How To Make Substack a Serendipity Engine
Reflections on Substack's evolution a year after the launch of Notes and ways it can keep winning over readers, writers, and the culture at large
Comrades: Substack is more than an economic engine for culture - it is a serendipity engine.
In seven years, Substack has grown into the world’s best subscription network. It is light years better than any media or social platform. Substack’s team is a class act full of thoughtful, principled, and good-humored people like Chris Best, Hamish McKenzie, Mills Baker, and many others. I can’t think of a better crew to helm this too important to fail samizdat press.
Substack’s simple but powerful incentive shift has changed the game. In the words of their well-written About page: “When readers pay writers directly, writers can focus on doing the work they care about most. A few hundred paid subscribers can support a livelihood. A few thousand makes it lucrative… We think the internet's powers, married to the right business model, can be harnessed to build the most valuable media economy the world has ever known—an economy where value is measured not only in dollars but also in quality, in good-faith discourse, and in creating an internet that celebrates and supports humanity.”
I am a Substack stan. As someone who had no previous experience in media, marketing, or writing, Substack has been user friendly since day one. My favorite feature of Substack is that it is a serendipity engine. As a writer, I never know who is going subscriber and comment. As a reader, my inbox is full of the best writing covering every conceivable topic so I never need to go anywhere else. Substack is a bar full of the most interesting men and women on the planet, open 24/7. A love shack, if you will.
The most rewarding part is the friends you make along the way. I have met dozens of comrades through this samizdat and forged lifelong bonds. The 30+ guests I have interviewed on my podcast are all brilliant minds and spirits. One reader helped me make the struggle session parodies. Transitioning online pen pals to offline friendships is what social media should be all about. When you read what people put into the universe, you can catch up like old friends the first time you meet in person. I hope to meet more of you over time, while balancing my anonymity and privacy (keep an eye out for a “sweet” milestone celebration).
A year ago, Substack took a big risk by launching Substack Notes. No one likes change and at first, we didn’t know what it was or what to do with it. Human ingenuity prevailed. A year later, Notes is a smashing success. It is the ideal place to discover new writers, banter with the community, share punchier thoughts, and resurface old bangers. At the time it rolled out, I wrote an open letter to Substack’s team about the path forward and they have stuck the landing. I am particularly impressed by the their backbone and thoughtfulness in defending free speech.
Every post is an empty canvas with endless possibilities. Memes, charts, pictures, art, videos, podcasts, and words all feel at home on Substack. Even full documentaries like The Coddling of the American Mind are launching here. It’s a buffet of creativity with something for everyone: Grubstack for foodies, Hubstack for techies, etc.
In a crazy election year, I would love to see Substack host debates between its writers. We are all better served interacting with people we disagree with instead of walling them off, which the “tolerant” progressives do but the conservatives don’t. I’d pay $10 to see any of these matchups and I’m sure many others would too - huge potential revenue stream for Substack:
What is your favorite part of Substack?
Substack is great, but it’s writer-centric; and its business model doesn’t work for the average reader - who wants to pay $80 / month to follow a dozen “stacks”. UnHerd and the WSJ are much more cost effective. There is no refund for long-term subscriptions. The minimum $5 a month is just too high. The website is clunky, and has some nasty glitches (accidentally hit the wrong button and a few hundred dollars are charged to your credit card in less than a minute). What do you do when you subscribe and the writer stops writing? And then of course there’s Stripe. Ever try chatting with Substack help? Substack is great, but . . .
So you are saying anybody can get on this platform and write? No licensing agency? No requirement of higher education? No board of experts to determine if the content produced is safe and/or appropriate for consumption by the general public?
Authors can post anything they want without any centralized government controlled editorial power whatsoever?
This is incredibly dangerous. What if someone accidentally reads something that offends they/them? How will they feel knowing that anybody else can access the platform and read offensive things that they/them feel are actually harming they/them physically, as thoughts often do?
On top of all that, people can contribute directly to authors without a government appointed mediator properly collecting and reallocating a small portion of funds to those experts producing content not full of wrong think?
THIS IS MADNESS!