Building The Machine 20: 15 Pixels of Fame
"In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes." - Andy Warhol
🌊 Thanks for being here. I am Eric Friedman and I share my thoughts about Building The Machine: those that are creating the flywheels necessary to make businesses grow. This is a collection of what I am writing, reading, and producing. I hope you enjoy it.
15 Pixels of Fame ✍️
I am not a fan of making predictions, but I am a fan of asking good questions and being curious. This led me to the idea of being famous for your 15 pixels. In the future everyone will get their 15 pixels of fame. Adapted from this quote I love;
"In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes." - Andy Warhol
Most people in developed countries are Net Natives and online. With this comes the ability for anyone to reach millions overnight. This also means that an evolution of global fame (and infamy). The surface area for digital creation is growing exponentially driven by AI. You can now find custom digital creation prompts in almost any creative service or platform. This also means that there will be more and more creators which is a good thing.
Micro Fame in the age of unlimited channels
Micro fame moments are now showing up everywhere. Whether its MrBeast giving a lone streamer with 1 subscriber $10,000, or a random stranger sharing a moment that goes viral on the web. The after effects of these moments can last forever. New fans, new listeners, new supporters who contribute to the core 100 true fans now represent a living for those people.
The opposite is also true; you can have an single artist with potentially billions of views/fans overnight. You can have completely anonymous creation, representation, and promotion. This further breaks down the gatekeepers of artists.
Where this goes is both exciting and terrifying like any new idea buts its going to be fun to watch the pixels from our screens.
What I am reading 📖
1️⃣ Loved this 4 Levels of PMF from First Round Review which talks through some of the open secrets and frameworks for Product Market Fit. I do believe in the “you know it when you see it” feeling and if you are asking you probably don’t have it.
2️⃣ I love this article that articulates that TV is cinematic, epic, and generally just mediocre. TV used to be the place that was produced below the level of astonishing movies, which just isn’t the case anymore. The explosion of we need content from the streaming services has grown the quality and breadth “…another thing happened as well. The conferral of status (and money) on TV meant that there was a lot more talent available. Doing TV was no longer a demotion, and you could buy an instant sense of importance by hiring stars…”
🔗 The comfortable problem of “mid” TV
3️⃣ What is a dollar worth? During COVID times I used to joke “what is money even for?” because we were spending so much. This was BEFORE inflation and what is happening now. So this article begs the question;
4️⃣ Mission over personal views. Coinbase tripped so Google could run. The focus on “Mission” is now pervasive in tech and more are following.
Tools I use 🛠️
This one is going to be a stretch for some but remember Evernote? It turns out that getting your date out of it, and into Notion is quite difficult. I found this handy tool Enex2Notion which lets you do so with ease - as long as you are comfortable in a command line. It represents a bridge to the next platform and liberating your data. I think a lot about “link rot” and now I have to think about Platform Rot too; platforms that get acquired and ruined, shutdown, or just otherwise disappear with all your data.
Celebrate your wins 🏆
2nd Newsletter/Blog in a row - thanks Substack.
Thoughts on this blog format vs. writing on my own domain?