The Most Important Post
In trying to write for my substack, I have a significant problem: Some part of me refuses to write anything than the absolute most important thing that could be said at any given point in time.
Rather than try to force this instinct down, I have decided to take it seriously. What is the most important thing to write on my substack? And with that, the answer became obvious.
I need to write a post explaining what I will be doing on my substack, who I am, and why the reader should pay me about it. All of those are questions I hate answering. All of those are exactly the questions that need to be answered most.
What I've written in this note already contains a seed of my answers: I intend to write what most needs to be said, in a way that best reaches the ones who need to hear it. This will mostly involve recapping the most basic but critical insights to life as often, clearly, and actionably as I can. I won't be writing about the latest news unless it fundamentally changes what the most important things are, which it rarely does.
I have an approximate plan for format: First, an overview of how information is laid out in my writing. Second, an overview of all the concept basics and relations. Third, a fast-load of the aesthetics or gist¹ involved, using images and stories. Fourth, small proofs of concept and other introductory explorations. Fifth, in-depth writing to expand on and fully engage with the ideas. Sixth, scattered throughout, core details will have spaced-repetition flashcards accessible in an external webpage or as CSV/Anki downloads. Seventh, suggested exercises to apply or explore the concept on your own. Finally, an easy guide to engaging usefully with the post and community. Why those? The overview in the first section ensures you know what to expect and can control your own reading experience. The second overview is so if you skip ahead to focus on a section you won't have missed something crucial from the whole and be lost. The "fast load" in the third section sets norms and context and helps ideas click on less conscious levels. The checks in the fourth section helps you determine whether the material is in fact for you. The fifth section is the actual writing on the subject. The flashcards in the sixth section ensures that knowledge can stay with you beyond one reading. The quick guide to engagement in the seventh section makes this into a conversation and community.
This is a tall order; I probably won't succeed. Still, I can't stand to aim for anything less.
I plan to put the most in-depth parts of my writings specifically on Substack so that I have a chance to capture some of the value of creating them (or recoup some of the costs). Most of my in-depth writings will have a basic TLDR portion/counterpart that is free for anyone to see. Not as a teaser to get you to pay for a subscription, like some people would have it, but because I have a personal vendetta information silos and refuse to withhold beneficial resources from people who won't or can't pay. Substack will have copies of the TLDRs, but their canonical versions will live on ATproto.
Now that's a whole lot of ambition. There's no saying my writing will actually make good on any of that promise. Why then, should people subscribe? Why pay, especially if I'll be posting the most important parts for free?
To be blunt, I think those who want to support me should pay for a subscription. The posts are paywalled not because I expect people will want to pay for access, but because I don't intend to give away that much work with nothing to show for it. It's a very solid way to show your support as a reader, as a friend, as an investor in my potential, or as someone who wants others to have good things—really, don't underestimate the value of cash transfers²!
That's all so far. I need to think some more about explaining who I am. That question still makes me uncomfortable.
An aesthetic is a mishmash of values, strategies, and ontologies that reinforce each other. The values reinforce “you want to use strategies that achieve these values.” The act of using a particular strategy shapes the ontology that you see the world through. The ontology reinforces what values seem important to you.
[U]nless you have a plausible story about why a charity outperforms just giving the beneficiaries some money, you shouldn’t do it.