'Why am I here?' A paradox within a paradox

Disclaimer: this post is not about RPGs, my project, or related topics, so feel free to skip it.

We often read about people who are against social networks for various reasons, and we often find ourselves agreeing without really knowing why. This happened to me too, the last time was just over a month ago when I wrote this:

Then, I came across Tom's post, and it's one of the few well-thought-out and concrete arguments I've found:

Why I'm Not Going Paid on Substack

For what it's worth, applying Tom’s thinking to my case looks like this: I have a passion that overrides everything else → I want to make a living from social networks → I use my passion on the right social network to nurture it → I need followers, subscribers, and paying people with astronomical numbers → I'd be forced to turn my passion into a business → I would lose what I call passion.

The conclusion is that I align with Tom and I'm aware that I’ll never get rich thanks to my passion (read the sarcastic blurb of my Core Rules on DrivethruRPG and you’ll see I’ve known this for a long time…). I have a full life and a job that guarantees me a good standard of living, so my decision is to cultivate my passion for RPGs for free with the limited time I have (if anyone thinks that a $1 mark-up on my books is a sign of greed and money-seeking, well... on that topic I will discuss in a separate post). Beyond my RPG passion, I also have a broader goal beyond games, and I've merged these two themes to aim for that goal through my passion!

Okay, so I’m fine: I promote my RPG for free through Substack, and I won't succeed because I have not thousands of followers to lay the foundation for making it known in the RPG market… failure is guaranteed! This is a paradox: you want to do something for free and (in my way) for a good cause, and you'll never have the numbers to make it work, while if you aim to make money and build a solid personal income base, you'll have the people helping you push your project forward.

Then, faced with this paradox, I briefly look at my Substack history to see if the numbers support this reasoning. And I come to an even worse conclusion!

The premise is that I have limited time to spend on my passion. I can allocate this time to creative activities (writing rules, settings, or adventures), testing activities (using my products), or promotion (writing here on Substack or online in general to make my game known). The graph above shows very clearly (despite the generally low numbers) that you can’t do everything with a limited time!

I reach the second conclusion that follows Tom's logic for deciding to 'participate' for free on Substack: either I write, play, or promote. If I dedicate most of my time to promotion, I won’t have much to promote... I won’t have had time to write and test my games... failure is guaranteed! The paradox here shows that anyone who wants to participate in a social network for free is doomed to fail because, besides not having the time to do everything, they will be overwhelmed by those doing it for money, who will suffocate everyone else (and I will not consider my poor marketing skills!).

I don't know if you've ever seen the movie ‘Inception’, but here we are in a paradox within a paradox... so it’s clear that a rational person should realize this and step away from the over-paradoxical mechanism of social networks. But that’s not the case because humans cultivate hope, a virtue that even works in the face of unachievable situations!

This is why I’m here writing to you… to make you realize that instead of ‘social networks’, we’ve created ‘so-rich networks’!

Don’t worry, this isn’t a farewell post! I’ll continue strong in 2025! ...and may the fun always be at your table!

PS If my theories are correct, this post, which goes against the paradox – or rather, the paradoxes – of social networks, should get lots of likes and comments… all in the same direction! (Because this way, the paradox within a paradox within a paradox might come true!)