Substack has, funny enough, made me appreciate traditional media more because at least there are some standards. There are some brilliant people on Substack for sure, but so much of social media is about getting attention, so the feed is always flooded with the most mid, hyperbolic thinkpieces. The addition of the leaderboard only made this worse b/c it just further gamified the app.
I find it so weird when people call platforms like Substack “democratizing.” To me, it’s the opposite. There’s a whole reward system in place that encourages conformity. Like all social media, it just becomes behavioral conditioning :-(
This is a great, great piece, which will probably bring you nothing but grief. Which is good. Just to be clear. I am not one of those “Substack dudes”you reference. I’m too busy avoiding success. I might be trying to sell a few books and get somebody to use a song or two in a subversive movie or something, but that’s pretty much it. I’m probably serious when I joke that somebody might be planning at some point to compromise or “turn” you. You’re bubbling up a little too high for these assholes to just leave you alone. I’m hoping to achieve a much lower profile…
Mike Pepi's book Against Platforms is excellent on this topic as well: social media is a neoliberal and reactionary force by design. Even if Substack is fun/good right now, the incentives are toward exploitation, not liberation.
totally agree. also i have a follow up essay in the works about how substack (and other sub platforms like it) represent the next step in the neoliberalization of culture.
it's hilarious/depressing that former Pando staffer Hamish MacKenzie co-founded this shithole. It's funnier still that prior to that he worked for Elon "writing tesla's story"
(why i find it funny is there's always been at least one person out of the exile, nsfwcorp, pando etc. who for some reason or another pivots away right into the establishment's arms. it's a bit sad to witness each time it happened)
Shout out to my Substack Guys @Ross Barkan and @Ted Gioia!
Substack has, funny enough, made me appreciate traditional media more because at least there are some standards. There are some brilliant people on Substack for sure, but so much of social media is about getting attention, so the feed is always flooded with the most mid, hyperbolic thinkpieces. The addition of the leaderboard only made this worse b/c it just further gamified the app.
I find it so weird when people call platforms like Substack “democratizing.” To me, it’s the opposite. There’s a whole reward system in place that encourages conformity. Like all social media, it just becomes behavioral conditioning :-(
Brilliant, thank you. Very depressing
This is a great, great piece, which will probably bring you nothing but grief. Which is good. Just to be clear. I am not one of those “Substack dudes”you reference. I’m too busy avoiding success. I might be trying to sell a few books and get somebody to use a song or two in a subversive movie or something, but that’s pretty much it. I’m probably serious when I joke that somebody might be planning at some point to compromise or “turn” you. You’re bubbling up a little too high for these assholes to just leave you alone. I’m hoping to achieve a much lower profile…
I love this shit ! Well done yasha.
thank you for this - I made a similar argument in the Republic of Letters the other week: https://therepublicofletters.substack.com/p/the-gatekeepers-strike-back
Mike Pepi's book Against Platforms is excellent on this topic as well: social media is a neoliberal and reactionary force by design. Even if Substack is fun/good right now, the incentives are toward exploitation, not liberation.
totally agree. also i have a follow up essay in the works about how substack (and other sub platforms like it) represent the next step in the neoliberalization of culture.
it's hilarious/depressing that former Pando staffer Hamish MacKenzie co-founded this shithole. It's funnier still that prior to that he worked for Elon "writing tesla's story"
yeah not a big move from doing elon pr to doing substack be honest. same orbit of vc money and dreams.
(why i find it funny is there's always been at least one person out of the exile, nsfwcorp, pando etc. who for some reason or another pivots away right into the establishment's arms. it's a bit sad to witness each time it happened)
I had a chuckle when I considered you might have landed on doing this nice piece after fantasies of this couple invaded one of your OnlyFans sessions.