Thread by @jakobgreenfeld

Certain ideas unlock 1000s of opportunities as soon as you understand them.

Here’s a breakdown of one such concept and how you can take advantage yourself.

(It's what the bulletproof coffee guy uses to make $50M/year.)

// THREAD //

People are now hyper-aware of their health and want to make sure they’re in tip-top shape.

This includes being more aware of environmental factors that potentially impact it and, where possible, trying to minimize the impacts.

For example, Health Twitter™ spends a lot of time warning people about things like electromagnetic frequencies (EMFs) and telling people to fix their posture.

This has led to a rise in FUDwear.

What’s that?

It’s a term coined by @shaanVP that describes brands that take advantage of consumers’ fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD).

Some examples of FUDwear include @getlambs radiation-proof hats, shirts, & underwear and @alignmed’s posture-correcting shirts

But what drives consumers to give into their FUD and make these purchases?

Enter Pascalian Medicine.

It’s a play on Pascal’s Wager, a logic-based argument for believing in God

✔️ God exists & you believe = go to heaven

❌ God exists & you don’t believe = go to hell

❌ God doesn’t exist & you believe = nothing happens

❌ God doesn’t exist & you don’t believe = nothing happens

Pascalian Medicine takes the same construct and applies it to health decisions.

One guy who takes this idea *very* seriously is Futurist Ray Kurzweil who reportetly takes 100 different supplements every day.

Multivitamins are a perfect example.

For any individual vitamin in them, there's a relatively small probability that supplementing it does anything good — but a higher probability that at least one does.

Moreover, it won't hurt you to take them.

Another good example is how the bulletproof coffee guy made everyone paranoid about mold on coffee beans and then earned millions selling his "mold-free" coffee.

Think of it as a “better safe than sorry” approach to health.

FUDwear is no different.

Individually, the EMF underwear, posture correcting shirts, etc. might have a low probability of leading to significantly better health. But if you wear a whole bunch of these things, odds are at least one of them will lead to better health.

Now let's brainstorm how we can take advantage of this trend.

In a nutshell:

Whenever people start to become concerned about something, there's an opportunity to offer products or information to help them feel better.

Remember, people aren’t really paying for your service or product.

They’re paying for their peace of mind.

Consulting services would be an easy way to start.

E.g. can you critique a bug-out plan? Are you able to diagnose issues with drinking water & install whole-house filtration systems?

Ideas along similar lines but more scalable would be ebooks and courses.

Here's a recent example.

Tucker Max recently got a lot of attention talking about "Doomer Optimism", a trend where people start applying Pascal's wager to their whole lifestyle.

Tucker prepares for the worst with Sheepdog Response courses and I bet they're making $$$.

There are also tremendous opportunities to build communities around these fears. And it’s not just purely a business opportunity.

But also an opportunity to provide some real hope and solutions.

The whole prepper community is fueled by the same mindset.

Now where can you find these opportunities?

Reddit (/r/askscience in particular) is a great place to get ahead of trends just starting to take off.

Here's last year's top question.

Clearly there is an opportunity to sell products, ebooks, or courses to anyone worried that their immune system got too weak during COVID lockdowns.

Another strategy is to follow health influencers who do all the hard work of staying on top of things for you.

My favorite sources for anything health and fitness-related:

• @jwmares newsletter,
• @dranthonygustin's podcast, and
• @JoeVennare's Fitt insider newsletter

A goldmine are also Kindle bestseller lists, for example, in the Safety & First Aid or the Pharmacology Toxicology category.

Apparently, people are very interested in "protection spells" right now to "clear negative energy". Who knew!

I'm definitely not saying you should go out and sell useless crap that preys on people's fears.

Instead, there are plenty of valid concerns you can help people with and use in your marketing.

Understanding which concerns are valid is hard.

So here's another slightly different idea:

Examine .com but for FUDwear products.

I'd love to see an authoritative source that explains the evidence for "dangers" like electromagnetic radiation or mold on coffee.

Another reason why I find the whole topic fascinating is that once you understand these concepts, it's much easier to recognize bs products for what they are.

You become immune to FUD-marketing (at least to some extent).