7:12 AM.
I just woke up.
Bad habit - I grab my phone while still in bed. Quick scroll through the feed.
I guess you have this as well - tonnes of hustlers âsharingâ how their AI workflows made them $500K in business. Markets are crashing. Mixed in with a wave of DMs from creatives looking for work.
Bizarre landscape.
âF**k itâŚâ I drop the phone.
Make a strong coffee. Take a sip. And Iâm thinking:
đ Where is all this going?!?
Then a message pops up - some good news for the studio. A little spark. A flicker of sunlight in the brain. The dopamine kicks in.
Reset.
Thatâs my life these days. Constant ups and downs. A loop of competition, drive, doubt⌠then back again.
The race
Weâre all in it. Whether we realise it or not.
Some people will say theyâve opted out and theyâre not playing the game.
Not chasing titles. Not fighting for market share. Not caught in the rat race.
But the truth is - the game is bigger than you. If you live in society, youâre being measured. Compared. Ranked. Youâre in the game, whether you chose to play or not.
Your company. Your job. Your income. Your kidâs education. Your healthcare. Your holidays.
All of it depends on what society defines as valuable, and what others are willing to reward you for. Weâve all been trained to compete. Since day one.
Competition is just the marketâs way of reacting to comparison. Without comparison, thereâs nothing to compete for.
So both (comparison and competition) drive growth.
But is it sustainable?
When we hit the ceiling
Iâve been thinking about all the SaaS products we use. Why we pay for them, what they actually do. They save us time, money, effort. They automate some process. They âdo XYZâ through features.
Features that, twenty years ago, felt like magic.
Ten years ago, they were enough to build an entire category around.
Today? Theyâre becoming the default. Fast.
Most of these tools feel the same - not because theyâre bad, but because they become so easy to make. Itâs never been easier to build software or design and never harder to make it meaningful.
AI is only accelerating that collapse.
Everyoneâs better. Everyoneâs cheaper. Everyoneâs faster.
And now? Everyoneâs replaceable.
You can still win a race - but you canât win comparison. Not anymore.
Weâve always known comparison was a bit toxic, even before AI showed up. But for a while, it worked. You made something slightly better. Marketed it slightly louder. Priced it slightly lower.
You stood out. At least for a minute.
Now the whole system is cracking.
Whatâs even harder is letting go of something thatâs been wired into us since childhood. We were ranked with grades. Then CVs. Then salary bands, performance reviews, social metrics, and growth charts.
Comparison became the habit behind competition.
And now that AI is flattening everything, making everything âgood enoughâ...
Off the list entirely
Over the past year, Iâve found myself coming back to the same question:
What if the goal isnât to be better or faster or even âdifferentâ? What if the real goal is to never be compared again?
Thatâs where the idea of Uncomparable came from.
Not âbest in class.â
Not ânumber one.â
Not âmore premium.â
Not âbetterâ.
Just⌠off the list entirely.
Uncomparable is a state where comparison no longer applies, because youâve redefined the frame completely.
You donât just look different. You are measured differently⌠or not at all.
âIncomparableâ is the term what we usually hear - but it means so good no one else matches - in other words superior. The best. But thatâs still a ranking. Still a hierarchy.
Uncomparable isnât about being above. Itâs about being outside.
No ranking. No ladder. No list. Youâre not better ⌠youâre simply not comparable.
Itâs something thatâs always existed in art, culture, and creative expression. No one compares Michael Jackson to other pop stars. You donât rank Banksy next to commercial illustrators.
These arenât just brands or artists. They are cultural categories of one. Because theyâre not one of many. Theyâre the only one that is them.
Thereâs no benchmark. No chart that makes sense.
Youâre not better. Youâre not worse. Youâre just... you. Fully expressed.
And when that expression is true and aligned and fully claimed, thereâs nothing to compare it to.
Youâre not playing the same game. Youâre not even on the same map.
Uncomparable means stepping outside the frame.
No one can line you up against anyone else - because youâve become something else entirely.
Youâre the only one that is you.
Uncomparison
Thatâs the idea Iâve been sitting with. And slowly shaping into a framework/strategy - Uncomparison. Technically thatâs not a real word.
But thatâs the whole point.
Uncomparison is what happens when you choose to stop playing that game entirely.
Most of what we call branding today is just comparison in disguise. Uncomparison is about removing comparison as a factor entirely.
Itâs the process of building a business, a brand, or a personal identity that refuses to compete, because it doesnât belong in the same conversation.
Itâs strategy, yes. But itâs also story, self-worth, culture, intention, belief. Expressed in verbal and visual form. Itâs not about standing out. Itâs about standing alone - and being remembered because of it.
Just thinking out loudâŚ
Iâll share more soon. But hereâs the only thing I know for sure:
If you want to thrive in the next decade, you canât be better. You have to be uncomparable.
If this resonates, hit reply. Tell me where you feel the pressure.
Just thinking out loud. And watching whoâs listening.
More soon.
Peace,
Stef