Pictured: My original pfp in every private churning group I joined back in the day. If you don’t know who this is, you’re missing out, both on the song reference of this post, and more importantly, an outlook on life we could all stand to learn from

I’ve received a lot of feedback in the wake of this whole “where do beginners belong in the hobby” conversation, and it made me a tad pensive. I wanted to dive a bit deeper.

First of all, I hope that my frustration at the situation isn’t coming across as vitriol towards beginners themselves, because that couldn’t be farther from the truth. 

We were all beginners once, and nobody is inherently more deserving of this knowledge just because they discovered /r/churning before someone else. Most of us old heads had a lucky chance encounter along the way to get to this point, and even though we made the most of the opportunity, luck still played a role.

Once you manage to make it into the unindexed world of private groups, there’s definitely an expectation of self-sufficiency and discretion. But before that happens, beginners are being bombarded by so many different sources of information.

Between affiliate spammers, classic digital nomad course seller archetypes, Instagram influencers, and even legitimate scammers, beginners are dealing with a lot of noise. Of course they’re getting bad advice, because the people selling them this hobby are incentivized to do so. 

There’s a lot of money to be made playing the game, but there’s even more money to be made influencing others. And it’s understandably easy to convince novices to follow a certain path. They see overwater bungalows and Etihad Apartments and justifiably want a piece – how could you not? 

But aspirational redemptions (and aspirational profits) require a thoughtful plan, and that’s usually a tiny footnote at the end of the document, after 30 different referral links, give or take.

I do want to give a nod to the small population of mainstream content creators that I think safely straddle the line between earning a living and providing useful info to someone that is brand new to churning without blowing plays up. I always try to point people towards sources like Chris at All the Hacks or Frequent Miler for a true starting point.

Anyways, I’m always a little flattered when people that are newer find their way here, because I’ve made zero effort to publicize the blog outside of the two private groups I got my start in. Not because I’m trying to keep it a secret (it’s public, after all), but because I had doubts about how much utility it would honestly provide to newer people (or anyone, quite frankly). 

I like to think that finding your way here, MEAB or some other contrarian source of MS news is an indication that you may have the right mindset to succeed. Not because we’re great writers (Matt is, I’m not), but because we aren’t beholden to issuers that require you to treat every new card refresh like the greatest thing since sliced bread. You could really tell who had editorial freedom during the Bilt fiasco, that is for sure.  

All of this is to say that my ire (and the ire of the vast majority of the veterans) isn’t directed at new people who have zero context about why some of these things are so sensitive. It’s not your fault you want to fly premium cabins and earn money – who doesn’t? 

The unwise choices that are killing things are being made by the short-sighted people in the community who choose to shine a giant spotlight on things and offer access to it without the necessary learning and context you traditionally would have in the past. 

The natural backlash in the community has led to this awkward state in which groups are all closed off, but so much of the conversation is happening in DMs instead of the channels that were once full of lively banter. As so many quality sources of information have tightened up access, the only shops left in town for beginners to “level up” are the aforementioned grifters. 

While I fully understand the frustration of beginners, there is a flip side to discuss as well that I’ve alluded to. I do think there is a tendency for beginner MSers to feel derision towards veterans when a play dies. There’s some semblance of “you got yours, why should I care?”. 

The first hole in this logic is the obvious fact that the play died for you too. If veterans are upset about something dying, it means you should be angry about it too. Losing angles hurts at every level – but it hurts more the higher you get, regardless of how well you’ve already done.

As you’ve probably gathered at this point, incremental gains for whales and dolphins aren’t being used to fly EK F for the 14th time in a year. It’s going towards very tangible, real things – house down payments, college tuition for children, medical bills, etc. 

I don’t need to get into oversharing territory with my own reason for grinding, outside of saying that my goal is giving a loved one a much-needed break. 

There’s no right or wrong answer to this complicated problem, but this is my perspective. I worked my ass off to get to where I’m at in this hobby, but there were some elements of “right place, right time” to get me to where I am. I try my best to remember that when I’m talking to others.

“And in your belly you hold the treasures few have ever seen

Most of ’em dream, most of ’em dream”

Ẹ kú àṣeyọrí!