The latest brouhaha around Substack is like yet another Marvel movie sequel—a repeat of the old formula. Indie writers got jerked around by Medium so often that it didn’t even matter. Why do “creatives” forget that the platform exists for one reason—the platform’s overall growth and viability?

The Substack founders are staying true to form — trying to save/grow their business. They have to grow in order to raise their next round of funding. If they don’t, then it’s lights out. Regardless, taking them at face value, especially after Facebook and Medium, and their changing strategies, is perhaps the first deadly sin.

And why do platforms get away with it? Because all media – Old, New, Nouveau! Podcasts, Newsletters, and Streaming need growth. Organic growth is slow and measured. In our hair-trigger attention world, that is not an option. The platforms provide them an opportunity to grow fast.

That is the reason why everyone still is sucking at the teat of big social — Facebook didn’t become clean overnight. No one has left X — all of them are still hanging about, looking for any kind of attention that can lead to growth in revenues – ads or subs. So when platforms come calling, they are quick to sign on the dotted line.

It wasn’t too long ago that we saw the same script enacted on Facebook—massive growth for big media, but also for others who are not big media. There was a lot of hand-wringing then—and it wasn’t too different from what we are seeing over Substack and its policies. The hard questions which are being asked today should have been asked then. Right?

The Platformer, like many others, did get extra subscribers and growth from the same Substack network. The growth hacks helped boost their presence as much as they did for others. When I read the Platformer leaving Substack story, where were the hard questions when the publication was gaining subscriptions and benefiting from the new growth hacks introduced by Substack? So what’s good for the goose is good for the gander.

On the upside, leaving newsletters is taking the extra subscribers they got from the Substack Network Boost to a new home!

I guess that’s one way to stick it to the platforms!

Addendum (01/13/2024)

* Dave Winer was right when back in 2022 he pointed out that Substack is not interoperable. My translation: it worked like any other social media platform, and nothing like an open Internet platform.

* The Substack writing community has not learned the old fashioned art of growth: linking, and creating a conversation through links. I hope the move to new platforms such as Ghost will lead to better “communication” through creative work.

January 12, 2024

Matt Mullenweg, co-founder of WordPress, and one of my dearest friends, wanted a blog post for his 40th birthday. So I wrote something that is not a typical blog post. Happy 40th!

January 11, 2024. San Francisco.

The rumor machine can finally turn itself off — Apple has announced that its spatial computer, Vision Pro, is going on sale on January 19. It will start taking pre-orders for the $3,500 device, which ships on February 2nd. And I am excited. Let me rephrase that — I am super excited. My excitement stems from my hands-on experiences with the device.

Apple touts Vision Pro as a new canvas for productivity and a new way to play games. Maybe, maybe not. Just as the Apple Watch is primarily a health-related device that also does other things, including phone calls, text messages, and making payments. Similarly, the primary function for Vision Pro is ‘media’ — especially how we consume it on the go. Give it a few weeks, and more people will come to the same conclusion.

In 2019, I wrote an essay about the future of television (screen):

With that caveat, I think both, the big (TV) and biggest (movie theater) screens are going to go the way of the DVD. We could replace those with a singular, more personal screen — that will sit on our face. Yes, virtual reality headsets are essentially the television and theaters of the future. They aren’t good enough just yet — but can get better in the years to come as technologies to make the headsets improve.

Apple has made that headset. Apple Vision Pro has ultra-high-resolution displays that deliver more pixels than a 4K TV for each eye. This gives you a screen that feels 100 feet wide with support for HDR content. The audio experience is just spectacular. In time, Apple’s marketing machine will push the simple message — for $3,500, you get a full-blown replacement for a reference-quality home theater, which would typically cost ten times as much and require you to live in a McMansion.

This is basically equivalent quality that you can take on the go. I am not really going out on a limb when I predict that Vision Pro (and its equivalent devices) will redefine movie watching and our relationship with movies.

As I explained in my essay about technology, society, and movie industry:

We went from drive-in theaters to indoor theaters to multiplexes. And that is a good arc to follow to understand where we are going. The driving forces of change in the movie experience have been the human desire for comfort and convenience. And above all, property values — each change in movie viewing maybe be driven by technology, but it has been about deriving maximum value from the land. 

Times have changed, and so has our approach to socialization. Now we can’t even have a conversation without looking up from our computer screens. With the rise of social media and digital platforms, our interactions and the movie-watching experience have evolved. On-demand on our screens is the future, no matter how much traditionalists want to fight that. 

Hollywood has been dabbling with the idea of giving people the chance to watch new release movies at home. Vision Pro (and equivalent devices) should eventually give people a proper screen to do so.

I gave up traditional television screens when I started my cord-cutting and Internet video website, NewTeeVee in 2007. I believed that video was going to become a primary activity on the “network.” And it did. I have watched “video” since then in on laptops, and iPhones, but mostly on iPads. For me, my iPad is my TV. It goes with me everywhere. I watched an India-Pakistan World Cup game while waiting in an airport lounge. Most of my MLB games stream to the device. I do have a big-screen TV at home — a 75-inch Samsung Frame – but it only exists to showcase my photography. Maybe that is why I see the easy transition to a much more robust on-the-go viewing experience.”

There will be a lot of talk about Vision Pro. There will be obvious commentary about it being a disappointment. In time, we will come to realize that this was Steve Jobs’ parting gift to the company he co-founded. He told his biographer, Walter Isaacson, who then shared this in his book:

….“very much wanted to do for television sets what he had done for computers, music players, and phones: make them simple and elegant. ‘I’d like to create an integrated television set that is completely easy to use,’ he told me. ‘It would be seamlessly synced with all of your devices and with iCloud.” No longer would users have to fiddle with complex remotes for DVD players and cable channels. ‘It will have the simplest user interface you could imagine. I finally cracked it.’”

‘I don’t know about you, but I am excited and will be getting up early to order a unit for myself.’

January 8, 2024. San Francisco

ALL MY VISION PRO ESSAYS

This practice of working on images and creating new ones is proving to be quite a challenge. I usually take my sweet time when editing my images, so to turn them around quickly — well, this is a new habit. In a way, it’s like waking up, going to the gym, and doing weights, versus say, using the rowing machine (which I love to do).

It will take a few weeks before I can start to see an impact, learn some lessons, and evolve both as a photographer and as a person.

You can follow along on Glass and on my project website. If you want to order a print or two, you can do so directly from the project page.

January 7, 2024. San Francisco

Matt Mullenweg’s 40th birthday is coming up — and as a gift, I was going to buy him 40 types of cables. However, for a gift, he wants everyone to blog — especially on WordPress. So, that’s what I will do! 

I mean, I already blog. So, not that much of a stretch. However, for Matt, I am going to try and blog (in addition to my technology stuff) based on the prompts that WordPress is offering as part of its “Bloganuary” celebration. As luck would have it, today’s prompt is: What’s the greatest gift someone can give you? 

This was such a tough question — because to answer this question, you need to know yourself. And to know yourself, you also need to be honest with yourself. And that is hard. So the best we can do is a conflate a physical object with a gift. 

Someone can easily buy you something — it could be made by a famous brand. It could be expensive. It could be pretty. It can dazzle me. But will it be the greatest gift? The answer would be no. It could be, but it is unlikely. Because it won’t answer the metaphysical question: why does it matter to me? 

And the only way to arrive at an answer to that question is for someone to understand me. And to do that, it means that they need to know me. And know me well. That kind of understanding comes from spending time with me. 

This would give them an insight into my likes, my dislikes, my quirks, my hobbies, and my simple desires that make me smile. In other words, the physical gift would be a mere physical manifestation of the greatest gift — the time we spend together, and getting to know each other, warts and all.

As my friend Hiten said on Twitter the other day, “Your time is the most important gift you can give.” This appreciation of our relationship is the greatest gift someone can give me.

A friend is a gift you give yourself.

― Robert Louis Stevenson

January 4, 2024. San Francisco