Happy for your financial success. It seems well deserved given the quality of your writing.
But on a general note regarding Substack I'm a paying subscriber to three writers here and the yearly cost is over $100. Does that seem kind of high to anybody else? There are definitely many, many more writers I would like to subscribe to but then I would be forking out multiple hundreds of dollars a year. Given you can get a subscription to a magazine like the Economist for a fraction of the price that just seems excessive.
As someone who used to subscribe to the Economist, I think I got about as much enjoyment out of it as maybe half of one of the folks I subscribe to on substack.
Surely part of the problem is Substack's minimum $5 monthly sub rate. I can only think of a few writers I'd pay $60 per year for (obviously Freddie is one) but there are many others I'd gladly pay 10 or 20 bucks. Certainly as a hobbyist writer overwhelmed right now with Covid-era teaching I could never write at a $5/month level and would appreciate having smaller increments as a kind of tip jar.
It's a problem. A few months after I first discovered I discovered I was paying, well, let's just say a lot of money to a variety of writers, and I decided I had to cut back. But it's not necessarily just the money, I often don't have the time to read everyone I'm subscribed to.
I subscribed to the Economist for 20 years. Today if I want to know what the elites think about something, or what their plan for us plebs is, I no longer have to read the Economist.
It's tough when you like 10+ writers on here but can't support them all without budgeting a ridiculous amount -- especially because of the ones with higher prices like $100 per year.
I wish I could throw ten bucks at the ones I read for free. And I wish some of my paid subscriptions were less expensive, especially the ones exceeding $50 per year that don't have much content.
This newsletter is easily worth $50+ because there is so much content, but a lot of people don't post often enough for what they're asking.
I sometimes pay for one or two months of someone i like but not $50/year like, read the archives, and cancel, but it makes me feel like kind of an asshole. It would be nice if there were a slightly more formalized way to do this, especially for people without a lot of patrons.
I do wish Substack had a bundling feature, but that would reduce revenue to the individual writers.
I try not to think about it like "I'm paying over $100 a year for Substack content", I think of it in terms of supporting the writers I really like, and wanting them to make a real living at this, unencumbered. I also think of what I'm paying per unit time. It probably takes me 30-60 minutes a day to read all the Substack content I pay for, which means I'm paying less than $0.50/hr for content that is at least entertaining and oftentimes challenging of my worldview. For that price, it's a goddam bargain.
Congrats on the strong year, Freddie! And thank you for the unique and interesting content that gets me thinking and discussing with your other readers.
I'd also add that despite your readership being fairly hard left, you should have no shame in treating this like a proper business. We understand the capitalistic reality that we all currently live in and cannot begrudge anyone attempting to improve their financial conditions. You might want to at least have a consultation with a small business accountant to see if there are tax benefits that you're missing out on. E.g., deducting expenses. They should be able to do all the heavy lifting and minimize the time and effort you need to put into the numbers.
Also, take more vacation! I'm confident that we, your readers, can keep ourselves engaged with ongoing arguments in the comments of existing posts for anyone who feels the need for constant engagement.
I noticed that as well. I'm no corporate lawyer or tax lawyer, but I would imagine there's a lot of options Freddie could look at in terms of business expenses. Even something as simple (but possibly expensive) as his gym membership, considering how much content that creates.
There's no contradiction to me between advocating for workers to overthrow their capitalist oppressor and also creating an LLC to minimize one's tax burden.
"The conversations, while sometimes whacky and occasionally offensive to me and often devolving into increasingly inane argumentative threads"
Hey everyone, what do you think of masks and trans issues? (kidding, please don't)
What I find funny is that there are what, 50ish consistent commenters here and over 3,000 paid subscribers. It's safe to say that that commenters don't represent the majority viewpoint. I wouldn't be shocked if the majority of readers are Obama-supporting liberals who just want another perspective, but that's straight from my ass.
I'm guessing there are a few like me: Conservative, but respect the traditional role of the left and appreciate it's great writers. And for the most part we stay out of the comments.
The sort of person who comments is always different from the sort of person who just reads, but is there any way of really figuring out in which direction the structural differences lie?
I myself wouldn't have a clue, though I'd take a stab at "if you surveyed a random sample of frequent- and never-commenters, you'd find that the frequent-commenters are somewhat more extravert and somewhat more self-confident". But even that's pulled straight from *my* ass.
I kind of like the reader book review contest on ACX (a sub I would never pay for but am fine supporting through occasionally reading it), but otherwise I'm not convinced about anyone's voice but the author of the substack appearing on any given substack. If you want to support a promising writer, give them names of places that would probably like their work, and encourage them to get off Twitter.
Thank you for the overall transparency about your financial model. As someone who lives outside the (ugh) superstar cities, I'd encourage you to leave and donate your extra rent money to good causes, since our housing as arbitrage to exacerbate inequality model isn't going anywhere, and loneliness follows us wherever we go.
Yeah I would not do it as more than a maybe 4 time a year thing. For reader writing it would be a separate section that does not go out to the email list.
That seems right---automatically opting out if you never check the website. I think I would have been really into that kind of community when I was 22, I'm just too busy with a full time job, kid, etc. to dig
Thanks for the (first annual?) State of the Newsletter, the numbers satisfied some curiosity, and I think it's well deserved. How's the weight-lifting content do, numbers wise? I like it! I'll continue to he a happy subscriber, cheers.
Congratulations on your success so far Freddie! You deserve it. This is actually one of the Sub stacks I plan to resubscribe to when the date for renewal comes up early next year.
Man, I remember finding out about you through a link from Glenn Greenwald maybe 7-8 years ago. You had posted something interesting (if a little inflammatory to some) on your little blog and the rest is history.
I've recommended your book about education research to a few people this year that I randomly met at different events. I always love seeing some people's mind explode when I point out some of the common fallacies about reality of education attainment for some students and where we throw all our money at to solve this issue.
I would love to see an 'End of Year' or maybe '1 Year of Substack' retroactive look on your article metrics. Like what was the most viewed articles/liked article/most commented article.
What were the top liked comments, or comment that led to the biggest thread of discussion responses?
Congrats on your success. Haven’t commented lately -just really busy. But read and enjoy almost every post and really value the community of commenters here.
"What readers say they want and what they read and share and favorite are very different. This is human nature, not poor character. But a) it’s very easy for a small group of people vocally requesting a post on a certain topic to mislead me about how many people would be interested in the topic generally, and b) what people say they’ll read is not the same as what they’ll actually read."
The Nielsen effect! Everyone loves nature documentaries, not those tacky sitcoms. Just like everyone loves bipartisanship and wonky policy details and not tribalism.
Everyone said they wanted a political leader who owed nothing to any establishment interest groups. When they finally got one in the White House, they did everything in their power to take him down.
Similarly, there is a hell of a lot more actual regard for AstroTurf groups (such as Bloomberg- and Soros-sponsored groups) than actual grassroots political organizations (like the NRA), though everyone gives lip service to the virtue of grassroots.
new website visitors (to me) would be IPs that have not accessed your substack before.
Some returning visitors might have changing IPs or be on different machines so will count as new when they aren't.
But mostly I'd say the second spike was smaller because of the massive first spike that preceded it. The views might have been closer, but a lot of people who were first time visitors for that first spike contributed to views for the second.
The news that commenting is restricted to paid subscribers solves the mystery of why Substack comments sections (not just yours) are some of the more interesting, polite and refreshing social media spaces on the Internet.
You express a lot of wonder and curiosity about what this or that metric means, and how the needle can be moved. Isn't there some sooper seekrit Substack contributors' forum where you can explore questions like these with fellow Substackers? If there isn't, there probably should be.
"What readers say they want and what they read and share and favorite are very different."
I'm in manufacturing. It's no different in my business. At the end of the day, all that matters is where customers put their money. But in my business, I often have to spend $100,000 or more just to get to that point; and sometimes you find out, yep, those perfidious customers lied again.
Substack has a recurring writer's room feature that all writers are automatically enrolled in. They have company gophers skimming the comments to answer questions.
I'm not at all surprised. I'd expect Substackers to put their heads together to noodle out how to get the most from their participation in the platform.
You are spot on about the reasons why people are subscribing. I too hate the ironic distance, the cloying “lol, lmao” style of brainworms and writing that Twitter has made mainstream.
The reason I subscribe to you and TK news on Substack is because the left press has turned into dogshit as well. I am a former subscriber to the Nation, Current Affairs, In These Times, and The New Republic, and have let my subscriptions to all of these lapse because of their rapid decline and embrace of woke maximalism. Rather than providing alternative viewpoints, they have all turned into cheerleaders for grad school leftism. The catastrophic defeat, preceded by breathless triumphalism, for the India Walton campaign in particular must have come as a shock to these readers, and real reporting might have inspired the campaign to broaden its outreach. Not only is the echo chamber deathly dull, it is actively harmful.
I appreciate your constant challenging of my views, it shows respect to me as a reader, and it makes me think. It provides color to my life, and provides welcome stimulation during dull days. Keep it up!
I used to consume a lot of left media. Then, in 2014, I stopped consuming any political media. A couple years ago I decided to get back into it and holy shit what a surprise that was. You nailed it with that characterization.
I remember reading an article on there about why we don't call in the China Virus. I thought the obvious answer was that everyone calls its COVID and Coronavirus, and trying to advance a new name to PWN the Chinese is fucking stupid. Like if I started to call pizza "Italian Cheese Pie." But he talked about a context and racism and all this crap that has nothing to do with socialism.
They wanted to convert it to a worker owned cooperative. This is why you can’t let anarchists take charge of projects more complicated than scoring good drugs
It was so strange. Unions are good. Worker co-ops are niche but good. Trying to force the owner to give up ownership to the workers for a hostile after-the-fact workers co-op is, uh.... Well, I don't know.
When it was basically NJR's personal blog + a few friends he published a lot of stuff that was very formative in my thinking. I think he has a real talent for explaining left-wing thought in a very clear and easy to understand way. I still think about these two articles:
But all the writers he hired were pretty uninteresting, the length of pieces ballooned, and the tone just got much more smug over time. Unsurprising that it all went down in flames.
I have a certain level of affection for Nathan, but he just never shook this commitment to trying to make his magazine the political Spy magazine, and he just doesn't have the right kind of talent for that. Which is why so much of it comes off as smug.
Exactly, same. The comments sections used to reassure me I was not going crazy, but of course they soon shut all of those down. Thank god for Substack. In the last year it is finally bearable again to be an anti-woke liberal.
The death of comment sections hit me hard. A big electronic music site that had a lively and usually pretty even-handed comment section shut the whole thing down because it didn't "adequately reflect the diversity of the scene" (translation: we're tired of being called out for rewording press releases and we need that sweet engagement on social media). I thought it was so arrogant on their part and such a bummer move to turn a community engaged in dialogue to a coterie of tastemakers handing down judgements from on high.
If you feel there's low engagement with pieces you were particularly passionate about then I'd love to hear about that regularly in the digest. You might have thoughts to add on why it was close to your heart or why you might think it didn't hit and I don't think I'd be alone in enjoying re-reading or commenting on something like that given that perspective.
I know you do already point to an archived piece each week, but it's never struck me as an "I wish this had got more" feature. I'll pay more attention if that is the purpose.
It’s very, very good to have your voice back in my reading mix. Even when, perhaps especially when, I have disagreed with what you’ve had to say over the years, your sheer talent as a writer has made it enjoyable and educational to read, and I am honestly thrilled about the Substack success.
Dunno if it would be something you're interested in, but it'd be cool if you did a Spaces/Twitch call in kinda show with subscribers
Also, dunno if this sounds patronizing, but I'm super glad the Substack stuff is working out for you. I think I originally subscribed after someone linked your original posts about your treatment, and knowing the hell that is mental healthcare and the high costs of getting treatment, it's awesome that you can actually make a decent living out of writing.
Ironically, I actually disgree with you on most of your education and general political takes, but I'd say everything you post at least makes me think, and I love the side tangents on lifting and baseball.
Congrats on your success Freddie.
Given the vagaries of your industry and that you live in NY hopefully for next year given salary bump you are:
1) Maximizing your tax deductions by claiming home office, etc. etc. etc.
2) Putting aside money using an i401k which will max out at $61k in 2022.
the main thing is leave NYC, like holy shit -- so many cheaper places to live (even just in terms of tax burden)
Yup, flee NYS.
Happy for your financial success. It seems well deserved given the quality of your writing.
But on a general note regarding Substack I'm a paying subscriber to three writers here and the yearly cost is over $100. Does that seem kind of high to anybody else? There are definitely many, many more writers I would like to subscribe to but then I would be forking out multiple hundreds of dollars a year. Given you can get a subscription to a magazine like the Economist for a fraction of the price that just seems excessive.
I don't begrudge any of the writers here a single penny. But $300!
$300!
Same. I had a lot of newspapers which when I got down to it were all the same. and you can read through library subscriptions.
It's so hard to find good writing that it seems worth it to me.
As someone who used to subscribe to the Economist, I think I got about as much enjoyment out of it as maybe half of one of the folks I subscribe to on substack.
The Economist is kind of an extreme case. Their 50% off sale right now is right around $98. Something like Time is only $25 a year.
I would subscribe to more (I only have two paid subs) but yeah I can’t justify that cost, sadly.
Surely part of the problem is Substack's minimum $5 monthly sub rate. I can only think of a few writers I'd pay $60 per year for (obviously Freddie is one) but there are many others I'd gladly pay 10 or 20 bucks. Certainly as a hobbyist writer overwhelmed right now with Covid-era teaching I could never write at a $5/month level and would appreciate having smaller increments as a kind of tip jar.
It's a problem. A few months after I first discovered I discovered I was paying, well, let's just say a lot of money to a variety of writers, and I decided I had to cut back. But it's not necessarily just the money, I often don't have the time to read everyone I'm subscribed to.
I subscribed to the Economist for 20 years. Today if I want to know what the elites think about something, or what their plan for us plebs is, I no longer have to read the Economist.
LIBRARY.
It's tough when you like 10+ writers on here but can't support them all without budgeting a ridiculous amount -- especially because of the ones with higher prices like $100 per year.
I wish I could throw ten bucks at the ones I read for free. And I wish some of my paid subscriptions were less expensive, especially the ones exceeding $50 per year that don't have much content.
This newsletter is easily worth $50+ because there is so much content, but a lot of people don't post often enough for what they're asking.
That's me with Noah Smith. I like his articles, but he costs twice as much as this blog for weaker content.
On the other hand, I respect writers demanding to get paid well for their work.
"On the other hand, I respect writers demanding to get paid well for their work."
Absolutely. The model of readers paying writers directly is kind of pure, when you think about it.
Yeah, there's at least one person I subscribe to who I really like and who doesn't have a paid subscription option, and that's a little frustrating.
I sometimes pay for one or two months of someone i like but not $50/year like, read the archives, and cancel, but it makes me feel like kind of an asshole. It would be nice if there were a slightly more formalized way to do this, especially for people without a lot of patrons.
I have considered doing this for a couple of writers, but I've held off because I don't want them to feel sad when I cancel.
Yeah, there needs to be a way to say "I like you, but can't spare the cash" rather than "You didn't hold my interest".
I do wish Substack had a bundling feature, but that would reduce revenue to the individual writers.
I try not to think about it like "I'm paying over $100 a year for Substack content", I think of it in terms of supporting the writers I really like, and wanting them to make a real living at this, unencumbered. I also think of what I'm paying per unit time. It probably takes me 30-60 minutes a day to read all the Substack content I pay for, which means I'm paying less than $0.50/hr for content that is at least entertaining and oftentimes challenging of my worldview. For that price, it's a goddam bargain.
Congrats on the strong year, Freddie! And thank you for the unique and interesting content that gets me thinking and discussing with your other readers.
I'd also add that despite your readership being fairly hard left, you should have no shame in treating this like a proper business. We understand the capitalistic reality that we all currently live in and cannot begrudge anyone attempting to improve their financial conditions. You might want to at least have a consultation with a small business accountant to see if there are tax benefits that you're missing out on. E.g., deducting expenses. They should be able to do all the heavy lifting and minimize the time and effort you need to put into the numbers.
Also, take more vacation! I'm confident that we, your readers, can keep ourselves engaged with ongoing arguments in the comments of existing posts for anyone who feels the need for constant engagement.
Or if he WERE to start offering a platform to other writers, their posts could carry some of the load for his vacations.
I noticed that as well. I'm no corporate lawyer or tax lawyer, but I would imagine there's a lot of options Freddie could look at in terms of business expenses. Even something as simple (but possibly expensive) as his gym membership, considering how much content that creates.
There's no contradiction to me between advocating for workers to overthrow their capitalist oppressor and also creating an LLC to minimize one's tax burden.
"The conversations, while sometimes whacky and occasionally offensive to me and often devolving into increasingly inane argumentative threads"
Hey everyone, what do you think of masks and trans issues? (kidding, please don't)
What I find funny is that there are what, 50ish consistent commenters here and over 3,000 paid subscribers. It's safe to say that that commenters don't represent the majority viewpoint. I wouldn't be shocked if the majority of readers are Obama-supporting liberals who just want another perspective, but that's straight from my ass.
I'm guessing there are a few like me: Conservative, but respect the traditional role of the left and appreciate it's great writers. And for the most part we stay out of the comments.
With apologies to Chesterton, somebody's gotta lay out the argument that the fence has to go.
The sort of person who comments is always different from the sort of person who just reads, but is there any way of really figuring out in which direction the structural differences lie?
I myself wouldn't have a clue, though I'd take a stab at "if you surveyed a random sample of frequent- and never-commenters, you'd find that the frequent-commenters are somewhat more extravert and somewhat more self-confident". But even that's pulled straight from *my* ass.
I kind of like the reader book review contest on ACX (a sub I would never pay for but am fine supporting through occasionally reading it), but otherwise I'm not convinced about anyone's voice but the author of the substack appearing on any given substack. If you want to support a promising writer, give them names of places that would probably like their work, and encourage them to get off Twitter.
Thank you for the overall transparency about your financial model. As someone who lives outside the (ugh) superstar cities, I'd encourage you to leave and donate your extra rent money to good causes, since our housing as arbitrage to exacerbate inequality model isn't going anywhere, and loneliness follows us wherever we go.
Yeah I would not do it as more than a maybe 4 time a year thing. For reader writing it would be a separate section that does not go out to the email list.
That seems right---automatically opting out if you never check the website. I think I would have been really into that kind of community when I was 22, I'm just too busy with a full time job, kid, etc. to dig
Thanks for the (first annual?) State of the Newsletter, the numbers satisfied some curiosity, and I think it's well deserved. How's the weight-lifting content do, numbers wise? I like it! I'll continue to he a happy subscriber, cheers.
Congratulations on your success so far Freddie! You deserve it. This is actually one of the Sub stacks I plan to resubscribe to when the date for renewal comes up early next year.
Man, I remember finding out about you through a link from Glenn Greenwald maybe 7-8 years ago. You had posted something interesting (if a little inflammatory to some) on your little blog and the rest is history.
I've recommended your book about education research to a few people this year that I randomly met at different events. I always love seeing some people's mind explode when I point out some of the common fallacies about reality of education attainment for some students and where we throw all our money at to solve this issue.
I would love to see an 'End of Year' or maybe '1 Year of Substack' retroactive look on your article metrics. Like what was the most viewed articles/liked article/most commented article.
What were the top liked comments, or comment that led to the biggest thread of discussion responses?
Anyway, have a Happy Holidays!
If you ever do make moves to hire a proofreader, do let us know! I’d love to apply.
Congrats on your success. Haven’t commented lately -just really busy. But read and enjoy almost every post and really value the community of commenters here.
"What readers say they want and what they read and share and favorite are very different. This is human nature, not poor character. But a) it’s very easy for a small group of people vocally requesting a post on a certain topic to mislead me about how many people would be interested in the topic generally, and b) what people say they’ll read is not the same as what they’ll actually read."
The Nielsen effect! Everyone loves nature documentaries, not those tacky sitcoms. Just like everyone loves bipartisanship and wonky policy details and not tribalism.
Keep up the great work regardless.
Everyone said they wanted a political leader who owed nothing to any establishment interest groups. When they finally got one in the White House, they did everything in their power to take him down.
Similarly, there is a hell of a lot more actual regard for AstroTurf groups (such as Bloomberg- and Soros-sponsored groups) than actual grassroots political organizations (like the NRA), though everyone gives lip service to the virtue of grassroots.
I love the term AstroTurf groups! It was new to me...
new website visitors (to me) would be IPs that have not accessed your substack before.
Some returning visitors might have changing IPs or be on different machines so will count as new when they aren't.
But mostly I'd say the second spike was smaller because of the massive first spike that preceded it. The views might have been closer, but a lot of people who were first time visitors for that first spike contributed to views for the second.
The news that commenting is restricted to paid subscribers solves the mystery of why Substack comments sections (not just yours) are some of the more interesting, polite and refreshing social media spaces on the Internet.
You express a lot of wonder and curiosity about what this or that metric means, and how the needle can be moved. Isn't there some sooper seekrit Substack contributors' forum where you can explore questions like these with fellow Substackers? If there isn't, there probably should be.
"What readers say they want and what they read and share and favorite are very different."
I'm in manufacturing. It's no different in my business. At the end of the day, all that matters is where customers put their money. But in my business, I often have to spend $100,000 or more just to get to that point; and sometimes you find out, yep, those perfidious customers lied again.
Substack allows a fair level of choice with what subscription levels are allowed to do what.
Freddie says you have to pay him money to yell at him, so here I am with dollars in my hand.
Substack has a recurring writer's room feature that all writers are automatically enrolled in. They have company gophers skimming the comments to answer questions.
I'm not at all surprised. I'd expect Substackers to put their heads together to noodle out how to get the most from their participation in the platform.
You are spot on about the reasons why people are subscribing. I too hate the ironic distance, the cloying “lol, lmao” style of brainworms and writing that Twitter has made mainstream.
The reason I subscribe to you and TK news on Substack is because the left press has turned into dogshit as well. I am a former subscriber to the Nation, Current Affairs, In These Times, and The New Republic, and have let my subscriptions to all of these lapse because of their rapid decline and embrace of woke maximalism. Rather than providing alternative viewpoints, they have all turned into cheerleaders for grad school leftism. The catastrophic defeat, preceded by breathless triumphalism, for the India Walton campaign in particular must have come as a shock to these readers, and real reporting might have inspired the campaign to broaden its outreach. Not only is the echo chamber deathly dull, it is actively harmful.
I appreciate your constant challenging of my views, it shows respect to me as a reader, and it makes me think. It provides color to my life, and provides welcome stimulation during dull days. Keep it up!
I used to consume a lot of left media. Then, in 2014, I stopped consuming any political media. A couple years ago I decided to get back into it and holy shit what a surprise that was. You nailed it with that characterization.
Thanks! You aren’t missing anything by not reading these medias, you can pretty much guess ahead of time what every article will say
I was wondering if I changed or if Current Affairs got worse. I used to read the articles online all the time, but I can't manage it anymore.
I think it got a lot worse once NJR fell in love with cancel culture
I remember reading an article on there about why we don't call in the China Virus. I thought the obvious answer was that everyone calls its COVID and Coronavirus, and trying to advance a new name to PWN the Chinese is fucking stupid. Like if I started to call pizza "Italian Cheese Pie." But he talked about a context and racism and all this crap that has nothing to do with socialism.
Didn't all his workers quit because he wouldn't let them unionize?
They wanted to convert it to a worker owned cooperative. This is why you can’t let anarchists take charge of projects more complicated than scoring good drugs
It was so strange. Unions are good. Worker co-ops are niche but good. Trying to force the owner to give up ownership to the workers for a hostile after-the-fact workers co-op is, uh.... Well, I don't know.
When it was basically NJR's personal blog + a few friends he published a lot of stuff that was very formative in my thinking. I think he has a real talent for explaining left-wing thought in a very clear and easy to understand way. I still think about these two articles:
https://www.currentaffairs.org/2017/06/its-basically-just-immoral-to-be-rich
https://www.currentaffairs.org/2017/06/pretending-it-isnt-there
But all the writers he hired were pretty uninteresting, the length of pieces ballooned, and the tone just got much more smug over time. Unsurprising that it all went down in flames.
I have a certain level of affection for Nathan, but he just never shook this commitment to trying to make his magazine the political Spy magazine, and he just doesn't have the right kind of talent for that. Which is why so much of it comes off as smug.
Exactly, same. The comments sections used to reassure me I was not going crazy, but of course they soon shut all of those down. Thank god for Substack. In the last year it is finally bearable again to be an anti-woke liberal.
The death of comment sections hit me hard. A big electronic music site that had a lively and usually pretty even-handed comment section shut the whole thing down because it didn't "adequately reflect the diversity of the scene" (translation: we're tired of being called out for rewording press releases and we need that sweet engagement on social media). I thought it was so arrogant on their part and such a bummer move to turn a community engaged in dialogue to a coterie of tastemakers handing down judgements from on high.
Very arrogant, yes, and openly contemptuous of the readership.
I have finally cleared out my back issues of London Review of Books, the Atlantic, NYer. "Grad School leftism" -perfect characterization.
If you feel there's low engagement with pieces you were particularly passionate about then I'd love to hear about that regularly in the digest. You might have thoughts to add on why it was close to your heart or why you might think it didn't hit and I don't think I'd be alone in enjoying re-reading or commenting on something like that given that perspective.
I know you do already point to an archived piece each week, but it's never struck me as an "I wish this had got more" feature. I'll pay more attention if that is the purpose.
It’s very, very good to have your voice back in my reading mix. Even when, perhaps especially when, I have disagreed with what you’ve had to say over the years, your sheer talent as a writer has made it enjoyable and educational to read, and I am honestly thrilled about the Substack success.
Dunno if it would be something you're interested in, but it'd be cool if you did a Spaces/Twitch call in kinda show with subscribers
Also, dunno if this sounds patronizing, but I'm super glad the Substack stuff is working out for you. I think I originally subscribed after someone linked your original posts about your treatment, and knowing the hell that is mental healthcare and the high costs of getting treatment, it's awesome that you can actually make a decent living out of writing.
Ironically, I actually disgree with you on most of your education and general political takes, but I'd say everything you post at least makes me think, and I love the side tangents on lifting and baseball.