Decided I’ve been told that I should be a writer by enough people that I started a Substack, The Way Things Ought 2 B, so I can go ahead and practice this craft on a platform which allows one to eventually monetize their audience. If you can build an audience, that is. Right now I’m at 6, so a bit of a ways to go.
My newsletter is @asahi lite - American politics, culture, and economics, all with a dash of catastrophic thinking. The theme effectively is that I don’t expect an easy time for America in the next 30-40 years… the rest of my life, effectively… and this will be reflected in many of the pieces written.
For now. It’s an evolving idea.
“2 B” will have one long-form article (1,500+ words) every two-three weeks, with 3-6 short takes (150-450 words) in between. In addition, I’m still working on the phone book project, which will… in time… also be Substacked. More details in that thread.
Subscriptions are free, and right now I don’t care if you subscribe using your spam email ( ). Feel free to offer constructive criticism (and encouragement) because the idea is to get good enough to build an audience and eventually be paid for this.
Homepage:
My first article:
This would not have been possible without the SDMB, that I am quite certain, so I want to thank every single one of you for reading my stuff and, at times, reacting positively to it.
Marketing purposes. “2 B” makes a great linguistic shorthand for the newsletter (not article) and “2 B” will likely work better in a logo than TWTOTB. I’m perfectly fine with the construction.
Good first article, thanks for the read. The world could always use more sobering doses of doom and gloom. I subscribed, and I’m pulling for you man, keep grinding away at your craft and hopefully one day you land a mega book/TV deal.
It’s an authoring website which allows the creators full copyright ownership of their creations. A number of journalists and essayists have moved to the platform and I decided to put my longer work on Substack rather than the SDMB. Since the SDMB requires both ownership of our work and anonymity of the author, it’s actually a rather poor platform to promote oneself.
Just wanted to pop in here to, frankly, brag just a bit as my writings on CRT and income inequality earned me a Twitter follow from the leader of The 1619 Project, Nikole Hannah-Jones and a subscription to the Substack:
(No, you don’t get to see the subscription confirmation, sorry - it has her email address.)
A few more articles since my last update to this thread. The first was me throwing some data into a spreadsheet and telling y’all the narrative which unfolded:
The next was inspired from the Nahployment thread. Also was in a bit of a pissy mood the day I wrote this, causing one friend to call it ‘bitter’:
This third article was a personal challenge to myself: Can I make an unpalatable argument “Sometimes it’s OK for a person to give up and do what society tells her” palatable? The fact that the subject was a female genius who was forced to marry made crafting the argument difficult… but not a one of my feminist friends batted an eye when complimenting this one:
And my first article done upon request. Was with a friend and went on one of my 5 minute monologs, this time about why everyone hated each other, and he said I should write this one down. So I did:
I read your essay ’ Why Does Everyone Hate Each Other?’
Sorry, but I was literally rolling my eyes many times as I read through it.
Let’s just say that your knowledge of history is extremely simplistic and inaccurate, to a degree I wasn’t expecting. And your conclusions are flat wrong.
And, no, I have neither the time, nor the energy, nor the inclination to write a detailed critique of it, which would need to be as least as long.
All I can say is, please read some serious history before you launch into glib nonsense like this again.
). Feel free to offer constructive criticism (and encouragement) because the idea is to get good enough to build an audience and eventually be paid for this.
