Hey Neal! As a new writer here on Substack, I’ve also struggled with the pressure to optimize everything to serve what the algorithm wants. I think getting caught up in the numbers game is what kills new writers, as it equates their work’s value with “virality” or clicks. But it’s not—there are so many quality pieces still waiting to be favored by the algorithm and I just hope their writers survive until then. Thank you for writing about this, it means a lot.
Thanks so much for publishing this. As someone who writes about utopian longing writ large across society, it really concerns me to see folks siloing themselves into ever-less-nuanced places. Grey areas are good for us. The inability to admit uncertainty - and gods forbid, being mistaken! - is a key driver of why we’re in the kind of trouble we’re in as a country.
I see from the title of your Substack that the "we're" you're referring to are your fellow Americans. Yes, it does look fraught over there at the moment and I do hope you have a peaceful transition of power. I am a Brit based in Singapore so, thankfully, don't need to think about it much!
Oh yes, correct! Please send up your heathen (or other variety) of prayers for us Americans. Peace is what the better half of us are hoping for. We’ll all be holding our breath until Wednesday morning…and then perhaps again until the January inauguration.
Really appreciate this. I’ve been battling some big feelings about the notes and the viral and the feeling suddenly like I need to please an algorithm and it’s depressing! Love your thoughts on it.
Hi Neal! Nice to "meet" you.
I found you because I stumbled across that note.
"Hacking the algorithm" is an interesting idea, of course, but that isn't why I subscribed.
I subscribed because "Pro Human" resonates. I'm pro human, too. Glad to have found you!
Likewise Amy ☺
Hey Neal! As a new writer here on Substack, I’ve also struggled with the pressure to optimize everything to serve what the algorithm wants. I think getting caught up in the numbers game is what kills new writers, as it equates their work’s value with “virality” or clicks. But it’s not—there are so many quality pieces still waiting to be favored by the algorithm and I just hope their writers survive until then. Thank you for writing about this, it means a lot.
Thanks so much for publishing this. As someone who writes about utopian longing writ large across society, it really concerns me to see folks siloing themselves into ever-less-nuanced places. Grey areas are good for us. The inability to admit uncertainty - and gods forbid, being mistaken! - is a key driver of why we’re in the kind of trouble we’re in as a country.
I see from the title of your Substack that the "we're" you're referring to are your fellow Americans. Yes, it does look fraught over there at the moment and I do hope you have a peaceful transition of power. I am a Brit based in Singapore so, thankfully, don't need to think about it much!
Oh yes, correct! Please send up your heathen (or other variety) of prayers for us Americans. Peace is what the better half of us are hoping for. We’ll all be holding our breath until Wednesday morning…and then perhaps again until the January inauguration.
I shall chant around the entrails for you Jack, that should take care of things!
😂 you’re too kind
Really appreciate this. I’ve been battling some big feelings about the notes and the viral and the feeling suddenly like I need to please an algorithm and it’s depressing! Love your thoughts on it.