I love a lot of successful people who make art I consider magnificent. At the same time, I think something enormous is lost when the only people who get to give lasting voice to the human condition and the present moment are hyper-organized high-achievers or generationally wealthy (most likely both)
Posts by Alex GW
Like Spotify are trying to do with podcasts and ignoring RSS, Substack are trying to do this with email - another company trying to own an ostensibly open protocol for the sake of "ease" and network effects...
I think that's fair, there definitely isn't one lifeboat or safe harbour. But reliance on huge global platforms given recent changes feels so risky - something like the indieweb POSSE model with content hosted on your own site as well as distributed feels safer indieweb.org/POSSE #MuseTech24
Listening to the Tank Museum talking about the creator economy is inspiring, but I do worry about institutions being reliant on increasingly enshittified big platforms.
What happens to that community if the platform fails or changes the algorithmic levers?
#MuseTech24
On my train now and looking forward to it!
I'm there representing Cog Design, was also wondering who else might be on here and posting about it!
I can tell you from my own personal experience that Anil is 100% right about Substack overselling its "network effect" to try to lock people in.
(1) Seeking broad reading recommendations! Interested in work on how the time/space available for participation in public life is shaped. For example, I've loved the below recently for understanding the history of changing divisions of private/public space in Europe and US. ๐งต