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The Midlife Remix

Hi there, I’m Kirby Ferguson! I’m best known for the series Everything is a Remix. I’m revamping my work and my life. I’m seeking financial stability and personal fulfillment in the second act of life. I’m thinking aloud about all of this here. I might later revise, discard, or ridicule anything said.

NEW VIDEO

MULTIPLE DISCOVERY
The Curious Case of Simultaneous Invention

This is one of my favorite segments from the original Everything is a Remix series. It didn't fit in the new version, but I still wanted to update it and share it. Hope you enjoy and if so, please tell the world! Click here to watch.

Operator 11th Hour:
Month 1 Update!

I have one quarter (January - March) to establish a viable business producing educational content. I’ve dubbed this mission… Operation 11th Hour!

Month 1 is complete! Where did I land?

The short answer is: 65%. I got 65% of a bulls-eye for the course launch.

Sales were… fine. They were slightly good. And I had good success in a few additional areas:

• The Everything is a Remix newsletter had good growth.

• I’ve been consistent with producing two articles per week.

• The Remix site has gotten the most traffic since its heyday.

• I tried Google Ads as a small experiment… and got an actual sale!

• I started doing coaching and consulting and I’ve already arranged bookings for Month 2. I can help with ChatGPT training, video and creative consultation, and more. If you’re interested in working with me directly to help with education or your projects, reply to this email.

Overall, Month 1 sales results are mixed.

On the one hand, it’s a decent start and I’m still learning.

On the other hand, this was a launch, which is when you get to ride downhill for a bit. Month 2 will be all uphill, at least for the video course.

All in all, I need to regroup and find some high-leverage plays. Here are a couple upcoming attempts.

• Videos are returning to the YouTube channel! The first one is already up!

• I’m launching affiliate sales. If you register as an affiliate and sell a copy of my course via your link, you’ll make approximately fifty bucks. (Details TBD)

However, I’m not sure I’ve got anything on deck that can turn the ship quickly. So I called in the cavalry. I’m doing some commission work to relieve some short-term pressure. This will slow the progress on my business, but it’ll give me some financial runway and some space to reflect and re-orient.

Age of Deceleration

Part 2 of "Are We Creatively Losing It?

In my last installment, I asked this question: are we creatively losing it? Go read that before reading on.

The most obvious counter to this question is: but technology!

Yes, there is that. For example.

• AI, above all, is exploding.

• Augmented reality might be about to go mainstream with Apple’s Vision Pro.

• Even the widely despised crypto/web3 is vital, has exciting potential, and is currently worth a fortune. The real question is whether it can do anything or not.

Tech remains an innovative and dynamic realm… but it is definitely slowing down too.

Think about this.

It’s 2024. Let’s say you’re using a ten-year-old computer that you bought in 2014.

It’s a bit sluggish, it can’t run the latest operating system, but it does everything you need. It even pretty much looks like the new models. Sure, you want a new computer, but you’re fine.

Now hop in a time machine and set the dial for 2004.

A new iMac in 2004 looked like this.

But you’re not using that. Again, you’re using a ten-year-old computer. It’s 2004 but your computer is from 1994. That’s something like this.

This beast is an ancient relic. It’s a gray box with a huge, heavy monitor. It’s unbearably slow and has no storage space. You store your extra files on, yep, a stack of floppy disks.

You are miserable and desperate for an upgrade. You’re not fine.

Computer hardware was a runaway train in the eighties and nineties. But not anymore.

You can feel this. You can feel each new iPhone or new laptop being a smaller and smaller upgrade. More likely, you’re upgrading because the old thing is broken.

Tech is still briskly advancing and some areas, like AI, are explosive. But it is slowing down. Those of us who experienced the break-neck innovations of the eighties and nineties have witnessed this deceleration.

But the slowdown in tech is minor compared to the slowdown elsewhere in society. Next time up I’ll show you just how slow progress has gotten in the rest of human creativity.

See you next week, folks! Happy Monday!
Kirby

P.S. Did you know you can watch the first module of my ChatGPT course FREE? (That's 7 videos, over 25 minutes of content!)

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