Edokwin Meta - Where Do We Go From Here?

Leveling with you about how I'm feeling and what I'm trying do now

An acknowledgement upfront (one of several to come): This is piece gonna be rather metatextual. I’m writing it on the verge of what some might term burnout, or harsh come down from the highs of December and early January. This article is also a day “late,” tho really the very notion of my writing having a set schedule has often been something of an idealized indulgence, a personal myth, and at best a moving target. Oh, and I was technically late with my recent paid piece too, since I dropped it Sunday instead of Friday. Oh well. You’re in for a bit more of that going forward, I’m afraid.

Honestly, whilst I’m grateful to my subscribers (especially paid peeps), my followers, and even just frequent lookieloos, I do think the bloom is off the rose for me vis-a-vis Substack in general. I’ve said as much repeatedly this month. My initial thought for today’s missive was to be oh so very apologetic and even promise—or would it be threaten?—a bonus an article as penance. Yet I sense that’s not really what a majority of you want, nor what I have it in me to give.

In fact, I came across some stray data indicating that some readers actually prefer fewer articles, so long as the remaining ones that do come are of high quality. I’ll endeavor to meet that latter standard rather than killing myself to meet self-imposed deadlines for what is still, at least financially speaking, something closer to a voluntary vocation than a true career on here. You deserve good work, and the classic “better late” sorts of idioms definitely apply.

Speaking of what you deserve…

Tell me what you want (What you really, really want)

I’ll admit that my rather prickly public persona has done me no favors in this regard, but I must implore you to be a A LOT more engaging and overall communicative with me as to what you’d like from this publication. Not because I am wont for vision or inspiration. Not because I’ve done a 180 on my aversion to audience capture. No, I need your feedback and engagement for both obvious (and cheesy techy) reasons plus more subtle but still salient ones.

Comments help posts grow and get traction in the algo. You probably know this already, or should. I think it’s good when people reply. I think quality comments add a ton of value beyond just signalling to Substack’s internal engines that people are excited about the article. And I really do need you to tell me, more regularly and more clearly, what you like or don’t in terms of future content. I’ll never compromise om telling the truth, but I can better attune my radar to areas of shared interest.

Introducing…POLLS!

Beyond actively soliciting comments or likes, but I also need your also votes. Yes, I’m rolling out polls, like this one below:

These polls actually should work to do a few things at once. Incentivize engagement, reward people for subscribing (polls are limited to subscribers), and again help me rejigger my content strategy for maximum quality to all of us. Going forward, I’ll be doing one poll a month on the free feed, plus two extra polls on the paid side. They’ll come at the end of posts, replacing my share button (which I’ll move elsewhere).

I’m gonna be totally transparent here, or as close as I can be: This is a perk for you and a tool for me. I value all my subscribers, and I think I’ve frankly been slacking off in making that clear. Stuff like polls are my way of turning the corner. I’ll be asking you essential questions, typically to pick between two different types of stories or content that I’m considering for future articles, notes, livestreams (more on that later), and so on. Even off-platform stuff.

Y’all aren’t technically the biggest audience I have across my various writing activities, but you might be the most active. And you’re on pace to be the most rewarding. So, let’s keep that same energy. Oh, last thing on polls: Paid polls will be binding, free ones won’t. As such, free polls often won’t have public vote totals, paid always will. If the audience on the paid side wants, for example, me to choose a personal essay on my family life over one on my love life, and the winning option only gets one vote, I’m still gonna follow through. I really do want to value these subscriptions.

All the Value

What is the point of my publication? What is the reason for you to subscribe? Well, like I outlined in my pinned post…

On the free side, i’m publishing roughly one essay a week covering culture, politics, and/or philosophy, with all major pieces starting free and remaining so for at least four weeks (some permanently). These aren’t rushed hot takes but substantive, argument-driven pieces grounded in evidence and philosophical frameworks, treating readers as capable of handling real complexity. The back catalog already includes marquee essays on progressive accountability, gender and reading statistics, trans issues, class-based bigotry, and AI discourse, among others. My free pieces are designed to function as “Discourse Objects” that enter the broader cultural conversation. We already did that once, and we’ll do it again.

On the paid-only side, I’ve structured four distinct series rather than just walling off random content. Alochana offers monthly moral self-examinations through the lens of secular moral realism, dropping on the last Sunday of each month. Bio-Walled is a six-part memoir series chronicling my background and development as a thinker and writer. WORC pulls back the curtain on my creative process and craft. And Auto-Vaulted serves as a catch-all for pieces that work better in a subscriber-only context from the jump. Together these run roughly four times a month right now.

Paid subs also get access to the chats feature on Substack, a link to my Discord server (the Secret Treehouse), and more as time goes on. That “more” is an increasingly challenging thing to flesh out, and I likewise need your help here. I’m principally just a writer, not an influencer or social media empresario. I’m pretty sure it’s already become abundantly clear that I don’t have much in the way of elaborate machinations or an especially slick operation. I’m just a hardscrabble guy from the underclass doing my level best with the resources provided. Figuring a lot of stuff out as I go.

One thing I do want to keep focus on is what I’m calling my Transformative Two-Hundred (TTH), or my Inaugurative—I can’t call it “Founding” cuz that has a different meaning on Substack—Tier of paid subs. Anyone who gets in now, before I’ve hit 200 total, will be entitled to special privileges that I won’t extend to anyone else once that threshold is reached. One option I’m considering is a monthly physical mailer to paid subs in the TTH. Another might be discounted copies of Dragon’s Son, if that ever becomes an actual book. Again, I’m open to suggestions.

The biggest thing I want to do is get over the hump that a lot of my peers have been lamenting this year. Growth is stalling across the platform, belts are tightening, audiences are siloing up. I will maintain my immodest but factual position that I am, in fact, a special one—not just one from the bottle. You’re getting something here, and from me, that you can’t get from anyone else or anywhere else.

To this day, I’m the only one who’s talked at length about Substack’s verified badges. To this day, I’m the only Culture who challenges gallerism. And I’m the only poli-philosophy writer who can tackle everything from gender issues to the origins and true meaning of egalitarianism. That matters.

Professionally Unprofessional

A big part of my charm, if we might call it that, is my neo-gonzo approach mixed with an unabashed refusal to kowtow or pull punches once I’m onto something. “Like a dog with a bone” would be the apt saying here. Even as I’ve made moves to sheath my sword, my personality remains disagreeable and my public candor remains uncensored plus tonally under-varnished. People find that off-putting sometimes.

I got into a mild spat on X (formerly known as Twitter) just this morning+afternoon over the issue of how to view professional fence-sitter and AI researcher Amanda Askell. She’s the Claude Constitution lead at Anthropic. She’s connected to what Scott Alexander would call the Gray Tribe community. She’s an Effective Altruist. And she’s assiduously avoided stating publicly what her positions are on any number of topics, despite talking about them at length via public interviews and her blog.

My position, which some of you seemed to share when I brought up the topic in admittedly abstracted form, is that we should actually more distrusting of people who claim to be unbiased (or at least refuse to admit their biases). It’s just one of many times where I’ve allowed myself to say indelicate or inadvisable things in public. My job as a journalist and a critic doesn’t exactly endear me to corporations or powerful/Polite™ people who’d rather not be challenged on the record.

This too is why I’m unique in the marketplace of ideas, but also at a precarious place in my professional life. No one, sans you and my day job, is funding me. No one can stop me. But also, no one will listen to what I have to say unless the whole of us, both you and I (and the millions!), get very loud. Ideally very soon. My part starts and ends with telling the truth online, no matter who it pisses off. Yours, dear reader, comes in the form of those likes, shares, comments, and (paid) subs I was talking about.

Rome wasn’t built in a day, but new media personalities almost can be. I’ll keep doing my part. Will you do yours? Do you believe in this content? Are you ready to supercharge the Discourse? Cuz I am. I wanna stop settling for people who avoid uncomfortable realities to spare people’s feelings, to protect those who think they’re better than all of us, to deny the existence of truth itself. Maybe you are too. If so, join me. Join us, in this little Edokwin experimental community. We’re not polished, but we do work hard and play hard. Above all else too, we keep it real.

What’s Next?

Moving forward, I’m gonna aim for more content, including more experiments with stuff I haven’t tried yet. I have plans in the works for a livestream or three. I intend to keep my intended schedule of posting, but if I’m late, I’m late. The quality comes first.

I’ll be involving y’all much more than I had previously. I want you on this journey, I want you to feel involved. We must all have skin in the game, especially if we’re endeavoring to do work, and tell truths, of real consequence in public. I’m not stopping, I’m just getting started. Please, please, get on board. And do it sooner rather than later. Supplies are limited on the premium seating, as it were.

Friday should be my next paid piece, and my first paid poll. I’m honestly not sure what I’n tackling just yet, but my sense is it’ll be more unpacking of discursive norms and questions related to civility. Bio-Walled is technically completed (for now), so all new future stuff on the paid side, besides Alochana, is gonna be WORC or Auto-Vaulted. I’m looking forward to doing more stuff like “Critic’s Life” for y’all. And as always, I take suggestions. Hit me the hell up!

For now, I’ll end a bit of whimsy and gratitude. One of the benefits of being me and doing what I do is that sometimes people far above my current station shout me out in public. (Even tho I may or may not have thrown some shade their way.) And whilst I don’t necessarily have firm plans in the works, anything’s possible down the line. So, today’s closing question is…

P.S. — I welcome any respectful and on topic engagement. Challenge my arguments. Send me articles. Ask hard questions. If you know someone who’d add to these conversations, bring them into the fold. That’s how communities that actually matter get built. And since the topic today is the public itself, feel free to go off a little script.