Field Manual
This isn't a textbook. It's a field manual — the kind of thing you throw in the truck and refer to when you're actually building something. Each post stands alone. Read them in order or jump to the one that matches your problem.
28 Dispatches
Chapter 1: The $450,000 Secret
Nobody ran the numbers. That's the thing that kept bugging me.
Read chapter →The Extraction Trap
I watched a guy cash his paycheck at one of those check-cashing places on Highway 61. Friday afternoon, three percent fee right off the top. He walked out with $740 on a $763 check. Twenty-three dolla
Read chapter →The Coordination Premium
I know a plumber named Gene who lives outside Clarksdale. Good plumber. Reliable. Shows up when he says he will, which in the Delta puts you in the top 10% of any trade.
Read chapter →Time Is the Only Currency That Can't Leave Town
Here's what kept bugging me about money.
Read chapter →The Task Board
The most powerful piece of economic infrastructure in your town costs $11 at Home Depot.
Read chapter →Building Without Banks
The last time I walked into a bank to ask for a loan, the branch manager — nice guy, khakis, firm handshake — told me I needed to show three years of consistent revenue, two forms of collateral, and a
Read chapter →Federation, Not Scale
Every good thing I've ever been part of got ruined the same way: it got too big.
Read chapter →The First 90 Days
Enough theory. Here's the build.
Read chapter →What Kills Coordination Systems
I've watched six coordination networks die. Not fade — die. Full collapse, board goes quiet, people stop showing up, everyone pretends it was a nice idea that "just didn't work out."
Read chapter →The Off Switch
Every system you depend on has an off switch. And you're not the one holding it.
Read chapter →What Kind of Pod Are You Building?
Not every coordination network looks the same. I've been talking about task boards like they're all plumbers-and-bookkeepers-trading-Saturdays, and that's the simplest version. But once you get past t
Read chapter →Shared Services You Can Launch Without Money
A guy in a town I won't name started fixing bikes on Saturdays. Not as a business. He just set up in his driveway with a repair stand he'd built from scrap pipe, put a sign on a piece of cardboard — "
Read chapter →The Scaling Math
I've thrown around a lot of numbers in this series. Time to put them all in one place so you can see the whole curve — what happens at five people, twenty-five, a hundred, five hundred. Because the ma
Read chapter →The Legal Reality
I'm going to tell you something that'll annoy you: the IRS considers barter income taxable.
Read chapter →Technology Sovereignty
You built a coordination network to stop sending your money to corporations. Then you put the whole thing on Google Sheets, coordinated through WhatsApp, and communicated on Gmail.
Read chapter →Chapter 16: The Fayette Experiment
There's a Dollar General on Main Street in Fayette, Mississippi. It's the closest thing the town has to a grocery store, and if you've ever tried to feed a family on Dollar General — and I mean actual
Read chapter →Chapter 17: The Clarksdale Creative Pod
Red's is closed on Mondays. If you've never been to Red's Lounge in Clarksdale, Mississippi, picture a juke joint that looks like it might fall over but has somehow outlasted every chain restaurant, c
Read chapter →Chapter 18: The Natchez Porch Network
If you've never been to Natchez, Mississippi, let me paint the picture in one sentence: it's a town of 14,000 people with more antebellum mansions per capita than anywhere in America, sitting on a blu
Read chapter →Chapter 19: The Hundred-Friend Economy
A guy on TikTok laid it out in sixty seconds flat: form an LLC with a hundred of your closest friends, buy 200 acres, farm it, craft from it, host festivals on it, and make sure you've got a few remot
Read chapter →Outsider Economics — Launch Checklist
Everything below requires your login. The code is done.
Read chapter →Outsider Economics Voice Guide
This is how Chase writes. If your draft doesn't sound like this, rewrite it.
Read chapter →How We Built a Touring Circuit from a Victorian Mansion
Amy Allen started with a bar. Then she started a touring company. Then a record label. Then a radio station. Then a magazine. She still pours the bourbon on Wednesday nights.
Read chapter →Outsider Economics — Social Content Bank
Sub-280 characters. No hashtags. No emojis. Punchline at the end. Real math, real places.
Read chapter →Outsider Economics — TikTok / Short-Form Video Concepts
15 video concepts mixing Outsider Economics philosophy with Big Muddy visual content.
Read chapter →The $165 Device That Works Without the Internet
A small computer that brings AI to towns the internet forgot. Solar-powered. Offline-capable. Here's what it does, why it exists, and the hurricane story that explains everything.
Read chapter →The Cook's Name
Three hundred dollars a month for Birdeye and they can't even spell Natchez. We charge ninety-nine and we know your cook's name.
Read chapter →The Inn Where the Music Plays
Six rooms. One bar. The band picks the setlist. Amy pours the bourbon. Here's what happens when you stay at a place where the music never really stops.
Read chapter →What $167 a Month Buys You
Fourteen websites. One radio station. An AI that costs less than your Spotify subscription. Here's what it actually costs to run the whole thing, and why we're telling you.
Read chapter →Case studies
Natchez, the Bronx, Bearsville, mesh edges, tourism rails, rural land — builds that shipped, with math attached. Same field manual voice; longer receipts.
Read case studiesMore Coming
New posts drop on the Substack first. Subscribe to get them as they come out, or check back here — they'll show up automatically.