If thoughts are a product, how do we determine their worth?

Lately, I’ve been thinking about how we share ideas online and how that’s changed over time. So I'm showing up today with a traditional blog post, not behind a paywall, no subscription required to read, just sharing my thoughts. Freely.

The observations you make as a human being, the questions you don’t yet have answers to... there was a period on the internet when those things were simply offered. You wrote about them because you were thinking. You posted because you were curious. You shared because it helped you make sense of the world and connect with others who shared similar sentiments. It wasn’t about building an audience. It wasn’t about positioning yourself as a “voice.” And it definitely wasn’t about monetization.

Blogs were messyyyy in the best ways. Comment sections were conversational and buzzy. Ideas were allowed to contradict each other without being nasty, and you could follow the original poster's thinking over time without committing to a subscription or handing over a credit card. The value was in the exchange itself and in seeing how other people were working things out in real time.

Somewhere along the way, that shifted. Platforms changed. Attention became "measured" and audiences became "quantifiable." The thoughts we share online slowly took on a different weight. Ideas became content, and when the content gets enough views, the algorithms starts rewarding your consistency by helping you build a following. That following becomes leverage, and eventually, that leverage leads to income. And we all know how it spirals once the money gets involved.

Now, many of the same personal reflections, cultural observations, loosely formed theories about life and meaning that we used to freely share are increasingly packaged behind paywalls or optimized for engagement. We’re asked to subscribe not just to someone’s work, but to their ongoing inner monologue.

So here's my question: is it worth it?

Is it worth paying a monthly subscription fee to receive someone’s thoughts when those thoughts aren’t particularly researched, educational, or transformative? When they’re not offering and investigative reporting, decades of expertise, or hard-won insight. Is it worth simply paying for access?

Most subscription-based writing platforms offer a one-way relationship. You pay💰. They speak🗣️. You consume . Occasionally you can comment or otherwise respond, but the exchange is still mostly one-sided. You’re paying to spectate while someone has a conversation with themself.

To be clear, I'm not saying this is inherently bad. We pay to engage with one-sided content like books, courses, lectures, and journalism all the time. But those things tend to offer structure and depth, and they're refined by a team of editors or peer-reviewers. What frustrates me about the current wave of monetized personal ideas the vague value proposition. If thoughts are a product, how do we determine their worth?

When the line between the depth of your content and production frequency blurs, there's little time for reflection. When writers, video makers, podcasters, and other creatives are incentivized to publish constantly, they're being led by engagement, not necessarily by intention. And not every thought needs to be shared. Not every idea deserves an audience outside of your personal in-real-life bubble, right? Right?!

Volume ≠ value.

The irony, for me, is that the internet once promised diverse democratized thought. I may be showing my age, but I remember a time when online forums were a medium for open exchange of ideas across borders and backgrounds. Now, it feels more like golden-gated access to echo chambers, and the are curated by people who are rewarded for being the loudest and most provocative.

This isn’t a criticism of those who monetize what they share on the internet. Online creators deserve to be paid for their work as much as any other professional. BUT. In a time where more and more people are selling their perspective, it has me nostalgic for a time when we could just share and read what other people were sharing without being pushed to subscribe.