Before we begin, a few updates:
Kortex, the writing and second brain software we've been building, is seeing quite a few improvements this month:
- Desktop app (released yesterday with floating capture and docs)
- Light mode (releasing today)
- Mobile app (releasing this week)
- Offline mode (releasing this month)
- Voice transcription (this month)
- Sessions, images, and embeds in capture (this month)
- Kortex AI for editing, research, and speeding up your writing (this month)
Next month, we begin working on the library redesign so you can save any link or file, have it automatically transcribed, read and highlight anything across the web, and string it all together with AI.
If you want a new home for your writing, projects, ideas, and notes, this month is the month to do it. The price is increasing when AI features are released (we decided not to add on an additional price like Notion).
You can read about this month's plan or sign up here.
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Everyone wants to be an original thinker.
I did too.
As a teenager, I would watch lectures from people like Jordan Peterson and Alan Watts and stare in awe as they articulated their thoughts in a beautiful way.
Why couldn't I do the same? Was I not smart enough? Was I not old enough yet? No matter how much information I burned through in books or absorbed from lectures, it never seemed to help.
I had the thoughts in my head, but when it came time to articulate them, all that came out was a jumbled mess of half-baked ideas that could barely be understood after all of the stuttering.
When I first started writing, I would often stare at a blank page as the negative thoughts started to pile in. I had no idea why I was writing or what I was writing about, but I had some idea that I felt the need to share with the world.
Were the words just supposed to pop into my head?
Okay, I've got one sentence down… what now?
I'm sure you've felt the same way at some point in your life.
The problem, in my eyes, is that when you go to school, you don't learn how to think. You learn how to memorize and "rewrite things in your own words." As kids, deep down, we know how silly this is, so we do the bare minimum to get the work done.
But that's not how the real world works.
You aren't rewarded for thinking someone else's thoughts.
In fact, since your thoughts influence your actions, that's a great way to end up just like them. Do you want the same life as them? I'm guessing not.
I've been a writer now for almost 5 years. Not an academic writer. No English degree. Just a guy who puts his thoughts on the internet. Since many people enjoy those thoughts, I have a few tricks I can share.
If you want to be a better writer, creator, or speaker, or simply want to be respected for your mind—not your body or physical effort—you need to become an original thinker.
But sometimes, the secret to being original is not being original at all.
How To Form Your Own Opinion
You don't have your own opinion because your survival is dependent on agreeing with others' opinions.
Think about it.
You needed approval if you didn't want to be cast out of the "tribe."
You absorb the values from the environment you were raised in because you need them to survive.
This can get very messy very quick.
If your parents are set on you getting a degree, even if it's not the best decision for you, you will be pressured into being a good little student. If you don't, you may lose your parent's approval if they aren't open-minded.
Let's take a more dangerous example.
If your parents are racist and narrow-minded, they won't approve of you if you don't adopt that same racism. And you're just too young to know better from worse.In that scenario, they are much more likely to kick you out of the house or stop supporting you.
The mind is unforgiving in this manner. Once your worldview forms, it starts to reinforce itself through confirmation. Your mind sees within its structure, so you notice information that aids in the survival of that structure.
One last example. An even more dangerous one.
If you're raised in a Christian environment and tried to go to an underdeveloped part of the world, your beliefs could literally get you jailed or killed. It doesn't matter how "true" your beliefs are or how "wrong" the other ones are.
Makes sense, but what does this have to do with becoming an original thinker?
Simple:
You haven't been thinking independently for your entire life.
Become A Skeptic – Stepping Into The Mental Gym
Original thinking is difficult work.
That's why many people don't do it.
In today's world, it's even more difficult.
You don't just absorb the values, beliefs, identity, and worldview that your parents installed into you.
You absorb the ideas of the hundreds of thousands of people you are exposed to on the internet over the course of a few months.
Just because you don't live with your parents or go to school anymore doesn't mean you don't want approval and acceptance. You've just swapped tribes with the one you've found in school, online, or other social circles. You still want to be approved, but this time, it's by the digital group you belong to.
But that's not how you do anything great.
You need to step out of the nice cozy home your mind has adapted to and step into the mental gym.
When you first step into the gym, it's daunting. You don't want to go. You're afraid of embarrassing yourself. You are threatening the current structure of your mind that allows you to survive, unless that group you belong to encourages you to step in the gym.
The first step to becoming an original thinker is to reject any prior belief, ideology, value, or idea because when you absorbed them, you didn't question them. I don't care how "right" you think they are. If you didn't think them through from scratch, you can only assume they are wrong.
When I say reject everything, I mean everything.
You need a radically open mind if you want to think outside of the box you didn't know existed.
For all I care, you weren't born from your mother. You weren't there to see it, were you?
For all I care, every single thing you think is absolutely true is absolutely false.
How do you practice this?
By becoming a skeptic.
Not the type of skeptic you see on Reddit or in YouTube debates.
A true skeptic who is skeptical of their own skepticism.
Someone who is skeptical about one belief but not their own is not a skeptic. They're simply blind and dumb.
For to every account an equal account is opposed; and from this, we think, we come to hold no beliefs. – Sextus Empiricus
In other words, for every argument, there is an equally strong opposing argument. You can argue in any direction about any topic until you die and never come to a conclusion. Once you understand this, you suspend judgment and cease to hold firm beliefs.
This isn't to say that you should not act with conviction toward your goals. It means that you are willing to pivot without resistance once you are exposed to better information.
You practice skepticism in today's world by trying to prove yourself wrong.
If you're on social media, you'll be convinced of the "best" diet model, business model, and set of values to conduct your life and relationships.
People read a convincing post about the carnivore diet (or AI business model or life advice), get a dopamine hit because it aids in their survival, immediately search up the benefits of it, and condition themselves into a dogmatic worldview. It becomes their identity, and they'll ignore all truth to push their new religion on others.
Your job is to suspend judgment and attachment.
Your job is to question from all angles and research all perspectives.
Your job is to prove yourself wrong and understand every moving part of the argument.
From there, you can come to your own opinion. You are no longer bound by the mind you were programmed with.
But that's just the start.
How do you come up with original ideas?
How do you structure your ideas in a way that others value in your writing, speaking, and creative work?
What do you read to find deep ideas?
Let's talk about it.
5 Ways To Think Originally
Here's the thing:
Original thinking is largely a myth.
Becoming a (true) skeptic opens your mind to less limited thinking, but it doesn't guarantee that all of your thoughts will be absolutely original.
And that's okay.
Because original thinking is perception.
Perception is dependent on identity.
Identity is dependent on conditioning, values, beliefs, conscious or unconscious goals, and the rest.
Some people who read my book are mind-blown at its originality (not my words ;).
Others have left reviews saying it's "nothing new," and they've heard it all before.
Personally, I felt it was pretty unique. At least, it was to my mind. But that's just something you'll have to deal with when you decide to put your thoughts out into the world.
Certain identities, at certain points in their development, will see your ideas as original. Many won't. And that's fine.
Do you actually think all of Peterson's and Watts' ideas have never been said before? Or are they simply articulating a good idea in a way that a specific group of people perceive as great?
Now that we are skeptics, how do we discover, articulate, and create ideas that few people have heard before?
The answer is the key to most of your creative success as a writer, founder, or creator.
1) Say The Same Thing, But From Your Perspective
Most writers struggle because they feel as if they're saying what's already been said.
I know this because I teach writing in 2 Hour Writer and talk with writers and creators daily in the Kortex Discord.
Here's the thing:
Originality is less about saying something new and more about exploring existing ideas in a fresh way.
This takes effort. Mental labor. Endurance running for your psyche. You need to set aside time to think through an idea without distractions. Go on a walk.
Second, saying the same thing isn't bad.
The best advice in business is to "sell what's already selling but with your own twist."
You stick your hand in the river that's already flowing.
The same holds true with creative work. Certain ideas will always do well. It is smart to talk about them so you can get some traction.
The key is to talk about those ideas from a novel perspective.
Funnily enough, this is what will save creators from becoming irrelevant with the wave of AI content.
But how do you do that?
2) Read What Few People Have Before
The best ideas I've found are the ones collecting dust in little-known books, podcasts, videos, and posts.
The point:
Most people aren't original, they are just talking about ideas you haven't seen before.
If you're consuming the same information that everyone else is, it's no wonder you feel like you're saying the same thing as them.
Stop reading mainstream books.
Stop watching mainstream content.
Stop only getting your information from the algorithm.
You need to actively hunt for ideas.
Again, this takes effort. Most of that effort is going to be wasted. You aren't going to find the perfect book, video, or post with one Google search.
Go down more rabbit holes.
Avoid getting distracted.
Let one idea lead to another until you're in a place where few people go.
3) Connect Ideas From Different Disciplines
I get my best ideas when I want to write about one topic, like business, but study something completely different, like philosophy.
In fact, these usually turn into my most memorable writing and videos.
If you watch any of my most popular videos, you'll notice that I attempt to weave a business concept like "niching down" with another concept like ego development theory or identity.
I knew that "levels of awareness" in marketing were a thing, so when I came across the book Awareness by Anthony De Mello, it was pretty incredible how novel ideas started to spring up, which brought a new dimension to a boring business concept.
This is much easier to do in long from writing or video.
I've said this many times before, but if you are a creator who only makes short-form content, you're not building as much reputation as you think you are. There's a reason you remember the author or a life-changing book you read more than you remember the last viral TikTok you watched. It's because a book holds your attention for 8 hours while a post holds it for 5 seconds. You don't have enough time to spark transformation in their life. You don't have enough time to be valuable.
Social media is good for generating traffic while newsletters, podcasts, and videos are good for almost everything else.
The point:
Stop studying the thing you are already good at.
Zoom out a layer and start connecting the dots between different disciplines.
If you're into marketing, study psychology or spirituality.
If you're into philosophy, study business and social media.
Write about the connections you make.
4) Stop Being Afraid Of Frameworks
Creative people are allergic to frameworks for no good reason.
They think that frameworks ruin authenticity or something like that.
What they fail to realize is that creativity flourishes when it has constraints.
You can't think outside the box if there is no box.
Almost everything I write or speak stems from a simple framework:
Problem and Process.
Here's a guided template if you want it.
Any idea I have, I immediately think about a problem or pain point associated with that idea. This gives my mind an angle to grasp onto. It's almost natural for me to
Why start with a problem?
- It qualifies the reader or listener (what's in it for me?)
- It is the start of any good story
- It opens a curiosity loop
- It frames the ideas that come next, like a story or solution
If you want to think originally, then think of a problem that is different from the idea and start there.
Try it.
Pick an idea from this letter, like "being skeptical of your own skepticism."
Think of a problem related to that.
Think of an example or story that illustrates the problem.
Think of a process or solution that helps solve the problem.
Tada!
Now you have a newsletter, YouTube video, social post, or even the starting point of a book.
You may even have an idea for a business to start that helps people solve that problem.
5) Experimentation Is Your Teacher
You live in your body.
You live with your mind.
You live with other people.
You live with responsibilities.
It should be considered your full-time job to learn about them, practice skills that improve them, and master those domains.
Since most thinking starts with a problem, and experimentation (not prescription) is how you solve problems for good, then original thinking is the byproduct of experience.
You gain experience by noticing your own problems.
You notice your own problems by snapping out of your mindless routine of trivial tasks.
You look at yourself in the mirror and be honest about your discontentment.
You dig deeper to get to the root of that problem.
"I don't like how I look" > "I'm uncomfortable taking my shirt off" > "My wife/husband deserves better" > "I don't have the energy to build the life I want" > "People won't respect me if I keep doing this" > "I don't want to end up alone"
Now you are problem-aware.
Start researching and experimenting with solutions.
When you start in the gym, you have no idea what you're doing. You're better off buying a program and studying nutrition until you grasp the fundamentals. With enough study (and not latching onto specific training or diet ideologies) you can start experimenting to discover a better way of doing things.
Slowly, then all at once, you create your own original way of thinking about a specific domain of life.
That's valuable.
That's what people want to follow, purchase, and support.
That's how you turn your mind into a creative machine that others can't help but be attracted to.
Thank you for reading.
I hope it helped.
– Dan