My First Million
The best business ideas come from noticing what's working and doing it better, faster, or for a different audience.
Meaningless memes driving massive cultural engagement
Timeframe: Permanent shift in how digital culture operates, individual memes last weeks to months
What's Changing
Young people creating and spreading cultural phenomena that intentionally have no deeper meaning, with the meaninglessness being the point
Driving Forces
Social media platforms rewarding engagement over meaning
Youth desire to have cultural power independent of adult approval
Reaction against over-explained, branded content
Platform algorithms favoring mysterious, shareable content
Winners
- Creators who can tap into authentic moments
- Brands that partner without over-explaining
- Platforms that facilitate organic sharing
- Products that become part of the cultural expression
Losers
- Traditional marketing approaches
- Brands that try to manufacture meaning
- Content that's too obviously corporate
- Adults trying to control youth culture
How to Position Yourself
Support rather than create cultural moments
Keep products simple so they don't interfere with culture
Let youth define what products mean to them
Avoid over-explaining or adding artificial meaning
Early Signals to Watch
Example Implementation
“When basketball player's random number becomes viral meme, create product featuring that number without trying to explain or add meaning to it”