Art has always flirted with visibility. The Medici didn't fund Michelangelo because they loved abstraction, but they loved what his work did for their name. The Sistine Chapel is as much a PR operation as it is a spiritual project.
The artist was always pushed to negotiate with whoever controlled the resources. The only thing that changed is who sits on the other side of the table.
Substack is, in a way, a dispersed patron. Instead of one sponsor, you have a thousand subscribers. Instead of an explicit commission ("paint my ceiling"), you have the implicit pressure of metrics. The form of patronage changed, but I think the dynamic didn't.
But where your argument really lands is that the quality of that attention is fundamentally different. A patron had taste. Good or bad, but articulated. At the same time, an algorithm has no taste; it has signals: clicks, dwell time, shares. When a creator optimises for that signal, he's not answering to a person with a vision. He is answering to statistical noise pretending to be an audience.
The problem was never that art flirts with attention. It always did. The problem is the difference between a patron who says "make something great" and a dashboard that says "your title had 3% better CTR with an emoji."
That said, I think the platform gets too much credit as the agent of change here. Substack doesn't cause identity drift. It accelerates it in people who never had a stable centre to begin with.
A creator with a clear internal position won't collapse because of an A/B test :)
I appreciate your thoughtful comment. We should not forget that without Substack or social media we would have a hard time to get anyone to see our work. In this way I see Substack more as patron for getting the word out, because the sad fact is that 97% of creators here don't make enough money with Substack alone.
I suggest we write and write and write....and the Substack algorithm can do whatever it wants. And then, if we feel like it, we can throw a rock at the platform as a beautiful act of vandalism :D
@LucidLedger - Whoa! Since being on Substack, this is THE most thoughtful, articulate, “adding to the conversation” type of comment I’ve come across. Proving that intelligent comments do work to draw attention, I’m now heading over to your Substack to see what you write about. Apologies if you are already famous and I don’t recognize your name. I should have checked first. 😳🙌
It does. I am in the middle of your latest article and I’ve been I interrupted several times. But I’m able to keep coming back to it without having to reread the whole thing. That says something about my brain but much more about your writing 🙂
The Medici frame lands harder than most realize. Patron commissions were specific. "Paint my ceiling" came with a brief, a deadline, a materials budget, and a person whose taste the artist could argue with. Dashboard patronage has none of that. It has a number that moved 3% and no one to argue with about why.
The "clear internal position" you close on is also the part most operators try to hold by willpower, and willpower loses to the dashboard inside a quarter. We built a verified-phrases doc at Khun Camp before we built the publishing rails. A frozen file of voice patterns and banned phrases the dashboard can't touch. When the metric pull arrives, the file is what holds, not the discipline.
One of the best things I did on here was to block the majority of the "How to be a Substack success" authors. Now my Substack feed is much more interesting.
Yes I've noticed I see much more of the content I want to see... And the beautiful Art and Designing is so abundant and filled with really creative people and wonderful things to see daily... Focus on specifics you love to have surround you... Enjoy the splendour. Let others run the races, I'm on a stroll, maybe a jog when I feel like it, but mostly expressing my feelings and capturing the world around me as I walk my own Art Trail, I meet many further along than me, I pass some by and some I stop and chat to, many live to tell us what it's like at the top of the mountain, some just sit for a while at many seating places to take in the views,.. I'll take the journey as it shows me many delights... To see the plants and trees, hear the birds, and see the running water... It's such a pleasure to find one's own speed and different paths to trek... Then meet at the watering hole for a great reflection too.. It's good to be here now...
Same move. We treat the mute and block as part of the publishing system, not a vibe. Every blocked "how to grow on Substack" author is a reduction in dashboard pull on what we write next. Negative input curation is the same work as positive input curation, just less talked about.
Sometimes I feel like I joined Substack "too late." That I missed this platform's glory days of yore when it was a community of creators writing thoughtful, long-form pieces.
I came here to escape the bite sized, infinite scroll of shallow content found on other platforms. The junk food of social media.
But this is so spot on: "Substack is changing. You can’t control that. But you can control how you react to it."
I can't control what's being served up on Substack, but I don't have to consume (or create) junk content.
I've never cared for the term 'creator' since it started being applied to identify certain people as 'special'. I.e. it is about status from the get-go.
In a perfect world, everybody on the planet would be engaged in producing special *creations* that have meaning. I believe 'creating' is something we should all have access to. So IMO the term 'creator' is redundant.
I think this aligns with the thrust of your article Philipp. You have well-described the danger of identity drift when the activity is about metrics - where people with high subscriber counts are deemed to be 'special'.
And your 'contrarian' advice, to instead build and express a real identity, puts the focus on creating well-crafted objects as vehicles for this goal.
Excellent essay, Philipp. The process of enshittification is real and I am dismayed whenever I see growth hack posts on substack. Your point about identify drift and chasing metrics is astute because we have traded authenticity for engagement. Everything seems to drift back to what grabs attention and 'resonates' opposed to what is convicting and stands up to scrutiny.
Authenticity for engagement...astute... Go live. Of course some humans consider living in front of a screen very engaging. Somewhat intrigued & mea culpa once in awhile too.
I've being fortunate enough to have circumstance throw me into what others might percieve as prolonged procrastination. I spent time on the metrics thing, but I don't particularly like rollercoaster rides. It's not fear, I just don't like been shoved around, while having to put up with everyone else screaming. So I've spend a while getting back to why I started writing in the first place. To that inner silence that uses whatever art form to express universal beauties, complexities, and it's harsh realities. We need to create for ourselves, because then it's real, and somewhere in the world, I believe, others will gell with that.
This is so good! Yes! And I have to say I followed a few people resonating with their work, and as they grew on Substack they have now turned their work into “how I used my intuition to grow on Substack.” I was so bummed! I’m fairly new here but I noticed the amount of people who talk about the platform itself.
I have noticed a lot of AI created written content - and I am questioning why because authentic voice is better even if imperfect, it’s what makes us human. I want to read the authors version not the AI edited one. It may be faster and the themes are there but I question why is taking time bad? Fast = generic in my humble opinion and I want to feel heart through the words 💜
Wonderfully written! I compare it to musicians- in their most creative moments as they’re creating an album. From their pain, fears, lived experience. Not thinking what their fans want as a chorus. They place the guitar solo where they want it to go. As many people on Substack came with the creators and influencers from other platforms, they haven’t discovered their own voice…and many never will. I’m happy with my 30 subscribers. I’m touching the lives of people that I couldn’t fit into 5 cars if we were going on a road-trip together.
IMHO it is the responsibility of the artist to be the Artist in the first place, and not chase the mere numbers. In my young age Artists had much more personal integrity. Now everything goes for clicks and numbers.
I am still optimistic, as clicks n numbers will soon saturate, and people will demand more real pure raw artistry...
I would love to subscribe. But. I can't see how many other people are doing so. I don't know if I'm one of the cool kids. Because in my mind I'm an early adopter, that's where I need to hang out.
This is the type of piece I want to read. It is difficult nowadays not to go where the current flows but somehow first step is to be aware of it. I left IG except for sharing random information for this exact reason, everything is about the content creation and how to do it so it is just courses about it everywhere, now is AI, which is alright but still it feels sometimes like a dummie rabbit hole.
Art has always flirted with visibility. The Medici didn't fund Michelangelo because they loved abstraction, but they loved what his work did for their name. The Sistine Chapel is as much a PR operation as it is a spiritual project.
The artist was always pushed to negotiate with whoever controlled the resources. The only thing that changed is who sits on the other side of the table.
Substack is, in a way, a dispersed patron. Instead of one sponsor, you have a thousand subscribers. Instead of an explicit commission ("paint my ceiling"), you have the implicit pressure of metrics. The form of patronage changed, but I think the dynamic didn't.
But where your argument really lands is that the quality of that attention is fundamentally different. A patron had taste. Good or bad, but articulated. At the same time, an algorithm has no taste; it has signals: clicks, dwell time, shares. When a creator optimises for that signal, he's not answering to a person with a vision. He is answering to statistical noise pretending to be an audience.
The problem was never that art flirts with attention. It always did. The problem is the difference between a patron who says "make something great" and a dashboard that says "your title had 3% better CTR with an emoji."
That said, I think the platform gets too much credit as the agent of change here. Substack doesn't cause identity drift. It accelerates it in people who never had a stable centre to begin with.
A creator with a clear internal position won't collapse because of an A/B test :)
I appreciate your thoughtful comment. We should not forget that without Substack or social media we would have a hard time to get anyone to see our work. In this way I see Substack more as patron for getting the word out, because the sad fact is that 97% of creators here don't make enough money with Substack alone.
I suggest we write and write and write....and the Substack algorithm can do whatever it wants. And then, if we feel like it, we can throw a rock at the platform as a beautiful act of vandalism :D
Well said. The mute function is also incredibly helpful… and it might tell the algorithm that we are tired.
@LucidLedger - Whoa! Since being on Substack, this is THE most thoughtful, articulate, “adding to the conversation” type of comment I’ve come across. Proving that intelligent comments do work to draw attention, I’m now heading over to your Substack to see what you write about. Apologies if you are already famous and I don’t recognize your name. I should have checked first. 😳🙌
Thank you, Carolyn. That means a lot. I hope the writing holds up to the comment. :) Welcome.
It does. I am in the middle of your latest article and I’ve been I interrupted several times. But I’m able to keep coming back to it without having to reread the whole thing. That says something about my brain but much more about your writing 🙂
Well said, thank you.
El artículo es bueno..., pero este comentario tuyo es infinitamente mejor. ¡Aplausos!
Bingo
The Medici frame lands harder than most realize. Patron commissions were specific. "Paint my ceiling" came with a brief, a deadline, a materials budget, and a person whose taste the artist could argue with. Dashboard patronage has none of that. It has a number that moved 3% and no one to argue with about why.
The "clear internal position" you close on is also the part most operators try to hold by willpower, and willpower loses to the dashboard inside a quarter. We built a verified-phrases doc at Khun Camp before we built the publishing rails. A frozen file of voice patterns and banned phrases the dashboard can't touch. When the metric pull arrives, the file is what holds, not the discipline.
Discipline drifts. Pre-committed structure doesn't.
One of the best things I did on here was to block the majority of the "How to be a Substack success" authors. Now my Substack feed is much more interesting.
That’s why Substack is still the best platform. You can train the algorithm what you don’t want to see.
I'm finding Substack is now my most used of the social media and content creation platforms. It's a lot better than when I had my own blog.
Yes I've noticed I see much more of the content I want to see... And the beautiful Art and Designing is so abundant and filled with really creative people and wonderful things to see daily... Focus on specifics you love to have surround you... Enjoy the splendour. Let others run the races, I'm on a stroll, maybe a jog when I feel like it, but mostly expressing my feelings and capturing the world around me as I walk my own Art Trail, I meet many further along than me, I pass some by and some I stop and chat to, many live to tell us what it's like at the top of the mountain, some just sit for a while at many seating places to take in the views,.. I'll take the journey as it shows me many delights... To see the plants and trees, hear the birds, and see the running water... It's such a pleasure to find one's own speed and different paths to trek... Then meet at the watering hole for a great reflection too.. It's good to be here now...
I did exactly the same.
It's surprising how quickly the news feed gets a lot more interesting when you block out what you find as irrelevant to you.
Same move. We treat the mute and block as part of the publishing system, not a vibe. Every blocked "how to grow on Substack" author is a reduction in dashboard pull on what we write next. Negative input curation is the same work as positive input curation, just less talked about.
Exactly, I'm not afraid of mute and block as tools.
Yes! What you create is a byproduct of what you are (becoming). It's going INSIDE instead of relying on the outside to tell you what you are.
It's that simple. Go inside if you want to find wisdom.
Sometimes I feel like I joined Substack "too late." That I missed this platform's glory days of yore when it was a community of creators writing thoughtful, long-form pieces.
I came here to escape the bite sized, infinite scroll of shallow content found on other platforms. The junk food of social media.
But this is so spot on: "Substack is changing. You can’t control that. But you can control how you react to it."
I can't control what's being served up on Substack, but I don't have to consume (or create) junk content.
Thanks for another thoughtful piece. :)
The mute function can help a lot in turning down the voice of the shallow content.
I've never cared for the term 'creator' since it started being applied to identify certain people as 'special'. I.e. it is about status from the get-go.
In a perfect world, everybody on the planet would be engaged in producing special *creations* that have meaning. I believe 'creating' is something we should all have access to. So IMO the term 'creator' is redundant.
I think this aligns with the thrust of your article Philipp. You have well-described the danger of identity drift when the activity is about metrics - where people with high subscriber counts are deemed to be 'special'.
And your 'contrarian' advice, to instead build and express a real identity, puts the focus on creating well-crafted objects as vehicles for this goal.
“The artist makes something because it demands to exist.”
Thank you for this x
Excellent essay, Philipp. The process of enshittification is real and I am dismayed whenever I see growth hack posts on substack. Your point about identify drift and chasing metrics is astute because we have traded authenticity for engagement. Everything seems to drift back to what grabs attention and 'resonates' opposed to what is convicting and stands up to scrutiny.
Authenticity for engagement...astute... Go live. Of course some humans consider living in front of a screen very engaging. Somewhat intrigued & mea culpa once in awhile too.
I've being fortunate enough to have circumstance throw me into what others might percieve as prolonged procrastination. I spent time on the metrics thing, but I don't particularly like rollercoaster rides. It's not fear, I just don't like been shoved around, while having to put up with everyone else screaming. So I've spend a while getting back to why I started writing in the first place. To that inner silence that uses whatever art form to express universal beauties, complexities, and it's harsh realities. We need to create for ourselves, because then it's real, and somewhere in the world, I believe, others will gell with that.
This is so good! Yes! And I have to say I followed a few people resonating with their work, and as they grew on Substack they have now turned their work into “how I used my intuition to grow on Substack.” I was so bummed! I’m fairly new here but I noticed the amount of people who talk about the platform itself.
“how I used my intuition to grow on Substack.”
This is kind of hilarious.
+1
I have noticed a lot of AI created written content - and I am questioning why because authentic voice is better even if imperfect, it’s what makes us human. I want to read the authors version not the AI edited one. It may be faster and the themes are there but I question why is taking time bad? Fast = generic in my humble opinion and I want to feel heart through the words 💜
Thanks for enriching this platform.
SO GOOD. Saving this to give me the regular pep talk I need to fuck with the algo-gods.
Wonderfully written! I compare it to musicians- in their most creative moments as they’re creating an album. From their pain, fears, lived experience. Not thinking what their fans want as a chorus. They place the guitar solo where they want it to go. As many people on Substack came with the creators and influencers from other platforms, they haven’t discovered their own voice…and many never will. I’m happy with my 30 subscribers. I’m touching the lives of people that I couldn’t fit into 5 cars if we were going on a road-trip together.
Thanks Giroldy. Music is really a great way to create ar
Many truths said there.
IMHO it is the responsibility of the artist to be the Artist in the first place, and not chase the mere numbers. In my young age Artists had much more personal integrity. Now everything goes for clicks and numbers.
I am still optimistic, as clicks n numbers will soon saturate, and people will demand more real pure raw artistry...
I share that optimism.
I would love to subscribe. But. I can't see how many other people are doing so. I don't know if I'm one of the cool kids. Because in my mind I'm an early adopter, that's where I need to hang out.
Wait…you’re telling me the “close elevator” button is FAKE!?!
Depends on where you are but it’s not uncommon int the US.
This is the type of piece I want to read. It is difficult nowadays not to go where the current flows but somehow first step is to be aware of it. I left IG except for sharing random information for this exact reason, everything is about the content creation and how to do it so it is just courses about it everywhere, now is AI, which is alright but still it feels sometimes like a dummie rabbit hole.