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The Idea
I won't lie but numbers are important to me. I care about how many people read my newsletters, and how many readers I have.
Of course, I want more people to read my newsletters, thus numbers by default seem important.
It is the same with most people if not everyone. You may have posted something on Instagram or Facebook and want more people to comment or like it.
Doesn't 100 likes feel good (even if subconsciously)?
I bet it is.
It is also because society values numbers.
Let's say you are planning to buy a new laptop. You finalized two among many. Although both are almost equally good, you will perhaps buy one which has more ratings or reviews.
Or suppose you are willing to subscribe to a newsletter. You finalized two after some research. One of them has 500 subscribers and another has 5000 subscribers.
Which one you are gonna subscribe to?
If you are like most people, you will subscribe to the one with more subscribers even if the former one appeal more to you.
In psychology, these phenomena are known as social proof.
Social proof to a certain extent is perhaps useful. People's opinions and what they prefer sometimes help you to take the right decision.
But most often than not we prioritize people's opinions over our own preferences.
It actually requires courage to choose something because you like that not because people have positive opinions about something.
This is a very subtle thing. You may think you make your decisions, but subconsciously, people's opinions have a greater impact on your decision-making than what you think.
This is getting worse in today's fast internet age.
I later realized that there is no point just obsessing over numbers. Quality is what we must seek over just quantity.
I may have more than 1000 newsletter subscribers but in reality, only 300 people care about what I write every week.
I may have 20 general friends, but only 5 friends care about my life and goodwill.
Numbers truly mislead us. General fame is extremely overrated. It is way better to be appreciated by a handful of intelligent people than to be famous among thousands of followers.
Thousands or millions of followers on social media mean nothing. They don't care about you or what you do in life. You are just a commodity in social media.
That's one of the reasons I always wanted to connect with people with my own platform.
A newsletter is one of the ways for me to do that. I want you and myself to feel like humans with emotions not commodities for entertainment.
I want to build a community where people feel appreciated and human-like and don't get misled by numbers.
Care about those who care about you. Don't run blindly behind numbers. Connect to real people not just to mere numbers
P.S: If you like my letters, please spare a minute to review it by clicking the link.
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