# 150 — 2024 Yearly Themes
URL:: https://share.snipd.com/episode/459f731e-6647-4abc-b45e-e544df1695fc
Author:: Cortex
## Highlights
> Episode AI notes
> 1. Themes serve as overarching tools to guide decision-making and shape daily actions
> 2. Doing a minimum amount of work on weekends can help the brain relax and make the day more enjoyable
> 3. The concept of the missing middle refers to the phenomenon of middle-range products being pushed out of the market over time
> 4. In YouTube creation, creators are often pushed towards either the low end or the high end of the market
> 5. There is a growing trend towards both long and short-form content, indicating a shift in content preferences towards extremes
> 6. The continuous growth of platforms like YouTube has delayed the phenomenon of the 'missing middle'
> 7. Leaning into high-effort content can be more rewarding in the long run
> 8. A quality of life release focuses on making small improvements to life without major changes ([Time 0:00:00](https://share.snipd.com/episode-takeaways/5efae085-5a7a-4d6c-abc1-96fddeaf3165))
> Flexible and guiding nature of themes compared to resolutions
> Summary:
> Themes serve as overarching tools to guide decision-making and shape daily actions, as opposed to being specific goals. They help in making decisions by providing a framework for prioritizing actions and choices. For example, choosing a theme like 'year of family' can influence decisions in favor of spending more time with family and prioritizing activities that benefit family relationships.
> Transcript:
> Speaker 1
> The key defining feature is that it is not a goal. If it's not a goal, what is it? And I like to think of a theme as an overarching tool that you are using to help guide your thinking over the course of the year. Because what happens? You're just like living your daily life. You're doing these things. In every day, you've got a hundred million decisions to make about whatever. And with a theme, you're trying to help shape those decisions. Just as an example, like let's say you pick like, oh, this is year of family. It helps shape in those moments that if there's like a tiebreaker between deciding something one way or another, you should lean in the direction that benefits your family or that has You spending more time with your family. ([Time 0:02:40](https://share.snipd.com/snip/45e14522-a7f2-49b5-938c-e0ff90d9e7c5))
> Minimum amount of work on weekends can help you relax
> Summary:
> Doing a minimum amount of work in the morning on weekends, such as exercising and an hour of writing, can help the brain relax and make the rest of the day more enjoyable and relaxing. This habit allows for better relaxation and enjoyment of weekend activities, leading to a more fulfilling weekend overall.
> Transcript:
> Speaker 1
> I did learn a kind of personal lesson with regards to happiness and particularly working on videos which was weekends are important but I can enjoy a weekend day much more if I have done What I think is like the minimum possible amount of work first thing in the morning on that day and so what I've also just gotten into the habit like when I talked about exercising every Day it's like okay even when it is the weekend and my wife and I have planned like oh we're going to go somewhere later in the day I'm still going to get up pretty early we're going to do exercise And I'm going to do like an hour of writing and I kind of learned like oh this lets my brain really just relax and enjoy the rest of the day it sounds weird but doing one hour of work on a weekend Day made that weekend day more relaxing than if I hadn't done that single hour okay it was just a bit like oh my brain can actually let go of a thing so that was kind of something that I learned About myself this year ([Time 0:46:59](https://share.snipd.com/snip/1046d890-19c5-4d23-9f6a-87eb997edcb3))
> The Missing Middle in Economics
> Summary:
> In economics, the concept of the missing middle refers to the phenomenon where over time, the variety of products in the middle price range of a market diminishes. This is influenced by factors such as economies of scale, which provide advantages for producing a large number of items compared to a small number, leading to the middle-range products being phased out in the market over time.
> Transcript:
> Speaker 1
> We've kind of touched on an idea in economics which is called the missing middle now for actual students of economics I'm gonna kind of like mix together a bunch of different concepts Under this header uh don't worry about it and so people will recognize this phenomenon of in any market for any kind of product the longer that market exists the more products in the middle Get pushed out so if you rewind the furniture market to however it was 50 years ago you could find a wider variety of products at different prices you're looking for a chair well you can Get a cheap chair you can get a fancy chair and you can also get good value in the middle chair but as you start turning that dial over time it becomes harder and harder to find the product In the middle there isn't a single good reason for why does this happen it's more like there's a bunch of things that contribute to this effect one of the things that contributes to this Effect is just economies of scale you get really big advantages from producing a huge number of chairs and you don't get good economic advantages from producing a small number of chairs ([Time 0:53:02](https://share.snipd.com/snip/3d62796d-cfce-49da-8be4-e5288089ddc9))
> Getting pushed to one end or the other in YouTube creation
> Summary:
> In YouTube creation, creators are pushed towards either the low end or the high end of the market over time. This phenomenon is not limited to physical products but also applies to the entirety of the entertainment industry.
> Transcript:
> Speaker 1
> You can go for the low end of the market or you can go for the high end of the market but if you go for the middle of the market you will almost certainly find yourself pushed towards one end Or the other over time now what i hadn't really fully considered before is that this is not just constrained to physical things it is also true for the entirety of the entertainment industry ([Time 0:54:54](https://share.snipd.com/snip/2f6d2d4a-61cc-44f5-b11f-6d010e1395da))
> Push towards long and short content
> Summary:
> There is a growing trend towards both long and short-form content. While the push towards short content, exemplified by platforms like TikTok and Shorts, is more evident, there is also an equivalent push towards long-form content. The trend is towards high-effort and long or low-effort and short content, indicating a shift in content preferences towards extremes.
> Transcript:
> Speaker 1
> There's a push towards long and then on the opposite end there's a push towards short which i think is the more obvious one to people people know like tick tock and shorts right there's A push towards really brief content but it's not as obvious to people that there's an equivalent push towards really long content so now we have a sort of two-way axis here of which kinds Of content are being increasingly favored over time and it's things that are high effort and long low effort and short or you can do it's low effort and long or it's high effort and short Any of those extremes are where everybody is getting pushed ([Time 0:57:22](https://share.snipd.com/snip/d7b666f5-6e6c-4345-8af8-9bf920952603))
> Maximization of Human Hours Spent on Media Consumption
> Summary:
> The phenomenon of the 'missing middle' has been delayed due to the continuous growth of platforms like YouTube, which led to an increasing number of views and human hours spent on media consumption. The pandemic artificially boosted this growth but ultimately, the limit of human hours that can be spent on media is being approached, as seen in the Netflix CEO's view of sleep as their prime competitor.
> Transcript:
> Speaker 1
> We can functionally think of it this way that the number of human hours that can be spent on watching youtube right has basically been maximized yeah so here's one of the things like why Hasn't the missing middle phenomenon weird its head sooner the reason it hasn't reared its head sooner is because youtube was growing and that growth allowed just an increasing number Of views an increasing number of human hours to be spent on like whatever is there i think this is also where like yeah when the pandemic hit i think that growth was at its end and then the Pandemic kind of artificially hid that by massively exploding the number of hours that were available to people right but that growth and that artificial bumper over you know it's Kind of like uh famously the Netflix CEO years ago said like they view their prime competitor as sleep yeah it's like boy if you really think about what that means that's really horrifying But it's getting at the same idea that they've kind of like optimize the number of hours that a person is going to spend watching Netflix and so the only way to increase that number is to Like push into people's sleep ([Time 1:03:20](https://share.snipd.com/snip/260df83f-6254-4297-a615-533b7c569ad3))
> Grey has leaned into high effort content
> Summary:
> Content that causes the most pain to create is the most rewarding in the long run, so Grey has fully embraced this approach. This year, he has leaned into creating high-effort content, as evidenced by the significant increase in effort per minute over the years of his career.
> Transcript:
> Speaker 1
> I've really realized like the videos that i hate the most and cause me the most pain are the ones that i am the most happy to have made so i'm just totally leaning into that i'm just going To lean into this thing and that's what i've been doing all year is leaning into look on average over the years of my career like the average amount of effort per minute and hours per minute Has totally just gone up ([Time 1:15:56](https://share.snipd.com/snip/fbdb8bef-82bb-4328-9bc1-ee3da5405990))
> Year of Quality of Life release
> Summary:
> Seeking inspiration from video games, the speaker aims for a 'quality of life' release year, focusing on making numerous small improvements to life rather than major changes. Embracing the concept of making things smoother and easier without adding significant new elements.
> Transcript:
> Speaker 1
> I am inspired by a thing that happens in video games they'll have a bunch of releases they go oh here's a bunch of new features to play with oh great another thing another release comes Out and you go ah a whole new set of mechanics that's amazing another release comes out oh here's a whole new kind of army or units to play with fantastic then sometimes they go this is a Quality of life release we haven't added anything we've just made a lot of things easier and i thought that's what i want my theme to be i want this year to be a quality of life release there's Nothing major here there's just a lot of little things that i want to make smoother in my life ([Time 1:35:57](https://share.snipd.com/snip/971e9972-3164-4518-91f5-4c29709ce76c))
---
Title: 150 — 2024 Yearly Themes
Author: Cortex
Tags: readwise, podcasts
date: 2024-01-30
---
# 150 — 2024 Yearly Themes
URL:: https://share.snipd.com/episode/459f731e-6647-4abc-b45e-e544df1695fc
Author:: Cortex
## AI-Generated Summary
None
## Highlights
> Episode AI notes
> 1. Themes serve as overarching tools to guide decision-making and shape daily actions
> 2. Doing a minimum amount of work on weekends can help the brain relax and make the day more enjoyable
> 3. The concept of the missing middle refers to the phenomenon of middle-range products being pushed out of the market over time
> 4. In YouTube creation, creators are often pushed towards either the low end or the high end of the market
> 5. There is a growing trend towards both long and short-form content, indicating a shift in content preferences towards extremes
> 6. The continuous growth of platforms like YouTube has delayed the phenomenon of the 'missing middle'
> 7. Leaning into high-effort content can be more rewarding in the long run
> 8. A quality of life release focuses on making small improvements to life without major changes ([Time 0:00:00](https://share.snipd.com/episode-takeaways/5efae085-5a7a-4d6c-abc1-96fddeaf3165))
> Flexible and guiding nature of themes compared to resolutions
> Summary:
> Themes serve as overarching tools to guide decision-making and shape daily actions, as opposed to being specific goals. They help in making decisions by providing a framework for prioritizing actions and choices. For example, choosing a theme like 'year of family' can influence decisions in favor of spending more time with family and prioritizing activities that benefit family relationships.
> Transcript:
> Speaker 1
> The key defining feature is that it is not a goal. If it's not a goal, what is it? And I like to think of a theme as an overarching tool that you are using to help guide your thinking over the course of the year. Because what happens? You're just like living your daily life. You're doing these things. In every day, you've got a hundred million decisions to make about whatever. And with a theme, you're trying to help shape those decisions. Just as an example, like let's say you pick like, oh, this is year of family. It helps shape in those moments that if there's like a tiebreaker between deciding something one way or another, you should lean in the direction that benefits your family or that has You spending more time with your family. ([Time 0:02:40](https://share.snipd.com/snip/45e14522-a7f2-49b5-938c-e0ff90d9e7c5))
> Minimum amount of work on weekends can help you relax
> Summary:
> Doing a minimum amount of work in the morning on weekends, such as exercising and an hour of writing, can help the brain relax and make the rest of the day more enjoyable and relaxing. This habit allows for better relaxation and enjoyment of weekend activities, leading to a more fulfilling weekend overall.
> Transcript:
> Speaker 1
> I did learn a kind of personal lesson with regards to happiness and particularly working on videos which was weekends are important but I can enjoy a weekend day much more if I have done What I think is like the minimum possible amount of work first thing in the morning on that day and so what I've also just gotten into the habit like when I talked about exercising every Day it's like okay even when it is the weekend and my wife and I have planned like oh we're going to go somewhere later in the day I'm still going to get up pretty early we're going to do exercise And I'm going to do like an hour of writing and I kind of learned like oh this lets my brain really just relax and enjoy the rest of the day it sounds weird but doing one hour of work on a weekend Day made that weekend day more relaxing than if I hadn't done that single hour okay it was just a bit like oh my brain can actually let go of a thing so that was kind of something that I learned About myself this year ([Time 0:46:59](https://share.snipd.com/snip/1046d890-19c5-4d23-9f6a-87eb997edcb3))
> The Missing Middle in Economics
> Summary:
> In economics, the concept of the missing middle refers to the phenomenon where over time, the variety of products in the middle price range of a market diminishes. This is influenced by factors such as economies of scale, which provide advantages for producing a large number of items compared to a small number, leading to the middle-range products being phased out in the market over time.
> Transcript:
> Speaker 1
> We've kind of touched on an idea in economics which is called the missing middle now for actual students of economics I'm gonna kind of like mix together a bunch of different concepts Under this header uh don't worry about it and so people will recognize this phenomenon of in any market for any kind of product the longer that market exists the more products in the middle Get pushed out so if you rewind the furniture market to however it was 50 years ago you could find a wider variety of products at different prices you're looking for a chair well you can Get a cheap chair you can get a fancy chair and you can also get good value in the middle chair but as you start turning that dial over time it becomes harder and harder to find the product In the middle there isn't a single good reason for why does this happen it's more like there's a bunch of things that contribute to this effect one of the things that contributes to this Effect is just economies of scale you get really big advantages from producing a huge number of chairs and you don't get good economic advantages from producing a small number of chairs ([Time 0:53:02](https://share.snipd.com/snip/3d62796d-cfce-49da-8be4-e5288089ddc9))
> Getting pushed to one end or the other in YouTube creation
> Summary:
> In YouTube creation, creators are pushed towards either the low end or the high end of the market over time. This phenomenon is not limited to physical products but also applies to the entirety of the entertainment industry.
> Transcript:
> Speaker 1
> You can go for the low end of the market or you can go for the high end of the market but if you go for the middle of the market you will almost certainly find yourself pushed towards one end Or the other over time now what i hadn't really fully considered before is that this is not just constrained to physical things it is also true for the entirety of the entertainment industry ([Time 0:54:54](https://share.snipd.com/snip/2f6d2d4a-61cc-44f5-b11f-6d010e1395da))
> Push towards long and short content
> Summary:
> There is a growing trend towards both long and short-form content. While the push towards short content, exemplified by platforms like TikTok and Shorts, is more evident, there is also an equivalent push towards long-form content. The trend is towards high-effort and long or low-effort and short content, indicating a shift in content preferences towards extremes.
> Transcript:
> Speaker 1
> There's a push towards long and then on the opposite end there's a push towards short which i think is the more obvious one to people people know like tick tock and shorts right there's A push towards really brief content but it's not as obvious to people that there's an equivalent push towards really long content so now we have a sort of two-way axis here of which kinds Of content are being increasingly favored over time and it's things that are high effort and long low effort and short or you can do it's low effort and long or it's high effort and short Any of those extremes are where everybody is getting pushed ([Time 0:57:22](https://share.snipd.com/snip/d7b666f5-6e6c-4345-8af8-9bf920952603))
> Maximization of Human Hours Spent on Media Consumption
> Summary:
> The phenomenon of the 'missing middle' has been delayed due to the continuous growth of platforms like YouTube, which led to an increasing number of views and human hours spent on media consumption. The pandemic artificially boosted this growth but ultimately, the limit of human hours that can be spent on media is being approached, as seen in the Netflix CEO's view of sleep as their prime competitor.
> Transcript:
> Speaker 1
> We can functionally think of it this way that the number of human hours that can be spent on watching youtube right has basically been maximized yeah so here's one of the things like why Hasn't the missing middle phenomenon weird its head sooner the reason it hasn't reared its head sooner is because youtube was growing and that growth allowed just an increasing number Of views an increasing number of human hours to be spent on like whatever is there i think this is also where like yeah when the pandemic hit i think that growth was at its end and then the Pandemic kind of artificially hid that by massively exploding the number of hours that were available to people right but that growth and that artificial bumper over you know it's Kind of like uh famously the Netflix CEO years ago said like they view their prime competitor as sleep yeah it's like boy if you really think about what that means that's really horrifying But it's getting at the same idea that they've kind of like optimize the number of hours that a person is going to spend watching Netflix and so the only way to increase that number is to Like push into people's sleep ([Time 1:03:20](https://share.snipd.com/snip/260df83f-6254-4297-a615-533b7c569ad3))
> Grey has leaned into high effort content
> Summary:
> Content that causes the most pain to create is the most rewarding in the long run, so Grey has fully embraced this approach. This year, he has leaned into creating high-effort content, as evidenced by the significant increase in effort per minute over the years of his career.
> Transcript:
> Speaker 1
> I've really realized like the videos that i hate the most and cause me the most pain are the ones that i am the most happy to have made so i'm just totally leaning into that i'm just going To lean into this thing and that's what i've been doing all year is leaning into look on average over the years of my career like the average amount of effort per minute and hours per minute Has totally just gone up ([Time 1:15:56](https://share.snipd.com/snip/fbdb8bef-82bb-4328-9bc1-ee3da5405990))
> Year of Quality of Life release
> Summary:
> Seeking inspiration from video games, the speaker aims for a 'quality of life' release year, focusing on making numerous small improvements to life rather than major changes. Embracing the concept of making things smoother and easier without adding significant new elements.
> Transcript:
> Speaker 1
> I am inspired by a thing that happens in video games they'll have a bunch of releases they go oh here's a bunch of new features to play with oh great another thing another release comes Out and you go ah a whole new set of mechanics that's amazing another release comes out oh here's a whole new kind of army or units to play with fantastic then sometimes they go this is a Quality of life release we haven't added anything we've just made a lot of things easier and i thought that's what i want my theme to be i want this year to be a quality of life release there's Nothing major here there's just a lot of little things that i want to make smoother in my life ([Time 1:35:57](https://share.snipd.com/snip/971e9972-3164-4518-91f5-4c29709ce76c))