Osmosis Weekly #0011: Voice, Invisible Projects & CAPTCHA

Hey Osmotics,

Inside today's Osmosis Weekly...

• Featured Rabbit Hole: Finding Your Voice
• Growth Hacks: Invisible Projects
• Dumb Things to Share: CAPTCHA Sketch

Ship 30 for 30 is in full swing. I'm three of thirty "atomic essays" in. I can honestly say this is the warmest, most welcoming paid community I've been involved with so far this year.

And that's... really difficult to do.

Paid Communities Are Hard to Run

Think about it. You set up a paid community (maybe a private Slack server... or a Circle forum... or FB group). They're all paying you $50-$300/month for this "ecosystem" you've set up. Problem is – what's to stop them from finding friends and setting up their own Slack? Why would they keep paying you a monthly bill to hang out with their newfound friends?

That's the biggest challenge with paid communities. The value of the community is in your best users interacting with other users. You can get in there and moderate, add a few lessons, set up Zoom calls, maybe some "speed dating", or administer 1:1 meetings between random members.

But that still doesn't stop churn, does it?

What Ship 30 for 30 Does Different

What Ship 30 seems to do right is you're all doing a shared activity and supporting each other. My cohort has 436 members. That's 436 atomic essays being published on Twitter every day, and 436 members encouraging each other, and 436 members building their Twitter following together.

Most paid communities don't have this. Their best copy is, come hang out with like-minded individuals to share your stuff and we'll give each other advice.

Sure, some of them do fancy dinners, have guest speakers, and partake in all sorts of experiences (like ATVs, bowling, or whatever)... but there's just something about working on the same goals side-by-side.

Listen. I know. It's only been three days. This could all be the infatuation phase. Maybe I'll hate it in two weeks. But for now, I'm liking what's happening in Ship 30 for 30.

Here's the first "atomic essay" I posted:

If you'd like to see these "atomic essays" as I post them daily, follow me on Twitter. So far, you've missed one on Conan the Barbarian, and another on the Four Stories Every Pitch Needs. +

Growth Hacks Worth Checking Out...

This week: Pinned tweets, invisible projects and Larry King

So, basically "opt-in" copy?

On Twitter, there's something called a "pinned tweet". That's usually the first thing someone reads after checking out your bio. It's kinda like the "free report" opt-in, where you give up your email address to get valuable content... except here, you're showing value before they follow you. Josh Spector has compiled 23 great pinned tweets. Whether you use Twitter or not, going through this is still a worthwhile exercise. You can pick up some good ideas for engaging with your audience.

Invisible Projects Don't Get Done

So part of what makes Ship30 cool is it's very much a community where you read each others' atomic essays. This is quite possibly my favorite one so far. It's a great productivity hack:

A Tribute to Larry King From a Dear Friend

My good friend and Osmosis member, Matt Z. recently introduced me to Cal Fussman, the master interviewer behind Esquire's "What I've Learned" column. He also happens to have a podcast. I just listened to his tribute to Larry King. It is filled with joy, laughs, stories, anecdotes, and a life-well-lived. I cannot recommend this enough.

But also - you should all subscribe to Matt's newsletter, Cultish Creative. They're short, daily 250-word conversation starters... on life, on culture, on ideas. It's eclectic, like Osmosis. And two months in, I have not been disappointed. +

Dumb Things to Share With Loved Ones

Because we're not animals. We've evolved to share memes!

• Do you know what CAPTCHA stands for? Everyone hates them and they don't really work. In 2014, one of Google's algos got past them 99.8% of the time, destroying the humans' 33% success rate. Here's a fun history of Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart (CAPTCHA). And here's a funny sketch about it...

• The McDonald's Menu. Hey... I grew up in the 80s and never got one of these... I want one now. I like kitsch. (Thanks for sending this over, Alicja. And the sketch above too.)

• The Art of Foley. I love all behind-the-scenes stuff, but especially the film world. I mean, in what other time in history did we have thousands of people with talents of all sorts... spending hundreds of millions... working on a two-hour piece of art for months on end... just to entertain you for the price of a movie ticket?

Coming Soon(ish)...

• Breakthrough Advertising (1966) by Eugene Schwartz : 75% First Draft
• Trusted Advisor (1998) by David H. Maister : 0% Raw Notes
• The Hard Things About Hard Things (2014) by Ben Horowitz : 75% Read

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