46: The Probabilistic Chain ⛓

My Next Small Bet 🎲

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I made Yaazhpaanam thosai, sambar, and coconut sambal. Thosai is a fermented, savory crepe. Thosai is similar to dosa. The difference is it has more lentils than rice in the batter. The bite is softer and springier with crispy parts.

மாலை வணக்கம் (maalai vaNakkam), Buenas Noches, and Good Evening from New York City!

I’ll be sharing a thing I did and a thought I had.

A Thing 👨🏾‍🏫

Last month, I taught a 4 week mentor series for Small Bets.

Small Bets is an online community of entrepreneurs. Small-time entrepreneurs. Ones who admit they can’t tell the future.

No crystal balls.

They value prolific over perfect. They don’t spend too much time or money on their ventures. They cannot know what will resonate with the world.

I didn’t always think like this. I went going broke by risking it all first.

I was forced to take half-baked ideas I had about the Small Bets approach and solidify them. I’m not a guru. I’ve only made about $5,000 of internet money. 

But I can be a guide.

“How I” did it. 

I did it with “The Probabilistic Chain”

This started as a text based linked list in my mentor slides for Small Bets.

My 2nd small bet was an info product, a video course titled How To Get Promoted Beyond Senior Engineer. It didn’t start that way. It started as modules in my newsletter.

Those modules become twitter threads.

Those twitter threads became blog posts.

Those blog posts were then shared on Twitter.

As I got positive engagement on my ideas, it let me know it was time to double down and move through the chain.

Only through engagement can I get clarity about my ideas.

Only through money can I get clarity about my products. 

A Thought 💭

I wasn’t the only teacher in the mentor series.

There were four others -

Louie Bacaj

,

Christin Chong, PhD

,

Michelle Varghoose

, and

Chris Wong

. I’ve learned tons from the opportunity to work beside them. I went to as many of their sessions as I could.

If you’re looking for motivation, expert storytelling, and how to make internet money - you should subscribe to all their newsletters.

One idea that stuck with me was Chris Wong’s “Legible Asset Stack”.

Taken directly from Chris Wong’s slides :)

Said simply, if I can’t explain my ideas to my Amma, I don’t have a legible asset stack. In my case, I learned how to speak my mother tongue, Tamil, to an intermediate level - in my thirties, as a third language.

So I can explain what it is. But I don’t have project ideas.

I can come up with project ideas through fast iterations that I really enjoy. Chris Wong’s advice is to commit to 100 repetitions.

A big part of how I leveled up was applying the Mimic Method exercises to colloquial Tamil. The practice fit my ear to the sounds and coordinated my lips, tongue, and breath to speak them.

I did this without ever visiting Sri Lanka (Eelam).

It was important to simulate the natural repetition that I’d get from being immersed.

I had to scour the internet for clips of the Colloquial Northern Eelam Tamil (CNET) dialect, where my parents are from, to imitate. There are not many examples.

Luckily, I’m already speaking with my aunt, Giri Mami, weekly on Zoom. I started chopping up the recordings of advanced grammar concepts from her stories that I want to add to my speaking repertoire.

Last week, I published 7 Youtube videos that I’ve been using with the Mimic Method exercise “Sync your Attention with Syllable Timing”.

1. CNET 1 | Adverbial Participle

2. CNET 2 | "For my peace of mind, I don't watch the news"

3. CNET 3 | Why Learning The Tamil Alphabet Matters

4. CNET 4 | Improving Takes More Repetition Than We Expect

5. CNET 5 | Their advertisement

6. CNET 6 | Comparisons and Negative Conditional

7. CNET 7 | Thosai Off Heat

Worst case, I’ll add new grammar concepts to my spoken Tamil.
Best case, I’ll be able to help people who want this transformation for their life.

Either way, I’m going to really enjoy the journey.

அன்புடன் (With Love),
Janahan

P.S. If you liked this post from the Often Wrong Club, why not share it with someone who may like it too?

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