Don't "find" your niche, "develop" it

The author of the article though feels a bit odd? What exactly is the endgame here? You divided a subreddit and created a new one, that's good for you and your "disciples" I guess...? Like what the hell I've had just read...?

For context, the previous podcast challenges the listener to try 30 days of creating impromptu audio content in the car--carpods--of something you're interested in.

These aspects of Scheper's presentation on zettelkasten spoke to me most:

- Positive correlation between handwriting and concept retention.

- Interacting with a "second brain" in a reflective way: reorganizing, rewriting, and reviewing.

- Writing in order to publish.

TLDR; More than a few years of my life rewritten to perspective of the article.

-- Zone of Fascination --

Some time ago, I discover a topic of fascination, full of challenging unsolved problems.

I dug in - improving iteratively - before hitting walls that nobody seemed to think were going to be magically solved. People wrote books and essays and Reddit rants with titles like "This is Not Going to be Magically Solved".

I decided a group of these problems were really the same problem. I came to this conclusion by my progress that seemed to have an asymptotic element, partly by theory, and some hopeful intuition about how "reality" "should" work.

The concept seemed clear to me, but capable people I knew in the field consistently said things like "Uh, no way", or "WTF", or "Good luck!". Or stared into my eyes and said nothing.

So I stopped asking. Over time a repetitive behavioral pattern emerged with friends and family: I say "Things are great. I am making progress." They say "So happy for you. Show it to me when it works."

-- Hero's Journey --

So I forged ahead with 100's of mostly quite small experiments. Probably 1000's. And lots of time thinking. And holding my head in my hands. And staring into the void and saying nothing.

I found organization bit by bit. Directions that the problems led me, through perplexing and perhaps illusory, paths. But I went down every path I thought might be real. As long as I was finding paths, and seeming to find organization, maybe I could do this.

First I got snowed by a seemingly endless series of sub-quests. Often just ruling out alternatives. But then found some truths, and I saw patterns that let me tame those.

Then, I got bogged down in trees of sub-quests. But finally I recognized enough patterns to tame those.

Next, I got stretched across flows, directed graphs of abstractions. But after a lot of running in circles and tangents, I managed to find a partially independent basis that helped me separate many complex things, into fewer simpler things.

And finally, I got lost in a graph of sub-quests, multi-faceted bootstrap problems, chickens and eggs, Orourobus todo lists, and Escher progress that wasn't progress.

But after wandering through many mazes of twisty little concepts, getting through houses of mirrors by feel, and inverting my own mind, I finally found the right approach. I knew I was close, as in nine months, by Christmas, maybe? Excitement!

And then, one day, only two weeks later, I got in. One last stumble, and I was staring at the complete design. Feelings of shock, satisfaction, and the surreal. A clear blueprint. Yay.

I can definitively say, "I am not Don Quixote!" Although he remains a hero.

Now I am building my niche, which is in fact a tool, and letting the constraints of the solution tweak the unformalized details into their perfectly formalized places.

-- Split the Congregation --

I have begun to start my congregation, one employee and customer/partner at a time. I suppose this is "forking the congregation" in slow motion.

I have bet it all. I am scarily insolvent. But the negative numbers have not caught up with me, and I solved my problem. I am strangely unworried. Happy. Friends and family are helping me bridge cash flow issues for the moment.

What is next? I have my first customer/partner. And other prospectives. Start slow, to move fast. Start small, to grow big. Stay focused to completely and overwhelming solve customer problems, one at a time.

If I do anything amazing it won't be evident for some time. No big congregation any time soon.

But I feel good. Like I knew that I would!