Conversation

Viral ambition essays seem to have gone out of fashion. Kinda cringe to even aim at that now. Substack has a professionalized energy, Wordpress feels quiet and suburban, and the rest is emo-jewel craft pieces. Even nakedly mercenary clickbait seems in decline.
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I think a contemplative mood has descended on the reader-writer contract now. Like everybody’s switched from uppers to downers.
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Haven’t seen a piece even aiming at, let alone hitting, the kind of manic-aha note the entire blogosphere was aiming at 2000-20. Covid killed that mood. I snuck in a last post of that sort just a month before Covid, with internet of beefs 🤔 Can’t imagine writing like that now.
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Blogs remain the bellwether of where writing is headed. I enjoy my substacking but money does alter how things evolve there. Goodhart’s law etc. And the emo static site game still hasn’t grown up. And possibly never will.
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It’s no longer domestic cozy or cozyweb though. The mood has shifted once again to sort of “public life but on the dl” mode. Nobody wants to give soapbox speeches in the plaza anymore. But they don’t want to hide at home or in warrens of dms and slack/discord either 🤔
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