The Permissionless Path describes career and entrepreneurial strategies that bypass traditional gatekeepers—employers, publishers, investors, credential-granting institutions—to create value and build wealth on your own terms. In contrast to permission-based paths (getting hired, being published, receiving funding), permissionless paths let you start immediately with the resources you already have.
Traditional careers operate on a permission model: you apply, you wait, someone decides if you're worthy. This creates bottlenecks, introduces bias, and concentrates power in the hands of gatekeepers. The permissionless path rejects this dynamic.
**Examples of Permissionless Paths**:
**Content Creation**: Anyone can start a blog, podcast, or YouTube channel today. You don't need a publisher's approval to share your ideas. Your audience decides if your work is valuable.
**Software Development**: The open-source movement exemplifies permissionless building. Developers can create tools, build audiences, and establish reputations without corporate permission.
**Digital Products**: Platforms like Gumroad, Lemon Squeezy, and Teachable let anyone sell ebooks, courses, templates, or software without requiring a distributor's approval.
**Freelancing and Consulting**: While traditional employment requires being chosen, freelancers can directly offer their services and let market demand determine their success.
**Building in Public**: Sharing your work openly as you create it builds audience and credibility simultaneously, without waiting for traditional validation.
**Characteristics of Permissionless Paths**:
1. **Low Barriers to Entry**: Starting costs are minimal—often just time and internet access
2. **Direct Feedback**: The market (customers, readers, users) provides immediate validation rather than a single gatekeeper
3. **Compounding Returns**: Early work builds assets (audience, portfolio, reputation) that appreciate over time
4. **Antifragility**: Multiple small experiments mean no single rejection is catastrophic
5. **Skill Stacking**: Combining accessible skills creates unique value propositions
**The Mindset Shift**:
The permissionless path requires abandoning the permission-seeking mindset ingrained by traditional education and employment:
- Don't wait to be picked—pick yourself
- Don't ask if you're ready—start and learn publicly
- Don't seek validation from authorities—let the market decide
- Don't perfect in private—iterate in public
**Challenges**:
- Without gatekeepers, you bear full responsibility for quality and ethics
- Income can be volatile, especially initially
- Building audience and credibility takes time
- The freedom can be overwhelming without self-discipline
The permissionless path isn't about avoiding all structures—it's about choosing which structures serve you rather than accepting whatever gatekeepers impose. It's particularly relevant for knowledge workers, who often possess valuable expertise but are bottlenecked by organizational hierarchies.
As Naval Ravikant notes: 'The internet has massively broadened the possible space of careers. Most people haven't figured this out yet.' The permissionless path is how you figure it out.