As a subscriber to a handful of Substack pages, I occasionally get automatically-generated emails offering a pick of recent pieces they think I will like. Today, that email suggested 3 really fantastic essays, including one which really stood out as quite special. All three ‘clicks’ today were well worth my time.

And this makes me hate Substack that much more. Figuring out how to show people more of what they want to see is Interneting 101, and interneters have had 25 + years to hone their skills. Substack is a third- or fourth- generation content distribution company, so they are, no doubt, working with a level of sophistication, and a digital toolbox, that would be far beyond the wildest hopes of 2006 Facebook or Google. Today was just another example of how incredibly good Substack is at Interneting 101.

I mean, I really hate Substack. It’s become the one-stop-shop for a generation of writers across all fields of interest. Think music criticism is dead? Think again – there’s tons of great music criticism on Substack. Think political discourse is dominated by corporately generated talking points? There are independent and innovative voices aplenty on Susbstack. It’s a whole delightful ecosystem of writing and thinking.

For god’s sake, people. Have we learned NOTHING?!?!?!?!

Substack may seem totally benign, but remember Google when their motto was literally ‘don’t be evil.’ Now they’re telling us we’ll all be cyborgs in 20 years. Facebook started as a way to share vacation photos and connect with school friends, and then went and gave us Brexit, Trump and the end of civilisation. And we still use these fucking things because we can’t get off them. Amazon was once just a bookstore…

Herewith, Woods’ Law:

Any entity on the internet which works towards dominance in any area of culture or commerce, however benevolent, will eventually become a malevolent actor working towards dominance in all areas of culture and commerce.

All us cheap bastards who never quite got around to ‘buying their favourite blogger a coffee’ (remember those paypal buttons nobody used) 15 years ago – this is (y)our fault. Substack gets writers paid and gets them audience, two things that blogs have failed miserably at. Substack is steamrolling towards dominance in the ideas industry.

Blogs failed as a system because we let them fail. Because we wouldn’t support each other. Because we thought we could do the same thing on Facebook as we could on our blog.

[Convenience will be our undoing as a species.]

I don’t know what to do. When I read a great piece of writing, like this, this or this, I want to share it, wherever it’s hosted. So that’s what I’ll do.

But, my god, do I hate Substack. Not because of what it is, but because of what we all know it will become. When Larry Ellison, Elon Musk or some other rich bastard gets ownership of it, we’ll all be more fucked than ever.

And remember, if showing people more of what they want to see is Interneting 101, showing people what you want them to see is Interneting doctoral studies.

And, more importantly, inescapably, irresistibly, unavoidably: Showing people more of what you want them to see is where all the serious money and real power is. Getting people to pay for a blog is just another version of ‘buy me a coffee’. Being able to tell an oligarch that you can point 50 million readers towards the ideas that will benefit their agenda…. That’s real money. Being able to use AI to generate the content you’re going to get those 50 million reader to read so you don’t need to pay those pesky authors…. or put up with content that doesn’t toe the line…..that’s where this is all heading. And if you don’t think your writing on Substack is being sold to train AI, you’re really smokin’ the wacky weed.

The day Substack starts doing all of this is not far away, mark my words.