Another week outside of the standard workforce and workplace… and another conversation with a colleague in recent days who has walked away. (Ironically another one from healthcare).
Another person who climbed out of a cesspool of toxicity. And leaving a healthy six-figure salary behind.
I could very much relate to their feelings of relief, anger, sadness and excitement — all tangled into a knotted mess of mixed emotions.
I am about 40 weeks (or so) into Box Cutter Co. About 40 weeks out of toxic workplace cultures.
In April, it will be two years of building digital writing businesses from scratch. I have found two critical (and enmeshed) skills in these processes:
The ability to see, then call “Bullshit” in organizations and processes
The ability to manage the emotions and feelings that arise when calling Bullshit.
And, the latter, is where developing and honing a “Give-a-Shit” meter — specifically for worrying about what other people think. It’s also important to consider how you allocated your “Shits-to-Give”
More on this in this post below. But first…
More Box Cutters
For my wife Lisa, she cut the box in June 2023.
Since then, we have been building Humanity Academy — an educational startup and social enterprise.
Lisa operates a private counselling practice and is also building in the digital creator world.
I provide Ghostwriting and strategic consulting services — and am building various digital writing businesses from scratch.
This Box Cutter Co. page and issues are like a public Learning Journal for how I’m doing that, what I’m learning, and how I’m managing things.
We also just launched our first ‘paid’ course: Learning Journals 101 (Shift your Thinking, Change your Life).
Up until now, we have launched seven Free 5-day Educational Email courses (from Humanity Academy).
Additionally, I launched two Free EECs over the past 10 months or so, related to Box Cutter Co. 👇
Some of you have taken these courses. And, here’s an open invite for any of you that have not had a chance to check these out. Free, simple registration. No catch, no spam.
Would love to hear your feedback.
Freemium Approaches
We are big proponents of the Freemium strategy for building online — but also in sharing our knowledge and content in accessible forms.
Some of this relates to our goals to operate as a social enterprise. Some of this is because it just makes damn good business sense. (Image below is linked to a post from a few months back)
Some folks balk and raise their eyebrows at this notion of “Freemium” 👇
“Bah! How does someone build a business on Free?!”
Often said dismissively, guffawing, etc
“Well…” I say. “It takes time, consistency, persistency, and dedication.”
And then I ask them:
“Ever heard of Google and Facebook? Ever used them?”
And most will say “Yeah”
“How much does it cost for you to use those?”
And that’s when the 💡 usually brightens.
By no means are we building a google or facebook… (and that’s a good thing)
But, the power of FREE is a damn important concept, practice, and strategy in the world of digital creation and the $250 Billion (and growing) Creator Economy.
With this in mind… we just realized our little operations notched past $20k for the month — last month. We’re pretty darn pleased with that.
More so as we now turn our attention to building a few ‘paid’ products as well as more Free products. We also publish daily on a variety of platforms. This is all ‘free’.
A Box Cutter approach can work. It can work rather marvellously — with caveats, such as:
It takes time
It takes careful and purpose-full management of expectations (inc. not getting too attached to them)
It takes critical engagement of a “Give-A-Shit” Meter and allocating your “Shits-to-Give” strategically.
These can all be assisted by healthy Bullshit detectors. Now, let’s get to the critical importance of calling Bullshit and monitoring our “Give-A-Shit” Meter.
Welcome to many new subscribers this past week. I am enjoying this wave of recommendations and growth on the Substack platform.
Welcome back to those who have been subscribed for a bit.
To all of you, please consider becoming a paying subscriber. This opens up every issue on the Box Cutter Co. site and I am adding course discounts (20% or more) for any of our upcoming courses.
Purposeful Travel?
This past week, I was in Banff, Alberta (the Rockies).
One of the great pleasures of becoming an independent Box Cutter is the ability and flexibility of choice.
Close to the holiday season (a few months ago), I received a newsletter from the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. Several years ago I did a writing retreat there and have remained on their email list.
It’s a stunning facility, perched above the Bow River and just above town. It has beautiful views of the Rockies, like this one from my bed in the onsite accommodation.👇
The event was the Purposeful Travel Summit. Some promotional material suggested:
The Purposeful Travel Summit will launch a new era in travel that integrates sustainability, education and a passion to promote travel that contributes to a better world. People want to travel, and destinations want to host but we all just want to do it a bit better!
In one of my earlier ‘careers,’ I operated a little travel-booking company. In my 20s, I had visions of becoming a sea kayaking guide and operating an eco-tourism company.
I did some training on that path… yet… life went down a different path.
The format of the event in Banff caught my eye, as well as several of the topics. Things like ‘storytelling’, ‘climate education’, and Indigenous tourism. Ties in with a few projects I’m engaged in and have been in the past.
One of the most appealing components was the setting and facility.
I was able to secure professional development funds from the university where I do part-time online teaching (Communications).
With flexibility in my life (e.g., no 9—5 commitments) — the Box Cutter life — I was able to add a bit of time on either side of the event to sit, write, walk, and simply enjoy the mountains. (And, at a time with very few tourists.)
On one of my evening walks by the river, this little gaffer joined me for a bit. A red fox.
Some folks suggest a red fox crossing your path can signify coming abundance and prosperity. (Suppose we’ll see about that).
Bullshit lives in every sector
The tourism and travel sector has just as much Bullshit polluting its literature and circles as any other (maybe more than some?).
Here is one presenter asking some questions about “Authenticity” (the Merriam-Webster Dictionary word of the year for 2023) in tourism 👇
It was a diverse group, with some proponents of the smaller scale ‘eco-tourism’ and some more of the bus and cruise type of tourism.
There was certainly some bullshit circulating. And, I wasn’t the only one calling 'Bullshit’ on some of the lingo.
And, in this sense, Bullshit isn’t meant in some sort of ham-fisted, pub-table rant. It’s in the philosophical sense, as written about by former Princeton U. Philosophy professor Harry Frankfurt (“On Bullshit”).
In this case, Frankfurt suggested Bullshit isn’t lying, it’s often worse.
He describes it as a form of communication characterized by a lack of concern for the truth. Unlike lying, where the liar is aware of the truth and deliberately seeks to conceal it — Bullshit is more insidious because the speaker is indifferent to how things really are.
The bullshitter's primary goal is not to communicate truth but to shape listener's perceptions toward the speaker’s ends — regardless of the truth or falsity of their statements.
This indifference to the truth, according to Frankfurt, is what distinguishes bullshit from lying.
Calling Bullshit
Thankfully, there are now university-level courses teaching about what Bullshit is and how to call it. For example, Professors Carl Bergstrom and Jevin West at the U. of Washington.
They published a book “Calling Bullshit” and share their university course and course syllabus — of the same name.
The opening to their course captures it well:
The world is awash in bullshit.
Politicians are unconstrained by facts. Science is conducted by press release. Higher education rewards bullshit over analytic thought. Startup culture elevates bullshit to high art.
Advertisers wink conspiratorially and invite us to join them in seeing through all the bullshit — and take advantage of our lowered guard to bombard us with bullshit of the second order.
The majority of administrative activity, whether in private business or the public sphere, seems to be little more than a sophisticated exercise in the combinatorial reassembly of bullshit.
Their definition:
Bullshit involves language, statistical figures, data graphics, and other forms of presentation intended to persuade by impressing and overwhelming a reader or listener, with a blatant disregard for truth and logical coherence.
For them, Calling Bullshit is a way of strongly rejecting something bad or false in public. It's not just for pointing out nonsense — it’s also to call out lies, deceit, or unfairness.
But… It takes more than just ‘Thinking’ to “Call Bullshit”
Bergstrom and West, like many others, point to the importance of using ‘critical thinking’ to Call Bullshit.
Yes, thinking is important… AND… it takes more than just that.
Over the years, especially after walking away from two public sector organizations and a healthy salary — I’ve become much more comfortable with Calling Bullshit.
I do it quite regularly. My wife Lisa has called me “the wooden spoon” — as in ‘stirring the pot’. (It’s also linked to the name Box Cutter.)
Fear of Social Isolation
One of the reasons it can be so damn uncomfortable is that Calling Bullshit works against our evolutionary history and wiring. Over a hundred thousand years or more, our brains and bodies have become wired to connect and live in community.
The fear of being ostracized or socially excluded taps into deep evolutionary roots. Human beings are inherently social creatures and much of our survival historically hinged on being part of a group. In early human societies, being ostracized was not just about social discomfort — it had life-or-death implications.
Being part of a group meant access to shared resources, protection, and support. Those who were expelled faced not only the emotional toll of isolation but also the very real threat of not surviving.
This deep-seated fear is wired into our brains, particularly in areas associated with pain processing. Certain areas of our brains activate during physical pain and social pain. Our brains are wired to take the threat of social rejection — very seriously.
The potential discomfort of calling out "bullshit" in public settings like conferences, meetings, or institutions taps into these fears and activates the wiring. Challenging the group's consensus or questioning authority risks marking oneself as an outlier.
We can also thank schooling systems for enmeshing this into us even further. I am of the generation where, in elementary school, if you stepped outside the box of a teacher’s iron fist rule, you spent time sitting isolated in a corner.
On a subconscious level, our brains process the risk of isolation or being ostracized as threatening — potentially triggering a cascade of stress responses designed to deter actions which might lead to social exclusion.
Our brains are wired to prioritize social harmony and cohesion.
Speaking out against the majority or highlighting uncomfortable truths can disrupt this harmony, and our brain's default settings often favour conformity over conflict.
Even at the cost of suppressing our dissenting views or insights — and even our sense of ethical wrongs.
Working Past Evolutionary Wiring
However, in modern contexts, the consequences of being ostracized are not nearly as dire as they once were, yet the primal fears linger and get triggered.
Understanding this can help us recognize why speaking up feels so daunting and why the pressure to conform is so powerful.
It also highlights the emotional work and resilience required to challenge prevailing norms — knowing that doing so activates deep-seated fears of rejection and isolation (hardwired into our very biology).
And, not just ours’, but those around us too.
Some people may even whole-heartedly agree with what we have to say, but shy away from giving any indication that they do so — for fear that that will earn them isolation.
It’s like a mirrored set of triggers. These can be set off by the one calling bullshit, but also get triggered in those that want to stand alongside and agree.
Calling Bullshit (or at least pushing back) to Instigate Purpose-full Dialogue
Yes, every sector has floods of bullshit. “Values-based leadership” “Organizational Culture” and so on and so on.
Some of this can be attributed to the world of ‘marketing’. This is a ‘practice’ — a field — a business — which operates by instigating persuasion. It drives capitalist economies. But, it also drives other things too — e.g., propaganda in war and conflict.
This past week as I sat in on presentations and panels about ‘purposeful travel’ — I wasn’t the only one pushing back on some of the bullshit slogans and phrases that pollute this sector. For example:
sustainability
decarbonize
decolonize
Overall, the ‘summit’ was well-facilitated to support dialogue — not just sit and listen like good little people while powerpoint after panel after powerpoint flew by.
This meant some active facilitators encouraging respectful pushback on presentations and statements made. They did a pretty good job of supporting this, as well as sharing some reflections on counter perspectives they were hearing.
Yet, there was also a lot of conforming and keeping social comfort in place. The fear of social isolation running amok.
The experiences at the summit reminded me of the deep need for processes and systems for meaningful engagement over passive acceptance. To do this requires a commitment to deeper dialogue and accepting and supporting disparities and differences in perspectives and approaches.
However, to do this requires support for folks to navigate the discomfort of disagreement, being open to shifting perspectives, and being willing to accept the ambiguities and complexities of uncertainty and change.
The Art of Calling Bullshit Respectfully
(and Managing the Emotions That Arise)
The world is awash with catchy but empty, fluffy phrases. (This is especially the case in the ‘Creator Economy’ — so much hustle porn and bullshit)
Building the Art of respectfully Calling Bullshit is not just an act of courage but a necessary skill for fostering genuine dialogue and change. Whether it's confronting "sustainability" claims — in a sector such as tourism which contributes somewhere around 8-10% of all global greenhouse gases.
Or dissecting the overuse and misplaced terms like "decolonize" — as in “decolonize tourism” (a more bullshit statement would be difficult to think up).
The goal isn't to win an argument, look smart, or be an asshole — but to peel back layers of superficiality and fluff to get at deeper complex realities. Without this peeling back, real dialogue is impossible.
Some Steps to Call Bullshit (with Respect)
Question with Curiosity: Start from a place of wanting to understand. "Can you help me understand what you mean when you say ‘sustainability’ — in what sort of ways….? This approach invites a little more explanation rather than confrontation.
Use Evidence: Come with some facts. "Recent studies suggest that decarbonization requires more than just policy shifts or marketing catch-phrases — it needs concrete action and evaluation. How does your initiative do that?"
Focus on the Idea, Not the Person: Distinguish between criticizing a concept and criticizing an individual. "While I see some value in promoting ‘sustainable tourism’ as a concept, I wonder if this approach might be glossing over practical applications."
Acknowledge some Good: Recognize the intent behind the use of buzzwords and bullshit. "I appreciate the commitment to this idea of ‘decolonization’, yet struggle with the inherent simplistic dichotomy of ‘good’ vs. ‘bad’ that it sets up. And… I wonder where the term first arose and how it connects to this sector?” [Want to learn more? Check out how to deliver a shit-sandwich.]
For the most part, if you do some research on this idea of Calling Bullshit — you are bound to find more information on the “how to….” front.
The deeper challenges (in my experience) are managing the emotional responses (internally — and in others).
Managing Emotional Responses in Calling Bullshit
This is an area where expanding emotional literacy and conflict management is key.
Expect Discomfort: Recognize that discomfort is a natural part of growth, learning and unlearning. Lean into it as a sign of engaging with challenging ideas and instigating change. Change is often challenging. And, no doubt, the planet and societies are in the midst of rapid changes (e.g., climate change, AI, etc.)
Try to Stay Grounded: When emotions run high, try to take a moment to breathe and centre yourself. Remind yourself of your purpose: to seek truth and understanding, not to attack, defend, or promote. (I’ll often start counting slowly backwards from 100)
Seek Common Ground: Look for areas of agreement which might serve as a foundation for exploring disagreements openly and constructively. At the heart of Communication is the root word ‘common’. Thus, the purpose of communication is to find some common ground, which does not mean ‘agree’.
Practice Empathy: Try to understand where the other person/people is/are coming from. They, like you, are navigating a complex world trying to make sense of it all. Some folks are far more comfortable living with realities of ambiguity and uncertainty. Many are highly uncomfortable with uncertainty.
Reflect and Debrief: After a challenging dialogue, take time to reflect on what was learned. Use a Learning Journal. If possible, debrief with the other person. What did they take away from the dialogue? This can help diffuse lingering tension and build bridges for future discussions.
By integrating these approaches, calling bullshit becomes less about confrontation and more about initiating meaningful, purposeful dialogue.
In doing so, we not only cut through the noise (and marketing bumpf) but also contribute to more honest transparency, accountability, and genuine progress.
Finishing with the Start
One of the most powerful tools I have honed over the last few years — related to calling Bullshit, but also in my day-to-day life, building digital writing businesses, publishing online daily, building courses — and participating in events….
First, a low “Give-a-Shit Meter” when it comes to worrying about what other people think.
Not in a dismissive sense — as, yes, we are still social critters — but in giving very little fuel to my “give-a-shit” meter.
How I discern and decide how much fuel to put in the tank is driven by the “Shits-to-Give” approach. (I shared this with several folks at the Summit).
Second, and longer-term subscribers will have seen this a few times. It’s a play on an old Steven Covey diagram (7 Habits of Highly Effective People). It’s my “Shits-to-Give" system.
At the centre, is my ‘circle of control’. These are the things I can control — which are largely contained in my Self — (Shit I can control).
Around that are ‘things I can influence’. These are largely contained within family, friends, and community — and don’t extend much beyond that. (Shit I can influence).
And the rest — everything else?
Few shits given. There’s next to nothing I can do about it.
This doesn’t mean I don’t care. It doesn’t mean I don’t think change is possible.
It means I’m discerning with where I decide to “give a shit”. I see far too many people wasting time and energy on shit they simply have little control over or influence on (esp. on social media)
Engaging in this strategy supports me in being able to write between 50,000 to 150,000 words (or so) per month — and publish daily.
A Box Cutter mindset
Adopting and implementing a Box Cutter mindset includes calling bullshit, combined with a strategic allocation of shits-to-give. This has been transformative for my business and personal well-being.
I am highly selective about who I choose to work with and what projects I take on. I am mind-full about where I want to share my life energy. My approach to being a Solopreneur, has been much more about building businesses around the lifestyle we want to live — not vice versa.
I've been able to focus on work that is not only financially rewarding but also personally fulfilling and meaning-full.
This discernment has largely shielded me from the empty hustle and hype-fluff that flood social media landscapes — especially the never-ending blast of "shoulds" directed at writers and content creators. [Like “Dave, you should write short-form newsletters, not these long ones…”]
Or, the common narrative on social media suggesting success as a digital writer or content creator is a straight path paved with constant engagement, viral content, and an ever-growing follower count.
However, by calling Bullshit on this one-size-fits-all approach, I've focused instead on building meaningful connections and trying to build, share, and produce impactful content.
This approach may not skyrocket follower counts overnight, or produce content that goes ‘viral’ — but it has led to sustained growth and engagement — and building things that carry meaning in our household. It’s also involved some cool connections.
On a personal level, being discerning in what I engage with and produce has significantly reduced noise, clutter, and bullshit in my life (and our household).
This clarity, and constant assessment and re-assertion of boundaries, have reduced stress and increased my overall enjoyment of life. (We only get one go).
For example, instead of spending hours scrolling through social media, comparing myself to others, and feeling like I'm not doing enough, I invest that time in deeper work, researching, learning, and with family — all of which contribute to a richer, more balanced life.
In essence, the Box Cutter mindset and the practice of strategically calling bullshit — and allocating where to give a shit — have been key to navigating the digital landscape in a way that promotes business success and personal well-being in the real landscapes of the world.
By cutting through the bullshit and focusing on what genuinely matters, I've been able to build a business that not only sustains me financially but also enriches my life and (it seems) the lives of those I can connect with.
And for me, that is purpose-full…
How about you?
That’s it for this issue. Please leave a comment (even call Bullshit if you please), press that ♥️ button, re-post on Notes, or otherwise.
Keep an eye out for the next Free issue in The Solopreneur Series — coming later this week.
This is a refreshing piece of writing that is relatable, useful and offers practical ways to go about it. Thank you for teaching us how to call it!
This article delves into the crucial skill of discernment in navigating the complexities of modern life, particularly in the realms of work and digital engagement. It's refreshing to see an approach that prioritizes meaningful dialogue and genuine progress over conformity and empty rhetoric. Overall, the article offers valuable insights for anyone seeking to navigate the digital landscape with purpose and integrity.
Explore captivating Contemporary, Romance, Thriller & Suspense, Science Fiction, Horror, and more stories on my Substack for FREE at https://jonahtown.substack.com