kevin_indig

Everybody’s reaction to the many GPT-3 demos on Twitter have been the same: First, it’s “oh my god, is this real?” Then, it’s “People are gonna lose their jobs.” The fear of GPT-3 replacing writers and designers is real. While I think some of the concerns are realistic, many are not.

Aggregation theory describes the shift of power from supply to demand, growth based on zero marginal cost, and direct relationships with users. Platforms like Google, Facebook, Amazon, and others were able to become aggregators because of the internet.

The next step in the evolution of aggregators is Platform Confluence: the combination of several apps and sites owned by the same company into an ecosystem in which user signals and ads reinforce each other.

That was one of the reasons I decided to go with my own platform. But Substack is not like Medium because it provides less discovery and more of a platform for writers. Medium, on the other hand, is more like an aggregator.

Got it. What's the incentive for readers? Discovery of better content?

Not that I know beyond the stack I mentioned in my article. Ghost is another one that comes to mind.

What did you switch to?

> We're sharing our revenue with you, not the other way around!

Gotcha. So, what's the value I'd get as a creator, i.e. why should I not charge through another platform?

> All that matters is the content, not the way it is delivered to the user.

I think it matters for the creators, though.

> If you write for big medium publications you can get a lot of traction.

If you leverage their algorithm cleverly, yes. But you still don't own your content or the platform. You're at the same mercy as on Facebook, Twitter, or Google.

I dunno. There's no feature.

I side with @bgroat a bit, the unit economics seem a bit steep. I like the idea of filtering internet content in general for 100% completion. I think there is something there.

I'm not sure if the incentive for creators is there, e.i. why would a creator share revenue for fully read articles?

I think you found a value-add for the demand-side of the market but not the supply-side. That's something I'd iterate on :).

Thanks for reading! Memberful integrates directly with ConvertKit, so you don't have to do much besides setting up some list tags in ConvertKit (see here: https://memberful.com/help/third-party-integrations/convertk...).

RSS is not the only reason but enabled, for example, Apple to create a platform for podcasts.

2 years ago, I started a newsletter on Mailchimp called Tech Bound and built it out to +3,000 subscribers. 3 months ago, I decided to migrate to Substack. One week ago, I went from Substack to publishing on my own site. In this post, I explain why, what my current stack looks like, and a larger trend that has been in full swing for 2 years.

I use Evernote (for notes) and Dropbox (for files). What helps me to stay on top of things is that I write everything in Evernote myself and then add the references at the bottom.

First, that helps me to rephrase knowledge in my own words (except for quotes, of course), which is good for retaining knowledge.

Second, I use tags and note links that help me to navigate through pieces of knowledge.

Third, I only store files in Dropbox, with a very well-maintained folder structure.

I don't clip stuff in Evernote and don't just copy/paste. I think that bloats the whole thing up and makes it unnavigable.

Love that site! Do you know of any other ones who are doing that?