44 Comments

This is making me rethink my approach and I don't know what to do! I tend to use notes when I don't have enough to say in a post and I don't want to "bother" subscribers with something less thought out, but maybe I should be reaching out to those that have actually signed up for my ramblings instead or reaching into the void. Much food for thought, thank you.

(Despite the substack claim that followers increase subscribers, that has not been the case for me, so my reliance on notes may be incredibly stupid.)

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Why not ask your readers if they would appreciate the odd short post? I bet most of them don't see your notes at all.

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I might do that in one that I'm working on now (a short one, with more audience sourcing).

I think I've seen the drop in subs from "bad" posts which has made me more self conscious about sending out things. Then again, my deeply researched and sourced content does much worse than my off -the-cuff rants!

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dear alex,

this is a beautiful song:

"I just met you

And this is crazy

But I’m a writer

So pay me maybe"

thank you and love you!

myq

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But did you pay him…

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maybe!

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I double checked your math, Alex. The math does indeed math.

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I try to stay out of the Notes - I know me, I would get sucked right in and, whoosh, one, two, three hours would be gone, just like that, no idea where they went. Lack of executive function can be a dangerous thing, but after 60+ decades I've learned to avoid things that I know will be detrimental to my small pool of "extra" (stolen?) time.

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Definitely agree. No notes for me. Not even going close. Not now. Not ever. Not since Twitter when it was Twitter and Instagram before it had ads and not until the cows come back to their home page. I know better than that. You bet I do. I’m not even here, if you ask me.

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"The cool people are not there. The cool people – the actually cool people – are not on social media. They are free. They escaped, and they can’t tell us how, for doing so would render their escape null and bring them back to the void."

Love this! Reminds me of an article Ryan Holiday wrote: The most successful people are the ones you've never heard of.

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The "illusion of free will"

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Thank you! I only comment here to get some attention, so please like this comment. Maybe Notes would be more adequate? But, then l‘d have to come up with own stuff. I’m not able to create such elaborate statistical analysis and visualize it as well as you did here. Now I have an urge to prompt Leonardo AI with “Dandy Lions”.

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The visuals were helpful. I found myself finding the useful.

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Now I don't feel so bad about failing so much with Notes...

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Yeah, notes kinda bums me out cos I thought I had taken strides to not be hooked on SM and yet here I am

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You know, maybe that's why I can never stick with these things (aka social media) 💭

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I’d love to stay and chat, but I’ve got journeys to start, moments to savour, roses to smell, and little things to enjoy. But, hey, whatever turns your wheel, as hamsters say.

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"No matter what, just be like a train and choo choo choose (it’s sentences like this that I’m being told are keeping me from a Nobel Laureate)."

Those people are wrong. Actually, they're probably right, but only because the way we determine what gets to be considered Very Important Literature is deeply flawed.

I am going to add this to my collection of favourite random sentences.

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Not only would I love to see a forest full of dandy lions, but I would also love to see a forest of dandelions. But also, my stance on Notes is "Notes? WTF are those?" BWAHA!

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"Some real passive voice bullshit" needs to become a mainstream writing term.

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only 2% of substackers writing on notes? Really?

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