Notes on the gaining popularity of Substack. “Substack is not quite the ‘revolution’ tech critic Jaron Lanier envisioned in his 2013 book, Who Owns the Future? For Lanier, our current detente wherein users receive free services and creators receive free exposure in exchange for free content, was never viable. A few monopolies control (and monetize) an inordinate amount of all the information created around the world, while the masses would be left out in the cold.”

Interesting read but a little too rosy IMO. "If Substack is a stripper pole at least it’s not pro bono." I think for many it actually is pro-bono, either that or it's similar to the shitty pay so many of us get writing for online publications. Who are the writers that succeed on substack? mostly the ones who are most controversial, and those who know how to play the algorithm on Twitter and Instagram. Substack is not a solution to the pitfalls of the attention economy but an extension of them: writers have to keep hustling hot takes on their Twitters and Instagrams to earn more subscribers, and the cycle continues. I appreciate the idea that we don't have to rely on institutions to have our voices "heard" but I think a world without editors is a step back, not forward. I'd like to imagine there's a better model where writers can be both paid and edited, but maybe that's also too hopeful.