I too write a Substack and I have also experienced this. There have been articles that I’ve written that have out performed my expectations, articles that I was sure would do well and flopped, articles that didn’t do well when I initially posted, then suddenly receive a lot of traffic a few months later due to a share, etc.
Very rarely do I write an article, know it will go viral, and then have it do well. It’s still hard when I have a string of bad weeks where nothing does well, because I still want to grow my audience and viewership. I have to remind myself that I started writing because I just desperately wanted to see a certain type of content put out into this world. This means that there are lots of times I write about things I know won’t do well ( a history about BSD, a tutorial about using xml with C#). As my readership grows it can be hard to write those types of articles, but I’m trying to stay true to myself.
Most of the time writing is fun, but there are definitely weeks were it’s hard to feel inspired. But for some reason for me writing just feels like breathing. It’s something I have to do, even if I don’t always enjoy it.
Do AI's absorbing your 'wisdom' count as views? :-)
I like my published stuff / comments etc getting attention. But only as a sign of people internalizing it, learning, enjoying, reflecting on their views & so on. Transferring knowledge, exchanging ideas, sharing projects, help fix problems others are having, that kind of thing.
Like on HN: if there's a story with maaany comments, I don't usually bother aside from reading. For a story no-one cares about, same thing. In between, if what I'd like to add is already mentioned, not much point in elaborating. But if not: sure, add your opinion or datapoints.
Same with science papers (I don't write those): if your paper advances the state of the art, then publish! If it might, or adds datapoints to hotly debated subject, yes plz. But if it's just 101st attempt that's been chewed on by everyone and their dog & few if any peers will ever read your paper, why bother? (and why bother with such research - find more interesting subject). More crap out there just makes the interesting stuff harder to find.
Btw: doesn't mean you can't re-visit a subject that's last been done long ago, or by few others, and where tools / environment / knowledge has changed since then.
Or if you publish some project which has been done by many, but yours is more up-to-date or better documented than existing ones, sure add value to what's out there.
For me, the most rewarding part is to help people. I love getting a random email saying “thanks” for a few sentences I jotted down that saved someone else time or money or made their life better somehow.
My most valuable example actually came from a tiny web app I created. I got a email telling me that someone had lost 212 lbs and my app was part of their success. I was sure the number was a typo so I responded and confirmed. When I reached out 6 years later they said:
“I weigh 163.8 this morning down from a high of 387. It has changed my life and the weight has stayed off (but I'm never off the program).”
I think your words, no matter how simple, would be powerful to others.
For me a large part of publishing is getting to hear the thoughts of the clever people in my readership.
If I'm obviously wrong, anyone can point that out to me, but if I'm only subtly wrong, it takes popularity to have the right person read the article and correct me.
In a world where so much is done online, one's reputation and job opportunities, too, might depend on what you can show for yourself online. No matter what business you are in, building an online presence is highly recommended. Creating content that goes viral can draw clients, get you a better offer from your current employer's competitor, or reveal other income streams that might allow you to leave a current job that you hate.
This seems like a long shot and a very optimistic view of a public presence. It’s equally likely anything you put online will be used against you in the future.
I doubt the risks out weigh the minute possibility of a benefit.
You don’t need a public presence in code or writing to be a valuable person.
Yes… I agree. However, I imagine one handwritten letter to a friend or loved one would be far more enriching for most people than 100 published blog posts.
I won't be publishing any of my writing publicly until there's a way to insure it isn't being used by some tech bro to pump the valuation of a company designed to replace me.
Some 25 years ago I got my own domain, and put up my first personal web page. It said something like "My web site is not even under construction yet. I put a page up when I have something to tell the world, not before!" - That text is still up there, basically unchanged. There are other things on that web server, but they are password protected and for my personal use only.
As you can see, I disagree with the idea of publishing "everything" and hoping that some of it might go viral or get a lot of likes.
I was wondering today if I should split my blog into two halves and keep my technical writings separate from my personal musings which are often ranty and miserable. I have a number of subscribers that probably care about the former and not the latter.
Au contraire. Publish nothing, delete the key results, and put intentional bugs in every home project. Otherwise you will be stolen from, or exploited. Sit back and wait and watch the rare few people approach your ideas. Reach out to them with interest and make best friends for life.
I know the op isn't about this but love putting nuggets like this out there
you are either being sarcastic, or just super cynical.
in any case, I don't have enough fucks to give out for fame, my intention is different from the person who wrote the article who clearly enjoys the attention; to each our own
nonetheless, the signal is clear (and I agree with it) the author of something is usually the worst judge of which of their work is 'best', and ultimately, the "best hits" will not be their own choice but the choice of them inspired by the authored piece.
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closer to the middle: do be wary of publishing too much, as if there weren't already a deluge of content
Took me a while to parse that headline. I was trying to figure out what "land-publishing" was.
I realise that most typographic style guides recommend not putting spaces around em-dashes which separate clauses in a sentence, but I always have trouble distinguishing between em-dashes and hyphens in most fonts. As a result, I often mistake non-spaced em-dashed clauses with hyphenated words, leading to confusion.
I note that the original article does not use the word "land" anywhere at all; not in the title, nor the body. The un-editorialised headline "Publish Everything (Pretty Much)" is (IMO) much clearer.
Very rarely do I write an article, know it will go viral, and then have it do well. It’s still hard when I have a string of bad weeks where nothing does well, because I still want to grow my audience and viewership. I have to remind myself that I started writing because I just desperately wanted to see a certain type of content put out into this world. This means that there are lots of times I write about things I know won’t do well ( a history about BSD, a tutorial about using xml with C#). As my readership grows it can be hard to write those types of articles, but I’m trying to stay true to myself.
Most of the time writing is fun, but there are definitely weeks were it’s hard to feel inspired. But for some reason for me writing just feels like breathing. It’s something I have to do, even if I don’t always enjoy it.