Doing cardistry for a living is something that has been on lots of people’s mind lately. The Virts, Andrei Jikh, Zach Mueller, and Chase Duncan have all been able to turn their hobby into something they can (more or less) make a living from. Because of this more and more people are looking for ways to do the same, and often their first idea is to design their own deck of cards and sell it. I think this a bad idea.

The best thing that has happened to cardistry in the last several years is Instagram. These days I watch very few videos on YouTube. Historically if you put something on YouTube it had to be polished. No one would consider uploading a 5 second video to YouTube to show off their latest idea. Instagram is optimized for lots of short videos in a way that YouTube is not. This is great because it leads to constant input that motivates and inspires people.

If this is true why then are so many people raising funds to print their own cards? It does nothing for the community. There are plenty of other ways to have an impact and make some money. Here are some of my ideas

Create apps that help with part of the process. Could be video editing, practicing, getting feedback, or teaching.

Teach your creations.

Share your thoughts through writing or podcasting.

Interview other cardists.

Design and build physical products.

I’m not saying executing on any of these ideas will be easy but we need to have the courage to try new things and not just do what everyone else does.