Daniel Piper on Substack

Given the above, you might be surprised to learn that until about a year ago I didn’t primarily think of myself as a writer. I thought of myself as a founder who liked to write. About a year ago, I decided to flip that: I started to think of myself as a writer who also builds things.

Times are changing for writers. There’s been a recent wave who’ve stopped contributing to outlets and moved to newsletters like this, such as myself. To give some insight into what’s happening, the following is a postmortem of my decade-long career writing nonfiction for well-known media outlets like The Atlantic or The Daily Beast. 

One of the great comics of our time is booked for a gig in New York City. His agent isn’t paying attention, though. The comic shows up at the club; he’s in a good mood. He brings his best material. He’s up there, working the room, and no one is laughing. Not a peep. He’s bombing. After the show, he’s beating himself up, thinking of quitting comedy

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