Dear fabulous nerd,
It has taken me way too long to finish this.
My zestborometor1 has been zapped. I am doing some self reflection as to why and I think it is platform fatigue, decision fatigue, all the fatigue.
I’m tired. Are you tired? I am and I have coffee right next to me and it tastes amazing.
I am sitting in the kitty corner focus section of my house to help me focus.
Focus Brie…
But I’m tired of playing the platform game.
The Business for Nerds Marketing Map…
is changing yet again and our websites and Discord are now the main hubs.
Substack is bumped down to a satellite marketing area because well, it’s not really fun anymore.
Substack = zestbarometer score: –10
Or if I’m being super (definitely not-a-word) exaggeraty: –1,000,000
The contrast? A video I streamed a few weeks ago (the podcast episode above) with Jake Anderson.
He’s a generous, grounded business builder, and we had a light roast session about platforms. That conversation helped me see the limitations—especially Substack’s lack of flexibility for creators. No open API. No easy way to customize. No real freedom to build something of our own.
That’s not the only reason I’m losing enthusiasm—but it was a turning point.
During the video you will see me be pro Substack for alot of it but this is where the enthusiasm began to wane a bit.
Something else has been sitting heavy with me.
My author friends have been chatting too and I got off a super interesting call the other day with a business bestie
who told me that there is an undercurrent of a weird vibe going on in the Substack space that there seems to be a push toward elevating elitist blogs.Now, I’m not judging anyone. If you have a big following and it’s working for you, great. I want creators to succeed. I really do. But I don’t believe we should have to sell out to do it. Selling out our values, our community, our stories, just to chase clout or visibility? That’s not success. That’s self-erasure.
And honestly, I’d rather make less money and be real than play a game that drains the soul.
I had a chat with my GPT about these things after the call and asked it to formulate our thoughts into bullets and to also search for ideas from other authors about how they feel about Substack.
I figure the Substack gods, will not be pleased when I post this. I also pissed off the Meta gods with my complaints about the social media spiral over there as well.
I guess I feel sad, Substack has graduated to a social media tech bro site where it used to be a haven for creators. At least that is what it appears to be.
I’m not going to share the whole convo with my GPT that helped me sort of journal out my thoughts but here is a TLDR.
✍️ TL;DR – Our View on Substack & Creator Exploitation
We’re increasingly disillusioned with Substack and platforms like it. What once felt like a creative revolution now feels like another system exploiting creators for growth while offering little in return—especially for those without huge audiences.
Allison found this article framing Substack as the “Royal Society of the 21st century” (Big Think). It paints Substack as a hub for brilliant minds shaping the future—but that vision feels tone-deaf to creators’ actual lived experiences.
Substack now emphasizes algorithms and engagement metrics, rewarding already privileged or popular voices, while burying newer or emotionally vulnerable creators.
There’s no reliable discovery system, and visibility often depends on social clout or algorithmic luck.
Most readers consume for free, meaning creators do emotional labor and publish high-effort content while Substack profits from engagement and growth.
Substack positions itself as a meritocratic intellectual haven, but we see a system where labor is extracted, not equitably rewarded.
And the vibe? Exhaustion for the creator.
This reflects a wider pattern across digital platforms. Creators are expected to give—content, vulnerability, time—while platforms benefit from our output without sharing power or profits.
We’re looking for models that prioritize mutual value, sustainability, and care, not grind culture disguised as opportunity.
So what are we doing? We are building off of social media and I get we have to use the tech that exists and sure Discord may not be the full answer but it is a great answer for my brain and other distracted entrepreneurs bc we can organize our thoughts into sections. And we can chat and communicate without worrying about discoverability of our statements.
So, yes I guess I am trying to sell you something but it is free (most of it, lol). Now the whole point I write this is to encourage us creators to make money over time but I want that to be done together because we all can win that way.
I created an author hub in there for us to brainstorm how to do this more sustainably.
I created a section for therapists to try to build more sustainable income.
There’s sections by other solopreneurs like
who has the portal of purposeand Build with Jake who has BWJ community stuff and often shares tons of wisdom like 4 zones of positioning.2
We have an AI nerd out section, where we don’t ask AI to write for us but to be our assistants and to help us get our thoughts out in ways that make sense especially if we are distracted entrepreneurs (like me).
is even hanging out once in a while to give us wisdom about this topic. (He helped me kindly stand up to a troll on Reddit about using AI as an assistant).- is in there and we were chatting about the author corner and she is interested in helping me build that out.
This is a decentralized community. The nerdiverse is all of us, all the nerds and we all nerd out about something really.
Thought: should I ask AI to edit this? Sure, so it makes sense and so I don’t stick my foot in my mouth which I often do as person who is neurodivergent. Person first always.
- is in there often dropping wisdom and ideas about ecosystems of balance in business (I hope I described that okay?).
- is checking out the space as well as
- and others who may or may not be on Subtack.
Also-was it just a typo when I misspelled Substack as “Subtack”? Or was that a Freudian slip? Because it does feel a little tacky these days. Sub tack. Sub text. Sub everything.
These are the voices of the nerdiverse. Join us to make our voices louder together!!
If you aren’t on Discord, here is a little video to tell you about ours and how to signup for discord and our nerdiverse hub.
Join the movement where we take back our creativity from the tech bros.
Youtube vid about my interpretation of the 4 zones of positioning.
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