Amor Fati: On the End of 71 Republic · 71 Republic - Mason Mohon:
December 23, 2019 - "After nearly 3 years of consistent and dedicated journalism, 71 Republic is coming to an end.... I wanted to express my thoughts on the end and answer a couple of possible questions.... I hope to answer why 71 Republic is ending, what my intention was behind 71 Republic, and my final thoughts on the matter.
"On June 10th of 2017, Matthew Geiger (CEO) and I (COO) launched 71republic.com. We gathered up a team of very young writers and started publishing consistent content. Over the next few months, the writing ability of the members greatly advanced. Things were looking good, and views were consistently going up, people were reading, and articles were being shared. 71 Republic grew larger than I had ever really expected it to at that point....
"However, the growth didn’t last forever.... There was a clear plateau for a long time. Eventually, we came to the realization that it would be incredibly difficult to break into the journalism market when all of our members were poor, busy college students.... Even though growth was still possible, it wasn’t possible for us to pull off in our respective life situations. Therefore, we’re ending content output for the time being....
"When I first began working with 71 Republic, I wasn’t sure what I was doing and neither was anyone else.... As time went on, though, I learned. I learned about many other projects that were taking on authority without having masses of people or coffers of cash behind them. These were projects like WikiLeaks, Bitcoin, and the Ghost Gun. I saw these as the most effective ways to fight back against state power....
[I]n my article WikiLeaks for Everything, which I republished somewhat recently ... I said: 'To end the political world as we know it and create a freer future, we need to build more “WikiLeaks for X.” These are going to permanently alter political reality in ways that the status quo deems impossible.... Action needs to take place outside of the bounds of what the social order has even named.' I wanted to see if this could be done with journalism. But my teammates and I did not have the experience or resources to implement this in the field of journalism at this time....
"It doesn’t bother me that much that 71 Republic is coming to an end, and for a couple of reasons. First ... it’s a sunk cost. I already put all this work in, and I’m not going to be able to un-put that work in.... [S]econd ... I gained a lot from it. My ability to write has become astronomically better than it was before. Most of the reason for the fact that I’m in college can be traced back to 71 Republic. I learned a lot about SEO, research, and how to appeal to an audience. These skills are not going away, and they only make me better equipped for my next project.
"Am I going to regret the hard work that I put in that didn’t necessarily pay off? No. I don’t believe in regret. I don’t think getting upset about the past is a very good way to live. The Stoics have a phrase: Amor Fati. This means to 'love fate' in Latin. So that’s what I’m doing. I’m not going to just accept the fate of 71 Republic for what it is; rather, I’m going to love it."
Read more: https://web.archive.org/web/20191126030146/https://71republic.com/2019/11/25/amor-fati-on-the-end-of-71-republic/
'via Blog this'
December 23, 2019 - "After nearly 3 years of consistent and dedicated journalism, 71 Republic is coming to an end.... I wanted to express my thoughts on the end and answer a couple of possible questions.... I hope to answer why 71 Republic is ending, what my intention was behind 71 Republic, and my final thoughts on the matter.
"On June 10th of 2017, Matthew Geiger (CEO) and I (COO) launched 71republic.com. We gathered up a team of very young writers and started publishing consistent content. Over the next few months, the writing ability of the members greatly advanced. Things were looking good, and views were consistently going up, people were reading, and articles were being shared. 71 Republic grew larger than I had ever really expected it to at that point....
"However, the growth didn’t last forever.... There was a clear plateau for a long time. Eventually, we came to the realization that it would be incredibly difficult to break into the journalism market when all of our members were poor, busy college students.... Even though growth was still possible, it wasn’t possible for us to pull off in our respective life situations. Therefore, we’re ending content output for the time being....
"When I first began working with 71 Republic, I wasn’t sure what I was doing and neither was anyone else.... As time went on, though, I learned. I learned about many other projects that were taking on authority without having masses of people or coffers of cash behind them. These were projects like WikiLeaks, Bitcoin, and the Ghost Gun. I saw these as the most effective ways to fight back against state power....
[I]n my article WikiLeaks for Everything, which I republished somewhat recently ... I said: 'To end the political world as we know it and create a freer future, we need to build more “WikiLeaks for X.” These are going to permanently alter political reality in ways that the status quo deems impossible.... Action needs to take place outside of the bounds of what the social order has even named.' I wanted to see if this could be done with journalism. But my teammates and I did not have the experience or resources to implement this in the field of journalism at this time....
"It doesn’t bother me that much that 71 Republic is coming to an end, and for a couple of reasons. First ... it’s a sunk cost. I already put all this work in, and I’m not going to be able to un-put that work in.... [S]econd ... I gained a lot from it. My ability to write has become astronomically better than it was before. Most of the reason for the fact that I’m in college can be traced back to 71 Republic. I learned a lot about SEO, research, and how to appeal to an audience. These skills are not going away, and they only make me better equipped for my next project.
"Am I going to regret the hard work that I put in that didn’t necessarily pay off? No. I don’t believe in regret. I don’t think getting upset about the past is a very good way to live. The Stoics have a phrase: Amor Fati. This means to 'love fate' in Latin. So that’s what I’m doing. I’m not going to just accept the fate of 71 Republic for what it is; rather, I’m going to love it."
'via Blog this'
No comments:
Post a Comment