This is the fourth and last installment of our Creative Thinking series. If you missed any of the previous three, take a stroll through the Archives.

In 1990, cryptographer David Chaum launched DigiCash — the world's first digital currency. He had the vision, the tech, and backing from finance giants. Chaum saw a future where people paid for coffee with encrypted tokens instead of crumpled dollar bills.

He was right.

But he was also 15 years too early.

DigiCash burned millions and filed for bankruptcy in 1998. Chaum spent the next decade watching PayPal, Bitcoin, and Venmo build the future he'd envisioned.

The early bird gets the worm. But if the bird's too early, it starves to death.

Sometimes, being early is worse than being wrong. When you're wrong, you learn and pivot. When you're early, you bleed out slowly, watching everyone dismiss your vision as impossible — until someone else makes it inevitable.

Chaum had the right vision. He just couldn't build the bridge to get there.

Distal thinking is imagining a far-future reality with unmistakable clarity, then working backward to build the path that makes it real.

Not "here's what might happen," but "here's what's inevitable — and how we're gonna get there."

Chaum was a distal thinker. He saw the future clearly. But he tried to skip from 1990 to 2005 in one jump. The world wasn't ready for that leap.

Vision is seeing where the world is going. The bridge is building the incremental steps that get us there.

Chaum had vision: "Digital cash will replace physical money."

But he skipped important steps:

Each step trains the world for the next one. You can't skip them. You can only speed through them.

Tesla understood this.

In 2006, Elon Musk published Tesla's master plan:

Same vision as every electric car dreamer before him: "Cars will run on electricity, not gas."

But instead of trying to build the Model 3 in 2006 — which would've bankrupted Tesla — he built the bridge:

Each step trained the market. Each car funded the next one. Each success made the next one possible.

That's why Tesla survived and why this is the first time you're hearing of DigiCash.

You're trying to monetize your writing with barely any readers. Selling a course to an audience that doesn’t exist. Quitting your job to pursue your creative ambitions when nobody knows your name.

You're not wrong about where you're going. You're just trying to build 2030 in 2025.

Every creative you admire built a bridge invisible to the public.

They didn't launch a paid newsletter first. They built an audience for free for years, then asked for money.

They didn't sell a course first. They gave away everything for free, built trust, then packaged their expertise.

They didn't quit their job first. They created on the side until the side project made more than the job.

Their vision was always "make a living from my work." But they built the path from "nobody knows me" to "people pay me" one step at a time.

Step 1: Name the specific reality 5-10 years out

Not "I want to be a successful writer" (too vague).
Not "I want 100,000 followers" (too vain).

Something like: "I make $10K/month writing essays nobody else writes for readers who'd pay twice as much if I asked."

Step 2: Identify what needs to be true

For the $10K/month writer:

Step 3: Build the first step, not the final one

Don't try to monetize with 50 subscribers. Build the thing that makes monetization inevitable.

Year 1: Write weekly for free. Focus on the 5 readers who'd be devastated if you stopped.

Year 2: Hit 500 true readers. Launch a small paid tier. Not to make money — to test if people value your writing.

Year 3: Expand. Raise prices slowly. Learn what readers actually want vs. what you think they want.

Year 4: Quit the thing you hate. Double down on what's working.

Year 5: You're not rich. But you're free. And you write things people love to read.

Each step is useful. Each step proves you're not delusional — just early enough to get your worm.

The photographer trying to charge $5K per wedding: 10 free shoots → $1K weddings → $2K weddings → $5K weddings. Takes 3-4 years, but at year 4, you can confidently justify $5K.

The designer who wants to work with Nike: Local brands → Regional brands → National brands → Get referred by someone who already works with them. Takes 4-5 years, but you're building the portfolio that makes Nike inevitable.

You don't skip from "nobody" to "somebody." You build the path that makes "somebody" inevitable.

Vision alone is useless. You can be right about where you're going and still fail completely if you can't build the bridge to get there.

David Chaum was right about digital currency. You might be right about your creative career. But a vision without the right steps in place is delusion.

You'll quit after six months because "nobody gets it." You'll blame algorithms or the audience. You'll say your work is "ahead of its time." Maybe you're right. Or maybe you tried to take a shortcut that never existed.

You're probably going to ignore this.

You'll keep trying to sell before you've built trust. You'll launch paid products to audiences who don't know you yet. You'll quit your job before your side project covers your rent.

And when it doesn't work, you'll say "they're not ready." That people don't value real creativity. That the algorithm hates you.

Or:

You'll admit you're early. You'll ask: "What's the step that makes the next step possible?" You'll build the bridge even though it's slower, less sexy, and requires more patience than you can afford — that’s the price of your dream life.

The future you want exists, but it doesn't care if you get there or not.

See ya next week.

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