Introducing BigNerve, a better “infinite game” for writers and thinkers
You may think that becoming a popular writer is the best way to earn a living, helping the world with your ideas. You are coached to write every day (build a habit, publish 30 in 30) in order to build a library of content for the world to discover. Copy/paste to all the major publishing platforms. Strive to insert your mind and point of view into the Long Tail of Internet content.
Your are advised that online writing is a game, and that to win at it — gain influence, wealth—is to find some niche that works, then do it again and again. Let metrics guide your writing topics. Double down. Monetize attention. Dare the Power Law.¹
This part is true: online writing has become a long game, with rules on how to build an audience, satisfy an algorithm. But with all creator platform economics, only a few winners earn financial freedom. You labor alongside hundreds of thousands of other thinkers hoping to be discovered, validated, and recognized.² Welcome to the content treadmill.
Why do you write? For clever, imaginative people like you, your day job inside an organization is possibly stultifying, and becoming a free-range writer could liberate you to become a professional thinker. (Meanwhile, other people with business, medical, or engineering training climb their career ladders, earning wealth, inside a system that seems to under-value and under-estimate your ideas.) A writing side-hustle seems like the best path out: become a solopreneur/marketer, gather attention, then sell your idea(s) as products. But what if there was another way?
If you’ve read James Carse’s book Finite and Infinite Games then you have encountered his concept of “A Vision of Life as Play and Possibility”. Finite games are serious and have rules and boundaries. Infinite games are playful and never end. The concept has merit.³
Life is an infinite Game because it is an ongoing contest of ideas. Ideas can be improved, iterated, tested; this process is the the way of innovation. Some ideas make the world better, and some impoverish it. People fight for ideas, driven by their ideals (idealis: “existing in idea”). Ideas are cheap; ideas change the world. (Which is it?)
Like all skills, insightful thinking (new ideas) can be honed. Reading injects new mental models into our brain (like vaccine mRNA), synthesizing new insights from our stored memes⁴. Writing helps to train our thinking, increasing our clarity as we explore and refine⁵—and even helps us create new models. Also, perhaps undervalued: asking Questions to evoke and explore possibilities. Read, Write, Question; Repeat.
The world yearns for new ideas, and ways to implement the best ones it already has. How do we find who’s asking the right questions, the kind that evoke new possibilities? How do we make a living doing it?
As of 2022, online writing is not the only way to play or win at the Game. A fertile imagination does not need to be bound by routine or social-media algorithms.
My team and I (perhaps your mental kindred) are building a think tank for the world, layered upon an infinite idea game. It embodies serious fun with purpose and impact. A new way to think, to write, to solve, to learn, and to earn. It’s called BigNerve. It’s a new platform and community for generating insight and solving problems using imagination. For established thought leaders, co-create with your readers; invite them to care, and give them reasons to care. For new writers, join in and help causes (and explore problems) as you develop your own insights and reputation.
So much of our collective creative bandwidth is currently wasted on treadmills and grinds. What if your ideas could help a cause, or inspire another new idea, or inspire a person? Join us at BigNerve.com. Ask a new question or enter a few ideas. See what you think.
As always, give your own feedback in my challenge question (co-create with me!).
It looks like a toy now, but as it matures, we can use it to change the world.
Your feedback is most welcome. I’ve pinged a few interesting thinkers I hope to hear from: Gunnar De Winter, Edward Robson, PhD, MFA, Patrick Metzger, Kevin Ervin Kelley, AIA, Michael Lodenquai, Shreya Badonia, Nick Wolny, Marina Krakovsky, Nicolas Cole, Shreya Badonia, Sahana. And anyone else who is writing to grow and to make an impact.
I’ll post again to describe our mission in detail, and to answer questions.
- A Power Law definition. A concise essay about it by Clive Thompson.
- Thoughts on book distribution from a Publishing guru.
- The book is a bit of a slog through layers of binary abstractions, but offers a useful meme.
- More on Richard Dawkins’ selfish genes and memes.
- Writing as a tool for thinking — concise essay from Gunnar here on Medium.
