In the last couple weeks I’ve been spending less time reading Substack, where I’m a pure product, and more time in WordPress, where I’m both customer and producer. At first the advantage wasn’t clear, but after more exploration I’m finding more satisfaction.
Substack has gone purely algorithmic. It forcefeeds you standard orthodoxy. The more you try to reject the standard Machiavellian teams, the more it jams them into your eyes.
WordPress isn’t algorithmic. When you choose a broad topic like humor or art, it simply feeds the latest stuff first, preferring blogs that you have already liked or subscribed. The result is much less Machy and much more varied. You get to read people who are NOT marching in the two standard rows. You read more people who are just writing what they want to write, which is sometimes uninteresting to me but rarely annoying or trite.
Carver as always:
Look about you.
Take hold of the things that are HERE.
Talk to them.
Let them talk to you.
Polistra's Mill 