Thoughts For Sale

Who you read—and pay to read—is a budding social signal, a way to broadcast sophistication and align you with a niche intellectual tribe.

Substack’s promise is that the best writing will rise to the top. But, in reality, the best writers—on Substack or anywhere else—aren’t just creators of content; they’re mirrors for aspiration, revealing something... See more

Substack used to feel like a cozy book club for intellectuals, and I’ll admit I liked that vibe. Substack now feels like a sprawling bookstore—the kind with an entire Starbucks inside—where you head straight for the quiet corner upstairs, only to find all two chairs already taken. Now they’re installing TVs everywhere ... and a lot more people are ... See more

In a typical Act III, Substack would abandon intellectualism entirely. But it has an edge—a potential way out: the inbox is still Substack’s secret weapon.

Its direct creator-to-subscriber model can temper the algorithmic flattening that plagues other platforms. E-mail as a channel allows high-brow, middle-brow, and low-brow content to coexist whil... See more

Substack’s promise is that the best writing will rise to the top. But, in reality, the best writers—on Substack or anywhere else—aren’t just creators of content; they’re mirrors for aspiration, revealing something readers feel, think, or want to become.

Its founders call the business model “magic dust”— helping writers own their communities, monetize their work, and ensuring the platform profits only when they do. But how does the famous Charlie Munger quote go? “Show me the incentive and I'll show you the outcome.” Substack’s success doesn’t depend on better writing; it depends on better marketer... See more

Substack hasn’t just made me a subscriber; it’s turned me into a willing participant in the marketplace of internet intellectualism.

That’s the platform’s real magic trick—turning ideas into products, writers into entrepreneurs, and newsletters into status symbols.

This shift is smart, maybe even necessary. But it’s also messy. Writers are now leaning into viral formats like listicles, roundups, and traffic-bait headlines. They spend time upskilling on new features so they’re not left behind. Substack Notes feels like a watercooler in an office where everyone’s job is ... Substack.

Are you reading the words of your favorite writer, their intern, or their intern’s ghostwriter?

At scale, I suppose performative thought isn’t a bug—it’s a feature.

As Emily Sundberg deftly noted: “Substack is making everyone into writers the way Instagram made everyone into photographers, but there’s one big difference ... the point of Substack is ... See more