Personal Paywalls
What it's like joining a dozen paid substacks
In music there’s a condition that afflicts millions, leading to maxed out credit cards, stuffed storage spaces, and indecipherable nests of cables and connectors. Eventually one either runs out of space, or money, or goes minimalist keeping only a beat-up six-string. The only way out of Gear Acquisition Syndrome is through.
So it seems to be with Substack subscriptions. What started with a couple subs in 2021 has turned into paid subscriptions on a dozen smaller publications. I’m much happier about this nimble set of periodicals than I ever was with New York Times, Bloomberg, and Washington Post.
One of the carrots dangled by all of these substacks is permission to participate in comment sections. While they can get a bit tribal there are no bots. Anyway since each time I’ve mentioned Substack in real life I’ve had to explain what it is, I figured it would be good to share some articles by way of my most-liked comments.
Public is asking important questions about how Covid was handled early on and when one commenter grasped for resolution I tried to outline a wider problem.
Michael Tracey urged us to Never Forget That Donald Trump Snookered His Own Voters To Pass Ukraine Funding by showing how the candidate played both sides so I had to wonder what keeps political reporters going.
Gary Marcus took a break from gossip around AI to criticize the corporate response to Caliornia’s new AI bill. I get triggered whenever I hear about corporations in politics. Llama is one of the open source LLMs that individuals can run themselves.
Javier Milei is making swift changes in Argentina which drew the attention of The Free Press but none of that’s important. I got my first organic reply!
No offense to Doomberg, a green chicken who replies briefly yet thoughtfully to early comments. When he wrote about why blood-borne cancers and recurring revenue are so important to the field I came away aware of a new-to-me dimension of cancer treatment, tumor accessibility.
Last but not least, when Polina Pompliano shared 9 tips for becoming more likable, it reminded me of Ben Franklin’s quest for moral perfection.
I can see potential for Substack and this model of personal paywalls. It destroys the economics of bots and allows us to invest directly in those who are doing the work. With some persistence I think it may even be possible to earn access to lots of quality writing. Thank you for reading and have a great week!