December 22, 2020 | Metrics

I see many people focusing on metrics.

Twitter follower growth rate. Monthly Twitter impressions. Who followed or unfollowed them.

Conversion rates on landing pages.

Number of words written on blog posts. Or number of blog posts on a personal website.

At first I thought I was missing out, not tracking anything.

I have no idea how many blog posts I have posted this year. I think close to 400.

And I have no idea how many people read this blog. I don't have analytics for this website. All I know from a prospecting tool is that close to ten thousand people visit this website every month.

I also have no idea how many twitter impressions my account has. I think last month it was close to half a million, but I honestly have not looked once. I only know that my best tweet got 350k+ impressions.

I don't think making everything a metrics game is the way to go. Especially as a solopreneur.

Tracking metrics too much is masturbation.

This is why.

If you are focused on metrics, you are focused on the outputs. The results. Not the actual act of doing the thing.

You are focusing on things you can't control.

And you are falling in love with the result of the work, instead of the work itself.

For example, when you track the number of words you have written on your personal blog, you are in falling love with that. The amount of content you can now show off. Not the actual art of sitting down in a quiet room, writing and emptying your mind.

Same applies to everything else, I believe. Even business.

I stopped making a science out of everything, when I read Jason's Cohen blog post about north stars.

Jason Cohen was running a $100M/year business focusing on one single metric. Traffic.

That's it.

An indie hacker focusing on five metrics at the same time is the definition of insanity.

You need one north star.

All the rest, fuck them.

For all the rest, just enjoy the process. That has longevity.

Most people that come in hot, with a scientific approach, focusing on results, usually quit pretty fast.

Most things that are worthwhile take a long time to start compounding.

And people that focus on results get discouraged and quit.

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