this will be my second week posting random thoughts and lessons i have learned on founding a territory on SN. it is partly a (shameless) effort to draw attention to myself as a territory founder--as if you haven't had enough of that--but also intended to be place for me and other territory founders to lay out their thoughts and express how it has been going.

ok--so, before i get badgered by the techies on here for misusing this terminology, let me preface this by saying i am trying to be punny, (think of it like a "super" user, like a "super" awesome idea). so what do i mean? well, of all the life-hacks i've ever read, i think the best of them is to simply that of picking something you want to improve and doing it every day, without exception. as someone with a penchant for writing, keeping my cowboy hat on is a reminder that i ought to engage meaningfully with (for me that means writing) something every day. obviously, i do that on SN.

having my hat on is about holding myself accountable to my goals. you can do it too: figure out how to keep the hat on, and then do that after you've done whatever your goal is. maybe you want to learn something new, or complete a chapter in that book, or spend 10 minutes every day learning a language. great! first do it, then go on sn and earn your hat!¹

there is also the fact that you'll be spending and earning in bitcoin every day, which, although not necessarily granting you super-user status among more stodgy circles, it does count for using bitcoin as a medium of exchange. and that's kind of the point, right?

it has been said here before but i'll say it again, having a territory is by no means easy, nor is it a stream of 'passive income.' it is very clear to me the territory owners, and other stackers for that matter, who view themselves as custodians of SN. that's how i see it, anyway. its for this reason that, at the cost of being somewhat spammy/annoying, i do my best to get my territory in front of your eyeballs every day.

as talked about in Cody Ellingham's podcast today, people likely look for similar things in their online communities as those they seek in real life. there is no (good) community/territory without stewardship.

since being rebooted ~AI really raised the bar with an amazing newsletter that just came onto my radar this week. also notable are the longstanding bitcoin beginners' newsletter, the SN Saturday Newsletter, Books and Articles Weekly, the ~econ writing contest and check-ins and then there's obviously SNZ.

i'm sure there are other efforts that i am missing (please forgive the oversight), but these are but a few of the attempts from the more prominent territories/stackers to claim stewardship over their community.

it might also be self-evident that this territory thing is not free, and it is not really easy to turn a profit². so what's the point, you ask? why all this harping on about muses and such?

i find it rewarding. it has become a hobby and i feel good about it because i am putting a bit of my savings to use, and i can tell that i'm not the only one who gets some value out of it.

moreover, there are awesome writers around here that i get to read encourage and be encouraged by. personally, i've enjoyed contributing original writing to ~BooksAndArticles for some time, but i felt awkward putting pieces there that don't really fit into the category. is a personal memoir-style blog post a "book" or an "article"? it certainly isn't about bitcoin. do i dare call it ~art? eh. i wanted a place for my weird writing, and to read other peoples'! will i make money, probably not(?) will it cost me more than taking a writing course? also, probably not!

what an amazing effort from some legendary stackers to incentive fiction writing on SN. i'm hoping literature enthusiasts contribute by entering original work (and waiting until august to do so) or by cheering on entrants, leaving them comments or zapping them. it is an amazing opportunity to be seen and heard by other great writers and to (maybe) earn some sats in the meantime.

until august begins, for those eager writers who feel up for a challenge, the BEST under 400 week 2 is currently underway, so check it out, submit a post, submit another post if you want (there's no limit), zap a post, or, even better, leave a feedback comment to your favourite writer.

until next time,