Today, I sat down to write this article. Brewed a fresh cup of coffee. Put on my favorite writing music to get in the zone.

Annnnddd……

Nothing. A big fat zero.

That’s just how it goes sometimes.

The problem wasn’t that I didn’t have any ideas. The problem was, I didn’t want to write anything that has already been written. 

I didn’t want to add to the noise you’re already having to sift through each day. The random garbage you come across when checking your email, scrolling Twitter, listening to podcasts, and reading the news.

There’s a lot of junk out there.

So I resolved that, I’m not going to write if I’m only adding to that Symphony of Bullshit. 

And the symphony has grown quite loud.

For instance:

• More than 500 Million Tweets are published each day. 

• Roughly 170,000 new podcasts episodes are published each week.

• Over 4,400 New York Times articles are published each month (and newspapers are dead!)

• And 1.7 Million books are published each year. 

A truly shocking amount of information is out there, just waiting for us to tune in.

But just like with a radio, we can only be dialed in to one station at each time. Although sound waves are all around us, the vast majority of them will just pass us by.

So why add to the symphony?

Why create a new company, build a new product, or throw another rehashed idea into the mix?

Some ideas stick, and others pass us by

Some ideas hit us hard.

A fantastic book, a moving documentary, even a story told by a friend. These ideas connect with us deeply. Somehow, in the Symphony of Bullshit, a handful of ideas are able to stand out.

Why is that?

Well, has this ever happened to you?

You’re scrolling Twitter, and you read:

“Hey, if you don’t rest you’re going to get burned out!”

Wise words from the Twitter Gurus! 

You read this, and then you keep scrolling, going about your business as if nothing happened.  

Six months later, your Yoga teacher shares some soothing wisdom during your practice:

Hmm…. “Thats an interesting way to put it. If I don’t take care of my mind and body for the longterm, then all the success I will have achieved in life will be meaningless.”

You might consider the idea for a bit longer. Even reflect on some ways you can take better care of yourself……

Annndd it’s Monday. Fuck it, grind time. Let’s go!

Finally your best friend invites you to lunch. You both graduated college together, and both started working in the same field right out of school.

He has bags under his eyes, and is visibly drained.

You ask him what’s up:

WHAM!

You think: This guy is me! We’re best friends, we have the same interests, went to the same school, and work in the same field. If this could happen to him, it could happen to me!

You see yourself starting to slip down his same path, and you don’t like where it leads. You don’t want to dread going to work. You don’t want to scream at your son.

“Maybe I should back off a bit….?”

This is resonance, and resonance leads to revelation. 

When the same idea is said in three different ways, and only one of them sticks, we’ve hit a resonance.

Resonance cracks the shield we’ve created for ourselves. The shield that insulates us from the endless clatter of news anchors and influencers. When our shield comes down, a valuable message is allowed inside. 

Novelty is the lie that’s holding us back from creating.

I didn’t want to write anything today if it wasn’t something new. I wanted my idea to be shiny and fresh, one of a kind.

But the need for novelty is a handy excuse to do nothing.

It’s what prevents us from creating products, starting companies, and publishing our ideas. We don’t want to act until we have something new to say.

But novelty, is a lie.

Everything that can be said, has already been said. So if we wait until we have something truly unique to say, we won’t say anything at all. 

And that would be a shame.

Because we would miss out on an opportunity to resonate. 

It’s like waiting to grab lunch with our friend from college, except he never calls. Instead he stays home, and refuses to share his story.

We could go our whole lives without this resonant moment, just because our friend didn’t share. His version—of a tired old story—would stay locked inside. Our shield would stay up, and everyone would be worse off for it.

So what’s the alternative?

Share an old idea with new people!

Your voice has value, and that value can manifest in many different ways.

• It could be a new YouTube channel for reviewing tech.

• It could be a newsletter you start about finance.

• It could even be a new productivity app you’re creating.

Yes, there are thousands of YouTube channels, finance newsletters, and productivity apps. But you can do something that those who came before you can’t.

You can resonate with a very specific set of people. People who have heard an idea many times, but haven’t yet had their moment of revelation.

If you pierce even just one shield, and have your idea hit it’s mark, you’ve done a service to society.

Your people—the ones that only you can resonate with—are just waiting for your message to come along. They’re waiting for you to share an old insight, in a resonant way. 

So today I was stuck on what to write.

I looked at some of my notes, and noticed a catchy headline from a Reddit post. This entire article is a riff on that.

Although that post already exists—and this idea has been hashed out a thousand times before— it doesn’t render my take on the subject useless….

That is, of course, if it resonated with you.

—Zac

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