A decade ago, “content” was scarce enough to be a strategy. Publish twice a week, be merely competent, and the algorithm carried you. That world is over. A machine can now produce a decent 1,000 words on anything in eleven seconds — which means decent words are worth exactly what they cost: nothing.
This is good news, though it doesn't feel like it yet. When the average becomes free, the premium moves to everything the average can't do. After a year of testing — on this blog, in the newsletter, and with founders I advise — here are the five moves that still work.
1. Have a scar, not an opinion
Anyone can summarise. Almost no one can say “here's what happened when I tried it, with numbers.” The scarcest sentence in 2026 is “I did this, and here's the receipt.” Publish your spreadsheets, your failed launches, your before-and-afters. Proof beats polish every time.
2. Take a position that costs you something
Free writing is agreeable writing — it offends no one and moves no one. A real position (“most morning routines are procrastination in a costume”) loses you some readers and earns you the rest. If everyone nods, you said nothing.
3. Show your face, literally
Video, voice, live rooms, in-person meetups — presence is unfakeable at scale. My most-shared piece this year wasn't an essay; it was a shaky phone video of my actual desk. People trust people they can see think.
4. Build the smallest viable audience
Stop writing for “everyone interested in productivity.” Write for left-handed pastry chefs who lift weights — metaphorically speaking. Specificity is a moat: a thousand true fans beat a hundred thousand skimmers, and sponsors know it.
5. Be a curator with a spine
Curation is the highest-leverage writing left. But lists are free; judgment isn't. Don't share “37 tools” — share the three you'd rebuy tomorrow and the thirty-four you'd delete. The Weekly Five works, I think, because every pick survived a week of my actual use.
The uncomfortable truth
None of this is faster than prompting a machine. It's slower, riskier, and occasionally embarrassing — that's precisely why it works. Scarcity moved up the stack: from words, to experience, to courage. Bring all three, and you'll never compete with free.
Next week: what “founder mode” actually looks like inside a 40-person company — notes from a month of sitting in on someone else's standups. Read it here.
Elias Varen
Author of The Open Week and host of The Elias Varen Show. Writing about work, craft, and technology.