been pulling away from posting on notes because i think I like to use substack as a reprieve from the content-ification of everything but i just want to say — studying your post stats/trying to maximize reach/etc makes you a better business but it does not make you a better writer & i recommend focusing on that stuff as little as possible. if you’re not making money on the platform i’d recommend never looking at them at all. writing is not about performing a service for an audience or fine-tuning a product to make it as consumable as possible & you will drive yourself insane if you try to treat it as such. I have seen life-changing essays on here with 5 likes and I see stuff w 600 likes recommended to me on notes all the time that I don’t connect with at all (to say the least). I think many of us came to this platform because we love good writing and want to produce good writing and I just don’t want anyone to lose sight of that