I can understand that perspective. People said the same thing when we introduced Notes—won’t this just make people write short dumb stuff?

But what actually happened was it massively supercharged discovery and reading of long form posts, and subscription growth. There are many, many people making real money from their work here who would not be without that feature.

In our view, the real ring of power is not any particular format (“short form posting”) or technology (“algorithms”) but rather business models that treat consumers and creators like faceless commodities.

That’s why we focus on building a business model that helps you make real money doing the work you believe in and that people deeply value, which in turn is why the experience is different and better even when the format is the same. Long-form on your favourite Substack is qualitatively different than Buzzfeed or Medium, Notes hits different than X, and in the long run the media tab won’t be the same as TikTok or Reels or Shorts—it will be better.