“I need more subscribers” season is over.

Maybe now it’s Embrace What Exists season. Or Time to Celebrate Who’s Here.

The season of “more subscribers” will come around again, for sure. But today—right now—there are wonderful people already in our life and creative orbit. Maybe this can be a season (or even just a week) of honoring what already exists.

I saw Substack’s latest post, Demystifying the Feed, and figured I’d rant about it on a Substack Live!

Here’s some of the stuff I covered:

• The lottery effect: I compared Notes (and social media in general) to a lottery—someone wins big to keep the rest of us playing, but most people don’t.
• Algorithms ≠ strategy: I talked about how algorithmic feeds will always disappoint. You can’t game them, and they don’t owe us growth.
• Don’t outsource your audience: I reminded everyone that Substack is useful, but temporary. Platforms crash, change, or ghost. An email list is portable and ours forever.
• Real-world examples: I shared a story about a musician who skipped social media promo, reached out to a local newspaper and radio station, and played to 150 people in a new town—plus 30 new email signups on a clipboard. You can read that post here.
• Offline matters: I talked about how flyers, zines, and conversations still work. My own punk rock flea market table proved it—people still want to connect in person.
• Community ≠ platform: I said Substack makes great tools, but the “community” belongs to them, not us. Real community happens off-platform.
• For quieter creatives: I encouraged folks to stay authentic—slow growth, not performance. I’d rather grow as myself than pretend to be louder or slicker than I am.
• Blog and email > Notes: I emphasized that everything I post on Notes should also live on my own site.
• Let unsubscribes go: I reminded everyone to stop watching unsubscribe counts. I don’t track them either, it’s better to just focus on who stays.
• Final takeaway: The way I “demystify the feed” is by not relying on it. I’d rather build small circles, reach people directly, and keep the internet human-sized.

Perhaps this is a time of undoing, ridding ourselves of complex processes and systems.

This from Yancey Strickler:

“THE LONG GAME IS ABOUT CONFIDENCE. YOU HAVE TO WILLINGLY LIVE IN A TRUTH THAT’S NOT CERTAIN, YET OPERATE WITH THE FAITH THAT IT WILL BE. A CONSTANT PRESSURE YOU MUST BEFRIEND/TOLERATE.”

Having the confidence that I don’t need to back up every single post, file, or image from the last 20+ years. Confidence is cancelling Adobe and just figuring it out. Confidence is deleting social media profiles and having the faith that it will be okay (it will).

I have no confidence that the Unholy Trinity, that a new app, gadget, or system will come along and give us the answer. Their interest is self-interest, and they’ll continue to string us along if we let them.

Instead, my confidence is with fellow creative folk, even if the directions are a little messy and the path looks weird.

Yonder Surf Zine sums it up pretty well (get a copy here):

“For years now, we’ve been giving our words, thoughts and images to a $100 Billion tech company. It feels like we’ve lost control of our cultural narrative to a social media algorithm.

We’ve handed the very essence of our culture to the Silicon Valley tech bros and we’re losing our own minds in the process. We do it to justify our existence as surfers or creatives; in an eternal battle for online attention. It’s not good for us; it’s not good for surf culture and it’s not good for future generations.”

Why don’t people visit websites anymore? Because we put all our best work on someone else’s website, namely Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Threads, YouTubeetc.

If we put all our best work on these various platforms that we don’t control, what incentive is there to visit our websites?

And remember – these platforms monetize our work. We are the product, the never ending feed of text and images and videos and hot takes. These companies cram all this “content” into a feed, throw in advertisements, and make money.

Guitarist Steve Vai knew this years ago, saying (as the artist) “I get paid the most.”

(Yonder link via Looking Sideways)

Bree Stilwell tells the story about posting an idea on a local Reddit:

The idea was for an alternative local print magazine, something a bit more sideways than the long-reigning Ann Arbor Observer. The response:

‘How about contributing to the Observer? (I’m the deputy editor.)’

I’m dm’d her, she emailed me back, I sent her links to my Substack newsletter—my only published editorial work. I pitched her several ideas, we met for ice cream. We kept talking.

Yesterday, after a weekly online pilot since August, I got to see my first monthly advice column in ink, literally hot off the presses.

The audience? 53,000 direct mail recipients.

Your body of work can be expressed outside of just posting about it and hoping for the right person to see if and sweep you off your feet.

• Instagram is not the only place for your photography to exist!
• Substack is not the only place for your writing to exist!
• Your website is not the only place for your work to exist!
• Your Bandcamp page is not the only place for your music to exist!

Meet for ice cream! Get on the phone! Set up a Zoom call!

Stop waiting for people to stumble upon your magic and REACH FOR THE STARS!

Was asked “how to find community” recently, and I cited Seth Godin:

“”What can I contribute today,” might be the very best way to become part of a community. Relentless generosity brings us closer together.”

When I was a young rocker, I played the bass. Bands needed bass players, and that’s what I contributed. After many years it was evident I wasn’t going to be a rock star, so I started a music blog, writing about the bands I loved and knew from my area.

That’s what I contributed back in 2001, and I just sort of never stopped contributing. Answering questions, helping out, hosting Zoom calls, talking on the phone, whatever.

Sam Altman is building a technology that will cure cancer, but it couldn’t help him write a Tweet more interesting than most tech-influencers.

As Manuel Moreale says in his post, “Look, another AI browser,”

“The thing I found more interesting about the whole OpenAI announcement was Sam Altman tweeting: “10 am livestream today to launch a new product I’m quite excited about!.” This is coming from someone who’s allegedly running a company that’s building a tool that should usher in a new era where computers will replace most of human work, where we’ll all have a super intelligence always available in our pockets, ready to dispense infinite wisdom.”

Releasing a new song and then Tweeting, “new song” is void of context. It’s boring, bland, a race to the bottom. Sam Altman can’t seem to figure out how to write a better pitch, but I bet you can.

From Yancey Strickler’s post, “The internet is dying on the outside but growing on the inside.”

Hidden transcripts are drafted, revised, and designed in dark forests safe from outside view. Public channels are where dominant powers dictate and control narratives. As authoritarian regimes around the world increase their monitoring and persecution of those who do not fall in line with the dominant story, these spaces and their security become increasingly important.

This is the second time this week I’ve referenced this quote from the South Central Run Club: “Instead of broadcasting our runs and making us vulnerable to surveillance, we stopped putting it on Instagram to make people feel safer to come and hang out.”

Social media has us believe we must broadcast everything, announce our every movement. Of course they encourage this, as more posts equal more ad impressions, more “time on site.”

Rip up the script; engage outside of public view, in safe places, in supportive communities, and watch your creative orbit expand into something more real.