I don't think 'dynamists' 'lose points' for making use of things that work, whatever their age.
There isn't really an alternative to that anyways. Every new thing has to be built with what's available now. (And then it becomes yet more 'raw material' for new new things.)
What I think was the key feature was that you _could_ opt into interacting with other readers of something. Then you could also decide to 'follow' them and see the others thing they were reading or commenting on that you wouldn't have seen otherwise.
It was a really nice, and social, way to explore the 'idea space' of the blogosphere.
Even if Substack just made something that only worked with Subtack blogs, I could still seeing it provide (many) real (intellectual) communities like we once had.
Promoting content on substack is still primarily about Twitter for most writers. Hanania is one of the most successful previously unknown people to take off from writing there and his Twitter is non-stop trolling for attention. Nor is that entirely a criticism—he usually has a point.
Even previously established people raking it in on substack like Matt Yglesias and Noah Smith are very effective trolls. Though I enjoy following all of these people, I wonder whether this is the intellectual golden age we were hoping for.
I don't think 'dynamists' 'lose points' for making use of things that work, whatever their age.
There isn't really an alternative to that anyways. Every new thing has to be built with what's available now. (And then it becomes yet more 'raw material' for new new things.)
Substack should try to build a new Google Reader!
There wasn't _one_ community – everyone could build their own. It was the nicest 'social media' site/app – by FAR – that I've ever used.
What I think was the key feature was that you _could_ opt into interacting with other readers of something. Then you could also decide to 'follow' them and see the others thing they were reading or commenting on that you wouldn't have seen otherwise.
It was a really nice, and social, way to explore the 'idea space' of the blogosphere.
Even if Substack just made something that only worked with Subtack blogs, I could still seeing it provide (many) real (intellectual) communities like we once had.
Substack seems to be the monetization platform for Twitter. I wonder if Musk will buy it too, or just expand Twitter to obsolete it.
Promoting content on substack is still primarily about Twitter for most writers. Hanania is one of the most successful previously unknown people to take off from writing there and his Twitter is non-stop trolling for attention. Nor is that entirely a criticism—he usually has a point.
Even previously established people raking it in on substack like Matt Yglesias and Noah Smith are very effective trolls. Though I enjoy following all of these people, I wonder whether this is the intellectual golden age we were hoping for.
Robert Wright emphasized this when I was on his podcast