There are articles I've never published, texts that still sit on my desktop... Because I'm afraid.
Too much? Too sharp? Too honest? Or maybe… too early.
I've learned to play with the algorithms. To write for attention without losing intention. To communicate well.
I do master the art of articulating my thoughts sharply. I know how to trigger engagement, optimize a post, seed a message in a sentence.
But I have a dilemma:
Should I write to be read or to be true?
It sounds romantic, I know. But for me, it's a real ethical tension.
Because when you know how systems work - social, cognitive, technological - you can either use them… or break them.
But rarely both at the same time.
I've been handling this paradox for months... and I'm collapsing.
The seduction of being read
Paul Graham said: "Write like you talk. And talk about things you actually care about".
Derek Sivers and David Perell echo a similar ethos: write clearly, simply, generously. Make it useful. Make it readable. Make it spread.
They're not wrong !
There's power in being understood.
In building a bridge between thoughts and minds. And if I'm being honest, what's the point of writing, if no one reads it?
Yet…
Sometimes I feel like this obsession with being read is exactly what can sterilizes thought.
I dilute some of my thoughts to be digestible.
I soften to be shareable.
I polish... until the edge is gone.
I know the game. I play that game. And I despise it.
The violence of being true
I've written things that cost me, posts that scared me. Ideas that made people uncomfortable (even furious).
Not because they were violent I think, but because they were clear.
And clarity can be a form of violence. So, I've self-censored. Not because I don't believe in what I am writing but because I know how it would be received. But received... by whom exactly?
Truth is I don't have the mental space to handle some of the consequences: the harassment, the hatred, the emotions that others will project onto me.
Some truths are simply not "optimizable".
And yet… I feel a responsibility to write from my axis even if it doesn't "trend" - not for everyone, but for the lucid and loyal people I have the chance to count as readers.
So what do I do?
I don't choose, I write. I walk the line. Sometimes I pierce. Sometimes I adapt. Sometimes I hold back.
I've come to understand:
Writing isn't about being liked. It's about being heard by the right people, at the right depth, at the right time.
And if I'm being completely honest... I've been hiding my work in plain sight.
What looked like fragments, drafts, or scattered ideas were in fact pieces of a larger structure. I was mapping the architectures of power - the invisible mechanisms shaping perception, emotion, and belief.
I thought I was building an audience... But I see now that I was building a language for those who can feel the distortion and want to understand it, like me.
Some of you already read between the lines.
Others will, when they're ready.
What will come next (around the end of november) is not content. It's a framework, a decoding system. A way to see the world without illusion, and to stand inside complexity without losing YOUR axis.
I call it the "Grey Zone Protocol", and it will be available for Premium members exclusively.
It's not for everyone. It's long, sharp, demanding, sometimes unsettling. But for those who sense there's more beneath the surface - it will make everything click.
I am very thankful, for you - reading me.
Stay lucid,
Oriane