Alex GW
@alexgws.website
Head of Technology at Cog Design, interested in web development, creative technology. Recovering composer.
Reposted by Alex GW
I love a lot of successful people who make art I consider magnificent. At the same time, I think something enormous is lost when the only people who get to give lasting voice to the human condition and the present moment are hyper-organized high-achievers or generationally wealthy (most likely both)
I have a lot of feelings about how this has impacted the arts (most of my favorite writers spent part if not all of their lives this way) but the right to just hang out and be chill should be for everyone, not just those who justify it with a different kind of productivity.
20 years ago I knew a guy who worked part time, minimum wage, as a dishwasher.
He was able to afford rent and a car (both shitty but functional), concerts, weed, etc.
It's interesting to think of how that kind of dirtbag lifestyle is mostly just gone.
He was able to afford rent and a car (both shitty but functional), concerts, weed, etc.
It's interesting to think of how that kind of dirtbag lifestyle is mostly just gone.
December 29, 2024 at 9:58 PM
I love a lot of successful people who make art I consider magnificent. At the same time, I think something enormous is lost when the only people who get to give lasting voice to the human condition and the present moment are hyper-organized high-achievers or generationally wealthy (most likely both)
Like Spotify are trying to do with podcasts and ignoring RSS, Substack are trying to do this with email - another company trying to own an ostensibly open protocol for the sake of "ease" and network effects...
“Death by a thousand substacks”
mail.bigdeskenergy.com/p/death-by-t...
> Substack has become the Amazon of publishing. It offers the consensual hallucination of independence and ownership while deceivingly consolidating control and dictating the terms of success for sellers (i.e. you, the writers)
mail.bigdeskenergy.com/p/death-by-t...
> Substack has become the Amazon of publishing. It offers the consensual hallucination of independence and ownership while deceivingly consolidating control and dictating the terms of success for sellers (i.e. you, the writers)
Death by a thousand substacks
If you’re not a breadwinner, you’re the yeast.
mail.bigdeskenergy.com
December 11, 2024 at 10:58 AM
Like Spotify are trying to do with podcasts and ignoring RSS, Substack are trying to do this with email - another company trying to own an ostensibly open protocol for the sake of "ease" and network effects...
Listening to the Tank Museum talking about the creator economy is inspiring, but I do worry about institutions being reliant on increasingly enshittified big platforms.
What happens to that community if the platform fails or changes the algorithmic levers?
#MuseTech24
What happens to that community if the platform fails or changes the algorithmic levers?
#MuseTech24
December 6, 2024 at 11:43 AM
Listening to the Tank Museum talking about the creator economy is inspiring, but I do worry about institutions being reliant on increasingly enshittified big platforms.
What happens to that community if the platform fails or changes the algorithmic levers?
#MuseTech24
What happens to that community if the platform fails or changes the algorithmic levers?
#MuseTech24
Reposted by Alex GW
I can tell you from my own personal experience that Anil is 100% right about Substack overselling its "network effect" to try to lock people in.
November 20, 2024 at 3:49 AM
I can tell you from my own personal experience that Anil is 100% right about Substack overselling its "network effect" to try to lock people in.
Reposted by Alex GW
(1) Seeking broad reading recommendations! Interested in work on how the time/space available for participation in public life is shaped. For example, I've loved the below recently for understanding the history of changing divisions of private/public space in Europe and US. 🧵
November 18, 2024 at 5:59 PM
(1) Seeking broad reading recommendations! Interested in work on how the time/space available for participation in public life is shaped. For example, I've loved the below recently for understanding the history of changing divisions of private/public space in Europe and US. 🧵