I'm 15 minutes in and I want to work at substack because I want to be around people who talk about this stuff.
Can I add any value to a tech startup? Absolutely not. I can use conditional formatting in excel that's my value proposition. But, walking the halls and hearing people talkin' about cultural commentary and how to argue for things that are good in the internet age, DANG that's interesting.
It's amazing that yall coexist and still manage to find time to work on this incredible platform.
hlookups are for ninnies, vlookups are for chads. I haven't had to use xref and that's probably what substack needs, in addition to a dissertation on Nietzsche.
I googled it okay I HAVE done that but I didn't realize there was a function for it? Oh god we've got like some frankenstein monster spreadsheets that someone started in 2006 and no one's changed. Maybe in your industry things are better but we like SALY where I work--Same As Last Year.
Everyone in every industry relies on excel to bridge the gap for People who can do math but not Programming. I made once to build a janky fuzzy search, but it worked and that’s all that mattered.
When I tell people I am an accountant they sometimes say "oh you must be good at math" but no--I'm good at logic puzzles, or like "word problems" on tests. Excel gives me enough to do that and thank God no one asks more from me. (I don't know anything about Nietzsche either).
I’ve applied 4 times and since they haven’t hired me yet, I am highly sus of whether they want people working there who actually use the platform daily LOL
Talkin' about FICTION! I like Mills' very pragmatic "Growth will help Fiction" which I think is TRUE. I also think Jasmine's very pragmatic "what do people pay for fiction FOR" take is very good too. Fiction is wide and deep, and there are tons of genres and tons of subdivision. So "fiction" as a category is way more flimsy than other non-fiction categories.
I am generally optimistic and willing to wait for the growth. People who write AND read fiction are enthusiastic about it. We just need more. And it seems true that there will be a critical mass where the cost/benefit of investing in fiction-specific features will pay off for Substack, and make life easier for the enthusiastic writers and readers.
I love this so much. One idea to make writing more of a status symbol on Substack would be to allow readers to pay to “collect” their favorite posts or collections of posts and then those show up in the reader’s “library” on their profile. You could go to my profile and see all of my favorite articles in my library. If I’m a paid subscriber to a writer I can collect as many of their posts as I want, but I have to become a paid subscriber to collect a writer’s posts.
@Chris Best, @Mills Baker @Jasmine in the arena. I appreciate how you guys keep making Substack a platform for authenticity and no fakeness… keep it up! I'm admiring your energies from my base in Ghana 🇬🇭
I had Mills 18:00 thought relatively recently. Was thinking of all that I’ve listened to for over 15 years now and how most “news” was really just a quick take that amounted to nothing or propaganda at best. The things that bothered me at the time were mostly blips that were forgotten within a week. The worst part is realizing that I haven’t changed too much in how I handle similar thoughts today. Having to deal with actual human problems rather than living in online space is helpful—you tend to have less brain time devoted to meaningless content.
I’ve never forgotten Thoreau’s whole remark: “They live on the surface, they are interested in the transient & fleeting - they are like drift wood on the flood - They ask forever & only the news – the froth & scum of the eternal sea.” Heavy banger!!!
It seems to me that you're really circling around and touching on very interesting ideas for improving fiction on the platform, and Mill's opinion about taking advantage of the techs nuances to make a unique approach to draw people in is very insightful, I have a lot of thoughts about this
For fiction, I wonder if there isn’t a bootstrap angle here with public domain works? Eg starting up Substack book clubs that leverage the community aspect, then if/as the format gets more popular introducing active writers dropping a chapter a week etc? Lots of people have public domain classics on their bucket lists anyway, and if feels like I’d be more likely to get around to finally reading some of them if there were a social hook / drip schedule? Also nice in being essentially free to try?
Yep tho weekly seems better than daily imo? I’d personally declare bankruptcy on trying to keep up with any faster cadence. Also some works that naturally lean more towards deep discussion, eg Woolf, Tolstoy, Chesterton, Huxley, Dickens, yada yada. Dracula is nice in being amenable to being cut up into short chunks, but not a ton to really discuss in it.
More a fan of companies that encourage healthy practices for employees...no judgment though, haven't ever tried it so I have no business pointing fingers
FWIW I generally agree that public vice isn’t good and don’t object to being called out on it! I can’t blame the company for my addictions though; many healthy colleagues all around me, I’m just incorrigible!
What is the take on epub use for long fiction? I appreciate how easy it is to offer an epub to one's readers. Would Substack consider allowing popping out to an e-reader app directly from Substack to read something very long, like multiple chapters? — or just whip up an epub reader inside Substack real quick like :) That would get you the "continue where you left off" feature.
Is a DBH a duelist? I haven’t had a chance to get into him deeply yet but was very surprised by some things that Mills said.
Written fiction is hard because there are so many other hyper-compelling forms of it on the internet for free that you can access with almost no friction. The only stuff I’ve ever done that’s “moved a needle” has been in already defined genres like horror where someone was out there searching for that specific product.
lol on Jasmine checking slack. Similar feeling whenever I’m on a call and the. I have to wonder “motherfucker, did someone solicit a post dated payment in Massachusetts again?”
What happened to the old intro music? Get some improved intro and outro music, this sounds bad and auto generated and sometimes bad is bad as Huey Lewis would say back in ye olden days of confusing good and bad. Good and bad are the same, it is based on your perspective. You can tell me once again...who's bad?
Anyway, really appreciate that Substack is a) thinking about all this stuff and b) being so transparent about the design and philosophy behind what you're doing. Mills especially is a big part of why I've had such confidence in the Substack platform over the last two years.
Always VERY happy to help/test/etc any prototype fiction features.
I'm 15 minutes in and I want to work at substack because I want to be around people who talk about this stuff.
Can I add any value to a tech startup? Absolutely not. I can use conditional formatting in excel that's my value proposition. But, walking the halls and hearing people talkin' about cultural commentary and how to argue for things that are good in the internet age, DANG that's interesting.
It's amazing that yall coexist and still manage to find time to work on this incredible platform.
Hey, I bet you can do vlookup hlookup and xref as well. We just took a massive leap forward and started to use CORREL.
stop normalizing hlookup culture
hlookups are for ninnies, vlookups are for chads. I haven't had to use xref and that's probably what substack needs, in addition to a dissertation on Nietzsche.
If you haven’t had to nest like twelve different excel functions have you even lived?
I googled it okay I HAVE done that but I didn't realize there was a function for it? Oh god we've got like some frankenstein monster spreadsheets that someone started in 2006 and no one's changed. Maybe in your industry things are better but we like SALY where I work--Same As Last Year.
Everyone in every industry relies on excel to bridge the gap for People who can do math but not Programming. I made once to build a janky fuzzy search, but it worked and that’s all that mattered.
When I tell people I am an accountant they sometimes say "oh you must be good at math" but no--I'm good at logic puzzles, or like "word problems" on tests. Excel gives me enough to do that and thank God no one asks more from me. (I don't know anything about Nietzsche either).
I’ve applied 4 times and since they haven’t hired me yet, I am highly sus of whether they want people working there who actually use the platform daily LOL
I even did a 1:1 private call with Jasmine about the video capabilities of Substack as a heavy user, she was really nice
Start at 11:50 https://www.youtube.com/live/M23LExQrzxY?si=B3pfJ3sntTKO9oAK
Talkin' about FICTION! I like Mills' very pragmatic "Growth will help Fiction" which I think is TRUE. I also think Jasmine's very pragmatic "what do people pay for fiction FOR" take is very good too. Fiction is wide and deep, and there are tons of genres and tons of subdivision. So "fiction" as a category is way more flimsy than other non-fiction categories.
I am generally optimistic and willing to wait for the growth. People who write AND read fiction are enthusiastic about it. We just need more. And it seems true that there will be a critical mass where the cost/benefit of investing in fiction-specific features will pay off for Substack, and make life easier for the enthusiastic writers and readers.
Jasmine fan hive rise up!!!
hi ily!! 💓💓
Damn, Best Friends bookend this insane convo lol. Y'all are psychos 💛
Job Titles have a shelf life between the conception of the title and when you first write it down.
I love this so much. One idea to make writing more of a status symbol on Substack would be to allow readers to pay to “collect” their favorite posts or collections of posts and then those show up in the reader’s “library” on their profile. You could go to my profile and see all of my favorite articles in my library. If I’m a paid subscriber to a writer I can collect as many of their posts as I want, but I have to become a paid subscriber to collect a writer’s posts.
@Chris Best, @Mills Baker @Jasmine in the arena. I appreciate how you guys keep making Substack a platform for authenticity and no fakeness… keep it up! I'm admiring your energies from my base in Ghana 🇬🇭
I had Mills 18:00 thought relatively recently. Was thinking of all that I’ve listened to for over 15 years now and how most “news” was really just a quick take that amounted to nothing or propaganda at best. The things that bothered me at the time were mostly blips that were forgotten within a week. The worst part is realizing that I haven’t changed too much in how I handle similar thoughts today. Having to deal with actual human problems rather than living in online space is helpful—you tend to have less brain time devoted to meaningless content.
I’ve never forgotten Thoreau’s whole remark: “They live on the surface, they are interested in the transient & fleeting - they are like drift wood on the flood - They ask forever & only the news – the froth & scum of the eternal sea.” Heavy banger!!!
It seems to me that you're really circling around and touching on very interesting ideas for improving fiction on the platform, and Mill's opinion about taking advantage of the techs nuances to make a unique approach to draw people in is very insightful, I have a lot of thoughts about this
For fiction, I wonder if there isn’t a bootstrap angle here with public domain works? Eg starting up Substack book clubs that leverage the community aspect, then if/as the format gets more popular introducing active writers dropping a chapter a week etc? Lots of people have public domain classics on their bucket lists anyway, and if feels like I’d be more likely to get around to finally reading some of them if there were a social hook / drip schedule? Also nice in being essentially free to try?
Oh interesting — people seem to like https://draculadaily.substack.com/
Yep tho weekly seems better than daily imo? I’d personally declare bankruptcy on trying to keep up with any faster cadence. Also some works that naturally lean more towards deep discussion, eg Woolf, Tolstoy, Chesterton, Huxley, Dickens, yada yada. Dracula is nice in being amenable to being cut up into short chunks, but not a ton to really discuss in it.
Pretty darn good guys!
👍🏾
not a fan of vaping on camera...
You’ll want to skip all the Mills episodes then
Actually I subscribed..two of my neighbors and best friends are recovering alcoholics who vape ocassionally...I'm curious and want to understand.
Huge fan of companies that allow it
More a fan of companies that encourage healthy practices for employees...no judgment though, haven't ever tried it so I have no business pointing fingers
FWIW I generally agree that public vice isn’t good and don’t object to being called out on it! I can’t blame the company for my addictions though; many healthy colleagues all around me, I’m just incorrigible!
You are just honest...I like that
What is the take on epub use for long fiction? I appreciate how easy it is to offer an epub to one's readers. Would Substack consider allowing popping out to an e-reader app directly from Substack to read something very long, like multiple chapters? — or just whip up an epub reader inside Substack real quick like :) That would get you the "continue where you left off" feature.
Is a DBH a duelist? I haven’t had a chance to get into him deeply yet but was very surprised by some things that Mills said.
Written fiction is hard because there are so many other hyper-compelling forms of it on the internet for free that you can access with almost no friction. The only stuff I’ve ever done that’s “moved a needle” has been in already defined genres like horror where someone was out there searching for that specific product.
lol on Jasmine checking slack. Similar feeling whenever I’m on a call and the. I have to wonder “motherfucker, did someone solicit a post dated payment in Massachusetts again?”
IMO all dualists should just be duelists instead
He’s brought so many souls back to Jesus… with the tip of his sword
This is gold 😂
What happened to the old intro music? Get some improved intro and outro music, this sounds bad and auto generated and sometimes bad is bad as Huey Lewis would say back in ye olden days of confusing good and bad. Good and bad are the same, it is based on your perspective. You can tell me once again...who's bad?
Did you know Huey is on Substack?!
Yep! Though it is mainly someone posting on his behalf and link to his radio show etc. feel like I haven't opened his posts frequently... But I recall really liking this short story share..https://open.substack.com/pub/hueylewisandthenews/p/a-bar-a-car-and-an-unexpected-compliment
Oh no I only dissed the music because I thought you changed it! Soo sorry, I'm dumb, I take it back.
This was an excellent bit of ear fodder. Especially appreciate the fiction chat. Although this will only encourage me to keep hassling Chris and Mills about fiction features - you've only got yourselves to blame. (something I wrote last year as a fiction wishlist roadmap for Substack is still one of my more popular articles - https://open.substack.com/pub/simonkjones/p/how-to-fix-substacks-fiction-experience?r=3rwg&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web)
Anyway, really appreciate that Substack is a) thinking about all this stuff and b) being so transparent about the design and philosophy behind what you're doing. Mills especially is a big part of why I've had such confidence in the Substack platform over the last two years.
Always VERY happy to help/test/etc any prototype fiction features.