I've enjoyed your work and will continue to be a subscriber if you keep us in the loop every so often and publish once in awhile. I wish you the best in your new job and hope you find it fulfilling. Bless you for the contribution you made at a time when there was so much conflicting and confusing information out there. Your efforts were appreciated and I hope to see your articles pop up in my inbox every so often.
Thank you DJ! I appreciate the sentiments! I will try to continue releasing new posts on occasion, I just need to see what work/life/Substack balance will work out for me and so I'll use the next few weeks as a test to see how much I can balance.
I never know how informative my posts can be. Honestly sometimes I read them over and think they aren't too great in many cases, so it's always nice to get feedback from readers to see if they actually do find the information fruitful.
Given my circumstances I didn't consider much other options viable. I'd expect to be "carded" given everything going on with the vaccines. I think it's only now that a lot of people really seem to not care about the vaccines or even carding anymore.
To your second point I've sort of been concerned that a good degree of that is going on. It's one of the reasons why I hesitate to go down the religious route, or routes on all vaccine safeties, or even if viruses exist, because I can see how easily a writer can be captured by their audience into having a writer tell them what they want to hear rather than giving their own opinion and perspective. As of now it feels like many Substacks are heading down that route because it's the next thing following COVID, and if so we may just see more conspiratorial writings than anything of scientific merit or value moving forward.
It's likely why those who are public figures are making far more on Substack relative to others. It's a shame if it's not about the content.
But all that being said, thanks Igor! I will keep up with some of my posts and see how the next few weeks go in my free time.
Thank you Paula! That actually means a lot. I usually wouldn't consider myself ever in the running for possible favorite! For the longest time I did try and treat this as a real job, even though I didn't make much off of it. I do hope a lot of people learned from my articles, so it's nice to hear such sentiments!
Congrats on the new job and I sincerely hope all works out well. Hopefully you do find some time to continue with your Substack, I’ve very much enjoyed yor hard work!
Thank you Rick! I certainly want to see how the next few weeks go. If I do decide to call it quits some time in the future I'm going to alert readers. It wouldn't be fair to just up and leave, especially when people are paying for their memberships.
I would say that I'm happy to support your writing as long as there is some kind of communication. I have supported other writers who simply stopped writing and never communicated that. Of course I forgot about the monthly $$$ going out but never checked as I was busy.
Anway, even if you only write an article a month or every other month at least communcate your plans.
What I mentioned above is one reason why people don't support writers on substack or other platforms.
Thank you Tab! As of now I hope to continue writing, albeit in a more limited fashion given that I will have less available time. If I ever stop I would hope to communicate that to readers. It wouldn't be fair to people who pay to stop abruptly and have them continue to pay without providing any incentive.
The coming week or two will be a bit of a test to see how much I can manage. I would hope to have this be more of a supplement for my income rather than being wholly dependent upon it, so I would like to see how this goes down!
Glad to hear it. Your writing has been interesting and worth the read. Did not figure you would just stop and not notify but never hurts to be on the same page.
Hope the new job goes well, I imagine it will be nice to have some income to rely on and you move forward.
I think if anything it will be a nice change of pace. It will likely help with a lot of the burnout I've been feeling, so that will be something different. It certainly will help with the holidays coming up to have an income!
There is an old saying that goes no matter how thin you slice a piece of bread there are always two sides to it. Your writing always reflected this fact, and you respected your readers too much not to give them both sides while reminding them that the responsibility for which side they come down on was theirs alone.
I believe you are now well positioned to write about issues of great concern with your inimitable style and honesty without going broke. That's what I would call balance.
Thank you Jim! Although I should tell you that I'm not actually a doctor. I thought about it at one point, but I guess early on I realized I may be a bit too misanthropic to work with patients! The MD is really just an abbreviation for "Modern Discontent", although I can see the confusion:
Unfortunately my new position will be more lab work/benchwork, but I'll certainly keep striving to be a better writer and researcher. I won't stop for the foreseeable future (maybe slow down a bit) so here's to seeing what comes!
Thank you for your discernment and for not creating yet another echo chamber. I had to cut back on all my substacks due to some changes we are hoping to make in our lives to build an off ramp if you will. I can appreciate how annoying it is to work so hard for so little. I think that I am also suffering info overload. My work has exponentially increased (without extra $) and I am working every weekend to keep up! I am guilty of skimming articles and certainly don't have time to deep dive. I think all of the information wars also take their toll, but I do thank you for all I've learned. Best wishes with your new job!
Thank you Ms. P! It's always important to focus on yourself before worrying about supporting others, so it's perfectly understandable. I'm sorry for the extra workload. At my prior job we would have people who would leave onto brighter pastures, which sort of left me to pick up their work. It's not really fun when you're running around all day being stuck in a lab because there isn't anyone else there to do the work!
To the information overload it's actually understandable. I think Substack is becoming no different than other social medial platforms where people are putting out all sorts of content to try to grab your attention and entice you to read, and if the end result is providing you with some narrative about how we're all going to die or things will get much worse then it doesn't leave you feeling any better. I realized a while back that the "explore" and "notes" sections would make me feel like that while simultaneously making it difficult to not want to peruse.
I found that spending time away on some weekends actually helped a lot. I think it may also be good to try and scour Substack for non-COVID related writers. There's a lot of interesting bits of information floating around out there that won't make you feel worse off.
Anyways, thank you and good luck with the ramp and workload!
I did find you in someone else's substack. I've appreciated your thoughtfulness, research, and willingness to say: "hold on folks! It ain't what it seems to be." And the way you organized articles for reference.
Best wishes for whatever your next adventures are.
Thank you Paul! I think over time I found that being more reserved and reminding people to think about context became important because it becomes so easy to just go along with the narrative rather than stop and think about what they are reading. I hope that came across in my posts well enough for readers!
Good Luck. The kiss of death for small authors was when Substack started disclosing the number of subscribers. People only want to read what is considered popular, using popularity as a judge for quality. They also mostly want to confirm their own biases. Not many Truth Seekers out there
This holds true for Free Subscribers, the hurdle is much greater for paid subscriptions
I just write for fun, already retired so have time to kill. Best make money in the real world while you can, the clocks ticking and it ticks faster as you get older.
I've criticized the gaming that Substack has recently committed since it directs people towards those who already have a lot rather than just gauge their paid subscriptions based on the merit of the work.
Definitely true about being financially stable early on. It's definitely something I'm dealing with as a millennial and it's certainly one of the reasons why I can't hold out hope that this can become a full-time profession.
Tough for Millennials . The 1980’s Project of CFR/TLC developed in 1975 to combat the excess of Democracy called for the controlled disintegration of the Economy. This actually began in the early 1970’s. For someone like me its been like watching a train wreck in slow motion. Its slow enough that most people didn't notice, but the train is accelerating now so more people are noticing
Congratulations on the new position! You can tell a lot of effort has gone into your articles and it’s been a great help during the ‘crazy years’. With coercion & mandates now behind us (although for how long whilst the propaganda continues?) we can all, to a degree, refocus on trying to return to normal. We’re better prepared for it now, our eyes & ears critically tuned to research & trustworthy sources. Well done!
If anything, a lot of people's perspectives are certainly changed. I hope a lot of people are more critical of the information they come across, and hopefully people are aware of how to do their own research. People are far more intelligent than they give themselves credit for; they just need to put in the work, and as of now the mainstream media apparatus and medical establishment are working against that. So we can move on, not forget, and hopefully learn how to really engage with the world in a more critical fashion.
Congratulations on your new job, what area are you working in? I hope it's meaningful work for you and it relieves your financial burden.
I can't believe you lost 10 subscribers with the OAS study! That's what I've liked about your substack and why I found it so valuable - you helped keep us out of group think. I guess you're right, people don't necessarily want that.
"Before thinking about giving to larger, higher-profile Substacks think about those smaller ones who really are in need of your support." - this is good advice. I really appreciate hearing your experience writing on Substack. 🙏❤️
It's a similar field as before. I'll be doing a lot of benchwork so it will be a return to the lab life. If anything, it's good to at least be financially stable.
I'm sure people lose subscribers often when they deviate from the narrative. This one was rather noticeable because I have many points where my subscriber count plateaus, so losing 10 subscribers becomes very noticeable when you are averaging a gain/loss of 1 subscriber. I had similar pushback when people were talking about that gain-of-function study that really seemed like histrionics more than actual concern because gain-of-function research has been going on the entire pandemic. How else do you figure out the effects mutations have on a variant? You test each mutation separately, so you're inherently conducting gain-of-function research but no one seemed to care too much to castigate all of these studies.
What's happening is that Substack is becoming far too insulated. Rather than provide constructive criticism people are quick to agree with what other people write. If enough people agree, then it creates a false sense that the information is inherently true, because all of these people surely can't be wrong, can they? This happens far too often, and it's one of the reasons why it may sometimes appear that I take a contrarian position on certain studies because there have been several instances where a study doesn't appear to say what everyone else says, but no one dares to speak out or else they lose subscribers and viewers.
I'm deeply concerned that we are going to see people going down deeper rabbit holes because that is what the readers want rather than what the writer believes. I'm honestly at the point where, for several people, I can't tell if they're being genuine or if they're in it for the money.
Yeah, that last quote was because I wasn't sure if people would take this as a time to unsubscribe. If they do, I'd hope they at least give to smaller people. We're having people who are making tens of thousands of dollars on Substack, who also have products/classes they are selling, who are also going to events all around the world which viewers need to pay for. I think these people may be well off financially unlike the person who may put their heart into their writings for mere pittance. It's bad enough that Substack has gamified the system to make it even more difficult for smaller Substacks to gain notoriety and financial support.
It's great that you're heading back to work, and great that you're not quitting Substack.
Some rather huge and useful SubStacks are publishing monthly, so you could do something like that too.
I agree that the time and effort spent on an article doesn't match up too well with the rewards on this or any other venue. Most people don't have the time to analyze in depth on scientific matters, but they want and need someone trusted to distill the information down for them.
I think you have given your readership compelling reasons to trust you by earnestly seeking, analyzing, and presenting high quality info on vital matters, 'in a non-hysterical manner'.
Maybe drop into SubStack with some lighter stuff, whenever the mood strikes, as you acclimate yourself to to the new work environment. God bless!
One of the paradoxes, unfortunately, is that it's likely because those Substacks are huge that they can get away with publishing infrequently. This is how many Substacks started by public figures, such as Dr. Ding, seem to get away with hardly posting anything because they can just rely on fanaticism to lead people to become paid members. Unfortunately, infrequent posting for smaller Substacks may mean fewer chances of getting noticed and therefore will just become the death of the Substack. It's the irony that people are encouraged to keep pumping out content for free with the hopes that they can reap the rewards in the future. For many writers this doesn't appear to be the case.
Thank you for the sentiments. I do hope that readers have themselves become more critical readers. The biggest factor for many people is time, but most people do have critical thinking skills. They just need to utilize them more often.
I'll certainly continue to post, and I'll see how my workload is the coming weeks to see how my time management will go.
Thank you for all your time and research. We all are encumbered with the detritus of life that can't be ignored so kudos to you for adding in hrs and hrs of research that you willingly shared. I don't know how you managed it but thank you.
Well, let's just say that I tried making it my full-time job, but also there were times especially early on where I worked late at night. Some days I would spend most of my day trying to work on something in order to get something out. I've slowed down in recent months just due to the level of burnout I was feeling, so I guess I would say I maybe didn't manage it well? I think the change of pace will really help get me into better perspective with my time management.
Congratulations on your new position- I hope they value you as much as I do (which I do very very much!) It was brave of you to leave your position before and I admire the strength in your principles. You are wonderful here on Substack, I always enjoy you bringing together all of the data and I have an open mind as to your conclusions, although I realize some were frustrating as they weren’t clear.
If I might add, if you wanted to improve your Substack numbers, the only formula I know of is having a twitter account (so setting up a new one for you) and joining this mouse emoji group- they exchange many of their postings with each other and that brings their band of readers over to your Substack. One such person is unacceptable Jessica and even Igor Chudov.
Some of my very favorite blogs by you were about supplements! You are also so super responsive in the comments- you deserve only wonderful things and I hope you consider to still post here on occasion :)
I'll admit, probably one of the more difficult things when realizing how little money I was making on here was considering whether leaving was the right decision, or whether I should have just given in and gotten the shots. I won't deny that all of that didn't weigh on me for a long time, even today. But I will say that it at least makes me more empathetic for those who did get them in order to support their family. It's such a horrible position for people to be in, but many people go through great lengths for their family and so I can understand why people went through with it.
Sorry for the times where it may seem unclear. If that happens you're always free to ask questions! My comments sections are open to allow people to ask questions, and I'm also aware that sometimes my writing style can be so passive that I end up using far more words to make a point than I need, and because of that my point may not come across well.
As to Twitter, I actually used to have a Twitter account where I reposted my articles. Unfortunately, I wrote an article criticizing Dr. Ardis' snake venom hypothesis and I got put into Twitter jail, which eventually got elevated into "remove post to come back". At that point I gave up on trying to promote myself on Twitter because you never know what you would end up running afoul of, although maybe the climate is better now.
I may consider making a new one, but to be quite honest the fewer social media sites I am on the better I feel. Subsack is already heading down that social media direction, and I found that I can get lost when looking Twitter and I'd rather not end up wasting my free time in that way.
I would like to do more on supplements! There's really a big world out there that is worth investigating, but unfortunately we only have so much time in a day and time on this planet! But hopefully it helped to make people more curious about the things around them!
I've enjoyed your work and will continue to be a subscriber if you keep us in the loop every so often and publish once in awhile. I wish you the best in your new job and hope you find it fulfilling. Bless you for the contribution you made at a time when there was so much conflicting and confusing information out there. Your efforts were appreciated and I hope to see your articles pop up in my inbox every so often.
Thank you DJ! I appreciate the sentiments! I will try to continue releasing new posts on occasion, I just need to see what work/life/Substack balance will work out for me and so I'll use the next few weeks as a test to see how much I can balance.
I never know how informative my posts can be. Honestly sometimes I read them over and think they aren't too great in many cases, so it's always nice to get feedback from readers to see if they actually do find the information fruitful.
Congratulations on the new job. I enjoyed your posts, the "Modern Discontent Method", and learned a lot from you. I hope that you can keep posting.
As I said earlier, it is usually a mistake to hope to "live on substack income" for two reasons:
1) not enough money
2) Audience capture and fear of saying something that the audience would not like, wher substack is the sole income.
In any case, I am looking forward to reading more good stuff from you, even if realistically articles may be spaced out slighly more, time-wise.
Thanks Igor!
Given my circumstances I didn't consider much other options viable. I'd expect to be "carded" given everything going on with the vaccines. I think it's only now that a lot of people really seem to not care about the vaccines or even carding anymore.
To your second point I've sort of been concerned that a good degree of that is going on. It's one of the reasons why I hesitate to go down the religious route, or routes on all vaccine safeties, or even if viruses exist, because I can see how easily a writer can be captured by their audience into having a writer tell them what they want to hear rather than giving their own opinion and perspective. As of now it feels like many Substacks are heading down that route because it's the next thing following COVID, and if so we may just see more conspiratorial writings than anything of scientific merit or value moving forward.
It's likely why those who are public figures are making far more on Substack relative to others. It's a shame if it's not about the content.
But all that being said, thanks Igor! I will keep up with some of my posts and see how the next few weeks go in my free time.
I do my substack in my free time, I own a business that is very time consuming
This is one of my favorite substacks! I'm always amazed at how much work you put into it. Best of luck with the new job!
Thank you Paula! That actually means a lot. I usually wouldn't consider myself ever in the running for possible favorite! For the longest time I did try and treat this as a real job, even though I didn't make much off of it. I do hope a lot of people learned from my articles, so it's nice to hear such sentiments!
Congrats on the new job and I sincerely hope all works out well. Hopefully you do find some time to continue with your Substack, I’ve very much enjoyed yor hard work!
Thank you Rick! I certainly want to see how the next few weeks go. If I do decide to call it quits some time in the future I'm going to alert readers. It wouldn't be fair to just up and leave, especially when people are paying for their memberships.
Congratulations on the new Job!
I would say that I'm happy to support your writing as long as there is some kind of communication. I have supported other writers who simply stopped writing and never communicated that. Of course I forgot about the monthly $$$ going out but never checked as I was busy.
Anway, even if you only write an article a month or every other month at least communcate your plans.
What I mentioned above is one reason why people don't support writers on substack or other platforms.
Hope to see more work from you in the future.
Best
Thank you Tab! As of now I hope to continue writing, albeit in a more limited fashion given that I will have less available time. If I ever stop I would hope to communicate that to readers. It wouldn't be fair to people who pay to stop abruptly and have them continue to pay without providing any incentive.
The coming week or two will be a bit of a test to see how much I can manage. I would hope to have this be more of a supplement for my income rather than being wholly dependent upon it, so I would like to see how this goes down!
I certainly won't quick without alerting readers!
Anyways, best to you Tab!
Glad to hear it. Your writing has been interesting and worth the read. Did not figure you would just stop and not notify but never hurts to be on the same page.
Hope the new job goes well, I imagine it will be nice to have some income to rely on and you move forward.
Godspeed
I think if anything it will be a nice change of pace. It will likely help with a lot of the burnout I've been feeling, so that will be something different. It certainly will help with the holidays coming up to have an income!
Thanks Tab!
Dr,
There is an old saying that goes no matter how thin you slice a piece of bread there are always two sides to it. Your writing always reflected this fact, and you respected your readers too much not to give them both sides while reminding them that the responsibility for which side they come down on was theirs alone.
I believe you are now well positioned to write about issues of great concern with your inimitable style and honesty without going broke. That's what I would call balance.
God Bless and Thank You!
Jim Gill
Thank you Jim! Although I should tell you that I'm not actually a doctor. I thought about it at one point, but I guess early on I realized I may be a bit too misanthropic to work with patients! The MD is really just an abbreviation for "Modern Discontent", although I can see the confusion:
https://youtu.be/-B_VQh9xCQw?t=11
Unfortunately my new position will be more lab work/benchwork, but I'll certainly keep striving to be a better writer and researcher. I won't stop for the foreseeable future (maybe slow down a bit) so here's to seeing what comes!
Best to you Jim!
Thank you for your discernment and for not creating yet another echo chamber. I had to cut back on all my substacks due to some changes we are hoping to make in our lives to build an off ramp if you will. I can appreciate how annoying it is to work so hard for so little. I think that I am also suffering info overload. My work has exponentially increased (without extra $) and I am working every weekend to keep up! I am guilty of skimming articles and certainly don't have time to deep dive. I think all of the information wars also take their toll, but I do thank you for all I've learned. Best wishes with your new job!
Thank you Ms. P! It's always important to focus on yourself before worrying about supporting others, so it's perfectly understandable. I'm sorry for the extra workload. At my prior job we would have people who would leave onto brighter pastures, which sort of left me to pick up their work. It's not really fun when you're running around all day being stuck in a lab because there isn't anyone else there to do the work!
To the information overload it's actually understandable. I think Substack is becoming no different than other social medial platforms where people are putting out all sorts of content to try to grab your attention and entice you to read, and if the end result is providing you with some narrative about how we're all going to die or things will get much worse then it doesn't leave you feeling any better. I realized a while back that the "explore" and "notes" sections would make me feel like that while simultaneously making it difficult to not want to peruse.
I found that spending time away on some weekends actually helped a lot. I think it may also be good to try and scour Substack for non-COVID related writers. There's a lot of interesting bits of information floating around out there that won't make you feel worse off.
Anyways, thank you and good luck with the ramp and workload!
I did find you in someone else's substack. I've appreciated your thoughtfulness, research, and willingness to say: "hold on folks! It ain't what it seems to be." And the way you organized articles for reference.
Best wishes for whatever your next adventures are.
Aloha
Thank you Paul! I think over time I found that being more reserved and reminding people to think about context became important because it becomes so easy to just go along with the narrative rather than stop and think about what they are reading. I hope that came across in my posts well enough for readers!
Regardless, thank you for the sentiments Paul!
Good Luck. The kiss of death for small authors was when Substack started disclosing the number of subscribers. People only want to read what is considered popular, using popularity as a judge for quality. They also mostly want to confirm their own biases. Not many Truth Seekers out there
This holds true for Free Subscribers, the hurdle is much greater for paid subscriptions
I just write for fun, already retired so have time to kill. Best make money in the real world while you can, the clocks ticking and it ticks faster as you get older.
Thank you Pete!
I've criticized the gaming that Substack has recently committed since it directs people towards those who already have a lot rather than just gauge their paid subscriptions based on the merit of the work.
Definitely true about being financially stable early on. It's definitely something I'm dealing with as a millennial and it's certainly one of the reasons why I can't hold out hope that this can become a full-time profession.
Tough for Millennials . The 1980’s Project of CFR/TLC developed in 1975 to combat the excess of Democracy called for the controlled disintegration of the Economy. This actually began in the early 1970’s. For someone like me its been like watching a train wreck in slow motion. Its slow enough that most people didn't notice, but the train is accelerating now so more people are noticing
Best wishes M.D. doing the needful.
Thank you!
Congratulations on the new position! You can tell a lot of effort has gone into your articles and it’s been a great help during the ‘crazy years’. With coercion & mandates now behind us (although for how long whilst the propaganda continues?) we can all, to a degree, refocus on trying to return to normal. We’re better prepared for it now, our eyes & ears critically tuned to research & trustworthy sources. Well done!
Thank you Tjaals!
If anything, a lot of people's perspectives are certainly changed. I hope a lot of people are more critical of the information they come across, and hopefully people are aware of how to do their own research. People are far more intelligent than they give themselves credit for; they just need to put in the work, and as of now the mainstream media apparatus and medical establishment are working against that. So we can move on, not forget, and hopefully learn how to really engage with the world in a more critical fashion.
Congratulations on your new job, what area are you working in? I hope it's meaningful work for you and it relieves your financial burden.
I can't believe you lost 10 subscribers with the OAS study! That's what I've liked about your substack and why I found it so valuable - you helped keep us out of group think. I guess you're right, people don't necessarily want that.
"Before thinking about giving to larger, higher-profile Substacks think about those smaller ones who really are in need of your support." - this is good advice. I really appreciate hearing your experience writing on Substack. 🙏❤️
Thanks Soulbee!
It's a similar field as before. I'll be doing a lot of benchwork so it will be a return to the lab life. If anything, it's good to at least be financially stable.
I'm sure people lose subscribers often when they deviate from the narrative. This one was rather noticeable because I have many points where my subscriber count plateaus, so losing 10 subscribers becomes very noticeable when you are averaging a gain/loss of 1 subscriber. I had similar pushback when people were talking about that gain-of-function study that really seemed like histrionics more than actual concern because gain-of-function research has been going on the entire pandemic. How else do you figure out the effects mutations have on a variant? You test each mutation separately, so you're inherently conducting gain-of-function research but no one seemed to care too much to castigate all of these studies.
What's happening is that Substack is becoming far too insulated. Rather than provide constructive criticism people are quick to agree with what other people write. If enough people agree, then it creates a false sense that the information is inherently true, because all of these people surely can't be wrong, can they? This happens far too often, and it's one of the reasons why it may sometimes appear that I take a contrarian position on certain studies because there have been several instances where a study doesn't appear to say what everyone else says, but no one dares to speak out or else they lose subscribers and viewers.
I'm deeply concerned that we are going to see people going down deeper rabbit holes because that is what the readers want rather than what the writer believes. I'm honestly at the point where, for several people, I can't tell if they're being genuine or if they're in it for the money.
Yeah, that last quote was because I wasn't sure if people would take this as a time to unsubscribe. If they do, I'd hope they at least give to smaller people. We're having people who are making tens of thousands of dollars on Substack, who also have products/classes they are selling, who are also going to events all around the world which viewers need to pay for. I think these people may be well off financially unlike the person who may put their heart into their writings for mere pittance. It's bad enough that Substack has gamified the system to make it even more difficult for smaller Substacks to gain notoriety and financial support.
Best wishes in all your future endeavors and a huge thank you for teaching me how to be a more critical thinker.
Thank you Clarisse!
It's great that you're heading back to work, and great that you're not quitting Substack.
Some rather huge and useful SubStacks are publishing monthly, so you could do something like that too.
I agree that the time and effort spent on an article doesn't match up too well with the rewards on this or any other venue. Most people don't have the time to analyze in depth on scientific matters, but they want and need someone trusted to distill the information down for them.
I think you have given your readership compelling reasons to trust you by earnestly seeking, analyzing, and presenting high quality info on vital matters, 'in a non-hysterical manner'.
Maybe drop into SubStack with some lighter stuff, whenever the mood strikes, as you acclimate yourself to to the new work environment. God bless!
Thank you Weedom!
One of the paradoxes, unfortunately, is that it's likely because those Substacks are huge that they can get away with publishing infrequently. This is how many Substacks started by public figures, such as Dr. Ding, seem to get away with hardly posting anything because they can just rely on fanaticism to lead people to become paid members. Unfortunately, infrequent posting for smaller Substacks may mean fewer chances of getting noticed and therefore will just become the death of the Substack. It's the irony that people are encouraged to keep pumping out content for free with the hopes that they can reap the rewards in the future. For many writers this doesn't appear to be the case.
Thank you for the sentiments. I do hope that readers have themselves become more critical readers. The biggest factor for many people is time, but most people do have critical thinking skills. They just need to utilize them more often.
I'll certainly continue to post, and I'll see how my workload is the coming weeks to see how my time management will go.
Thank you for all your time and research. We all are encumbered with the detritus of life that can't be ignored so kudos to you for adding in hrs and hrs of research that you willingly shared. I don't know how you managed it but thank you.
Thank you sadie!
Well, let's just say that I tried making it my full-time job, but also there were times especially early on where I worked late at night. Some days I would spend most of my day trying to work on something in order to get something out. I've slowed down in recent months just due to the level of burnout I was feeling, so I guess I would say I maybe didn't manage it well? I think the change of pace will really help get me into better perspective with my time management.
Congratulations on your new position- I hope they value you as much as I do (which I do very very much!) It was brave of you to leave your position before and I admire the strength in your principles. You are wonderful here on Substack, I always enjoy you bringing together all of the data and I have an open mind as to your conclusions, although I realize some were frustrating as they weren’t clear.
If I might add, if you wanted to improve your Substack numbers, the only formula I know of is having a twitter account (so setting up a new one for you) and joining this mouse emoji group- they exchange many of their postings with each other and that brings their band of readers over to your Substack. One such person is unacceptable Jessica and even Igor Chudov.
Some of my very favorite blogs by you were about supplements! You are also so super responsive in the comments- you deserve only wonderful things and I hope you consider to still post here on occasion :)
Well, thank you Charlotte for the sentiments!
I'll admit, probably one of the more difficult things when realizing how little money I was making on here was considering whether leaving was the right decision, or whether I should have just given in and gotten the shots. I won't deny that all of that didn't weigh on me for a long time, even today. But I will say that it at least makes me more empathetic for those who did get them in order to support their family. It's such a horrible position for people to be in, but many people go through great lengths for their family and so I can understand why people went through with it.
Sorry for the times where it may seem unclear. If that happens you're always free to ask questions! My comments sections are open to allow people to ask questions, and I'm also aware that sometimes my writing style can be so passive that I end up using far more words to make a point than I need, and because of that my point may not come across well.
As to Twitter, I actually used to have a Twitter account where I reposted my articles. Unfortunately, I wrote an article criticizing Dr. Ardis' snake venom hypothesis and I got put into Twitter jail, which eventually got elevated into "remove post to come back". At that point I gave up on trying to promote myself on Twitter because you never know what you would end up running afoul of, although maybe the climate is better now.
I may consider making a new one, but to be quite honest the fewer social media sites I am on the better I feel. Subsack is already heading down that social media direction, and I found that I can get lost when looking Twitter and I'd rather not end up wasting my free time in that way.
I would like to do more on supplements! There's really a big world out there that is worth investigating, but unfortunately we only have so much time in a day and time on this planet! But hopefully it helped to make people more curious about the things around them!