I run a $1,000,000+ cleaning company 100% remotely. And I franchise my system to 15 franchisees. Each paying a 6% royalty fee. Which is funny, because people HATE royalty fees. Until they see what it buys them…👀 Here's what you get when you buy into a franchise: 👇👇

The uncomfortable truth is that some beliefs are held for the same reason some people buy Rolexes: they look good in public. In the same way that many people buy expensive material possessions, not because they especially like the possession itself, but because they know it will impress other people, there are people who express luxury beliefs not simply because they believe them, but because they know those beliefs will bring them clout and status. So the motivation behind the luxury good and the luxury belief is often very similar. But many people convince themselves that their motives are completely sincere. Take a guy who buys a Lamborghini. If you ask him why he bought it, he might say, “Look, it makes me feel confident. I like driving it. It makes me feel good. That’s why I bought it. I’m not trying to impress anyone.” And I think part of you might suspect, “Well, all of that may be true. But I also think part of you likes the fact that when people see you in that Lamborghini, they think of you in a certain way.” The same thing can happen with luxury beliefs. People may sincerely believe what they are saying. But part of me thinks that, somewhere deep down, there is also a sense of satisfaction that comes from expressing a belief and having your peers, your social circle, and other similarly credentialed elites applaud you for it. They think, “What a compassionate, interesting, sophisticated person you are for holding that view.” A belief can be sincerely held while also conferring status to the speaker.

Is there an inverse incentive to publishing a book now? Prior to 2022, writing a book was a great way to cement your personal brand, generate leads, launch a political career, etc. It still can be... but massively diminished. People are not only reading less overall, they also distrust books written post-AI for obvious reasons. And now that books are used as training data for LLMs, we've created an environment where if you have insanely valuable niche expertise you are disincentivized to publishing a long form book for mass distribution. The revenue upside is greatly diminished, and you better protect your intellectual property keeping your best ideas to yourself, paywalled tightly, and self-distributed to (an implicitly narrower) audience. I don't think that's a good thing, tbc, but in "show me the incentives" framing its pretty clear what the outcome will be.