The aspect of your work to care about the most is replay value. How many times do people keep coming back? Number of replays, rereads, and repeat purchases are proxies for high resonance. On that note, I wish more writing platforms let you see in aggregate how many first-time readers visited again and how spaced out their visits were. If they can still look past the known plot and imperfections in your work, you’re on to something.
i think this is a reasonable proxy for some stuff people generally care about, but definitely faulty as a north star.
some negative examples:
gambling, alcohol, anything addictive
local optima (e.g. your existing userbase would like your product less if you made X change, but you would reach way more people/reach a different set of people and help them more/etc if you made X change)
some products don’t make sense to have repeat customers, e.g. life insurance policies
1 and 3 are not the kind of work I had in mind when writing this take. I see your second point, but I’d want to counter with the fact that what got you from Level 1 to Level 2 won’t be the same thing as what gets you to Level 3 (this is the natural cost of scale). You may outgrow some initial users, but this can be compensated by a low overall churn. Most won’t leave unless your core offering has drastically pivoted.
Work developed through artistic value and/or subjectivity (songs, books, movies, speeches, paintings, consumer products). My point is the greatest works stand the test of time and are typically studied/appreciated over the years. Ex’s like Paul Graham’s essays, albums from decades before, or even the minimalistic design of Apple. If people keep coming back, it got something right and was likely ahead of its time. Compared to other metrics (total impressions or number of comments), repeat behavior tells a less noisy story about the quality of the work. Level, 1, 2,3 were arbitrarily chosen. What I meant was when you move from something early-stage to mainstream, you have to let go of some of the beliefs or ideas that may have garnered your first fans.
I agree with your negative examples, but those are hardly the kind of businesses I’d ever want to work in.
Work developed through artistic value and/or subjectivity
thanks for clarifying! so, to be clear, is the claim you’re making that: work that has artistic or otherwise subjective aims/values can find a measurement of its value in the extent to which its “customers” (which might include e.g. “appreciators of its art” or “lovers of its beauty”) keep coming back.
does that sound like an accurate description of the view you’re endorsing, or am i getting something wrong in there?
The aspect of your work to care about the most is replay value. How many times do people keep coming back? Number of replays, rereads, and repeat purchases are proxies for high resonance. On that note, I wish more writing platforms let you see in aggregate how many first-time readers visited again and how spaced out their visits were. If they can still look past the known plot and imperfections in your work, you’re on to something.
i think this is a reasonable proxy for some stuff people generally care about, but definitely faulty as a north star.
some negative examples:
gambling, alcohol, anything addictive
local optima (e.g. your existing userbase would like your product less if you made X change, but you would reach way more people/reach a different set of people and help them more/etc if you made X change)
some products don’t make sense to have repeat customers, e.g. life insurance policies
1 and 3 are not the kind of work I had in mind when writing this take. I see your second point, but I’d want to counter with the fact that what got you from Level 1 to Level 2 won’t be the same thing as what gets you to Level 3 (this is the natural cost of scale). You may outgrow some initial users, but this can be compensated by a low overall churn. Most won’t leave unless your core offering has drastically pivoted.
what kind of work did you have in mind when writing this take?
what do you mean by Levels 1, 2, or 3? i have no idea what this is in reference to.
Work developed through artistic value and/or subjectivity (songs, books, movies, speeches, paintings, consumer products). My point is the greatest works stand the test of time and are typically studied/appreciated over the years. Ex’s like Paul Graham’s essays, albums from decades before, or even the minimalistic design of Apple. If people keep coming back, it got something right and was likely ahead of its time. Compared to other metrics (total impressions or number of comments), repeat behavior tells a less noisy story about the quality of the work. Level, 1, 2,3 were arbitrarily chosen. What I meant was when you move from something early-stage to mainstream, you have to let go of some of the beliefs or ideas that may have garnered your first fans.
I agree with your negative examples, but those are hardly the kind of businesses I’d ever want to work in.
thanks for clarifying! so, to be clear, is the claim you’re making that: work that has artistic or otherwise subjective aims/values can find a measurement of its value in the extent to which its “customers” (which might include e.g. “appreciators of its art” or “lovers of its beauty”) keep coming back.
does that sound like an accurate description of the view you’re endorsing, or am i getting something wrong in there?
yes that’s basically it, thanks!