I get too many emails.
So much so that I had to set up separate email addresses for things like subscriptions, etc.
I am impressed with the overall quality of Substacks I receive; I have a few favorites that I never miss. But it hass become too easy to add another, and they all it piled up in my inbox, looking a little too much like homework.
It recently got worse: I have noticed how many of my subscription emails in the inbox (see above) are now Substacks. Not content with taking over my email, Substack now wants to recommend more Substacks I should subscribe to, plus every existing Substacker gives me 3 of their other substacks to cross-promote.
Please stop.
I don’t need MORE information, analysis and newsletters rather, I want BETTER content. Succinct, to the point, useful. Semafor is a recent favorite. But I am going to implement a friend’s rule: IF he cannot remember the last time he opened and read a substack, he unsubscribed. Addition via subtraction and all that.
I scan WSJ or FT or WaPo or NYT online and see lots of things that interest me from their home page or directory. Currently, I can’t quite do that with Substack. I can peruse an online inbox, but there is little in the way of new content discovery browsing what I am already subscribed to.
The Substack publication pus newsletter format with high-quality journalists really took the world by storm. I have no idea whether its a long-term staple or a flash in the pan, but it feels to me like I am now at peak Substack…
