The most annoying thing about Substack

No, it's not what you think.

I subscribe to a new newsletter and I'm instantly hit with a "pay me money" option. Yes, there is always the free "once in a blue moon public post" choice. I just find it obnoxious that if I'm just subscribing it might be a good bet I have only heard of you and haven't actually read anything yet. Why are you asking me for money up front?

I don't think that's the fault of the author. I expect that there is no other way on Substack but it's obnoxious nonetheless.

Inoreader makes sanity a bit easier to attain

Inoreader isn't cheap. And it certainly isn't perfect (why can't I mark things as unread???) but it is really, really good at filtering feeds for keywords. I'm a subscriber to The Verge because I generally like their coverage but in these days

Hello again.

Despite not planning on paying for another year of Magic Pages I have...paid for another year of Magic Pages. I love Ghost too much and Jannis runs a fantastic business. Plus he's a nice guy. I can afford it so I subscribed again. I'm running

My first (unintentional) “vibe coding” experience

I’ve been trying out the task app TickTick and I was interested in bringing in my OmniFocus tasks. The settings section of TickTick has an OmniFocus import button and says it needs to be a CSV file. I exported a CSV from OmniFocus, imported it and…nothing. I turned

Week Notes: March 22-28, 2026

General feeling: relieved. 🌱 Spring has sprung We’ve been having the usual rollercoaster of temp changes here in Chicagoland with several days in the low 70s. The Spring/Summer birds are back and very vocal. At night the earthworms are coming out and you can hear them under the bed

Read more

Inoreader makes sanity a bit easier to attain

Hello again.

My first (unintentional) “vibe coding” experience

Week Notes: March 22-28, 2026