Sugar free gurus

Learn from people you like

I’m big into my little, pink substack site that I’ve laid down on aidan100.com

Maybe I’m just up myself, but I reckon it’s rippin. I dig my black and white photos and my ranty, opinionated blogs on what I take as good and bad about marketing.

It’s a whole lotta fun.

I’ve been a pay pig to people on Substack before. But I’ve never had my own account.

Since starting one I’ve found myself on the ‘notes’ timeline. You know, the Twitter-like section of the platform.

So far, I’m pretty apathetic to it.

Admittedly, I don’t follow many people. But goddamn my “for you” tab is a circle jerk from hell.

Nothin’ but accounts dishing out spiritually vain advice and commentary. A bunch of goofballs yelling at everybody and tryna tell ‘em how to live their life.

It’s like a guru dumpster fire.

I’ve decided to stay away. At least as best as I can.

Go back to my books and the content from people I already like.

BOSS is someone that I like and follow. However, I know him from Twitter.

And I remember Naval.

For me he is a prime case of a sugary guru.

You hear him speak the first few times and it comes across as flavourful and nutritious. But the taste fades fast.

I’ve been online for a long time. And I’ve been a big time reader for even longer. I like to think I’ve refined my ways on choosing who to follow and who to ignore.

Easily the best bet is narrowing the list. Stick to your tried and tested.

I’ve mentioned my subscription-free marketing mastermind before: Carlton, Settle, Bap, Halbert, McCarthy, Dillon, Kennedy, DHH.

I may add Seth Godin to the crew. I fancy his takes and have done for ages. But he’s a lil less spicy than the others.

When it comes to bringing a new voice into my world though, I go old school…

Are they saying something interesting AND would I like to hang out and have a beer with them?

Ok, I don’t drink anymore. But the logic holds.

For me, Naval just comes across like an up-his-own-ass Indian dude who accidentally got rich. And now he’s assumed this means that he gets to pontificate on anything and everything.

What exactly did he do again? Was it Angel List or something?

The vibe I get is that he put down a few bets and some paid off. Could have just as easily gone the other way and we’d have never seen his noggin on Youtube.

Butttt…

Whatever. It doesn’t matter. I can’t imagine myself enjoying his company. We’re too unalike.

To me, he’s just a goofy, Indian nerd who got a couple of bucks in his bank and decided that somehow made him cool.