Hi, I'm Roland. This is our personal construction in an era of homogenized agency. How do we find a way of working that we are willing to sustainably invest in and that also generates income, so that making money isn't so tiring?
Exhaustion in Making a Living
I believe you've had enough. In self-media, why can others post hundreds of tweets every day? Why can they produce high-quality articles every day? Why does the income they get from self-media far exceed my imagination? Where exactly did I go wrong? I've learned plenty of methods, seem to understand all the principles, and my bookmarks are piled with various premium articles. But I always feel powerless; when I try to execute, there are all kinds of bottlenecks, and it's hard to sustain.
You actually know clearly what you should do, you know that not doing it means no income, and you know what you shouldn't invest in. But I understand the principles, so why is it so hard to execute?
This isn't your problem, nor is it a problem only you face.
As early as the 19th century, Marx analyzed the situation where labor opposes the worker himself when discussing alienated labor: a person relies on work to maintain life but may not be able to realize their own abilities and wills through work. Why does labor appear as an activity opposed to the worker in this specific labor relationship? Psychology offers another explanation for this issue. People can engage because an activity is interesting, or they can persist because they recognize its value. There is also a situation where action is maintained primarily by pressure, external evaluation, and self-coercion. It looks like everyone is working, but the reasons for continuing are completely different.
What we discuss here is one type of exhaustion in making a living: you need this income, but it's hard to find a reason within what you're currently doing that makes you want to sustainably invest.
So the question becomes, how can I make money without being so tired?
Reclaiming Agency
Jung said that people need a persona to adapt to society. We have positions and identities, and at the same time, we respond to others' expectations of these identities. So how does a person differentiate themselves from identification with social roles and collective psychology to develop a more complete individual personality? Of course, we can understand individuation as becoming oneself, or self-actualization. If the evaluation of something boils down only to whether it is respectable or not, whether others approve or disapprove, whether someone succeeded or failed, then our agency has long since disappeared.
So, specifically regarding making money, what should we base our direction choices on?
When you read this far, you are already seriously considering what kind of work is worth investing in. You are on the path to reclaiming your agency. First, what does liking represent? It represents that you are willing to approach it and continuously study it. For example, I am preparing to launch my writing course in Q4. I spend a lot of time every day reading various classics. From them, I find solutions to problems and enjoy it tirelessly. This includes my current writing as well. Before this, I had actually conducted many explorations. In constant exploration, I was also on the path to reclaiming my agency.
To be concrete, within the limits of realistic conditions, we should rethink what we really want? What are our goals? What actions can we participate in? What are the boundaries for dealing with things? More bluntly, what can I do now, and what can't I do? What am I good at, and what am I not good at? List out the things I am good at, can do, and can access. For example, I am very good at managing my self-media account on Platform A, but I am not very good at managing my self-media account on Platform B. Then what I need to do is first manage my self-media account well on Platform A. Rather than starting to invest massive resources and energy into Platform B just because others say Platform B is better.
At this point, we begin to know what we are willing to do and what we are good at. But what can these things bring to others?
From Experiential Interests to Productive Interests
Because when we realize that I like this thing and I am willing to invest in this thing, we need to classify it. For example, I really like playing games; this is an experiential interest, or an enjoyment-based interest. But if, on this basis, I delve deeper and become a game booster, does it become a productive interest? Can it bring me income? Yes! But if I simply like playing games and don't dig deeper, it remains experiential. I will keep spending money on the game, keep investing my time and energy. But in reality, this produces nothing.
I wrote a sentence in my bio: "The core of making money lies in solving other people's problems," and I am a man focused on solving various bottleneck problems. Solving problems is one of my interests. Over the past two years, by solving problems and providing consulting services to others, I have earned another seven-figure sum. And besides selling my time, in the process of solving problems for others, I am actually very comfortable. I enjoy this process and even look forward to the arrival of scheduled appointments. But liking to chat and liking to solve problems for others are still different. The former enjoys the interaction itself, while the latter requires understanding the other party's situation, analyzing the problem, and giving them a usable solution. What I enjoy is the process of solving problems.
Each of us, as I said before, is already on the path to reclaiming our agency. So we can happily look at how many experiential interests we have. And what kind of productive interests can they turn into?
Among those "bad habits" your parents dislike most, what exactly do you like about them? Is this part potentially useful to others?
Output Equals Income
Suppose you used Vibe coding to build a second brain, or some personal life management system, or a life restart system. Anyway, you think it's an excellent product. If you use it yourself and it truly helps you, it has value. But if you want to sell it, you must answer another question: Besides you, who else needs it, and what are they willing to pay for?
So how do I solve this problem? You must first verify that the demand is real. I can publish a message on social media platforms. For example, I am preparing to sell a writing course, roughly consisting of this many lessons, and I might deliver this kind of content. I can start pre-sales. Or I can write a specific article, a note or tweet, and understand potential users in the comments section—what do they need? This limited attempt helps us correct biases in our brains. We ultimately need to sell our output, and the buyers are our future customers, not ourselves.
Although I earned my latest seven-figure sum by helping others solve problems through consulting, I think this is unsustainable because each communication and problem-solving session consumes a large amount of my human brain tokens. So in the next stage, I want to try which problems require me to answer personally every time, and which can be organized into standardized services? It might be a knowledge base, an agent, or a bot. But whether these forms can solve customer problems and reduce my repetitive input still needs actual verification.
Why do I think about this? Because this output poses no difficulty for me, as I enjoy the process of solving problems; this is my interest. Similarly, after you think through your interests, you will also walk the same path as me. You will find that iterating on yourself is a very happy thing. Although there will always be one or two steps in the whole process that you find difficult, most steps will make you feel joyful.
Final Thoughts
Why emphasize agency?
Because passion can truly overcome all difficulties. We don't need to envy or even be jealous of others, nor should we blame external factors for the difficulties we encounter. Everything stems from yourself. Everything is created by the mind. What is your heart pursuing? What kind of person do you want to become? These will lead you down different paths. You should let your "Greater Self," that "I" existing in a higher dimension, emerge.
What I strive for is not to never struggle again, but to know why I do what I do and be willing to continue doing it; to create things that others need, and to earn income that supports me in continuing to do so.
This article originates from an unpublished thought I had at Singular House. Our available time and attention for thinking are extremely limited. Only where attention is directed can valuable content be continuously generated. At Singular House, you can use the Daily Dashboard and article knowledge base I maintain, and also engage in long-term discussions with experts who are willing to share real experiences and express their thoughts and judgments seriously. We care about how to protect attention, how to harness AI, and also about how knowledge can create higher-quality works in the near future. My writing workshop will be held internally. If you are also looking for your direction and are willing to conduct personal construction through reading, discussion, and thinking, you are sincerely invited to join my community Singular House.
