Atharv Ketkar

Emotional Delta.

Emotional delta means change in emotion from A to B, be it positive or negative.

Sometimes positive emotional delta can be favorable or unfavorable for you.

And sometimes negative emotional delta can be favorable or unfavorable for you.

Emotional Delta snaps you out of everything and focuses on what caused it.

And that type of focus often results in actions.

Actions which can be favorable or unfavorable for us.

That’s worth the gamble.

You’re doing this thing effectively if you are able to take people from neutral to positive or negative, and you are exceptionally good at it if you are able to take people directly from positive to negative or negative to positive.

Sometimes just taking from negative to neutral is also enough, as it is a relief.

Here are some of the Emotional delta causing things that I have observed:

  • Loss of privacy, being exposed, something private becoming public.
  • Doom is imagined because of intrusive thoughts or some suggestion.
  • Doubt generated because an assumption was challenged or a new view was discovered.
  • Observing change around you and losing confidence in current calculations.
  • Comparison where you lose in a thing you deem important or it is so trivial that you should have never lost.
  • Betrayal of trust.
  • Severe or continuous deviation from expected behavior by someone.
  • The threat of social isolation because of your own act surfacing or someone else’s act isolating you.
  • Losing what you have right now.
  • Regaining what you lost and cherish.
  • Being reminded of things you don’t want to think about because they are socially unflattering or instill fear in you.
  • Being subject of rumors or conversation, where you might also be a part of that conversation, which is bad for your image.
  • Something you’re anxious about finally getting over with no harm.
  • Observing someone and judging them in both a positive or negative light.

So from this example, we can see that emotional delta can come from :

  • Exposure to others, of what is supposed to be private or hidden
  • Imagination of reality which is unsafe or unfavorable.
  • Disruption of mental models through which we view the world.
  • Threats towards social position
  • Threat towards or from our relationships.
  • Social or interpersonal comparisons.

Delta happens in a lot more instances where what should not happen happens or is imagined to be happening.

One special one is where just observing others trips us up into feeling emotions.

So if you have picked up a niche and want to win in it, here is how you should be utilizing emotional delta.

Every niche is essentially a shared reality.

The niche will have its own system, its own ways, its own norms, its own assumptions. To test fully, implanting the seeds of something other than that happening can cause emotional delta.

Humans are social animals, and everyone is self-aware enough to know they are not perfect. Comparisons always cut deep.

So comparisons of components within a niche, be it activity, members, process, or state of minds during participation will definitely cause Emotional Delta.

Everyone in a niche has quietly ranked themselves within it. They have a private sense of where they stand. A well-placed comparison either confirms their fear that they’re behind or threatens a position they thought was secure.

Either way, delta.

So what do you do with all this delta? Like I said before, it makes people stop and observe the thing that caused this delta. That attention itself is immensely valuable and monetizable.

And while placing these built manufacturers, if you are a bit tactful, you can make a brand out of it and thus have your own product line.

Step 1 — Pick a niche
A shared reality with its own assumptions, norms, hierarchies, and insecurities already baked in.

Step 2 — Manufacture delta
Using the mechanisms we’ve identified expose something private, challenge an assumption, make a comparison, suggest an alternative reality, disrupt a mental model. Exploit what obviously, really obviously exists in this niche. Don’t go too fancy or novel.

Step 3 — Capture the attention that delta produces
The delta stops people. That pause is the most valuable real estate in any market. You own it because you caused it. Just have some form of media or content create this delta, and have the call to actions for them to stay with you.

Step 4 — Do it consistently and tactfully
If all your Delta manufacturers are pointing towards the same direction, the audience you cultivate will be one that aligns with that direction. Kind of like all the vectors pointing towards the same direction. If all the vectors are pointing randomly, you have not set up the system properly.

Step 5 — Brand becomes distribution for a product line
Once you are consistently pointing people towards the same direction, you can harvest that direction using products that are also in line with that direction. You already made them feel so much. The next obvious, logical step for them is to consume something to scratch that itch. The product feels inevitable rather than transactional.

Feel the social and interpersonal comparison part needs more exploration.

See, for comparison, you actually don’t need two entities in your content. Just one entity can result in comparison between the entity and the viewer himself. So just mere exploration of various things can have a positive effect for you. Comparsion is a cognitive reflex, a reflex that can be activated even without specific content format. You don’t have to go out of your way to construct it. The viewer himself brings it upon himself whenever they see something that can be compared against.

So what are your options?

  • X, Y, Z across countries, cities, regions, cultures, religions.
  • X, Y, Z, then versus now.
  • X, Y, Z across various demographics like age group, income level, professions, generations.
  • X Y Z at different performance or status levels. (Beginner and pro or poor versus wealthy or low effort versus high effort.)
  • What XYZ says about ABC

Where ABC =

  • What your choices say about you
  • What your environment says about you
  • What your habits say about you
  • What your taste says about you
  • What the people around you say about you
  • What your results say about you
  • What your problems say about you
  • ….

I think whatever we have discussed till now itself can give you content for years to come. This is at least 600 reels minimum.

If you go by trial reels and such, it just explodes.

Now go conquer some niche and monetize it.

Example: Pottery

Across geographies

  • Pottery styles across Japan, Morocco, Mexico, India, Greece
  • How different cultures treat clay differently
  • What pottery looks like in villages vs cities across the world

Then vs now

  • Ancient pottery techniques vs modern pottery
  • How a potter’s hands look after 1 year vs 10 years
  • What pottery meant 2000 years ago vs what it means today , utility vs art

Across demographics

  • How children vs adults approach clay for the first time
  • Pottery by age : what a 20 year old makes vs a 60 year old
  • Hobbyist potter vs professional potter : the difference in their studio, tools, mindset

Performance levels

  • First attempt on the wheel vs 1 month vs 1 year vs 10 years
  • A $20 bowl vs a $2000 bowl : what actually separates them
  • Low fire vs high fire : what the difference actually does to the clay

What X says about Y

  • What your favorite pottery style says about your personality
  • What the state of your studio says about you as a potter
  • What you choose to make first says about why you started

Challenging niche assumptions

  • The wheel is not actually the heart of pottery , most cultures never used it
  • Expensive clay doesn’t make better pots, the potter does
  • Most pottery sold as handmade has machine assistance somewhere in the process
  • The aesthetic the pottery community celebrates right now is just a trend, not a standard

Exposing the unspoken

  • Most people who start pottery quit within 3 months and nobody talks about why
  • The pottery community has a gatekeeping problem
  • Most hobbyist potters never sell a single piece despite wanting to
  • The gap between what pottery looks like on Pinterest and what beginners actually produce

And this is just some bullshit Claude gave me. If you rub your head against it, I can see you going way far ahead and having way better ideas.