Today marks the end of my 7 year journey of producing philosophical content. The time spent was fulfilling in more ways than one but now I am moving on to bigger and better adventures.
In my early 20s, I explored many ideas and questioned everything. It didn't make much sense to stay within an echo chamber and never evolve my thinking. The 3 philosophers which have had the most influence over my thinking are Ayn Rand, Nietzsche, and Bruce Lee. All 3 have produced works that live on today well past their deaths. I wanted to follow in their footsteps. A philosopher is a meta-thinker, someone who thinks about thinking. However, a philosopher that no one hears isn't much of a philosopher.
I started How to not give a fuck and began creating content in March 2012. After about 6 months, I became "Reddit famous" and a lot of my material made it to their front page. Life was different now. I was once an emotionless robot that was now forced to be creative.
As Reddit grew, so did my following. Unfortunately, I began to face a dilemma that would continue to resurface repeatedly. Should I produce content of high quality or mass produce content for engagement? I decided to produce less content and experiment with new ideas to increase engagement. I tried creating different types of content and marketing in innovative ways. I tried to monetize by offering a cryptocurrency and selling shirts. Over 95% of the things I tried failed. But after 7 years, I am happy with what I created.
How to not give a fuck has received over 35 million pageviews. The reddit following has grown to over 300k members and continues to grow by an average of 100+ per day. Literally, hundreds of people thanking HTNGAF and some even saying it kept them from suicide. The community will continue to grow and I am excited to see where it goes over the next several years (decades?) without my active participation.