Hey there,

Thanks for joining me this week. Nothing new to report, but I hope everyone's staying safe and getting vaccinated.

Interesting Articles on the Web

The Mess at Medium: I like Medium. For many of you on this list, it's where you'd likely have first come across my writing. But Medium has changed a lot in the past 3 years, and Casey Newton here details the different turns that it has taken, most of which has been bad for writers on the platform. This is why it's so important to not build your home on someone else's land but to have your own distribution channel. For this reason, I'm thankful that each of you signed up to have a direct communication channel with me, and I hope you find each edition of the newsletter useful.

Sovereign Writers and Substack: On the other hand, Substack just raised 65M at a 650M valuation. It's easy to see why since they've been the antithesis of Medium - they don't control the distribution of content but instead let each writer handle it themselves. Ben Thompson over at Stratchery dives deep here on their business model, but I think this is more of a preview of the future of media. Worth reading to understand what is going on.

Too Much, Too Soon, Too Fast: "Some things scale well. Double their size and you get double the output (or more). Other things don’t, and my God is it important to know which is which."

This is classic Morgan Housel at his best again, using fascinating stories to make an understated point - respect the most convenient state.

A thing about normal: A timely reminder from Seth Godin that normal is a distribution, not a person. I can't think of a better way to end off than with this short piece from him.

An Idea I'm Playing With

The hallmark of a true eccentric: not thinking you’re all that eccentric, even when your every thought, word, and deed seems to set you apart from the rest of the world. I'm reminded of this once in awhile when I have conversations with some of the most interesting people I know.

--

As usual, let me know what you think.

Talk soon,

Louis