start networking; how to use Twitter; and the benefits of being silent and elevating others.
➡️ Suds' startup predicting wildfires: Fion.tech
➡️ Fion is hiring engineers and enterprise sales (email [email protected])
➡️ Follow Sudarshan on Twitter @itzsuds
As soon as I understood, "OK, I talk to much," people don't like this about me, like I lacked social awareness. Then I started really just honing in on that stuff when I was like 16-17ish. By the time I got to college, I immediately flipped the switch from being this kid that was just running businesses and trading stocks to "Yo, I'm a party promoter."
Like I literally just showed up to school, carrying around a bag of king-sized Skittles around my dorm, and anybody who was like, "Yo, can I get some Skittles?" I'd be like, "Give me your Snapchat." And so naturally that first day I got... 200 people added me and then one guy was like, "Hey, come to this party."
I went to that party. And then I started posting those parties on my Snapchat. So within the first week of school, I had 2000 people who added me, like freshmen who are looking for parties. Very quickly I knew, like how VCs want deal flow, kids want party flow. So if I just give them all these parties, people are gonna like me. From there I realized, "OK, I've got this following. I should probably be using it." So I started like just posting, basically like my Snapchat became my blog, a blog of my life and I learned very quickly how to push content, and that might seem not that important, but I think community building is a lot of... finding people of a general demographic and then adding value to them.

✦ To join my Discord server, request an invitation here: otherlife.co/join
✦ Big thanks to my patrons. Become one at patreon.com/jmrphy
1 hr 14 min
October 01, 2020 Growing a Social Science Newsletter from a Creator House in Mexico, with Brett Goldstein
Brett Goldstein writes the newsletter SocialStudies.news, teaching social science to founders and covering Tech Twitter. We talk about the untapped riches of social science for creators and founders, and how to think about branding and growing content-creation projects from niche academic disciplines. We also talk co-living and hype-house business models, as Brett calls in from OnDeck's Launch House in Tulum, Mexico.
The number of different stories in a single newsletter seems inversely correlated to how shareable it is. That’s why newsletters are becoming Wikipedia pages: comprehensive one-stop shops on particular concepts or entities.

If indie creators optimize for growth, they’ll just morph into normal businesses. That’s great if you want that, but leaving some optimization on the table probably gives: More longevity (it’s more fun) and uniqueness (personality is a moat).

Understand sprezzatura. If it looks like you invested a ton of effort, people are less impressed with your content. They expected better. Crappy production quality sets the expectation bar low, which means your audience gets more dopamine per insight.
➡️ Brett's newsletter, SocialStudies.news
➡️ Brett on Twitter @thatguyBG
➡️ The OnDeck Fellowship at beondeck.com
✦ If you're working on your own long-term intellectual project, request an invitation to IndieThinkers.org.
58 min