I have a welldeserved reputation as a cranky hater, so fairly often people will try to recruit me into complaining about something. I don't mind being asked, but they’re often surprised to find that the things they hate are not things I hate. For example, years ago someone once wanted me to publish a blog post about why adult coloring books suck. I couldn't oblige because, well, who cares? Here are some other things I don't hate. (But I'll pretend to for cash.)
All the newsletters. Sometimes this includes newsletters on Substack etc., sometimes just newsletters at establishment media publications. In either case, I don't know why I would be opposed. I like writers and writing and want writers to get paid, and while Substack and its competitors have their share of problems they are indisputably allowing more writers to make money. I guess the critique of newsletters at places like the NYT or the Atlantic is that they're just the same thing as they normally publish, but… that's not true? I think newsletters like those put out by Jane Coaston or Derek Thompson have clear stylistic and subject-matter differences from what those places traditionally put out. If nothing else they’re clearly more personality-driven than is often allowed at bigger publications.
I'm not now and never have been really caught up in venue or forum or medium. Where I publish has always meant little to me, and that's even more true when reading others. I care about voice and perspective and evidence and argument and verve. I'll read the back of a cereal box if that's where a writer I like chooses to publish. I think the newsletter thing is a positive outcome and I'm digging what people are coming up with. Sorry.
Are newsletters blogs? Yes. And I like blogs.
All the podcasts. I'm not a podcast listener, certainly not a habitual one - I've appeared on many more podcast episodes than I've listened to. As I've said before, I'd host one if there was money upfront and I didn't have to beg people to subscribe to another thing. But that's why I'd be doing it, for money, because I'm not passionate about the form. I'm not the cosmos, though. Podcasts have proven to be lucrative for many people, under both advertising and crowdfunding models, and I am a committed advocate for people in creative industries being able to pay the rent.
I do think the relationship between podcasting and writing is a little sad sometimes. Certainly there are those who I admired as writers who got into podcasting, said “wow this is a lot easier!,” and essentially stopped being writers. But it's always been the case, going back way before the internet, that some people start writing as a springboard into other kinds of celebrity. And the flip side is that podcasts are serving to subsidize a lot of written work, and that's the kind of variety in funding streams that any publication needs today, in order to survive. Just make sure, if you personally want to maintain an identity as a writer, that podcasting doesn't take up too much bandwidth. But getting annoyed by the number of podcasts that are out there is weird. Just don't listen.
Wordle. Existing in the world alongside this harmless word game and the people who enjoy it costs me nothing.
Tik Tok. Some of the trends that happen on Tik Tok disturb me, sure. But those are more problems of extremely online adolescents than the platform itself; much like with Tumblr, if that cringey and toxic shit wasn’t on Tik Tok it would simply be somewhere else. Luckily for me I'm a 40 year old man and I want as little to do with Tik Tok as it wants to do with me. I just ignore its existence.
I do resent Tok Tok for flourishing where the vastly superior Vine failed.
“West Elm Caleb.” OK no one has actually asked me about this one. But while society must vigorously enforce a legal standard of consent, and while social pressure should be brought to bear against being a cad, everyone in the sexual marketplace must be prepared for the fact that most straight men will prioritize the Quest for Pussy until they’re compelled to be monogamous. So compel them; have that conversation, if that's the deal you want to establish. I think most men are able to maintain a commitment to monogamy, actually, but they aren't going to just fall into it until they’re forced to choose between you and the whole menu. So when appropriate, make the demand, explicitly, and if he won't commit, kick his ass to the curb. You're worth committing to. But until you have that explicit commitment talk you have to assume that he's off on his noble steed, slaying dragons in pursuit of the Quest for Pussy.
I suspect what the women in question really wanted here was commitment from him without exclusivity for themselves. To which I say, grow up.
Online sports betting. It hasn't been a month yet and I'm up $800. Ask me again when I'm down.
Seeking Arrangement is fun :D
Online betting: Tesla stock.
Podcasts? Only with transcript.