Jer Dyk

Bad grades. Severe ADHD. Little social confidence. I ran my first business into the ground at 20. Lost my savings. Broke for years. Still made it to university, built a tech career, a family and a business. These 5 mental shifts changed everything. 🧵

@andrescovilla Yes, staying consistent is one thing. But if you don’t find your voice it’s harder to focus your message

@FrictionDeleter A is definitively very important, without it the rest becomes more difficult

What’s the hardest part of personal branding? A) finding your voice B) staying consistent C) saying original things D) sharing your story I think most people fail at A. What about you?

@DavidPreti Agree. This is one of the hardest things

@FrictionDeleter Agree ! But I feel it hard to find my own voice. Not an easy process.

@itsbriankelly Exactly. Focus on the long term.

@FrictionDeleter That drop isn’t failure, it’s friction. If you stick through it, that’s when the habit actually forms.

Week 1 feels like landing a book deal with Penguin Week 2 feels like deleting your manuscript That’s not laziness It's the cost of newness Winning system: - set a specific goal like "I will write 300 words each morning" - track the streak, not the outcome - be consistent

@MickDeBoer Welcome back Mick. Curious what you come up with.

I was suspended from X last week. Not sure how I got flagged for "inauthentic behavior" – but it happened. And it sucked... I enjoy writing on X. It's a great platform to experiment, test ideas, and clarify & deepen your thinking. Fortunately, I got my account back. But it made me realize that we're all renting this space. And at any time, you could be asked to vacate – without prior notice. In other words: build your email list. It's something I've been working on meanwhile and will be launching soon. Stay tuned!

@IAmAaronWill Probably, because then you’re not the “expert” anymore for awhile. You’ve got to ask beginner questions too. That feeling sucks if you’re not prepared to own that.

@FrictionDeleter I think it's a thing people like to say when they're scared of trying new things.

I hate it when people tell you to get good at one thing. F*ck that. Learn everything. Learn as many skills as you can. Focus on one thing but learn many. Don't neglect any area of improvement.

@theo_jil It’s funny how your brain thinks “this will never work”. A day later “wow, it worked”. Learn to ignore the hype. Trust your process.

Start building at 19, 35, or 55. Success doesn't have a deadline. Run your own race.

@andrescovilla Hmm, I don’t think the singularity is here yet. But there may be a gray period where it’s hard to tell whether an AI is simply simulating consciousness or is genuinely conscious. Maybe we are in that period right now.

Dino Buzzati wrote a novel about AI in 1960. A machine that becomes conscious. Creators who thought they were gods. A society that feels something is wrong but cannot explain what. 60 years later, we're living it. Except the monster isn't hidden in the mountains anymore. It has a free tier.

@talesreisa Exactly. Sometimes people overthink it though. Find a platform, pitch your idea, validate it with an audience, and you're further than most. 80% of starters build and sell before they've tested the idea.

Business comes down to this: (I) How well you can solve problems that people are willing to pay for; (II) How well can you find those people (III) How much can you convince people of that. All are skills. Find the one you lack and improve.

@Thefilteredwork Great post. Apps are indeed created to hook your attention instantly. Just using willpower to stop that, would be like fighting a bull with bare hands.

Everything is fighting for your attention. --- Your phone. Your email. Your notifications. Apps deliberately engineered to keep you hooked. Every ding. Every badge. Every "just one more scroll." All designed to pull you away from what actually matters. --- You're not distracted because you lack discipline. You're distracted because billion-dollar companies have weaponized psychology against you, and they're winning. --- The brutal truth: Your attention is the most valuable asset you own. And right now, you're giving it away for free. --- The only way to win is to stop fighting with willpower. Build a system that protects your attention before they take it. --- Block the time. Close the tabs. Put the phone in another room. Make focus the default. Or accept that you'll lose by default.

@MrColdEmail Exactly. A thousand small issues are more problematic than 20 big ones.

@FrictionDeleter if you actually audit your schedule you might be shocked by how small the things are that kill your focus, productivity and ability to get stuff done 'death by a thousand cuts'

Hard work is never the actual bottleneck. Working hard with friction is. If you want to ship more: search for one tiny blocker like a heat-seeking missle, and remove it today. A better system beats even bigger effort. Every time.

@romanlbinder Yes, 80/20 rule for the win.

@FrictionDeleter True, one small fix in the right spot can save way more time than trying to push through everything else.

@bradbuildss All the way.

@FrictionDeleter What you cut defines what survives.

Said by people with MASSIVE talent: “Less is more.” “Kill your darlings.” “Form follows function.” Different fields. Same law: ruthless subtraction. What’s one “darling” you can cut this week?

@lukmanAufbau Yes, it keeps the ball rolling

@FrictionDeleter Systems beat motivation in week 2 and beyond.

@chukwudi426 Good one. Yes, straight to the point

@FrictionDeleter They don't waste much time just thinking

Hot take: Productive people don’t have “better routines”. They have fewer decisions between thinking about the work and doing it.

@Sahibtoorr Good one. Looking at your own writing from someone else's perspective is the difference between “this sounds smart in my head” and “this lands clearly on the page.”

Write for strangers. Make your posts so clear they need no context. If a stranger gets it instantly, you've done your job.

@uiwithjoy Exactly. Getting clarity and then do what needs to be done first - best productivity combo.

@FrictionDeleter Clarity is the real productivity hack and nobody talks about it enough. Everything else is just noise until you know exactly what actually needs to happen today

Overwhelm isn’t a time problem. It’s a clarity problem. Here’s my stupid-simple system to clear my head and still get something done. Bookmark this for later👇 1. Grab a pen and paper 2. Dump everything on one page 3. Write one line per item - don’t organize yet 4. Cross out anything non-actionable 5. Circle what actually matters today 6. Rewrite only those on a fresh page 7. Pick the hardest task 8. Define the smallest next step 9. Set a 10-minute timer 10. Start. No excuses.

@iamtommyshinest With the first it’s about giving up control. With the second it’s about owning it. Two good habits to practice.

@FrictionDeleter God and this are the two reasons why i'm still a functional human being, 100% agree