For centuries, mass production has shaped the world. The industrial age gave us egalitarian products. Products became equal for everyone. Whether you’re Elon Musk or an average Joe, you’re streaming the same Netflix, wearing mass-produced clothing, and using the same iPhone. That’s the hallmark of the commodity economy: when everything is the same, the cheapest wins. But that era is coming to an end. We’re stepping into a new economy. Where creativity and technology merge to create ultra-personalised experiences. Instead of mass-produced “good enough” products, people will demand things that feel like they were made just for them. just for them. This is the rise of the Consumer-to-Consumer Economy, where the most valuable creations will be those that no one else can replicate. Consumer-to-Consumer Economy Take music. Platforms like Spotify already curate playlists based on your listening habits, but that’s just the surface. Imagine a future where songs aren’t just recommended to you—they’re generated for you. AI composers could create music that adapts to your mood in real time, shifting melodies to match your energy levels. Every song, a personal soundtrack—unique to the moment, unique to you. for you. I worked on a project like this in the past (clyrics) allowing you to personalize the lyrics of your music, and I'm building Podpilot, automatic podcasting using your own voice, with personalization features coming soon. (Sign up link for podpilot is at the end of the letter). The same shift is happening in education. Right now, courses are mass-produced, recorded once, and sold to millions. But soon, AI-driven tutors will design learning paths tailored to how you think. Struggle with a concept? It rewires itself. Excel in an area? It pushes you further. No two students will have the same learning experience. you Fashion, food, fitness—everything is moving toward a world where products and services aren’t made for people like you but made specifically for you. The companies still clinging to the old model—selling generic, mass-market offerings—are fighting a losing battle. people like you for you. This is why copying what already exists is a dead end. In a world where AI and automation can replicate what’s known, the only way to win is to create something uniquely valuable—something that only you can bring into existence. you The End of Manufacturing and The Rise of Robofacturing The future belongs to those who can create something so unique that no one else can replicate it. We’re shifting from mass production to mass personalisation. Instead of one-size-fits-all, the most valuable products and services will be those tailored to the individual. They will be built from experience, deep understanding, and irreplaceable skill. In this Consumer-to-Consumer economy, premium isn't just about quality—it’s about uniqueness. It’s about solving problems in ways that only you can. Leveraging your perspective, creativity, and insights to create value that no machine, formula, or factory can copy. you What Makes Mass Personalization Possible? Leverage. Various forms of leverage are emerging as key enablers of personalization: AI & Machine Learning – These technologies analyze vast amounts of data to generate personalized recommendations at scale.
Decentralized Manufacturing – On-demand production methods like 3D printing and small-batch manufacturing enable customization at lower costs.
No-Code/Low-Code Tools – Allowing creators to build personalized solutions without deep technical expertise.
Behavioral Data-Driven Personalization – Platforms track user behavior to offer hyper-relevant experiences, making customers feel uniquely understood. AI & Machine Learning – These technologies analyze vast amounts of data to generate personalized recommendations at scale. AI & Machine Learning Decentralized Manufacturing – On-demand production methods like 3D printing and small-batch manufacturing enable customization at lower costs. Decentralized Manufacturing No-Code/Low-Code Tools – Allowing creators to build personalized solutions without deep technical expertise. No-Code/Low-Code Tools Behavioral Data-Driven Personalization – Platforms track user behavior to offer hyper-relevant experiences, making customers feel uniquely understood. Behavioral Data-Driven Personalization How to Create What No One Else Can So, how do you escape the commodity trap and build something valuable? 1. If Someone Can Teach You, They Can Replace You If someone can teach you a skill, they can teach someone else. That means your job, service, or expertise is replaceable—either by another person or, increasingly, by AI. replaceable Businesses don’t just want results—they want the fastest, cheapest, and most scalable way to get them. If someone else can deliver the same outcome faster, more predictably, and with less effort (see my article on The Value Pyramid), you become a commodity—and in a race to the bottom, the cheapest always wins. you become a commodity There are teachers and schools available, but they're teaching the same thing to everybody and when that happens…. When the same knowledge is mass-produced and distributed across millions, it ceases to be leverage—it becomes a race to the bottom. If you and I study the same engineering course, we leave with identical skills. You charge a client $10,000 to build something. But I’m hungrier, poorer, and just as capable, so I undercut you at $2,000. Then someone else, just as skilled, undercuts me for $500. Eventually, another person builds an AI that automates the whole thing for a $100 monthly subscription, and suddenly, we’re all obsolete. In a world of mass knowledge replication, the only real edge is what can’t be copied—your unique insights, proprietary systems, and irreplaceable positioning. 2. Seek Uncommon Knowledge If you know less than others, you'll lose. If you know what everyone else knows, it makes you generic. If you know what can't be taught to others, it makes you a genius. If you’re following the same formulas as everyone else, you’re not standing out—you’re blending in. And when knowledge becomes widely available, its value drops. This is why copying successful people doesn’t work. Most people imitate the actions taken at the top of the mountain rather than the climb it took to get there. the actions taken at the top of the mountain climb it took to get there By the time you catch on, the real opportunity has already passed. 3. Think from First Principles "I do not fear the man who has practiced 1,000 kicks.
I do not even fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.
I fear the man who understands the principles behind fatal kicks—because he may not need to kick you at all."
~ Praise James "I do not fear the man who has practiced 1,000 kicks. "I do not fear the man who has practiced 1,000 kicks. I do not even fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times. I do not even fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times. I fear the man who understands the principles behind fatal kicks—because he may not need to kick you at all." I fear the man who understands the principles behind fatal kicks—because he may not need to kick you at all." ~ Praise James ~ Praise James The best creators don’t just follow formulas because a guru told them to. They break them down, understand the underlying mechanics, and invent their own. Instead of memorising tactics, study principles. Reverse engineer everything. Reverse engineer everything. Read books written by original thinkers. If you want to learn economics, prioritise reading Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations over a YouTube video. Evolution? Charles Darwin. Etc. Seek feedback from nature (planes have to fly), free markets (people have to buy), and competition (militaries have to win). Every other feedback is hogwash, since you're creating something that didn't used to exist. I curated a list of timeless books by original thinkers—people who built empires by thinking from first principles. If you're serious about building valuable products from first principles, this one's for you. My time’s pretty fucking expensive—but you can get this for free: 👉 https://selar.com/firstprinciples 4. The Only Feedback That Matters Most advice is garbage because it’s generic. It’s the same recycled wisdom everyone else is following, which means it can only take you to the same mediocre results. The best insights aren’t found in advice—they’re discovered in action. Don’t follow words; follow results. Forget opinions—real feedback comes from reality. Nature doesn’t care about your feelings. The free market doesn’t care about your ideas. Competition doesn’t care about your excuses. If your work survives these three forces, it’s worth something. If not, it’s time to iterate or move on. 5. Name and Systematize Your Own Processes Patterns emerge in your work, whether you notice them or not. The most valuable creators extract frameworks from their success. They name these frameworks, refine them, and use them to automate and scale their output. automate and scale their output. When you create a system that others adopt, you become the reference point. You move from being a service provider to a thought leader. Instead of being hired for execution, you get paid for insights. you become the reference point. Moreover, you have limited brain power for decision-making. Productivity is deeply tied to biological constraints. Cognitive load theory explains that our brains can only handle a limited amount of information at once. Decision fatigue sets in when we make too many choices, leading to worse outcomes. Automation reduces these burdens, freeing mental bandwidth for high-leverage work. By designing systems that minimize unnecessary decision-making, you increase efficiency and creativity. It's one of the reasons you're lazy and inconsistent. Fix it with systems. Get some shit done with your eyes closed. I have a product that helps with creating sellable systems, you can Pre-Order it here. Pre-Order it here. 6. Stop Trying to Be Original—Start Remixing Copying someone else undermines authenticity and self-discovery. The solution to this is not to stop copying. It is to copy even more. Originality isn’t about avoiding influence; it’s about curating it. The best creators steal, remix, and refine until their work becomes something new. If you pull from one source, you’re a copycat. If you pull from 100, you’re a genius. Rappers reuse bars. Artists remix styles. The most "original" ideas are combinations of old ideas restructured in new ways. combinations of old ideas restructured in new ways The way to be original is to stop trying to be original. Instead, pull from as many sources as possible and combine them into something yours. The more inputs you remix, the more distinct your output becomes. pull from as many sources as possible How to Actually Be Original: How to Actually Be Original: Read fundamental things (like I hinted at #3)
Set goals (so that your brain filters the information and your R.A.S spots ways in which the information is relevant to those goals).
Allow yourself to get bored, go on long walks, and watch your brain unfold original and sparking ideas. The shower isn't magical; it just happened to be a moment when you weren't overloading your brain and it got bored.
Write down the ideas immediately. No, you don't need waterproof notepads for shower thoughts. Write them down before you think them through. Writing is how you trace your thoughts and amplify creativity.
Polish up what you've written and test the ideas against: Read fundamental things (like I hinted at #3) Set goals (so that your brain filters the information and your R.A.S spots ways in which the information is relevant to those goals). Allow yourself to get bored, go on long walks, and watch your brain unfold original and sparking ideas. The shower isn't magical; it just happened to be a moment when you weren't overloading your brain and it got bored. Write down the ideas immediately. No, you don't need waterproof notepads for shower thoughts. Write them down before you think them through. Writing is how you trace your thoughts and amplify creativity. Polish up what you've written and test the ideas against: Nature: Build it out, try to make the plane fly, try to make the code work.
Free markets: Is it a problem other people have? Do they appreciate the knowledge that you've uncovered on solving the problem? Are they paying money?
Competition: Is there a competition? How are you better than them? Nature: Build it out, try to make the plane fly, try to make the code work. Nature: Free markets: Is it a problem other people have? Do they appreciate the knowledge that you've uncovered on solving the problem? Are they paying money? Free markets: Competition: Is there a competition? How are you better than them? Competition: 7. Iterate Until It Works: This is an important point I want to drive home, keep iterating until it works. Most people try once or 20 times and give up. Then they convince themselves that it won't work (I'm guilty of going through this stage too), but real life is not like superhero movies or solo-leveling anime where the main character grows so much in a short amount of time. Think in 100s; let your counting be in 100s. If you usually give up after 5 iterations, do 500. You will make mistakes, avoiding mistakes by doing nothing is the only mistake that is dangerous. "A loser is someone who, after making a mistake, doesn't introspect, doesn't expoit it, feels embarassed and defensive rather than enriched with a new piece of information, and tries to explain why he made the mistake rather than moving on" - Nassim Taleb "A loser is someone who, after making a mistake, doesn't introspect, doesn't expoit it, feels embarassed and defensive rather than enriched with a new piece of information, and tries to explain why he made the mistake rather than moving on" - Nassim Taleb Don't worry whether people think you fail or if you're trying too hard (bad behaviour). The people that judge you for failing are poor and miserable. They have the same belief about failure, which keeps them poor. Successful people appreciate perseverant behaviour, and you would become like who you want to impress. James Dyson built 5,127 prototypes before perfecting his vacuum design.
Frank Sinatra: 1,200 songs, 209 hits (17%)
Babe Ruth: 8,399 attempts, 714 home runs (8.5%)
Pablo Picasso: 150K pieces, 1,170 hits (0.7%) James Dyson built 5,127 prototypes before perfecting his vacuum design. Frank Sinatra: 1,200 songs, 209 hits (17%) Babe Ruth: 8,399 attempts, 714 home runs (8.5%) Pablo Picasso: 150K pieces, 1,170 hits (0.7%) 90% of their output is NOT popular. keep going. 8. Make Your Work Uncopyable If your work can be reduced to a step-by-step guide, it can be copied. But what no one can copy is your personal experience, your intuition, and the way you connect seemingly unrelated dots. Lean into your personal obsessions, unique perspectives, and unconventional methods. Become so nuanced that replication is impossible. Become so nuanced that replication is impossible. The Future Belongs to the Creators Who Can’t Be Replaced The commodity era is over. Automation and AI will take over anything that’s formulaic. The only way forward is to create something that can’t be replicated—something deeply personal, uniquely valuable, and impossible to manufacture. Automation and AI will take over anything that’s formulaic. Don’t build what already exists. Build what only you can. That’s the new economy. And the ones who master it? They won’t just survive. They’ll own the future. If this article shifted your perspective, imagine what a weekly dose could do. Join value-driven creators rethinking creativity, productivity, and the new economy—plus get access to products, community, and exclusive insights straight to your inbox. Hit the subscribe button on HackerNoon so I can add you or drop your email here: https://crive.substack.com. Cheers.

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